As you may know, the combined proposal on the IANA stewardship transition for all three IANA functions—names, numbers and protocols— is now open for public comment until 8 September, UTC23:59.
This is an opportunity for everyone in the global Internet community to contribute.
In Japan, we have numerous active Internet communities, especially when it comes to technical operations, but they do not often choose to actively participate in the Internet governance arena
Initiative by IGCJ : facilitating input from the Japanese community
As one of the activities to facilitate discussions in Japan on various issues on the Internet Governance, The Internet Governance Conference Japan (IGCJ) provides a platform for the Japanese Internet community to express support for the single proposal combined by the ICG, on the IANA stewardship transition.
Those in the Japanese community who have closely followed the transition process observe that one of the challenges in encouraging an individual submission, even by those who may potentially have interest in the subject, is that many in our community feel they are not ‘expert enough’ on the IANA transition to form a position on the proposal. In addition, people may be hesitant to submit comments to the ICG directly, as they are unfamiliar with the ICG and its process.
One outcome of this activity by the IGCJ is a draft comment developed by a team of volunteers, led by Toshio Tachibana and Akinori Maemura. The draft comment focuses on the process and the mechanism, based on the spirit and principles familiar to anyone in the Internet community, rather than delving deeply into the details of the proposed mechanism.
Key points of the comment developed through IGCJ platform
Key points focused on in the draft comment include:
- Since the early days of the Internet until today, the global Internet infrastructure and its operational policies have developed and maintained sound and healthy operation, based on the spirit of open, inclusive and bottom-up process
- The ICG process allows the direct customers and the communities involved in policy/standards development of the respective resource of the IANA functions to consider an oversight mechanism (Additional note: For the IANA Numbering Services, it is the RIRs and their communities)
- This establishes a more desirable mechanism for the oversight of the IANA functions, as a result of its stewardship transition from the NTIA:
- These entities and communities have maintained responsible engagement in the standardization and resource management, with proven success
- It has ensured the global public interest for the respective resources through unrestricted participation open to any stakeholders
An event was organized on 1 September to receive face-to-face feedback on the submission draft, as well as to update any individuals who wanted to participate but have not followed the process closely to date.
This is about bottom-up community based process and mechanism: What is your opinion?
At the event, I highlighted what may be a common perception- that IANA functions do not affect the day-to-day operations and services of our community, and RIRs and other experts in this area can and should respond to the ICG proposal.
This may be true if you focus on the details of the proposed mechanism and its direct impact. However, the essence of this stewardship transition is about supporting a mechanism based on bottom-up, community-based spirit.
This spirit is something that I believe is at the core of all Internet communities, not just the direct customers of the IANA. If you care about the bottom-up community based approach, and want the Internet to continue to be operated based on this spirit, the transition has relevance to you.
The current draft is available and open for feedback from anyone in the Japanese Internet Community until 2 September and the IGCJ is calling for individuals who support its contents and willing to show support by signing.
Our challenge now is to reach out to and engage with individuals in the Japanese Internet communities who are willing to put their names to the submission.
This is an example of IGCJ and I have a question for you: Are there any initiatives taken in your community or you are taking as individuals?
If each one of us can contribute in the process, it builds a record to demonstrate to the NTIA and ultimately to the US Congress that the transition is supported by the wide Internet community.
If you are interested in participating, announcements from NRO and CRISP Team illustrate how you can contribute.
NRO Call for Community Support of the IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal
The CRISP response to the combined proposal
Izumi Okutani is the Chair of the CRISP team, and performs Policy Liaison at JPNIC, a National Internet Registry (NIR) managing IP address space in Japan.
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