Changes

===Issue on ICANN Ethics and Conflict of Interest===

===Issue on ICANN Ethics and Conflict of Interest===

Senator [[Ron Wyden]] wrote a letter to NTIA Assistant Secretary Strickling on September 14, 2011 regarding the issue of the “revolving door” between the domain name industry and ICANN.  This was at a time when there were many reports and commentaries written about [[Peter Dengate Thrush]]'s immediate acceptance of the position as Chairman of [[Minds+Machines]] after his term expired as Chairman of the [[ICANN Board]] on June 24, 2011. Some individuals from the Internet community were uncomfortable with Thrush's move since he voted for the approval of the implementation of the new gTLD program, and days after his term expired he became the first ICANN chairperson to accept a high paying job from a company dedicated to providing complete gTLD application and registry services. Dengate Thrush did not violate any rule since there is no policy preventing the members of the ICANN Board from joining companies in the domain industry after their term expired. The Internet community, including Senator Wyden, recommended the development of a new ethics policy to prevent the “revolving door”. In his letter to Strickling, Senator Wyden stated that the designated [[[IANA]] manager, which has been as continues to be ICANN, plays a huge role in regulating the multi-million dollar domain name industry. Since IANA is not an agency of the federal government, its executives are not bound by the same financial, ethics or conflict of interest rules followed by executives of federal agencies or members of the Congress. According to Wyden, '''“While I support the control of this system by NTIA, I also believe that any IANA employees ought to be made subject to the same ethics rules in place as NTIA employees. With the growth in importance of this authority, it is important to ensure that decisions are made impartially.”''' Senator Wyden recommended strict ethics guidelines with emphasis on transparency for the next contract negotiation with ICANN or any other organization that will be selected to operate IANA.<ref>[http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=2e414e69-1250-4ca3-ae6b-2b6091ed52cc Wyden Calls for Ethics Rules to Prevent Revolving Door for Internet Domain Name Regulators]</ref>   

Senator [[Ron Wyden]] wrote a letter to NTIA Assistant Secretary Strickling on September 14, 2011 regarding the issue of the “revolving door” between the domain name industry and ICANN.  This was at a time when there were many reports and commentaries written about [[Peter Dengate Thrush]]'s immediate acceptance of the position as Chairman of [[Minds+Machines]] after his term expired as Chairman of the [[ICANN Board]] on June 24, 2011. Some individuals from the Internet community were uncomfortable with Thrush's move since he voted for the approval of the implementation of the [[New gTLD Program|new gTLD program]], and days after his term expired he became the first ICANN chairperson to accept a high paying job from a company dedicated to providing complete gTLD application and registry services. Dengate Thrush did not violate any rule since there was no firm policy preventing the members of the ICANN Board from joining companies in the domain industry after their term expired. The Internet community, including Senator Wyden, recommended the development of a new ethics policy to prevent the “revolving door”. In his letter to Strickling, Senator Wyden stated that the designated [[[IANA]] manager, which has been and continues to be ICANN, plays a huge role in regulating the multi-million dollar domain name industry. Since IANA is not an agency of the federal government, its executives are not bound by the same financial, ethics or conflict of interest rules followed by executives of federal agencies or members of the Congress. According to Wyden, '''“While I support the control of this system by NTIA, I also believe that any IANA employees ought to be made subject to the same ethics rules in place as NTIA employees. With the growth in importance of this authority, it is important to ensure that decisions are made impartially.”''' Senator Wyden recommended strict ethics guidelines with emphasis on transparency for the next contract negotiation with ICANN or any other organization that will be selected to operate IANA.<ref>[http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=2e414e69-1250-4ca3-ae6b-2b6091ed52cc Wyden Calls for Ethics Rules to Prevent Revolving Door for Internet Domain Name Regulators]</ref>   

Secretary Strickling agreed with Senator Wyden’s opinion that  the organization designated as the IANA manager should maintain a high level of accountability and transparency. He assured the Senator that NTIA is actively working on developing policies that  will “best meet the requirement for a clear and enforced ethics and conflict of interest policy” in the next IANA contract. In addition, the Assistant Secretary also informed the Senator that two notices of inquiry had been conducted regarding the IANA contract on February and June 2011 respectively as part of the agency’s comprehensive review of IANA. NTIA received 136 comments during the global input process, which show that the stakeholders believe that there is a need to increase accountability and transparency.<ref>

Secretary Strickling agreed with Senator Wyden’s opinion that  the organization designated as the IANA manager should maintain a high level of accountability and transparency. He assured the Senator that NTIA is actively working on developing policies that  will “best meet the requirement for a clear and enforced ethics and conflict of interest policy” in the next IANA contract. In addition, the Assistant Secretary also informed the Senator that two notices of inquiry had been conducted regarding the IANA contract in February and June 2011 respectively as part of the agency’s comprehensive review of IANA. NTIA received 136 comments during the global input process, which can be interpreted to show that stakeholders believe that there is a need to increase accountability and transparency.<ref>

[http://www.thedomains.com/wp-content/ICANN-NTIA-Letter-to-Sen.-Wyden-9-21-11.pdf NTIA Asst. Sec. Strickling Letter to Senator  Wyden]</ref><ref>[http://www.thedomains.com/2011/09/28/us-department-of-commerce-to-icann-we-want-a-clear-enforced-ethics-conflict-of-interest-policy%E2%80%9D/US Department Of Commerce To ICANN: We want “A Clear & Enforced Ethics & Conflict of Interest Policy” September 28, 2011]</ref> A summary of the responses to Further Notice of Inquiry from the internet community regarding the operation of the IANA Function is available [http://news.dot-nxt.com/2011/08/15/iana-fnoi-summary-by-sender '''here''']

[http://www.thedomains.com/wp-content/ICANN-NTIA-Letter-to-Sen.-Wyden-9-21-11.pdf NTIA Asst. Sec. Strickling Letter to Senator  Wyden]</ref><ref>[http://www.thedomains.com/2011/09/28/us-department-of-commerce-to-icann-we-want-a-clear-enforced-ethics-conflict-of-interest-policy%E2%80%9D/US Department Of Commerce To ICANN: We want “A Clear & Enforced Ethics & Conflict of Interest Policy” September 28, 2011]</ref> A summary of the responses to Further Notice of Inquiry from the internet community regarding the operation of the IANA Function is available [http://news.dot-nxt.com/2011/08/15/iana-fnoi-summary-by-sender '''here''']