Beckstrom: ‘It’s a Beautifully Historic Day For ICANN’

Rod Beckstrom’s tweet reminded me that today marks the conclusion of the JPA (Joint Project Agreement) between the United States and ICANN. 


The ‘Affirmation of Commitments‘ is the new system in which a global panel will be reviewing ICANN’s performance as well as it’s accountability and resiliency.  In the past, under the JPA system all reviews of ICANN were submitted solely to the U.S. government.  Under the new Affirmation of Commitments over 100 countries will be part of the ICANN review process.  In a quote from Rod Beckstrom’s video interview discussing the change, ICANN’s Chief Executive breaks it down:

“..the United States government will have one seat at the table at one of those three sets of reviews, and the rest will be appointed by these parties, including the Governmental Advisory Committee.  So what it really means is we’re going global.”

It is important to note that in the Affirmation of Commitments, ICANN reaffirmed that it’s headquarters would be staying on U.S. soil.   Officially, October 1st 2009 is the end of the JPA relationship between ICANN and the U.S.  As an American, I feel confident that the global community can handle the accountability and review process for ICANN just as well if not better than did the U.S. government.