ICANN Community

Welcome to the world of ICANN!

ICANN stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It is a private, non-profit organization for the management of the Internet DNS, IP Addresses and Autonomous System Numbers, and the structures that underlie them. It runs on an international, multi-stakeholder model.

ICANN Organizational Chart (Image from ICANN.org)

Supporting Organizations

ICANN has three Supporting Organizations (SOs).

GNSO

The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), which replaced the DNSO, develops policies, forms consensus, and makes recommendations to the ICANN Board related to gTLDs.

GNSO Council

The GNSO Council is led by elected representatives from the Contracted and Non-Contracted House Parties.

Contracted House Party

The CPH consists of:

• The Registrar Stakeholder Group and
• The Registries Stakeholder Group

Non-Contracted House Party

The NCPH consist of:

• The Commercial Stakeholder Group, which consists of three constituencies:
  • The CBUC
  • The IPC
  • The ISPC
• The Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group, which consists of
  • The NCUC
  • The NPOC

ccNSO

The Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) develops policies, forms consensus, and makes recommendations to the ICANN Board related to ccTLDs.

ccNSO Council

The ccNSO Council consists of a group of representatives elected from the ccNSO representatives of their respective ccTLD managers, which ICANN refers to as ccNSO members.

ASO

The Address Supporting Organization (ASO) develops policies, forms consensus, and makes recommendations to the ICANN Board related to Internet Protocol and addresses.

Address Council

The ASO is led by the Address Council.

Regional Internet Registries

The Address Council consists of elected representatives from each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs):

• AFRINIC
• APNIC
• ARIN
• LACNIC
• RIPE NCC

Advisory Committees

ICANN is comprised of four Advisory Committees (ACs).

Goverment Advisory Committee

The Government Advisory Committee (GAC) consists of representatives from various governments who advise the ICANN Board on public policy issues, national laws, and international agreements. GAC Members are the government organizations that participate in GAC, and GAC representatives convey their respective government's interests to the committee.

GAC Leaders

GAC Leadership refers to the five representatives who have been elected to shepherd members toward consensus on ICANN policy developments and coordinate the committee's advice process on a given topic and convey it to the ICANN Board.

At-Large Advisory Committee

The At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) presents the interests and concerns of individual Internet users, as represented by the At-Large Community.

Regional At-Large Organizations

The ALAC consists of three representatives from each of the five Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs):

• AFRALO
• APRALO
• EURALO
• LACRALO
• NARALO

At-Large Structures

RALOS are comprised of At-Large Structures (ALSes) and individuals who seek to represent the interest of the At-Large Community.

RSSAC

The Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) advises the ICANN community and Board on the operation, administration, security, and integrity of the Internet's Root Server System. The RSSAC consists of voting representatives from each of the 12 organizations operating the 13 root name servers, alternates, and non-voting liaisons to and from root zone service organizations. The RSSAC Caucus is a pool of experts that support the voting representatives.

SSAC

The Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) consists of 34 members who advise the ICANN Board on the security and integrity of domain names and the allocation of IP addresses, including security assurance for operational matters, administrative matters, and registrations matters.

Other ICANN Groups

As ICANN takes an inclusive approach, it incorporates the public sector, the private sector, and technical experts to fulfill its mission.

NomCom

The Nominating Committee (NomCom) oversees the selection of various ICANN officers. It is designed to operate independently of all other ICANN bodies and to act in the interest of the global Internet community.

Nominating Committee Appointees

The NomCom selects and appoints people to SOs, ACs, and the ICANN Board.

Technical Liaison Group

The Technical Liaison Group (TLG) provides the ICANN Board with appropriate sources of technical advice. The TLG consists of two representatives from each of the following four organizations:

• European Telecommunications Standards Institute
• International Telecommunications Union's Telecommunication Standardization Sector
• World Wide Web Consortium
• Internet Architecture Board

Technical Experts Group

The Technical Experts Group (TEG) is the part of ICANN's Technical Liaison Group that focuses on future technical and technological issues that warrant the Board's attention.

Customer Standing Committee

The Customer Standing Committee (CSC) monitors Public Technical Identifiers' performance of the IANA naming function.

Root Zone Evolution Review Committee

The Root Zone Evolution Review Committee (RZERC) reviews architectural changes to the content, hard- and soft-ware systems, and distribution mechanisms used in the DNS root zone.

Ombudsman

The Ombudsman is an informal dispute resolution office for members of the ICANN community who wish to lodge complaints about ICANN staff, board, or supporting organizations.

ICANN Board

The ICANN Board of Directors is comprised of representatives and liaisons that have been selected by the Nominating Committee, Supporting Organizations, and Advisory Committees.

ICANN Staff

ICANN Staffers, including ICANN Officers, ensure that policies and advice can be developed by the Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees and approved and implemented by the ICANN Board in accordance with the ICANN Bylaws and ICANN's commitment to the Multistakeholder Model.

ICANN Officers

• The Office of Contractual Compliance gathers information from and enforces the contractual compliance of registries and registrars through complaint-driven informal and formal resolution processes, ICANN-initiated monitoring, or random auditing.
• The OCTO seeks to improve knowledge about the technical operation of the Internet's system of unique identifiers.

Generic Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains and other responsibilities set forth in the Bylaws (ICANN Bylaws).

Contracted Parties House. Includes the Registries Stakeholder Group and the Registrars Stakeholder Group (ICANN Bylaws).

Non-Contracted Parties House. Includes the Commercial Stakeholder Group and the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (ICANN Bylaws).

Country Code Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board global policies relating to country-code top-level domains (ICANN Bylaws).

Country code top-level domain

Address Supporting Organization. Advises the Board with respect to policy issues relating to the operation, assignment, and management of Internet addresses (ICANN Bylaws).

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).

At-Large Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN related to the interests of individual Internet users (ICANN Bylaws). Not to be confused with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group.

Root Server System Advisory Committee. Advises the ICANN community and Board on matters relating to the operation, administration, security, and integrity of the Internet's Root Server System (ICANN Bylaws).

Security and Stability Advisory Committee. Advises the ICANN community and Board on matters relating to the security and integrity of the Internet's naming and address allocation systems (ICANN Bylaws).

Nominating Committee