http://www.circleid.com/posts/20151026_consumer_trust_not_at_icann_compliance

Consumer Trust? Not at ICANN Compliance

"Every person and every entity must have a philosophy if they are to be successful. Consumer trust is one of the key issues at the heart of keeping the Internet open as well as prosperous. The ICANN Affirmation of Commitments was signed in 2009 and has been the guiding principle for ICANN's activities going forward. The title of section 9.3 is Promoting competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice. This section is in essence the embodiment of the commitment of ICANN. In specific detail the section defines the promotion of consumer trust as including consumer protection and malicious abuse issues. The furtherance of consumer trust as a philosophy is carried into the IANA transition as the NTIA has testified about the importance consumer trust in the stewardship transfer. Consumer trust has been made a top-level portfolio goal at ICANN, it is part of an entire section of the organization's efforts in this area. As one might expect, in order for the philosophy of an organization to become a reality it must permeate throughout the organization's functions. In this case we see that Consumer Trust has been incorporated into the mission statement of the compliance department of ICANN: The mission is to preserve the security, stability and resiliency of the Domain Name System and to promote consumer trust through prevention, transparency and enforcement. This goes well beyond a posted mission statement. Within ICANN's own metrics consumer trust is directly tied to "confidence in ICANN's compliance function”. Consumer trust seems to be an ingrained fact, part of the fabric of the next version of the Internet.

"However, there is a problem. The actual staff of compliance do not recognize this obligation. During last week's face-to-face ICANN meeting I had an exchange with new head of ICANN contractual compliance which was bewildering and concerning."