[nrr-blueprint] RIR Blueprint for Reform

[Geoff Huston]

Bill,

Thanks for this comment.

The underlying nature of the landscape here is that many parts of the world 
have undergone, or are in the process of implementation of, deregulation of 
many aspects of communications service provision. Accompanying this 
deregulation is the move towards an industry self-regulatory framework, 
where the stakeholders within a deregulated industry sector work together 
to determine the common conditions or applicable constraints that should be 
applied within the activity. Obviously most governments maintain various 
reserve powers, as well as powers of consumer protection, fair trading, 
etc, so these self-regulatory structures are not without a broader context 
of public policy.

The RIRs, through the extensive use of the open policy process, believe 
that they maintain strong links with the stakeholders in this area of 
deregulated activity, and the so-called "bottom-up" nature of the open 
policy decision process used by the RIRs is a good example of the desired 
decision making framework in a deregulated industry sector.

It has been the case in recent years that surveys of RIR membership have 
exposed the desire that the RIRs themselves take on a role  of greater 
interface with governmental and semi-governmental entities within their 
region.  The rationale here is not seeking any new format of regulatory 
imposition from governments, but more to be in a position to demonstrate to 
interested parties, including such public agencies, that the open 
self-regulatory process as used by the RIRs is effective in arriving at 
consensus outcomes that meet the requirements of all interested parties. As 
is evident in the RIR open policy process, the consideration of 
address-related policies often has a significant component that is not 
purely technical in nature, and the RIRs have been successful in engaging 
the broader set of interested communities within their open policy 
processes that has allowed these considerations to be aired and these 
perspectives to be included within the policy consensus process.

 From this perspective of the observation of the open RIR policy process as 
works today, its not immediately obvious to me that ICANN has a potential 
role in the interpretation and explanation of number policy and operations 
to governments as you propose in your comment. Rather than attempting to 
segment the set of interested parties into two blocks, those within the RIR 
community of interest and those within the ICANN community of interest, the 
RIRs see it as in the interests of effective, open and transparent policy 
development relating to the management of Internet number resources that 
all interested parties have the ability to directly participate in the RIR 
open policy development process.

For this reason the Blueprint does not suggest that ICANN work within a 
constituency of public agencies and related governmental organizations at a 
public policy level and the RIRs work within a constituency of membership 
at a technical level..The Blueprint nominates a structure of delegation of 
operational responsibility and a delegation of the role of approval of 
common global RIR policies, and a  continuing role for ICANN as one of 
assuring process integrity relating to these delegations, ensuring that the 
delegated functions are operated in a manner that is entirely conformant to 
the associated processes that are to be followed by the RIRs and the ASO.


Kind regards,

   Geoff Huston

   (This is a personal comment)




At 12:20 PM 10/10/2002 -0500, Bill Darte wrote:
>"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">
>Hello all,
>
>I have not fully digested the Blueprint document yet, but my first reading 
>left me wishing the blueprint would have suggested the ICANN have an 
>explicit role in interpretation and explanation of Number policy and 
>operations to governments and those outside the explicit membership bodies 
>of the RIRs as their role legitimately should be in review and interaction 
>with the non-technical community.... political....IMO.
>
>Bill Darte
>ARIN AC
>
>CAIT, Washington University in St. Louis
>314 935-7575