DomainAgents Blog

If you start getting involved more deeply in domain names, at some point you’ll start hearing people refer to ICANN. But what is ICANN and what does it do? ICANN stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the organization manages and maintains the Internet’s core infrastructure. It is a non-profit organization which was formed in 1998. ICANN’s main role is to keep the Internet running safely and smoothly all over the globe. More specifically, it is in charge of the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and the Domain Name System (DNS). In other words, it coordinates the unique addresses/identifiers that we type into our computers to connect to other computers in the network that forms the Internet.

They hold meetings all over the world to develop and improve current policies or to deal with emergent issues like GDPR. The next one will be held in Marrakech.

What does ICANN have to do with domain names?

What many people think of as “the Internet” is really the system called the Domain Name System, or DNS, which makes the Internet more accessible to us humans. This system makes it easier for us to remember a web address, a.k.a. IP address.

An IP address is a string of numbers which correlates to a different device, and every device has a unique one. It would be near impossible for us to remember these long lists of numbers, so the DNS takes these numbers and converts them into a series of letters. After the conversion, what you have is a name which you can use to connect to a website.

For example, thanks to this system, rather than having to remember a complex series of numbers, we just need to remember DomainAgents.com.

A domain is made up of 2 parts – what comes before and then after the dot. To the right of the dot is a top-level domain, or TLD, and this includes “com”, “org”, “net”, and more. One company, or registry, is in charge of all domains that end with a specific TLD. VeriSign operates the .com top-level domain, for instance and countries operate their own registries to manage their ccTLD like .ca. Before the dot is the name of your company, project, or blog – it is the domain name you register.

This is where ICANN comes in. Registrars sell domains and registrars must abide by the regulations set out by ICANN. Registrars pay a set per-domain fee to the appropriate registry in which the domain is being registered. ICANN has contracts with each registry and also runs an accreditation system for registrars. This system maintains a stable and consistent domain name environment, and thus Internet. ICANN ensures that you can transfer a domain to a different registrar or that you don’t lose your domain if your registrar goes out of business. They also set out and manage the process for creating new TLDs.

It’s thanks to ICANN that we can receive the same predictable results when we access the network anywhere in the world. Without this, you could end up with an Internet that worked differently depending on your location.

Who makes up ICANN?

ICANN is made up of 3 “supporting organizations”, 4 “advisory committees”, and a Technical Liaison Group. There is also a Board of Directors and finally a President and CEO. Together, these groups and individuals represent a different interest on the Internet and contribute to any final decisions made by ICANN.

Can I participate in ICANN?

For those interested in getting involved, there are many ways to participate in ICANN.

First, there are ICANN meetings which are free to attend and open to all. Attendees can make their points directly to Board members and the rest of the ICANN community during the Public Forum sessions that are held at each meeting.

If you’re looking to have your voice heard remotely, each meeting also has its own interactive website with presentations, audio, video streams, and live transcriptions (when available). Public meetings are sometimes open for comments, and in these cases, remote participants can write into the chat room and have their comments read out to the meeting as a whole.

If you’re looking to get more deeply involved with the process, you may join one of ICANN’s supporting organizations or advisory committees. These include the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), Address Supporting Organization (ASO), and Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC).

With so many ways to interact with ICANN, there is plenty of opportunity to have your voice heard if you are willing to put in the time and effort.  As with any large bureaucratic organization, things can move slowly and there are many competing voices because the decisions made by ICANN can impact potentially billions of people.