This page explains what ICANN is, how the Domain Name System (DNS) works, and provides outside links about domain registration.
About ICANN
What Is ICANN?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a nonprofit organization formed at an international level. It is responsible for allocating Internet Protocol (IP) address space, assigning protocol identifiers, managing the generic top-level domain (gTLD) and country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) name systems, and managing the root server system. Those services were first performed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and other bodies under a contract with the United States government. ICANN now performs the IANA function. As a partnership open to both private and public participants, ICANN works to keep the Internet operating in a stable way, to support competition, to give global Internet communities broader representation, and to develop suitable policies through bottom-up, consensus-based processes.
What Is the Domain Name System (DNS)?
The Domain Name System (DNS) helps people find their way on the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address called an IP address (Internet Protocol address). IP addresses are strings of numbers and are hard to remember, so DNS lets a familiar string of letters (a domain name) stand in for that address. You can type "www.icann.org" instead of "192.0.34.163".
What Is ICANN's Role?
ICANN coordinates the management of the technical parts of the DNS so that universal resolution is maintained and every Internet user can find a valid address. It does this by overseeing the distribution of the unique technical identifiers used in Internet operations, and the delegation of authority to use top-level domain names (such as .com and .info).
Other issues that matter to Internet users, such as financial transactions, control of Internet content, unsolicited commercial email (spam), and data-protection rules, fall outside ICANN's technical coordination role.
How Does ICANN Work?
Inside ICANN's structure, governments and organizations created by international agreements work in partnership with companies, organizations, and individuals who can help build and maintain the global Internet. The Internet's capacity for innovation, and the need to keep it growing in a stable way, keep creating new challenges. ICANN's participants work together on issues that relate directly to ICANN's technical coordination role. In keeping with the principle of making the most of self-regulation in a high-technology economy, ICANN is a leading example of the different parts of the Internet community working side by side.
ICANN is governed by a Board drawn from international constituencies. The Board directs the policy-development process. ICANN's President leads an international staff, working on three continents, so that ICANN can meet its responsibility to the Internet community.
A flexible policy process, designed to answer the needs of fast-changing technologies and economies and to be applied quickly, starts in three Supporting Organizations. Advisory committees made up of different user organizations, together with technical communities and the Supporting Organizations, work to produce policies that are appropriate and effective. More than eighty governments advise the Board through the Governmental Advisory Committee.
ICANN's Achievements
ICANN's more recent achievements include the following:
- ICANN introduced market competition in generic top-level domain (gTLD) registrations and reduced the cost of those domain names by 80 percent, saving consumers and companies an estimated 1 billion dollars a year on registration fees.
- ICANN developed a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) that has been used to resolve more than 5,000 domain-name conflicts. The UDRP is designed to be efficient and low cost.
- Working with the relevant technical committees and stakeholders, ICANN set guidelines for introducing Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), opening the way for domains to be registered in hundreds of the world's languages.
ICANN's Continuing Work
In 2000, ICANN introduced seven new gTLDs: .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro. The ICANN community continues to study the possibility of adding further gTLDs.
In response to community concerns about security and accessibility, ICANN hosts workshops on Whois, the publicly available database of domain-name registrations.
As IPv6, the newer IP address numbering protocol, comes into use, keeping the global network interoperable remains a core task for ICANN.
ICANN Is Open to Participation
Anyone interested in global Internet policy may take part in ICANN, within the scope of ICANN's technical coordination role. ICANN offers many online forums through its website, and the Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees have active mailing lists that are open to participants.
ICANN also holds public meetings throughout the year. Recent meetings have been held in Bucharest, Montreal, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, and Accra.
For more information about the Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees, see their websites:
- Address Supporting Organization (ASO) — www.aso.icann.org
- Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) — www.ccnso.icann.org
- Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) — www.gnso.icann.org
- At-Large Advisory Committee — www.alac.icann.org
- Governmental Advisory Committee — www.gac.icann.org
More information about ICANN is available on ICANN's website: www.icann.org
External Links
- ICANN educational documents: www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/registrant-rights/educational
- Your rights and responsibilities as a domain-name registrant: www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/registrant-rights/benefits
- Neutral domain-name Whois lookup: www.internic.net/whois.html
