Fadi Chehade, as the President and CEO of ICANN, is frankly one of the more important people in the Internet world. His organization is responsible for two key aspects of the Internet. The first is managing the naming system of the Internet and how that system is used globally and how people reach it (ICANN manages the naming system through its policies and operations). The second is numbers. Specifically, any device that talks to the Internet (cell phone, smart phone, Mac, PC, etc.) is given a unique Internet Protocol or IP number, marking its specific entry point to the web. ICANN maintains the global IP numbering system.

A single naming and numbering system equals a single Internet. Traditionally, ICANN has a function called The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) that is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources. IANA is under contract with the U.S. Congress. More generically, that means that the U.S. “helps control” the Internet. However it was always envisioned that the contract between ICANN’s IANA and the U.S. would eventually go away. Chehade believes that contract with the U.S. government should in fact be “sunset”, and the time has come. Chehade believes that ICANN, who is accountable to the global community, should do so without U.S. government oversight.

Find the entire post at: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2014/01/10/icanns-fadi-chehade-says-we-have-18-months-to-find-new-governance-for-a-single-internet-or-else/?angle=silicon