Dear APRALO Community, You would be aware of the activity of Work Track 5 of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP, which deals with issues around Georgraphic Names at the Top Level, such as the protections to be provided for capital and non-capital city names, relevant public authorities & agencies, or intended use of strings (Please see the WT5 workshpace here: https://community.icann.org/display/NGSPP/Work+Track+5%3A+ Geographic+Names+at+the+Top-Level). Since this issue may be of broad interest to end-users and end-user communities, ALAC has asked CPWG to garner inputs from the wider At-Large community on draft recommendations of the WT5. I'm providing two emails in the mail trail below: 1. The original message from Yrjö Lansipuro, who's ALAC's Liaison to the GAC, on the need for At-Large inputs to WT5 at this time 2. The message from a senior ICANN community member, Greg Shatan, on the draft recommendations proposed by WT5 and his personal comments on each (provided here as an example...our own positions may be very different). I call upon the APRALO Community to provide your positions on these draft recommendations and also any other related comments. If you need more clarity on these issues, please join the next CPWG Call scheduled for 13:00 UTC on 15 Aug 2018 next week (pls confirm the date/time from the CPWG workspace). We have time until 23:59 UTC on 14 Aug for comments, so that we can consolidate our inputs into a single document and pass it on to the CPWG. With kind regards, satish ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Greg Shatan <gregshatanisoc@gmail.com> Date: Thu, Aug 9, 2018 at 7:11 AM Subject: Re: [CPWG] [GTLD-WG] Message to RALO liaisons to WT5 To: maureen.hilyard@gmail.com Cc: yrjo_lansipuro@hotmail.com, cpwg@icann.org, alan.greenberg@mcgill.ca, ali@hussein.me.ke Maureen, Here are my reactions to the first set of proposed recommendations discussed today in WT5. As you can see I support, most -- but not all -- of the current proposed recommendations. Perhaps we can use this as a jumping-off point in some fashion. *PROPOSED RECOMMENDATIONS* *G. SHATAN RESPONSE* *RECOMMENDATION #1:* All two-character letter-letter ASCII combinations for existing and future country codes. I am willing to support this recommendation, in order to preserve the unique character of 2-character letter-letter ASCII codes as ccTLDs. This should not extend to any two-character codes involving numbers or non-ASCII characters. First, these are not within our remit (see WT2). Second, they do not share the unique character that letter-letter codes have. *RECOMMENDATION #2:* Reserved and unavailable for delegation: - alpha-3 code listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard. I do not support this recommendation as written. There is no history of alpha-3 codes being used as country identifiers in the top level domain name space. In many cases, the alpha-3 codes do not have a special connection to the country listed, other than its use in the alpha-3 list. Furthermore, at least 49 alpha 3 codes have other substantial meanings: as words in English or another language, as an abbreviation with a commonly understood meaning (e.g., BRB), are already in use (COM) or could be confusing if used geographically (e.g., NIC). *RECOMMENDATION #3:* Reserved and unavailable for delegation: - Long-form name listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard in the official language(s) of the country and the official UN languages. I am willing to support this recommendation for long-form names in the official language(s) of the country and the official UN languages. I would not support a recommendation to reserve long form names in all languages. *RECOMMENDATION #4:* Reserved and unavailable for delegation: - Short-form name listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard in the official languages of the country and the official UN languages. Same as Recommendation 3. *RECOMMENDATION #5:* Reserved and unavailable for delegation: - Short- or long-form name associated with a code that has been designated as “exceptionally reserved” by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency. This needs to be clarified, and the list of names provided to the group. If these are country or territory names, they should already be covered in 3 and 4. If these are not country or territory names, they should be reviewed and discussed as a group (if possible) or on a case-by-case basis. *RECOMMENDATION #6:* A country and territory name which is reserved and unavailable for delegation: - separable component of a country name designated on the “Separable Country Names List.” This list is included as an appendix to the 2012 Applicant Guidebook. - The Work Track recommends narrowing reserved names to official languages of the country and the official UN languages. This involves (i) country names comprised of multiple compounded parts (e.g., Bosnia and Herzegovina) and (ii) Countries commonly known by a smaller constituent part than the short-form name listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard (e.g., (Netherlands) Antilles). I am willing to support this, consistent with my view on 3 and 4 above. *RECOMME**NDATION #7**:* Reserved and unavailable for delegation: - permutation or transposition of any of the names included in items (i) through (v). Permutations include removal of spaces, insertion of punctuation, and addition or removal of grammatical articles like “the.” A transposition is considered a change in the sequence of the long or short–form name, for example, “RepublicCzech” or “IslandsCayman.” Permutations should apply only to long and short form country and territory names and NOT to alpha 2 or alpha 3 letter codes. I am willing to support permutations for long and short country names and the separable components (i.e., 3, 4 and 6 above). I do not support permutations for alpha 2 or 3 letter codes. *RECOMMENDATION #8:* Reserved and unavailable for delegation: - name by which a country is commonly known, as demonstrated by evidence that the country is recognized by that name by an intergovernmental or treaty organization. Needs further review. Do we have examples where this was invoked, or any other examples? Greg

On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 6:57 AM, Yrjö Länsipuro <yrjo_lansipuro@hotmail.com

...

wrote:

...

Dear fellow RALO WT5 liaisons,

An action item from the ALAC call 24 April asks me to take the initiative to develop a common ALAC position on geographic names in the subsequent gTLD procedures. During that call, Alan suggested that this effort could involve the five RALO liaisons to the WT5 and other interested people, and mentioned also CPWG.

I have not acted so far on this AI, because in my view, our only meaningful contribution to the WT5 process would be to suggest compromises to its most difficult issues, including names of non-capital cities, which WT5 has spent most of its time on, mostly engaged in a fruitless dispute between the extremes. The atmosphere so far might not have been conducive for discussing compromise proposals...

However, at ICANN62, there finally was a push by co-chairs for “meeting in the middle”, especially concerning non-capital cities, and for "seeking convergence on principles." See slides of the 28 June session: https://static.ptbl.co/static/attachments/179943/1530207670. pdf?1530207670 <https://static.ptbl.co/static/attachments/179943/1530207670 .pdf?1530207670>

Now might be the time for an ALAC contribution along the lines that Alan has often repeated: there should be no big winners and big losers in the WT 5. In others words, a compromise, something in the middle.

That’s why I’m asking for your thoughts, ideas and suggestions on how we could facilitate finding compromises in the WT5, especially on the issue of non-capital cities. This is late in the day in the life of WT5, so please react soon. After an email exchange, we could ask the staff to arrange a call, if necessary. I’m also asking CPWG to take note of this effort, the results of which I hope could be presented to CPWG soon.

Yrjö

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