Hi At-Large, I hope you've all recovered well, whether from travelling to and from the Sydney meeting or from trying to follow its action remotely. I can confirm that there's little public Internet access on the Daintree Coast. I'd like to share notes on a few of the subjects I saw discussed in Sydney: * Welcome to Rod Beckstrom, Thanks to Paul Twomey. ICANN's new President and CEO was welcomed on Friday, and officially began the job July 1. <http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-26jun09-en.htm> Paul Twomey was recognized with a gala and a place on the Special People Numbers Registry. * IRT Report. The Trademark Implementation Recommendations Team (IRT), was given a huge amount of time to discuss their final report on proposed trademark protections for new gTLDs. The Board asked them to produce this report in Mexico City, and thanked the team for its work -- but has not made any decisions about responses. ALAC and NCUC's joint statement at the Public Forum was among many strong expressions of opposition to elements of the IRT report. At this point, the IRT is conducting a "road-show" in New York, July 12, and London, July 15. <http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/consultation-outreach-en.htm> If you are able to participate, pre-register by July 10. Please continue to help the Board hear that the IRT report is not acceptable to the entire ICANN community. * Board Meeting: Adopted resolutions, <http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-26jun09.htm> Transcript, <http://syd.icann.org/files/meetings/sydney2009/transcript-board-meeting-26ju...> * ALAC Review. The Board accepted the report of the ALAC Review Working Group and requested that the At-Large community begin planning implementation of its recommendations -- "the Board directs ICANN Staff to assist the At-Large community in developing a proposed implementation plan and timeline for the recommendations in the report (except for the recommendation to provide At-Large with voting seats, which will be discussed by the Board at its next meeting)." Regarding Board seats, the initially proposed resolution contained further reference to Board seats, but the Board struck this during discussion, saying that the question was too deeply intertwined with those of other reviews (particularly the BCG Board Review's recommendation that the Board be reduced in size). This deferral is not necessarily a negative, it simply reflects great uncertainty. The Board is far from uniform in its thinking on this subject -- members differ on whether ALAC should have any seats, whether ALAC or the At-Large Community should be responsible for the selection if there is one, and how ALAC seats would be met by other ACs. The resolution specifically sets the matter for the next Board meeting, which will be July 30. I understand that the ALAC strongly supports voting board seats, and have made that point in these and prior discussions. For the July meeting, I will gather the prior ALAC comments on Board seats, and will gladly include any further points you'd like to add, having heard or read the current state of discussion. * Synthesized DNS responses. The Board accepted a SSAC report and resolved that new gTLDs should not adopt Sitefinder-like wildcard services. "New TLDs, including ASCII and IDN gTLDs and IDN ccTLDs, should not use DNS redirection and synthesized DNS responses." It found this practice harms Internet security and stability and recommended against its use in existing TLDs as well. * GNSO Improvements. Revised draft charters for stakeholder groups are now public. Applications for recognition of new constituencies are under consideration at the conclusion of public comment. As always, please let me know if you have questions. --Wendy -- Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org Visiting Professor, American University Washington College of Law Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html http://www.chillingeffects.org/ https://www.torproject.org/