A public call for comment is open now on the Draft Final Report of the ICANN Address Supporting Organization (ASO) independent review by ITEMS International.

As described in the original call for proposals, the objective of the review is to determine whether the ASO has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure, and if so, whether any change in the structure or operations of the ASO is desirable to improve its effectiveness in the ICANN structure, and additionally, whether the ASO is accountable to the Internet number community when carrying out its responsibilities.

The comment period is open until Friday, 14 July 2017. Please send your comments to Tom Mackenzie. <tmackenzie at items.fr>

The Final Report will be published by 31 July 2017.

Statement of the Number Resource Organization Executive Council (NRO EC) and Address Supporting Organization Address Council (ASO AC) regarding the 2017 ASO Review

25 May 2017

The Address Supporting Organisation (ASO) is an entity established in 2004 by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Number Resource Organization (NRO).

The ASO is also specified in Article 9 of the ICANN Bylaws as the body which advises the ICANN Board with respect to global policy issues relating to the operation, assignment and management of Internet addresses. Under the ASO MoU, it is agreed that the NRO fulfills the role, responsibilities and functions of the ASO.

The ICANN Bylaws, in Section 4.4(a), call for periodic reviews of the performance and operation of each Supporting Organization by an entity independent of the organization under review.

The ASO underwent first independent review during 2011. In 2017, the NRO engaged ITEMS International to conduct the second independent review of the ASO. The objective of this review is to determine whether the ASO has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure, whether any change in structure or operations of the ASO is desirable to improve its effectiveness in the ICANN structure, and additionally whether the ASO is sufficiently accountable to the Internet number community when carrying out its responsibilities.

As an input to the second independent review process, the Executive Council of the NRO, composed of the chief executives of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), together with the NRO Number Council (which serves as, and is more commonly referred to as, the ASO Address Council), have agreed to issue the following statement:

1. We believe that the ASO has been effective:

● In undertaking a role in the global policy development process as described in the ASO MoU. (See list of global policies at https://aso.icann.org/global- policies/global-policy-proposals/)

● In providing recommendations to the Board of ICANN concerning the recognition of new RIRs (See recommendations regarding LACNIC <https://www.iana.org/reports/2002/lacnic-report-07nov02.html> and AFRINIC <https://www.iana.org/reports/2005/afrinic-report-08apr2005.html>)

● In defining procedures for the selection of individuals to serve on other ICANN bodies, in particular on the ICANN Board, and implementing any roles assigned to the Address Council in such procedures (per the ASO AC ICANN Board Selection Procedures <https://aso.icann.org/documents/operational-documents/aso-ac-icann-board- selection-procedures/>)

● In providing advice to the Board of ICANN or IANA team on number resource allocation policy, in conjunction with the RIRs. Some examples of advice provided include:

● Regarding the possibility of treating 2-byte and 4-byte ASNs differently, and fulfilling ASN requests partly with the last of the 2-byte and partly with 4-byte ASNs,
● Regarding when to empty the IPv4 reserved pool after allocating the last /8 to each RIR,
● And in responding to the Boards questions about Global Policy Proposals that are pending ratification.

2. The ASO is accountable to the Internet number community when carrying out its responsibilities:

● ASO AC members are appointed from each RIR region, according to election and appointment procedures defined in each region:

● APNIC
● RIPE NCC
● ARIN
● AFRINIC
● LACNIC

● The RIRs themselves are accountable to the boards and memberships of each organisation, according to well-document accountability arrangements (See RIR Accountability information <https://www.nro.net/about-the-nro/rir- accountability/>

● NRO EC members, being appointed by the Board of Directors of each RIR, are accordingly accountable to those Boards respectively.

3. The ASO has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure. According to the ASO MoU, its main purpose is:

● To support the processes for global policy development for Internet number resources, as defined in Attachment A of the ASO MoU.

● Make recommendations to the Board of ICANN concerning IP addressing policies, including the recognition of new RIRs under ICANN policy ICP-2.

● Define accessible open transparent and documented procedures for the selection of individuals to serve on ICANN bodies (via the ASO Address Council, or AC) In addition to fulfilling this core purpose, the ASO fulfills a demonstrated need for representation of IP addressing matters during ICANN meetings and other processes, in an advisory and informational capacity. For instance:

● Participation in numerous discussions on IPv6, during Public Board, GAC and other sessions.

● Coordination with the Public Safety Working Group of the GAC.

●Participation in security discussions at SSAC and other meetings, particularly related to the use and deployment of RPKI.

● Collaboration with ICANN staff on IP addressing issues, such as IPv6 promotion, DNSSEC KSK rollover awareness, and the “Internet Technology Health Indicator” initiative.

● Supporting ICANN’s IPv6 initiative, covering IPv6 compatibility requirements
for ICANN’s contracted parties, and other technology suppliers.

4. The last review of the ASO completed in 2012, provided important recommendations around the need to make certain clarifications to the ASO MoU. The MoU provides, in clause 9, a provision for periodic review. With new ICANN bylaws in effect since 2016, and with new overall circumstances surrounding addressing issues – such as IPv4 exhaustion and, subsequently, diminishing rate of development of new Global Policies – this ASO review could bring a good opportunity to update the ASO MoU with ICANN.

5. The numbering community is represented within the ICANN community by two different bodies, the ASO and the ASO AC. The NRO, when acting within ICANN, is referred to as the ASO, and the NRO’s Number Council is referred to as the ASO AC.

While the delineation of scope between the ASO AC and NRO EC is clear in the ICANN Bylaws and ASO MoU, there is a general lack of understanding of the roles both within ICANN and the numbers community. The roles of the NRO EC and the ASO AC have been a source of confusion and misunderstandings which we feel should be addressed in future.

6. The predominant formal interaction between the numbering community and ICANN has been in regard to ASO AC responsibilities of global number policy, and appointment of representatives to ICANN bodies (including ICANN’s Board of Trustees).

The advisory scope of the ASO AC is limited to the global address policies, which leaves it unable to represent the number community on a general basis. Where other matters have been discussed within ICANN (e.g. regional policy matters, ICANN financial matters), the number community has been represented by the NRO EC, or via clear processes that provided for community engagement on any positions taken (such as occurred during the CWG & CCWG WS1 Accountability discussions and for numbering community IANA representation discussions via the creation of the CRISP team).

7. The NRO / ASO AC model is similar to, but does not reflect the same separation of address policy and operational matters that exists at the regional level in each of the five RIR regions. The ASO AC members are accountable to the global
number community for the performance of the ASO AC responsibilities (including facilitating global number policy, providing advice with respect to the new RIRs, etc.) RIR staff in the NRO EC do not have policy development responsbilities, but have broad operational responsibility for the Internet number registry system and are accountable to the number community in each region via duly-elected governing bodies.

8. Once the final ASO Review report is presented (anticipated to be in the third quarter 2017), the NRO EC will review the result and may propose possible changes in structure or operations of the ASO to improve its effectiveness in the ICANN context. Any resulting proposal to change ASO structure or operations would be put out to community wide consultations in each of the RIRs. We would then compile the results of these consultations, and finalize the recommendations, including implementation steps such as possible amendments to the ASO MoU and internal processes. The NRO EC anticipates working together with the the ICANN Organizational Effectiveness Committee (OEC) of the Board as necessary to operationalize any resulting recommendations.

Signed and submitted on behalf of the respective organizations –
__________________________________________
John Curran, Chair of the Number Resource Organization Executive Council (NRO EC)
__________________________________________
Filiz Yilmaz, Chair of the Address Supporting Organization Address Council (ASO AC)

PDF Version.

The Number Resource Organization Executive Council (NRO EC), in communication with the ICANN Organizational Effectiveness Committee (OEC), has granted the independent review of the ICANN Address Supporting Organization (ASO) to ITEMS International after a detailed review of all the applications received.

As described in the original call for proposals, the objective of the review is to determine whether the ASO has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure, and if so, whether any change in the structure or operations of the ASO is desirable to improve its effectiveness in the ICANN structure, and additionally, whether the ASO is accountable to the Internet number community when carrying out its responsibilities.

The scope of the review shall include all functions undertaken by the ASO in support of ICANN, in particular, global number policy development and the appointment of individuals to various ICANN bodies including the ICANN Board. Additional known tasks undertaken by the ASO in support of ICANN, such as the development of procedures to make appointments to other ICANN bodies, should be included in the review. Any questions regarding the scope of the review will be determined by the NRO EC.

Finally, the NRO EC would like to thank the other applicants who were considered, ACIG Pty Ltd, Interisle Consulting Group and Westlake Governance, for their interest and support for an independent review of the ASO.

Filiz Yilmaz, RIPE NCC community representative, has been elected by the ASO Address Council (AC) members as the new ASO AC/NRO NC Chair for 2017.  Filiz Yilmaz’s appointment was confirmed during the ASO AC teleconference, 11 January 2017. ASO AC Chair elections are held annually in January, and the term is one year.

The ASO AC also accepted the appointment of Louie Lee (ARIN region) and Ricardo Patara (LACNIC region) as Vice Chairs of the ASO AC.

At the same meeting the ASO AC thanked and praised Louie Lee for his nine years of service and leadership as ASO AC Chair.

Aftab Siddiqui has been appointed by the APNIC Executive Council (EC) to serve a one-year term on the Number Resource Organization Number Council  from January to December 2017.

On 14 November, the ARIN Board of Trustees appointed Kevin Blumberg to serve the on the Number Resource Organization Number Council (NRO NC) from the ARIN region, to complete the term on the vacancy created by John Sweeting’s resignation in July of 2016. Kevin was previously appointed to serve in this role through 31 December 2016, and this appointment will extend his term through 31 December 2017.

Information on the NRO Number Council can be found at:
https://www.nro.net/about-the-nro/the-nro-number-council

Regards,

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

(Announcement from ARIN website)

Independent review of the ICANN Address Supporting Organization (ASO)

Deadline for applications: 31 December 2016
Deadline announcement of the selected bid: 31 January 2017

Instructions to Bidders

1. Introduction

1. The Number Resource Organization (NRO) is the organization comprised of the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) which act collectively on matters relating to the interests of the RIRs and the Internet numbers community.

2. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation with a mission to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet’s unique identifier systems. In service of this mission and as agreed with the NRO, ICANN provides registration services for IP addresses and related numeric Internet identifiers and ratifies global number policies.

3. The Address Supporting Organisation (ASO) is the body specified in the ICANN Bylaws which advises the ICANN Board with respect to policy issues relating to the operation, assignment and management of Internet addresses.

4. Under the ASO MoU signed between the ICANN and the NRO , the two organizations agree that the NRO fulfills the role, responsibilities and functions of the ASO as defined within the ICANN bylaws.. Under the terms of this MoU, the NRO shall provide a periodic review of the ASO’s effectiveness within ICANN.

5. The NRO is seeking to appoint an independent consultant to undertake a review of the ASO as detailed below.

2. Objective, timeline and estimated efforts

1. The objective of the review is to determine whether the ASO has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure, and if so, whether any change in structure or operations of the ASO is desirable to improve its effectiveness in the ICANN structure, and additionally whether the ASO is accountable to the Internet number community when carrying out its responsibilities.

2. The scope of the review shall include all functions undertaken by the ASO in support of ICANN, and in particular with regards to global number policy development and the appointment of individuals to various ICANN bodies including the ICANN Board. Additional known tasks undertaken by the ASO in support of ICANN should be included in the review (such as the development of procedures to make appointments to other ICANN bodies), any questions regarding scope of the review will be determined by the NRO Executive Committee (NRO EC).

3. The review is due to begin in 10 February 2017. While a full project timeline should be developed by applicants as an integral part of their bid, the following key milestones are anticipated:

1. 10 February 2017. Beginning of operations. Initial briefing.
2. 20 February – 2 March 2017. APNIC 43, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Interviews.
3. 11-16 March 2017. ICANN 58 meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark. Interviews.
4. 2 – 5 April 2017. ARIN 39, New Orleans, LA, USA. Interviews.
5. 30 April 2017. Progress report.
6. 8 – 12 May 2017. RIPE 74, Budapest, Hungary. Interviews.
7. 22 – 26 May 2017. LACNIC 26, TBC, Brazil. Interviews.
8. 21 May- 2 June 2017. AFRINIC 26, Nairobi, Kenya. Interviews
9. 21 June 2017. Delivery of draft final report to the NRO EC
10. 28 June 2017. Presentation of draft final report ICANN 59, Johannesburg South Africa
11. 31 July 2017. Presentation of Final Report.

4. The review is expected to absorb between four and five working months over approximately six calendar months. Substantial deviations from this estimation are to be justified in the applicant’s bid.

3. Methodology of work

1. The ASO review is expected to be largely based on qualitative analysis, and to include a data gathering, a data analysis and validation, and a final reporting phase. Different approaches can be proposed by applicants, and should be adequately justified.

2. During data gathering the contractor to be selected will be required to undertake documental analysis and a significant series of individual interviews with members of the global ICANN and RIR communities. Targeted interviewees should include a wide range of stakeholders representing a diversity of interests, sectors, geographical locations, and economic and social conditions. In order to facilitate this evidence gathering phase, the consultant to be selected will be invited to attend a series of RIR and/or ICANN public meetings, where a large number of interested individuals tend to assemble, and can be interviewed face to face.

3. Further distance interviews would be directly organized by the contractor via electronic or remote means; and applicants are invited to specify in their offer the further mechanisms that they envisage to use to allow inputs during data gathering from the larger communities of interest.

4. Applicants are encouraged to propose the use of further data collection tools that they might consider appropriate as to integrate evidence, and suitable to reach a globally and culturally diverse and distributed set of stakeholders. Applicants are invited to describe in their offer the approach that they deem the most appropriate for data analysis and validation of findings and conclusions, and to describe the mechanisms that they plan to use as to involve the structure under review in validation of findings and conclusions.

4. Steering of the review and reporting

1. The contractor to be selected will report to the Chair of the NRO.

2. At the end of each calendar month the contractor to be selected will be required to produce a short report (one-two pages), underlining achievements against plans and, when available, early findings.

3. By the date indicated in 2.3.9 the contractor will issue a draft Final Report, containing description of findings and its full conclusions and recommendations.

4. No later than two weeks from the reception of this draft, the NRO EC will inform the contractor of its intention to either approve the report in this version, or will request it to address any specific concerns before its approval. In this last case, the contractor will be given not less than two weeks to address the concerns raised by the NRO EC.

5. Format of the offers

1. Interested consultants and consulting firms are invited to submit their offer for the present ASO review. In order to allow comparison of the different offers that will be received, the NRO invites applicants to structure their bid as follows:

Section 1 – Understanding of the assignment. Applicants are invited to describe their own comprehension of the work to be carried out, including their understanding of the Internet numbers community, ICANN’s function in supporting the Internet numbers community, and the ASO role and responsibilities within ICANN.
Section 2 – Qualification of the bidding organization and of the key experts proposed to conduct the assignment. Applicants are requested to describe their qualification to carry out the ASO review, providing precise description and reference to their experience in assessing effectiveness and performances of national and international organizations; in reviewing structures and processes involving a globally diverse and distributed set of stakeholders; and in offering advice to guide processes of organizational change. Relevant research conducted and publications, if any, should also be included;
Section 3 – Methodology of work and tools. The applicants will describe in this section their methodological approach to the review of ASO, with indication of selected tools and expected efforts (in working days) per each phase of the review. A detailed time plan will ideally complete the section.
Section 4 – Financial offer. Criteria for the formulation of the financial offer can be found in following section 7
Annex: full CVs of key staff / consultants proposed to conduct the Review, proving the suitability for the proposed work of all the selected experts (max length of each CV: 3 pages). Role to be played by each individual expert has to be specified.

2. Bids for this assignment may be submitted by consulting firms, networks of individual consultants and consortia of consulting firms. Bids submitted by networks of individual consultants, and consortia of consulting firms shall clearly identify a consortium leader, holding all responsibilities towards the NRO EC for the correct fulfillment of all the contractual obligations resulting in the eventuality of a contract awarding.

6. Contract Compliance

Applicants should warrant that they are willing to operate under a nondisclosure agreement.

7. Formulation of the financial offer

1. Financial figures shall be expressed in US Dollars.

2. The financial offer is to be formulated as an overall lump sum of the consulting fees requested for the carrying out of the full assignment. An approximate estimation of the working days needed to conduct the assignment shall be provided, as well. Consulting fees shall include direct costs such as communication, consumables, use of computer equipment and other minor expenses.

3. The NRO will furthermore reimburse the contractor the following costs, which are not to be included in the applicants’ financial offer:

• Return travels of two members of the consulting team to participate in defined meetings, as approved; planned travels shall be taken in economy class.
• Hotel (pre-paid by the NRO) and full meal costs for the participation to the meetings.
• Further reasonable travel expenses, if deemed necessary for the fulfillment of the assignment, provided that they will be approved in advance in writing by the NRO EC.

8. Requests for clarification and contacts during the bidding period

1. Requests for clarification can be addressed until 31 December, 2016 only to the Chair of the NRO (chair [at] nro [dot] net). Requests for clarification and their answers will be made anonymous and published at the NRO webpage [www.nro.net] in order to ensure equal treatment of all bidders.

2. Any other direct contact with RIRs or ICANN staff during the bidding period, related to the present Request for Proposal is strongly and expressly discouraged, will not be answered and might lead to disqualification of the bidder.

9. Proposal assessment – awarding of the contract

1. Proposals will be assessed by the NRO EC with the use of the assessment grid enclosed as Annex-1 to the present document.

2. Each members of the NRO EC will score each proposal received, and a final average grid will be produced for each proposal, accompanied by a note resuming verified references of the three bidders scoring with the highest marks.

3. At the end of the evaluation process the NRO EC will publish the proposal of the winner bid and the names of all bidders.

4. Deadline for selection of the winner bid is 31 January 2017.

10. Deadline for the submission of the offers and their validity

1. In order to be considered valid, offers shall be sent by 31 December 2016 to the chair of the NRO at chair [at] nro [dot] net in Adobe pdf format. A confirmation email will be sent for each proposal received before the expiring of the deadline.

2. Offers sent in observance of the present Request for Proposals shall remain valid for a period of six months after the deadline mentioned in previous Chapter

ANNEX-1: Proposal Assessment Grid

Bidder:

Name of proposal evaluator:
Max score [M]
Evaluator’s score [S]
Minimum threshold [T]

Understanding of the assignment [M=25] [S=0] [T=15]
– Understanding of the Review Objective 15
– Understanding of the NRO, the ASO and ICANN and their mandates 10

Qualification of bidder [M=40] [S=0] [T=25]
– Previous similar activities for national / local organizations 5
– Previous similar activities for other international organizations 10
– Previous similar activities carried out within ICANN or the NRO 5
– Geographic and cultural diversity, multilingualism, gender balance 10
– Suitability of proposed CVs 10

Proposed methodology and tools [M=55] [S=0] [T=30]
– Suitability of timetable 10
– Work organization and methodological approach 15
– Suitability of proposed data gathering tools 15
– Suitability of proposed data analysis / validation methods 15

Financial offer [M=20] [S=0] [T=10]
– Max efforts respected or acceptably justified in case of deviations? 10
– Overall value for money? 10

OVERALL SCORE [M=140] [S=0] [T=75]

We are pleased to announce that Filiz Yilmaz was re-elected to the Number Resource Organization Number Council (NRO NC) at a Plenary session of the RIPE 73 Meeting in Madrid on 28 October 2016.

On the completion of her current term on 31 December 2016, Filiz will go on to serve another three-year term from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019.

Details on the election process and the NRO NC are available.

We would like to congratulate Filiz on her appointment and thank her for her excellent work in representing RIPE during her previous tenure on the NRO NC.