Proposed Next Steps
In January 2018, the NRO Executive Council responded to the 18 resulting recommendations that were issued following the second independent review of the Address Supporting Organization (ASO) carried out in 2017 by ITEMS International. The last of these Recommendations was that a public consultation be held in each of the five RIR communities to determine the future structure of the ICANN Address Supporting Organization (ASO).
The recommended public consultations have been initiated in each RIR community over the past six months, including discussions on mailing lists and at meetings in each of the five regions. The NRO EC have considered results of this process to date, and have distilled the following points as a proposed way forward.
1) While not specifically asked as part of our consultation, there was prevailing view across the communities that the number community’s relationship with ICANN (that which is referred as the ASO relationship) should continue. A significant number of community members suggested that the relationship must be significantly simplified and its focus limited to number community matters.
2) The ASO Review recognised that the number community relationship with ICANN is unlike that of other Supporting Organizations. The number community’s engagement with ICANN serves primarily to facilitate coordination of global Internet number resource policies. It follows that number community representatives be careful in appraising current and future proposed ICANN-related work items, and be prepared to decline those that lie outside this scope.
3) It is clear that the existence of two separate identities (those of the NRO and the ASO) leads to complexity and confusion in the ICANN relationship. The NRO EC will work with the ICANN organisation to determine the viability of consolidating the number community’s participation in ICANN under either the “Number Resource Organization” or the “Address Supporting Organisation”.
4) The number community finds value in the ICANN relationship and in ICANN’s defined role as described above. We support ICANN in continuing to undertake this role, and will support continuing evolution of our relationship, including further changes as needed, as time goes on.
The NRO EC provides this statement to the RIR communities in each region as a possible common way forward to aid in their consideration of the future structure of the ASO.
Last modified on 05/09/2018