IANA Survey Shows Consistent Results and Offers Insights

Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published the results of the Annual Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions Customer Engagement Survey, which measures customers' and external stakeholders' satisfaction with their interactions with the IANA team.

ICANN commissioned Echo Research, LLC, a global reputation consultancy, to administer the annual engagement survey. Representative groups surveyed included leadership from the Regional Internet Registries and the Internet Engineering Task Force as well as members from the Customer Standing Committee, Country Code Names Supporting Organization, and Generic Names Supporting Organization councils, Trusted Community Representatives, and customers of IANA who operate top-level domains and root servers.

Results continue to show high satisfaction overall when compared to previous years. There has been a small decline in rankings by community leadership groups in all but one category - fairness. Among the operators of top-level domains and root servers, only the credibility category saw a slight decrease (4.2), particularly as it related to whether the IANA team was "innovative and forward-looking."

"We're pleased we've been able to sustain our positive relationship with our customers and partners, but we also acknowledge we need to address the slip in satisfaction reported by community leaders. The ICANN org and Board have also taken this feedback seriously, and assigned a CEO goal aimed at mitigating IANA's resource constraints," said Kim Davies, VP, IANA Services and President, PTI.

The survey format changed slightly from the previous year, mainly to encourage more responses from stakeholders. In previous years, respondents indicated concerns with the length of the survey, so the team reduced it by about 20 percent. Another notable change was in how participants were invited to take the survey. Instead of only receiving invitations by email, attendees at key community conferences were invited to participate through QR codes shown on presentation decks and business cards distributed by the IANA team during events. This allowed the team to reach a broader audience of interested parties such as the Address Supporting Organization, the At-Large Advisory Committee, and ICANN fellows.

Participants were asked to rate the IANA team in categories relating to credibility, transparency, attentiveness, fairness, timeliness, and accountability. Each statement was rated from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) in level of satisfaction. They were also asked what topics they would like to hear more about and their preferred focus areas in the coming year. Emerging technologies and the potential impact on the Domain Name System, IANA's role in the delegation and transfers of country code top-level domains, and the security and stability of unique identifiers were among the top responses.

"Although the annual survey's main goal has always been to measure the IANA customer perception with our engagement efforts, the feedback received through the open-ended questions will also be useful inputs as we develop our next five-year strategic plan later this year. This feedback helps us validate that our vision is aligned not only with our current customers, but also identify opportunities to educate a broader audience on the importance of IANA to the Internet's global interoperability," explained Davies.