ICANN boosts district's presence amid accountability concerns

The Internet's key oversight agency, which has been headquartered in California since its creation, celebrated its 10th anniversary last week with the quiet christening of its Washington office -- a smart move, stakeholders say, since the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is trying assure the Web community and policymakers that it has appropriate accountability mechanisms in place as the group transitions the coordination of technical functions of the Web to the private sector.

Achieving accountability has been a chief concern among Internet policy watchers and members of Congress as threats to the stability and security of the domain name system have increased. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is reviewing ICANN's progress as part of a three-year agreement to extend a contract between them, which expired in September 2006. ICANN's formal presence in Washington is "a very deliberate attempt to engage in a practice of listening, dialogue and access," ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said last week. "We have had a fly-in, fly-out relationship with this town and that's ... no way to maintain a relationship."

Levins said much of his job here will be "explaining what an incredibly complex organism this is," particularly in light of the group's announcement this summer that it is plotting drastic changes to the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned. Under the plan, any entity could apply for any domain -- a process expected to start in 2009, with the first sites potentially coming online in the last quarter of the year. Some have speculated that registration fees could exceed $100,000, but Levins said ICANN has not decided on a price tag.

"We've been visiting with people on the Hill about this -- not just the usual suspects,"Levins said. He stressed that ICANN's bolstered Washington identity "is not about lobbying" and rejected charges the organization may move to Brussels, which some have speculated could be a risk. "This is a step toward greater accountability," he said, noting the Washington office will not close after the joint project agreement with the NTIA ends.

Levins added that having staff in Washington will be helpful as a new Congress and a new president take office in January. But the Association for Competitive Technology's Jonathan Zuck, a longtime ICANN watcher, warned the Washington office's opening could be "an attempt to substitute communication for accountability." He added: "After 10 years, there's this notion ... that ICANN has grown up and deserves its freedom." However, some in the government and business community are concerned about the implications of loosening the tether between NTIA and ICANN. The U.S. government is "an important backstop," said Zuck, questioning whether the new office will be an effective substitute for that role once the agreement between NTIA and ICANN ends.