The future of ICANN is the focus of this article in The Economist,
who says the day before the expiration of the Joint Project Agreement
on 30 September, the American government will put into effect a new
accord "whereby America will pass some of its authority over ICANN to
the 'internet community' of businesses, individual users and other
governments."
This new agreement with the American government will, according to The
Economist, be four pages long and be called an "affirmation of
commitments". It will also have no expiry date unlike previous
agreements.
The report also notes "the agreement sets up oversight panels that
include representatives of foreign governments to conduct regular
reviews of ICANN's work in four areas: competition among generic
domains (such as .com and .net), the handling of data on registrants,
the security of the network and transparency, accountability and the
public interest -- the only panel on which America will retain a
permanent seat. But there are no penalties if ICANN fails to heed its
new overseers short of a termination of the accord."
To read this report in The Economist in full, see:
www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14517430