<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"><base href="x-msg://94298/"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On Feb 19, 2014, at 10:04 AM, Milton L Mueller <<a href="mailto:mueller@syr.edu">mueller@syr.edu</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; "><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">Steve<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">Building now on your observations and trying to discern their larger significance for the IANA globalization, and building also on the comments of D. Conrad regarding possible separation of the signing function from the editing function, let me pose a few questions:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><o:p> </o:p></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>A more likely scenario is some sort of accidental error due to<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>either human or system error. There was an erroneous publication<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>of a part of an entry about a decade ago. It did not disable the<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>TLD and it was fixed quickly. It also led to some improvements<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>in the coordination and checking among the root managers.<o:p></o:p></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">Is there still a need for some kind of audit function of the sort currently performed by NTIA? If there is, would the IETF or some technical body be in a better position to perform that function than government(s)? Or would saddling IETF with such a responsibility have negative side effects, such as politicizing it?</span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I don't think NTIA does much in the way of an audit in the usual sense of that word.</div><div><br></div><div>The IETF isn't organized to do anything along this line. It doesn't have a staff nor is this the kind of work they do.</div><div><br></div><div>Your primary question, is there [still] a need for some kind of audit function, is the one to focus on. Audits fit into a larger picture, generally to check whether the people doing the daily work have done what they were supposed to. And audits are usually done after the fact. See below for a few thoughts.</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; "><div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">Turning to your points, yes, it is theoretically possible for someone</span></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>within the root zone management process to make unauthorized<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>changes to the root zone, and there may be value in strengthening<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>the technical processes to make it impossible to make a change<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>without the cooperation of the TLD operator or an extraordinary<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">></span>process that requires enough people to be safe from capture.<o:p></o:p></div></div><div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); ">Are you suggesting here that technical design could actually eliminate the need for the audit function?</span></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Changes, or lack of change, to the root zone are visibly to anyone around the world. In particular, it's easy for a TLD operator to see whether a requested change took place properly or whether a change took place that should not have. As I said earlier, it would also be possible make it essentially impossible for any change to take place without the TLD operator's concurrence. So, in that sense, yes, technical design could eliminate the need for the audit function in the usual sense.</div><div><br></div><div>The "big" actions of creating a new TLD entry in the root, re-delegating control of the operation of a TLD, or decommissioning a TLD, necessarily involve judgment and decision. Those actions do need to be seen and reviewed. I'm not sure this fits the usual notion of "audit" but it does need to be transparent and accountable.</div><div><br></div><div>Steve</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>