Supporting Organizations
The ICANN Supporting Organizations (SOs) serve as the advisory bodies for the ICANN Board of Directors, with the primary responsibility of developing and recommending substantive policies regarding those matters falling within their specific area.[1]
Short overview
The SOs are three specialized advisory bodies that have the purpose of advising the ICANN Board of Directors on issues related to domain names and IP addresses. In addition to these SOs, ICANN also relies on advice from advisory committees regarding the interests of their stakeholders who are not part of any of the SOs.
The main objective of SOs is to help the promotion for Internet policy development and to encourage diverse international participation related to the Internet's technical management. Each SO names two Directors to the ICANN Board.
GNSO
The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) develops policies for gTLD. It attempts to operate in a fair, orderly manner throughout the global Internet while still promoting innovation and competition. The GNSO deals with issues related to the registration of a domain name, the services which must be provided by a registrar, and even cases related to the renewal of a domain name.
The GNSO is the successor of the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO).[2]
CCNSO
The Country Code Names Supporting Organization (CCNSO) is a body of ICANN created specifically for ccTLD managers. It was created in 2003 and is a forum for ccTLD managers to meet and discuss various topic of interest, while encouraging technical cooperation between ccTLd managers. The CCNSO is responsible for developing ICANN global policies for issues related to ccTLDs. [3]
ASO
The Address Supporting Organization (ASO) is one of the SOs of ICANN. The main objective of the ASO is to review and develop recommendations related to IP address policies.[4]