What in the World is Going on with the IANA Transition?

The CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Ambassador David Gross, and the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Administration for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration are going to be testifying in front of the Senate in a hearing entitled “Preserving the Multistakeholder Model of Internet Governance,” in relation to the IANA transition and ICANN accountability.

This hearing comes in the middle of months of input and deliberation from communities around the world on best proposals for the IANA transition process, which are expected to be finalized in summer 2015. This hearing is important in helping determine the actions the US House and Senate will decide to take (if any) to support or hinder the IANA stewardship transition and process, and thus key in maintaining a smooth transition towards a more inclusive system of global Internet governance. In that vein, it’s a good idea to catch up with what’s been going on in the past couple months leading up to the hearing.