Apparent gap: who will discuss the transition of the root zone maintenance?

["Richard Hill" <rhill@xxxxxxxxx>]

I refer to the charter of the Cross Community Working Group (CWG), posted
at:

http://gnso.icann.org/en/drafts/iana-stewardship-naming-function-charter-14a
ug14-en.pdf

Page 3 of that charter says: "The issue of who performs the Root Zone
Maintainer (RZM) role is not in scope for the CWG and should be dealt with
in a subsequent effort as needed."

As far as I know, neither of the other two operational communities has
included that issue in the charter of their respective groups dealing with
the IANA transition.

So there appears to be a gap, in that apparently no group is chartered to
deal with that issue.

Yet that issue is a key issue because, at present, the US government (1) has
a contract with Verisign for operation of the authoritative root zone server
and (2) approves all changes to the root zone file.

Presumably a transition of the stewardship of those functions is included in
the IANA transition, so the issue of who performs the Root Zone Maintainer
(RZM) should be an integral part of the transition plan that will be
presented to NTIA.

I would therefore invite the ICG to consider how to fill what appears to be
a gap at present.

Sincerely,
Richard Hill