[cooperation-wg] Update on IANA Oversight Discussions: ICG Meeting and IETF 90

Here is my personal take away from the ICG meeting and the general
discussion:

Note Aagain that this is about the arrangements for the *implementation*
of a very small but important function that *implements* policies that
govern Internet number distribution; roughly it is about the work of
IANA delegating blocks of number spaces to the RIRs.

The policies themselves are not discussed in this process and they are
not expected to change. Neither is the policy development process
discussed and neither is that expected to change. This is purely about
the small part of *implementation* of global policies. The bulk of the
Internet number related policies are implemented by the RIRs and the
LIRs (ISPs) according to regional policies. This is not going to change.
Finally I personally expect that the same people will continue
performing this work for the time being, but under new arrangements. So
we can expect operational stability.

The time schedule that is emerging means that the RIPE community will
have to come to consensus on a proposal by the end of this year. Many
believe that the window of opportunity for change will close if NTIA
chooses to renew the current arrangements with ICANN unchanged.
Specifically the IETF is pushing hard to meet this deadline and at this
moment no-one is questioning it. The IETF has done most of the
preparatory work already and their arrangements with IANA are well
defined and documented. So I expect that the IETF will decide to move
ahead on their own if the other communities are not ready in time.

Our proposal will have to explain the current arrangements under which
IANA implements the global policies for Internet number distribution,
essentially the arrangements under which IANA hands block of numbers to
the RIRs. We should spend time on reminding ourselves of this first, so
that the discussion about future arrangements stays focused. Then we
need to agree on the proposed arrangements for a future time when NTIA
does no longer hold a contract with ICANN for this work.  Then we will
need to describe explicitly how this proposal meets the accountability
requirements of the RIPE community.

We have to be aware that concurrently this discussion will be happening
in the other regions and the result must be a proposal that has
consensus in all the regions.

Finally we have to take into consideration that it is likely that at
least one of the domain name communities will not make the deadline. So
we will have to generate a proposal that will stand alone. We will also
have to consider what to do when it becomes clear that not everyone will
be ready in time.  As I have said in our Warsaw meeting: personally I
strongly believe we should at least develop viable options for such an
eventuality. The least this will do is to encourage the other
communities to work harder on meeting the schedule.

Apologies for the long and difficult prose during the summer months.
If anything is unclear, I am happy to expand even further ;-).

Daniel