Head of net's address system set to step down next year

Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which oversees the internet address system, plans to leave the organisation next July.

Beckstrom plans to complete his three-year contract with Icann, a term marked by moves to expand and internationalise the internet address system. But these efforts have also brought the organisation, and Beckstrom, into conflict with governments, brand owners and others.

Beckstrom announced the news late on Tuesday via Twitter. Later, in a news release, he said, “I am incredibly proud of Icann’s achievements throughout my tenure. In two short years, we have advanced this organisation to a new level of professionalism and productivity, and turned it into a genuinely multinational organisation that will serve the world community long after my time here.”

The announcement of Beckstrom’s departure could set off a new round of international wrangling over control of Icann and internet governance. Set up by the United States government, the organisation gained greater autonomy in 2009, around the time Beckstrom took over.

But some governments, including those of Russia and China, are said to want to exercise greater control over internet governance, perhaps through an organisation like the International Telecommunications Union, which operates under the auspices of the United Nations.

During Beckstrom’s term, Icann reflected the increasingly international nature of the internet, adding the ability to render addresses in non-Latin alphabets, for example.

Other changes have brought objections. A number of governments, for example, were opposed to Icann’s move this year to add a ‘.xxx’ address suffix for pornographic web sites.

This year, Icann approved a plan for a vast expansion of so-called generic top-level domains — the letters that follow the last ‘dot’ in an internet address. Some governments say they were not properly consulted, while brand owners and others continue to oppose the plan.

“Icann’s potentially momentous change seems to have been made in a top-down star chamber,” Randall Rothenberg, chief executive of the United States Interactive Advertising Bureau, said in a letter to Icann this week. “There appears to have been no economic impact research, no full and open stakeholder discussions, and little concern for the delicate balance of the internet ecosystem. This could be disastrous for the media brand owners we represent and the brand owners with which they work. We hope Icann would reconsider both this ill-considered decision and the process by which it was reached.”

Icann gave no indications on the hunt for a successor to Beckstrom, who said in the meantime, he remained “committed to leading this critical organisation with the utmost dedication, and to living up to our common vision: One world, one internet.

©2011 The New York Times News Service