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Media InformationPress ReleasesInternet Assigned Numbers Authority Plans Transition to International Nonprofit GroupContact: Bob Calverley (213-740-4750) email: calverle@usc.edu Consistent with a U.S. Government-proposed plan, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which coordinates the Internet's address system, domain names, and protocols, is preparing to transition its responsibilities to an international not-for-profit corporation run by a board of directors representing the spectrum of Internet interests around the world. The IANA function currently operates under a U.S. Government contract awarded to the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at the University of Southern California's School of Engineering. The IANA plays a central role in the management of the domain name system to support and implement the community consensus about the appropriate overall structure of the system. For example, the IANA coordinates the generic top-level domain names designated by Internet suffixes such as "com", "edu", and "org"; and manages the country code top-level domains, such as "jp" for Japan and "fr" for France, by delegating them to name registries in each country. In addition, the IANA coordinates Internet numeric addresses such as "172.16.0.1" by delegating management of address blocks to address registries. Three regional address registries serve the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific regions. "The IANA will be transitioning within an evolutionary, not revolutionary, model -- guided by the community consensus that has served it successfully in the past," says Jon Postel, the ISI research scientist who largely created the Internet's domain name system and has headed the IANA since the Internet's inception. "As proposed, the new organization will have enlarged community representation, including address and name registries, protocol organizations, and user and industry organizations." Dr. Postel says the change is the outcome of discussions and input from the user community, the Internet Engineering Task Force, and the Internet Architecture Board, as well as public comment on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's "Green Paper" and recently released "White Paper." "All of these discussions indicate strong support for the transition of the IANA into a not-for-profit corporation," says Postel. "While it is planned that the IANA initially will be incorporating as a separate company in the United States, offices subsequently may be added in other locations, particularly in other countries, as necessary to carry out IANA's mission." The organization plans to move from the University of Southern California to its own offices. It is expected that IANA will be supported by the Internet community representing four operational areas -- address registries, name registries, protocol organizations, and user and industry organizations. A transitional board of directors for the new organization will be nominated by organizations within each of the four operational areas with full international participation." "The transitional board will provide interim guidance, facilitate the process to establish the full-term board, and select the chief executive officer." Postel says. More information about the transition can be found on IANA's website: http://www.iana.org/ BC.IANA -USC- JUNE 5, 1998 |
