On the eve of a crucial meeting for ICANN, the chairman of its Governmental Advisory Committee tells us what he expects the Paris meeting's main topics of discussion will be.
GAC chairman Janis Klarklins
ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee is a key part of the organization's structure. It has a direct line of communication to the ICANN board and when the GAC speaks, the board listens. A clear example of this was .XXX, initially given a green light by the Board, until the GAC objected to it, more or less killing off the idea of an Internet suffix for adult content.
The GAC has more than a hundred members, all government representatives for countries from Argentina to Yemen. GAC chair Janis Klarklins, from Latvia, is his country's ambassador to France. As a further measure of the GAC's importance within ICANN, it is worth noting that Klarklins' predecessor as GAC chair was none other than current ICANN CEO Paul Twomey.
What are your expectations for the Paris meeting with at least three important topics: the JPA, IDNs and new extensions? You've just mentioned the three main issues and I expect we'll make progress on all three of them. For the GAC there are two questions of particular importance. There's the IDN ccTLD fast track procedure, which we hope we'll be able to endorse and send to the board for further consideration. There's also the report from the president's strategy committee on possible avenues of evolution for ICANN. As usual we'll also be discussing the IPv4/IPv6 transition and what the governments' role should be in promoting IPv6 and rolling out IPv6.
There's a proposal for a reduction of ICANN meetings from 3 to 2 a year. What are your thoughts on that? I can only give you my personal thoughts as the report is very recent and the GAC hasn't a chance to discuss it. My immediate reaction is that it may reduce the GAC's ability to participate in the policy development process because the GAC lacks administrative resources. We don't have sufficient administrative and logistical support. We have a secretariat but that's not enough. There's also the question of GAC members' ability to work in between the sessions and devote time those discussions. We will give our first reflections to the board during the open meeting with them on Tuesday.
Coming back to the JPA discussions, ICANN does seem to be pulling away from the US government's "stranglehold". Is ICANN ready to be independent? First of all I don't see ICANN as being strangled by the US government. ICANN is working under several contracts with the US government which doesn't mean that it is being strangled. So I don't agree with your question.
Beyond that, the World Summit expressed very clearly that there should be a certain evolution as a response to the changing Internet environment in the world. I think the key word here is internationalization. This doesn't mean that ICANN would leave the United States. It just means that ICANN would have more international presence and address issues which are important for Internet users around the world, including international domain names which would facilitate the creation of IDN ccTLDs as well as increasing competition and consumer protection. Everything ICANN does.
This evolution is natural and should be decided in dialogue and consultation of all interest groups, of all stakeholders in ICANN and all constituencies of ICANN. There should not be any imposed opinion. It should come freely from the bottom-up process, taking into account the concerns of everybody.
One last word on new gTLDs. Some of them are linked to specific cities or geographical areas. Things that governments would naturally want to be involved in. What's the GAC's view on those type of new gTLDs? The GAC a recently adopted new gTLD principles stated that governments should be consulted on the use of any geographical names at the top level. That simply means that, say at one point the question of a .PARIS comes out, then the government of France should be consulted. That was the case with .CAT where the government of Spain gave its approval.
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