[Iana-transition] What form of supervision is needed?

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 11:23:26AM +0000, David Huberman wrote:
> Andrew,
> 
> ICANN operates .arpa, one of the few (two?) TLDs they operate.

Really?  I think if you examine http://www.iana.org/domains/arpa, you
will discover that the operation is a little different than you seem
to be describing.  I think that, if we are proposing changes to
contractual terms, we ought to attend to the details.

IANA acts as the registry for the arpa. zone.  It does this under the
guidance of the IAB.  The management guidelines are in RFC 3172.

IANA does not operate the name servers for the arpa zone, because if
you check the NS set for arpa., you will learn that arpa. is delegated
to the root name servers.

The in-addr.arpa. and ip6.arpa. zones, however, may fall under the
concerns you are raising.

>  If the NRO were to perform the addressing functions currently performed by IANA, I do not think it would be appropriate for ICANN to operate the .arpa TLD.   Why do I think that?  
> 

It seems to me that you're arguing about this on the wrong list, then,
because the control over the arpa. zone lies with the IAB, and not the
RIRs.  (This seems clear to me from the NTIA-ICANN agreement.)  So if
you want the IETF to do something, you should probably make that
argument on the IETF ianaplan WG list.

> Speaking only as an engineer (and as an especially clueful DNS engineer) don't you agree?  When you attend ICANN meetings, do you get the sense the attendees and participants have the internet's engineering's best interests in the forefront of their mind when they're "governing"?  

I think that different people involved in operating different parts of
the Internet infrastructure, including those who make policy for root
zone delegation, have different ideas of what is important and what is
not.  I agree with you that not everyone at an ICANN meeting has the
sort of clue about DNS operations that, in an ideal world, would be
desirable.  On the other hand, I have remarkably little clue about
political sensitivities in what is sometimes called the global South.
Yet those factors are also important for the global Internet, and
dismissing the whole of ICANN as a collection of either venal or
clueless people doesn't really contribute much to a successful
transition from the NTIA.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com