ICANN’s Multi-Stakeholder model gaining independence : Internet Governance maturing with the transition of the US Government stewardship of IANA functions

Theresa Swinehart ( ICANN )

22Jan
11:00 22nd January 2016 ( week 2, Hilary Term 2016 )
Tony Hoare Room, Robert Hooke Building

The running of the core functions behind the Internet is coordinated – a better word than ‘governed’ – by a distributed collaborative of processes, mechanisms, and organisations, each distinct and interdependent on one another.

The global and cross-border nature of the Internet challenges the concept of governance by only governments or groups of government. Partly, this is why these various governance processes have evolved organically to be both global and ‘multi-stakeholder’ in nature, resulting in a pioneering democratic effort to tackle these challenges in a novel approach.

The evolution of this model has reached a significant crossroads with the announcement in March 2014 of its intention to transition its historic role of oversight over the core, narrow set of technical functions called ‘IANA’, which ICANN administers, to ‘the global multi-stakeholder community’. The IANA functions include the allocation and maintenance of the unique codes and numbering systems of the Internet (such as Internet Protocol addresses).

At the end of the process, all those concerned with the Internet, from the technical community and governments to civil society, will have the equal responsibility for overseeing these key functions.

The U.S. announcement in March 2014 set into motion two open, public processes. One is for the global Internet community to develop a proposal for this stewardship transition. The second effort is to enhance ICANN’s governance and accountability mechanisms in light of the US Government’s transition away from its stewardship role.

This is an important moment in the history of the Internet and ICANN; a testament to how the organisation, the Internet’s community and the ‘multi-stakeholder’ model of governance have matured.

We now have a multi-stakeholder model of governance and operational mechanisms that are ready to function on their own, led by a community of stakeholders rather than a central, top-down governmental authority, having demonstrated the efficient management and coordination of the Domain Name System by ICANN and the Internet technical community over the past 16 years.

As the Internet community’s preparations for this transition near their end, Theresa Swinehart, who leads ICANN’s global facilitation of the transition, will share her perspective on this crucial moment in the evolution of the Internet and its Governance, and what it means for the future running of this ‘global commons’.

Speaker bio

A leading advocate for an open and secure Internet and an expert in global Internet governance and cooperation, Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Advisor to the President on Global Strategy at ICANN. She works with stakeholders and policymakers around the globe to advocate the Internet's multistakeholder model, and oversees a team with overarching responsibility for a range of initiatives including development of the organization's five-year strategic plan. She rejoins ICANN after serving three years as the Executive Director of Global Internet Policy for Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues and stakeholder and policy leader engagement.

Theresa spent nearly ten years at ICANN prior to joining Verizon in 2010. Her previous position at ICANN was as Vice President, Global and Strategic Partnerships, at ICANN. Her responsibilities included contributing to its reform process, leading the international team, the organization's strategy for global engagement and outreach, and representing the organization in international forums, particularly those relating to Internet governance. She worked with a wide range of stakeholders, including business, regional and international organizations (governmental and non-governmental), technical community, government and civil society, on a range of issues bridging technical, political and policy expertise and experience (e.g. Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)). Before joining ICANN, Theresa was Director for Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for emerging international Internet issues, including ISP liability, data protection and the company's participation in Internet related forums including the formation of ICANN. Theresa began her career in international human rights with a focus on economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights.

Theresa holds a law degree from American University Washington College of Law (USA), a post graduate degree in International Studies from the University of Vienna (Austria), and a BA in International Relations from the University of California, Davis (USA). She has represented organizations in numerous international forums. She serves on the ISOC Board of Trustees and the Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Committee (MAG).

She is fluent in English and German and conversant in French.