Weekend Economists Toast the Apostle of Ireland March 14-16, 2014

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11. US GOVERNMENT CEDING CONTROL OF KEY INTERNET BODY

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INTERNET_GOVERNANCE_SHIFT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-14-20-37-38

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The U.S. government is relinquishing its control of the Internet's address system in a shift that may raise questions about the future direction of online innovation and communications.

The decision announced Friday begins a long-planned transition affecting the stewardship of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. That's a not-for-profit agency launched in 1998 by the Commerce Department to govern the system that assigns website addresses and directs Internet traffic.

The department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, hopes to end its oversight of ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority by the time its contract expires in September 2015. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority administers the technology that keeps computers connected to the Web and steers Internet traffic.

Proposals for a new ICANN stewardship will be accepted beginning next week at a conference in Singapore.