Comments on ICANN Budget Proposal for FY 2004-2005

16 June 2004

1.Premise

I support the global structure of technical coordination like the one lead by ICANN. I am happy to contribute to ICANN's operation and ccTLD related services as long as ICANN continues to commit itself to serve the Internet community following its charter.

Based on this bottom line, I would like to submit comments on ICANN's 'Proposed Budget - Fiscal Year 2004-2005' as follows :

2. Points to Be Reviewed

(1)Scope of ICANN's Activities

In the Proposed Budget, ICANN appears to try to address things that should be handled by market or local Internet community, which is beyond its initial mission of global technical coordination. Further intensive discussion to define more concrete profile of ICANN's critical activities is necessary.

(2)Principle for Budget Development

The primary concept of the budget development is not well-defined. That is, whether the budget is to fund to complete ICANN's critical activities pursued so far, or to invest in developments of new value added services.

(3)Review of Last Year's Achievements

The document contains neither evaluation of the last year's budget in light of cost effectiveness, nor specific explanation of basis for this year's budget calculation.

(4)Relationship between Contribution and Benefit

ccTLDs have developed their policies in consultation with their local Internet communities whom they should serve. Per domain name fee applied for Tier 3 ccTLD registries has been raised year after year, however we are not convinced that ICANN's services for the Tier 3 registries have been proportionally expanded so far. In addition, I am not sure if JPRS can afford the payment in the future, as I observe the increase during these past years.

3.Recommendation

(1) ICANN should focus on its original mission as specified in the Bylaws (as follows) and define its activities more concretely;

     ---------------------------------------------------------------
     Section 1. MISSION
 
     The mission of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
     Numbers ("ICANN") is to coordinate, at the overall level, the
     global Internet's systems of unique identifiers, and in
     particular to ensure the stable and secure operation of the
     Internet's unique identifier systems. In particular, ICANN:
       1. Coordinates the allocation and assignment of the three
          sets of unique identifiers for the Internet, which are
           a. Domain names (forming a system referred to as "DNS");
           b. Internet protocol ("IP") addresses and autonomous system
              ("AS") numbers; and
           c. Protocol port and parameter numbers.
       2. Coordinates the operation and evolution of the DNS root name
          server system.
       3. Coordinates policy development reasonably and appropriately
          related to these technical functions.
     ---------------------------------------------------------------

(2) ICANN's activities should be limited to only those with guarantee of their cost effectiveness, and its budget should be developed under the condition that the expense is the minimal amount of money to accomplish such minimal activities.

(3) ICANN should evaluate cost effectiveness of previous year's operation and provide it in public along with basis for this year's budget calculation. In addition to that, ICANN must state concrete milestone of and cost for each activity.

(4) That is the benefit principle which ICANN should be based on in determining the amount to apportion its expense among stakeholders and the amount difference from the previous year. As a ccTLD, .JP registry would like to fund fair share that parallels to the services it receives. Therefore, ICANN, first of all, should clearly define its services to ccTLD. ccTLDs should be well accounted for to understand what they receive in return for the amounts they are paying.

I believe efficient and effective ICANN would be an integral part of today's and tomorrow's Internet community and am willing to assist it. I hope these comments would be of some guidance for ICANN to reconsider its budget for the coming fiscal year.

Sincerely yours,

Hiro Hotta
Director
JPRS (.JP registry)