Joint meeting ICANN Board and Customer Standing Committee

Event report

The session was the first meeting between the ICANN Board and the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) after the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) stewardship transition.

Mr Byron Holland, member of the CSC appointed by the Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO), started by explaining the main mission of the CSC according to its Charter. He highlighted that the CSC is responsible for monitoring the Public Technical Identifiers’ (PTI) performance of the IANA naming function, against the service level expectations in the IANA Naming Function Contract. He also mentioned other responsibilities of the CSC such as participating in reporting, monitoring, conducting surveys, and informing the community about issues related to the performance of the IANA functions. According to him, this role has been assumed according to plan.

Holland explained in detail how the CSC does its work through monthly meetings, which usually take place in the middle of each month. At the meeting, CSC members receive and discuss the PTI report on 63 specific metrics, and decide on the CSC report. He also specified that the meetings are open, that records and proceedings are published on their website, and that the reports are sent to an extensive distribution list. For people who want to stay informed on this issue but do not have time to read a detailed report, he recommended the monthly report, which is only about a page long and gives an update of the IANA functions performance. 

Regarding the CSC reports, Holland explained that the CSC rates the overall performance of the PTI based on a number of Service Level Expectations (SLE) achieved – excellent when all the expectations are achieved; satisfactory when not all are achieved – but there is no need for concern; and, needs improvement when actions are necessary. He added that the CSC also reports on metrics that the CSC is tracking closely, on how the SLEs could be adjusted, and on the numbers of complaints.

Holland also listed the CSC activities since October 2016:

• Reviewed four PTI reports and issued four monthly CSC reports.
• Discussed the PTIs/IANA department’s 2016 customer survey
• Started a discussion about PTI related complaints and processes from the survey
• Developed internal procedures
• Agreed on the short-term priorities
• Approved the dashboard that the PTI has put up
• Launched the CSC website

To summarise, Holland said that the PTI performance has been very good with only some minor metrics missed and no consumer service impact or operational problems. He also said that the CEO of ICANN has initiated a dialogue with the CSC chair, and that the ICANN community needs to plan for reviews.

After that, the floor was opened to questions and comments from Board members and from the audience. Mr Steve Crocker, Chair of the ICANN Boad, referred to the importance of understanding whether the 63 specific metrics are relevant. Mr Göran Marby, ICANN CEO and President, briefly explained the importance of the meeting between the two external Board Members of the PTI and himself as a way of formalising the context between the organisations. Among other questions, Mr Khaled Koubaa, ICANN Board member, asked about the review of the effectiveness of the CSC (to begin by October 2018) and whether a process has been put in place by ccNSO and the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) to work on this review. Holland responded that no work has been undertaken within ccNSO in this regard, but that actions are to be expected.