ICANN To Announce Fresh Governance Structure on Wednesday

ICANN’s future to become clearer on Wednesday.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will make an notice tomorrow regarding the expiration of its Joint Project Agreement with the U.S. Government, Reglike has learned.

Although details are not available at this time, sources tell Reglike that The Economist‘s article regarding an “Affirmation of Commitments” is a fair representation of the fresh arrangement, barring any last minute changes.

Generally speaking, non U.S. governments will get more of a say in the governance of ICANN, but ICANN will remain a non-profit corporation based in the United States. The article in The Economist states there will be four oversight groups: competition among generic domains (such as .com and .net), the handling of data on registrants, the security of the network and transparency, and accountability and the public interest. The U.S. government will apparently have a permanent seat on the accountability and public interest oversight group.

Check in with Reglike on Wednesday for details.