Obtaining ICANN's Strategic Plan
The Department of Commerce's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ICANN calls for the organization to have prepared a Strategic Plan as of the end of 2003. The plan is to set forth ICANN's goals "for securing long-term sustainability of its critical domain name and numbering system management responsibilities, including the necessary corporate structure and financial and personnel resources to meet such responsibilities."

Since the Strategic Plan covers key aspects of ICANN's plans for governing the internet, it would seem that the Plan should be a public document. Public review of the Strategic Plan would promote transparency and accountability by allowing stakeholders to monitor ICANN's progress in fulfilling their duties under the MOU.

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) wrote to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) asking whether the Strategic Plan and other documents prepared by ICANN under the MOU would be made public. NTIA provided a prompt and polite answer to all of CRE's questions and stated that the Strategic Plan would not be made public since it contains "proprietary and business confidential information." Based on NTIA's response, ICANNfocus concluded that ICANN was "a chimera, an organization that usurps the public power of a federal regulatory agency while maintaining the privacy and other privileges accorded to private businesses."

CRE has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with NTIA asking for a copy of ICANN's Strategic Plan prepared pursuant to their MOU with the government. CRE's FOIA request stated that if "all or any part of a Strategic Plan is withheld from disclosure on the basis of any FOIA exemption..." that NTIA: 1) identify all FOIA exemptions claimed as the basis for withholding disclosure; and 2) describe each withheld record with sufficient particularity to determine whether the claimed FOIA exemption applies.

Public access to the Strategic Plan is one step in the process of understanding why ICANN is engaging in price-setting and other regulatory activities, and returning ICANN to path of being a technical manager, not a regulator, of the internet.