INTERVIEW: Freer ICANN will improve accountability to world

San Francisco - An agreement signed Wednesday between the US government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) would improve accountability to all internet stakeholders around the world, said the corporation's chairman Peter Dengate Thrush. The agreement gives ICANN much greater independence to coordinate the web's address system and ensure its smooth operation. It comes after years of criticism by the European Union, Russia, China, India and others that governance of the worldwide communications network was too important to be left to the US alone. 'It's a formal end to process that started in 1998,' Dengate Thrush told the German Press Agency dpa. Under that process, the US government monitored the development of ICANN as an institution capable of governing the internet. The agreement means that the probationary period is now over and that four advisory panels will be established - made up of government and private sector representatives from around the world - to review ICANN's functioning. 'The US government now recognizes that ICANN is the right body to coordinate global resources of the internet,' said Dengate Thrush. 'Our accountability now extends to all the governments and people of the world. We want a process that the rest of the world can participate in.' The agreement also has widespread significance for other organizations dealing with global resources, the ICANN chairman said. 'ICANN is now the world's first multi-stakeholder organization responsible for coordinating a global resource,' he said. 'National governments recognize that the best way to get things done is the private-public partnership. 'Historically only governments were large enough to deal with national infrastructure but the internet is different because its instantly global. So what we've gone to is a system that involves the users, operators and registrars, the governments and developers. All the different stakeholders are now involved.' 'That's what's unique about it - the role of government is powerful but advisory. It's a well-constructed balance so that no stakeholder dominates. We have to govern by consensus.'