All, below you can find some of the resolutions that were just passed by the Board. Specifically, there is further work for us to do - we are now being explicitly asked: - to send proposals for RAA revisions (actually, I had it broadened to "related policies" and the accreditation process as well), and to comment again on the draft proposal of the new contract; - to elaborate on answers to the ccNSO/GAC questions on ccTLD IDNs. Both things weren't in the initial drafts, and I suggest that you read the transcript of the discussion on the resolution on RAA revisions, including the discussion on our proposed amendment, to understand the resistence by some constituencies that you have to work with. I'd be happy to do a deeper debriefing with behind-the-scenes details to the people who are here (we used to have debriefing ALAC meetings at Friday lunch / early afternoon years ago, I think we should start again). Ciao, ===== Regional At-Large Organization for North America Whereas, the ICANN Bylaws, Article XI, Section 2, Part 4, provide a process that allows individual Internet users to participate meaningfully in the work of ICANN, as the community known as ‘At-Large’, and; Whereas, groups representing individual internet users throughout the North American (“NA”) Geographic Region have finalised work on organising themselves as a Regional At-Large Organisation (“RALO”) by creating a Memorandum of Understanding between themselves and ICANN, and; Whereas, the Parties to the MoU signed it at a public ceremony at the San Juan ICANN meeting, the execution of the agreement on ICANN’s part contingent upon final approval by the ICANN Board following completion of the public comment period, and; Whereas, the ICANN Board wishes to recognise and applaud the North American At-Large community in question and the achievement of this milestone; Whereas, the Board wishes to recognise with the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding and the election of two North American members of the At-Large Advisory Committee, the ALAC is no longer ‘Interim’, and the whole At-Large community is to be congratulated on an enormous amount of work; Resolved (07.___), the Board ratifies the Memorandum of Understanding with the North American At-Large Structures, on the same basis under which it was signed. Consultation on Registrar Accreditation Agreement Amendments Whereas, ICANN has received considerable comment and recommendations from registrants and others in the Internet community for improvements in ICANN contracts in order to protect the interests of registrants. Whereas, ICANN posted several recommendations in a call for major review of ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreements (RAA) and the accreditation process. Whereas, community comment received since the posting tends to affirm those same areas as important and ICANN has published specific areas for amendment. Whereas, ICANN Board and staff have met with the Registrars Constituency to discuss specific recommended changes to the RAA and agreed to continue discussions to expedite the publication and consideration of proposed amendments. Whereas, it is important to implement amendments in a timely manner to avoid future harm to registrants. Resolved (07.__), the Board directs staff to solicit and consider the input of the Internet community, including the At-Large community and the GNSO constituencies, regarding proposed changes to the RAA, registrar accreditation process, and related policies. Resolved (07.__), the Board requests that staff engage with the Registrars Constituency in order to arrive at, and post for public comment, a set of proposed amendments or alternative version to the RAA, that is intended to address to the extent feasible the concerns raised by the Internet community. Resolved (07.___), that when the RAA is published for public comment, that notice be provided to allow the At-Large Advisory Committee, the GNSO, and other interested parties to review the proposed revised RAA and provide advice to the Board in its review and possible adoption of the amended or alternative RAA, and consideration of the related processes and policies. Acknowledgement of Technical Progress on IDNs Whereas, the Board expresses its gratitude to the volunteers in the technical community, including the IETF, IAB, RSSAC, and SSAC for their work related to the deployment of IDNs. Whereas, the Board recognizes the important work being done on the revision of the IDNA protocol that provides the framework for what characters can be used when registering domain names, as well as the successful results in the laboratory test conducted by Autonomica. Whereas, ICANN is preparing the near-term release of a publicly accessible facility for the evaluation of at least eleven IDN TLDs that will be provisionally entered into the root zone of the DNS and that will include second-level domains in the same languages as the TLDs, all for evaluation purpose only. Whereas, the Board recognizes that this is a significant step towards the stable deployment of IDNs. Whereas, the SSAC has undertaken a technical study to analyze stability and security issues associated with the deployment of IDNs TLDs. Whereas, the TLD registries working group has recently released IDN Guidelines revisions, and plans to continue this effort as further details of the IDNA protocol revision is being completed. Whereas, the ICANN Board remains committed to the development and deployment of IDNs that enable people who communicate and want to use domain names with characters other than a through z and zero through nine, and at the same time benefit from the promise of a single interoperable Internet. Resolved (07.___), the ICANN Board acknowledges the work performed by the members of the community working on this important topic and urges this work to continue to move forward in a manner that emphasizes the security and stability of the Internet. Resolved (07.___), the ICANN Board respectfully requests that technical volunteers continue to work closely together to complete their work revising the IDNA protocol and identifying technical requirements for IDN registrations to guide the policy making community. Resolved (07. ___), the ICANN Board requests staff to consider the resulting technical recommendations as essential for the introduction of IDN at the top-level in a manner that ensures the continued security and stability of the Internet. Acknowledgement of Policy Progress on IDNs Whereas, the Board expresses its gratitude to the ICANN community, including the GNSO, ccNSO, GAC, and ALAC for their work related to the deployment of IDNs. Whereas, the ccNSO, GNSO, GAC and ALAC are actively addressing policy aspects related to the introduction of internationalized top-level labels. Whereas, a joint effort involving the ccNSO and GAC has made considerable progress, publishing a list of issues and questions that need to be addressed in order to move forward with IDN ccTLDs associated with the ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes. Whereas, the ICANN community is discussing the details involved in using an interim approach to IDN ccTLDs associated with the ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes to meet near-term demands and to gain experience with mechanisms for selection and authorization of such TLDs that can inform a policy development process aimed at creating an overall policy. Whereas, the ICANN Board remains committed to the development and deployment of IDNs that enable people communicate and want to use domain names with characters other than a through z and zero through nine, and at the same time benefit from the promise of a single interoperable Internet. Resolved (07.___), the ICANN Board respectfully requests that that the ICANN community including the GNSO, ccNSO, GAC, and ALAC provide the Board with responses to the published list of issues and questions that need to be addressed in order to move forward with IDN ccTLDs associated with the ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes in a manner that ensures the continued security and stability of the Internet. The Board requests status reports regarding progress by the conclusion of the ICANN meeting in Los Angeles in October 2007. Resolved (07.___), the ICANN Board respectfully requests that the ICANN community including the GNSO, ccNSO, GAC, and ALAC continue to work collaboratively, taking the technical limitations and requirements into consideration, to explore both an interim and overall approach to IDN ccTLDs associated with the ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes and recommend a course of action to the Board in a timely manner. -- vb. Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu <-------- --------> finally with a new website at http://bertola.eu/ <--------