Public Technical Identifiers

Revision as of 22:45, 10 October 2016 by Dustin Loup (talk | contribs)
Type: 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Founded: 2016
Headquarters: 12025 Waterfront Drive, Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90094-2536
Country: USA
Website: pti.icann.org

The Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) is the organization responsible for the operation of the IANA Functions, which primarily includes coordinating the Internet's unique identifiers.[1] The PTI is an affiliate of ICANN, with ICANN being the sole member.[2]

The PTI was founded in August 2016 as part of the implementation of the IANA Stewardship Transition. It's formation was designed to meet the ICG's recommendation to form a new legal entity to perform the IANA Functions, which was included in the proposal submitted to the NTIA on 10 March 2016.[2] [3] It began performing the IANA Functions on behalf of ICANN in October 2016, immediately after the IANA function contract with the NTIA expired.[4]

Mission Statement edit

PTI is responsible for the operational aspects of coordinating the Internet’s unique identifiers and maintaining the trust of the community to provide these services in an unbiased, responsible and effective manner.[5]

Formation edit

On 14 March 2014, the NTIA announced that it intended to relinquish its oversight of the IANA functions in favor of the global multistakeholder community and instructed the community to develop a proposal for the transition.[6] During the development of this proposal, ICANN Accountability became an important issue. Prior to the transition, IANA was an internal department within ICANN that acted as the IANA functions operator (IFO). In order to establish a clearer separation between the technical and policy making functions, the proposal submitted by the ICG recommended that a separate legal entity take over the role of IFO. At the time this was referred to as Post-Transition IANA, but later became known as Public Technical Identifiers, both of which share the acronym PTI. The CWG-Stewardship recommended creating PTI as a separate legal entity to allow the possibility of separation from ICANN in the future and to allow for ICANN and PTI to enter into a contract.[7]

References edit