Comment on 5-yr operational plan

["Schlosser, Adam" <aschlosser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce would like to submit the following comment in 
regards to the ICANN five-year operating plan. Please let me know if you have 
any questions and we would greatly appreciate a confirmation of receipt of this 
comment.

Thanks.


The U.S. Chamber of Commerce appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on 
ICANN’s five-year operating plan (Plan). While we understand the desire to 
increase participation in ICANN, we note that a number of areas in the Plan 
seem to indicate an intention to expand the scope of ICANN’s mission. We urge 
clarifications to the Plan to unambiguously affirm any ICANN activities remain 
firmly bounded by its core mission “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 several areas of the Plan (notably objective 1.3 and throughout objective 5) 
there is a mention of “policy development” or serving as a “steward of the 
public interest.” Both of these phrases can be interpreted exceptionally 
broadly. ICANN has an important role to play in enforcing its own governing 
agreements including the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. We are also 
concerned about recent indications of ICANN attempting to take on new roles and 
responsibilities outside of its core mission, including efforts to launch 
initiatives unrelated to the management of the names and numbering system. 
ICANN plays an integral role in the global multistakeholder ecosystem of 
Internet governance, but there are many issues and, therefore stakeholders, 
that fall well outside the scope of ICANN’s core mission. It is a mistake to 
attempt to turn ICANN into or to use ICANN resources to solve the many  
Internet Governance related concerns nor should ICANN attempt to insert itself 
into every Internet Governance issue stemming from Internet-related activity. 
The Plan should affirm that ICANN’s role in policy development is only directly 
and tangibly related to policies that will strengthen its core technical 
functions.

We also have several questions regarding the objectives related to government 
involvement. In objectives 4.1 and 4.3, can ICANN please expand upon what is 
intended by “singing of MOUs with international organizations” and explain what 
type of duties are envisioned? Further, under objective 4, while we appreciate 
the desire to increase government participation, particular that of developing 
nations, it is important to also highlight that an increase in participation 
will not result in new government powers or in any way alter the current 
multistakeholder model.

Thank you for your consideration.