Itu Becomes Founding Member Of Icann Protocol Supporting Organization

Online Newsletter, Sept, 1999

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for telecommunications, became one of the founding members of the ICANN Protocol Supporting Organization (PSO), with its signature in a memorandum of understanding with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Society (ISOC), the World Wide Consortium (W3C), and the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI).

The Protocol Support Organization (PSO) is an advisory body of ICANN concerned with the technical standards that let computers exchange information and manage communications over the Internet. ICANN is the new non-profit corporation that was formed to take over the responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions now performed under U.S. contract. ICANN is expected to complete the changeover, from U.S. government control, for the Domain Name system, the allocation of IP address spaces, the coordination of adoption of new Internet protocol parameters, and the management of the Internet's root server system by September 2000.

Under the proposed memorandum, PSO will operate under a Protocol Council consisting of 2 members appointed by each of the signatories and a general assembly - an annual open meeting. The Protocol Council will also appoint directors to the ICANN board of directors. The Protocol Council will have a dual role: an advisory role to the ICANN board on the assignment of parameters for Internet protocols, and a policy development role for the development and recommendation of policies in the area of protocol parameter assignment. The signatories, will however, remain responsible for the policies for parameter assignments for the specific protocols they have developed.

Additional ICANN information is available at: http://www.icann.org