Internet-Draft Internet Architecture Board (IAB) Expires June 3, 2002 L. Daigle, editor Category: Best Current Practice draft-iab-pso-appointments-00.txt January 3, 2002 IETF ICANN Protocol Support Organization Appointments Procedures Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt Abstract This document specifies the process by which the IETF appoints its 2 representatives to ICANN's Protocol Support Organization's Protocol Council (PSO-PC). Additionally, the process for selecting candidates for the PSO's appointments to the ICANN Board of Directors is specified. This process specification reflects 2 years of IETF experience with ICANN, the PSO-PC and the PSO organization, since their inception in 1999. 1.0 Introduction The ICANN Protocol Support Organization (PSO) is defined by a Memorandum of Understanding (PSO MoU), [RFC2691], which in turn defines the structure and requirements of a "Protocol Council" (PSO- PC) made up of representatives appointed by the PSO MoU signatory Standards Development Organizations (SDOs). The PSO MoU also stipulates that the PSO-PC will nominate an ICANN Director each year. IAB [Page 1] Internet-Draft draft-iab-pso-appointments-00.txt October 2001 Two separate selection/appointment roles are discussed here. The reader is referred to the ICANN By-Laws (available from http://www.icann.org) and the PSO MoU for the precise definitions of the support organizations and roles. In short, ICANN has a "Protocol Support Organization", which is an abstract entity made up of several signatory standards development organizations. The IETF is one such. To coordinate the communications and activities of the PSO, the participating organizations appoint 2 people to the Protocol Council (PSO-PC), which then acts as the communications nexus between the participating organizations and ICANN. Section 3 of this memo sets forth the process for selecting IETF appointees to the PSO-PC. Separately from that, the PSO, through the PSO-PC, is tasked with naming 3 members for the ICANN Board of Directors (1 per year, for 3 year terms, staggered). Individual participating organizations (such as the IETF) can propose candidates for consideration. Section 4 of this memo sets for the procedure for the selection of potential candidates for ICANN Board seats. Therefore, this document specifies the processes by which the IETF appoints its 2 PSO-PC representatives, and identifies candidates for consideration for the PSO ICANN Board of Directors appointment. 2.0 Experience -- PSO-PC members and ICANN Board appointments Two years of experience with the PSO-PC as a functioning entity has made it clear that the primary role of PSO-PC members is to act as liaisons from their appointing organization. The PSO-PC itself does not do technical deliberations or policy-making, beyond the actions specified in the RFC 2691 and acting as a clearing house for PSO MoU signatories' combined input and consensus. The PSO-PC currently undertakes its activities through scheduled teleconferences, and holds an annual general assembly, normally scheduled in conjunction with one of the PSO signatories' meetings. Originally, one of the IETF's PSO-PC appointees was an IAB member, and the other was not. Subsequently, the latter was selected by the IETF NomCom to serve on the IAB, which provided the opportunity to evaluate whether direct communication with the IAB improved the effectiveness in the PSO-PC role. The conclusion is that it is best to have established communication links with the IAB/IAB members, though IAB membership itself is not a requirement. The role of a member of the ICANN Board of Directors is much the same as that of any corporation, with the associated statutory responsibilities. Additionally, the PSO as a whole is expected to ensure that ICANN has people with strong Internet technical knowledge IAB [Page 2] Internet-Draft draft-iab-pso-appointments-00.txt October 2001 on its Board, and any IETF-proposed candidate should be chosen with that in mind. 3.0 IETF PSO-PC member appointment process The primary role of a PSO-PC appointee is to participate in the PSO- PC interactions with ICANN, as described in the PSO MoU. In acting as a representative of the IETF's participation in the PSO, appointees are responsible for liaising with the IAB on technical matters requiring PSO input, and otherwise keeping the IAB up to date on the state of the PSO. As part of its mandate for appointing external liaisons for the IETF (see [RFC2850]), the IAB is tasked with appointing PSO-PC members for the IETF. Normally, the IAB will appoint PSO-PC members for a 2 year term. Each position is considered for renewal/replacement in April of alternate years. The IAB may recall/change an appointment at its discretion. In accordance with the PSO MoU, the IAB will consider any candidates proposed as a result of the PSO-PC's/ICANN's call for nominations, posted concurrently with the posting of notice of the date of the annual meeting of the PSO General Assembly on the PSO Web Site. 4.0 IETF identification of potential ICANN Board member candidates The Internet technical community as a whole has a responsibility and a right to identify qualified candidates for the PSO to nominate to the ICANN Board of Directors. In its role as a signatory SDO to the PSO, per the PSO MoU, the IETF may propose one or more candidates for consideration by the PSO-PC. There are 2 obvious approaches that could be followed here: 1) the IAB could consider extending the role of the IESG/IAB Nominating Committee (NomCom -- [RFC2727]) to research and review candidates proposed by the IETF community at large; 2) alternatively, this could be viewed as another "liaison" function for the IETF, to be filled by the IAB. In fact, neither approach suits perfectly. A position on the ICANN Board is not a liaison position; any candidate appointed by the PSO- PC is to act on behalf of ICANN, not any SDO that may have provided an original nomination. On the other hand, the NomCom (acting on behalf of the IETF) would not select the final Board candidate -- merely a potential candidate to be considered by the PSO-PC. The argument has been made that this is a fruitless duplication of IAB [Page 3] Internet-Draft draft-iab-pso-appointments-00.txt October 2001 scrutiny and a potential distraction of the NomCom's efforts which should be focused on filling IETF functions. Therefore, as part of its liaison with the PSO-PC, the IAB will select zero or more proposed candidates to be considered by the PSO- PC each year, and will also publicize, within the IETF, the PSO-PC's public call for nominations (see [RFC2691]), so that any interested IETF participant may nominate someone, or be nominated, for consideration by the PSO-PC in its appointment of an ICANN Board member. 5.0 Security Considerations As this document deals strictly with appointments processes, it is not expected to have any impact on network security. 6.0 References [RFC2691] Bradner, S., "A Memorandum of Understanding for an ICANN Protocol Support Organization", RFC 2691, September 1999. [RFC2727] Galvin, J., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees", RFC 2727, February 2000. [RFC2850] IAB, B. Carpenter (ed), "Charter of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)", RFC 2850, May 2000. 8.0 Authors' Addresses Internet Architecture Board EMail: iab@iab.org Membership at time this document was completed: Harald Alvestrand Ran Atkinson Rob Austein Fred Baker Brian Carpenter Steve Bellovin IAB [Page 4] Internet-Draft draft-iab-pso-appointments-00.txt October 2001 Jon Crowcroft Leslie Daigle Steve Deering Sally Floyd Geoff Huston John Klensin Henning Schulzrinne IAB [Page 5]