"Over the past two decades, the Internet has touched the lives of
billions of people around the globe in profound ways. It has fueled
economic growth, giving even the most remote villages the opportunity to
sell their products in faraway lands. It has fueled innovation,
connecting mobile gadgets and household appliances. And it has torn
down barriers to speech, enabling diverse viewpoints to be heard across
the political spectrum.
"The Obama Administration is committed to doing everything within our
power to preserve and protect the open, free-flowing global Internet,
which has revolutionized the world. That’s why two years ago, we
announced our intention to transition the U.S. government’s stewardship
role of the Internet Domain Name System to the global multistakeholder
community.
"Since our announcement, the Internet community – made up of
businesses, technical experts, academics and civil society – has risen
to the challenge by developing a transition plan that has achieved broad
community support.
The community delivered that proposal to NTIA yesterday,
marking the culmination of the largest multistakeholder process ever
undertaken. Stakeholders spent more than 26,000 working hours on the
proposal, exchanged more than 33,000 messages on mailing lists, and held
more than 600 meetings and calls.
"Why is this transition so important? The Internet has grown and
thrived largely because of the multitude of folks who have come together
around the globe through multistakeholder processes to solve technical
and policy challenges on a consensus basis. No government or
intergovernmental entity could have accomplished what this community of
experts has achieved in such a relatively short period of time.
. . . . ."
