View source for Lawrence Strickling

===Remarks During the ICANN 40 Meeting===
During his  keynote speech at the ICANN 40 meeting in San Francisco on March 14, 2011, Strickling informed the ICANN Community that the United States government is '''"absolutely committed to the multi-stakeholder process as an essential strategy for dealing with Internet policy issues and to the ICANN model as the best way to preserve and protect the security and stability of the Internet."''' However the Assistant Secretary also stressed that, '''"we should never shy away from critically evaluating its performance and making improvements where appropriate."''' He also said that he spends a lot of time and effort in making sure that ICANN's reality measures up to its vision. In his speech he also informed the ICANN community that the Internet Policy Task Force created by the DOC Secretary will work to:<ref>[http://news.dot-nxt.com/2011/03/14/usg-to-icann-board-head-out-of-ass USG to ICANN Board: Pull Your Head Out Your Ass]</ref> <ref>[http://www.ntia.doc.gov/speechestestimony/2011/keynote-remarks-lawrence-e-strickling-assistant-secretary-commerce-communicat Keynote Remarks by Assistant Secretary Strickling at the 40th Meeting of ICANN]</ref>
* Enhance Internet privacy
* Ensure cybersecurity
* Protect online copyright
* Ensure the free flow of global information

Strickling enumerated some of the achievements of ICANN such as the introduction of 27 [[IDN|Internationalized country code top level domain names]] (IDN ccTLDs), the implementation of a review team process as stipulated in the Affirmation and the effort made by the [[ICANN Board]] and the [[Governmental Advisory Committee]] (GAC) to work together to increase the number of [[gTLD|generic top level domain names]] (gTLDs). However, he also expressed some of his disappointments. Despite ICANN's accomplishments, he strongly emphasized that ICANN still needs to work to realize its vision. He expressed his disappointment with some of ICANN's decisions to remove the cross-ownership restriction. He stated that,'''"the Board still has not explained the basis of its decision to shift from no cross ownership to de minimus cross ownership to full cross ownership over the course of a single calendar year."''' He was also disappointed by the Boards decision to reverse its commitment to conduct further economic studies regarding the impact of new gTLDS. He emphasized that these decisions demonstrated that, '''"ICANN still has work to do to ensure that decisions made related to the global technical coordination of the DNS are in the public interest and are accountable and transparent."''' To help ICANN realize its vision, the Assistant Secretary made three recommendations:
* Implement the Recommendations of the [[ATRT|Accountability and Transparency Review Team]] (ATRT)
* Work harder to engage governments in the multi-stakeholder process by providing them a meaningful opportunity to participate and be heard inside of ICANN
* Stop making decisions by yourself