1. How Changes to Root Zone Management are Requested
David Conrad
ICANN CTO, but speaking in a personal capacity

2. TL;DR In the past No one was quite sure, but defaulted to NTIA Now
No one is quite sure, but probably the RZERC

3. Before the Transition Nothing clearly defined.
For example, signing the root
Many years of technical community saying “Hey! Let’s sign the root!”
<crickets>
ICANN Board and other bodies saying “Hey! Let’s sign the root!”
<rustling>
Kaminsky attack
<panic>
NTIA says “ICANN and Verisign, give us proposals to sign the root.”
ICANN and Verisign provide proposals
NTIA uses some internal process, chooses Verisign’s proposal
Root (eventually) gets signed

4. Stewardship of IANA Functions Contract Transition
NTIA goes away
“The Multi-Stakeholder Community” via the “Empowered Community” single membership replaces NTIA’s oversight role
New entities created:
Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) – wholly-owned (by ICANN) affiliate company to which ICANN outsources IANA Functions
PTI Board: 2 ICANN staff appointees, 2 community appointees, PTI president
Customer Standing Committee (CSC)
Root Zone Evolution Review Committee (RZERC)
Myriad of new IANA Functions review committees

5. Root Zone Evolution Review Committee
RZERC provides advice to the ICANN Board on changes to the root zone management systems
NOT on how root servers are operated
Process by which this is done being defined (I think)
ICANN Board makes decisions with input from RZERC (among others)
SSAC:
Russ Mundy
RSSAC:
Brad Verd
ASO:
Carlos Martinez
IETF:
Jim Reid
GNSO RySG:
Howard Eland
ccNSO:
Katrina Sataki
RZM (Verisign):
Duane Wessels
ICANN Board:
Suzanne Woolf
IFO (PTI):
Kim Davies

6. “ICANN”?
Which ICANN?
The Community
The Board
The Organization
The IANA Functions Operator
ICANN-the-Organization does what ICANN-the-Community or ICANN-the- Board tells it to
ICANN-the-IANA Function Operator does what ICANN-the-organization (via contract) or ICANN-the- Community (via CSC or RZERC) tells it to

7. How to go about requesting new features?
I don’t think anyone knows for sure, but a few options...
Option 1: “Shame on IANA”
IANA Staff’s freedom to implement enhancements is tightly constrained
Option 2: get the IETF/IAB or other body to make a statement
Might work, might not (see the IAB statement on the RPKI root)
Option 3: go through ICANN’s Board
Will probably (should?) get bounced to RZERC for advice
Option 4: go through the RZERC
Process not yet set, but envisioned to provide advice on root system evolution