ICANN preps for next year's JPA expiration

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers is currently is accountable to the U.S. Commerce Department under a Joint Project Agreement between the two agencies, a connection that many through the worldwide Internet community have found troubling. ICANN's agreement with the Commerce Dept. expires in 18 months--September 2009--and though it seems like a long way off, ICANN is starting to examine its future options. That will involve talking to the multitude of parties involved with ICANN about how to best ensure that accountability remains in place and domain process activities don't get bogged down. Some critics have already said ICANN has been slow to respond to changing needs in the Internet community and the world, and wanted to see changes before the scheduled expiration of the JPA.

For more:
- read this story [1] at InfoWorld

Related article:
- Criticism of ICANN [2] was a hot topic at the Internet Governance Forum last November