BC members,

After serving 3 years as our first vice chair for policy coordination, I'm seeking reelection for 2013. 

In the past 3 years, I believe we have raised members' awareness and participation in policy matters.  One tool for raising awareness is our regular policy calendar.  Another is ad-hoc emails where I attempt to succinctly cover a relevant issue with links to external docs and prior BC positions. 

Raising participation levels remains a challenge, since members'  time is limited because of other obligations.  Still, we published 13 positions/statements on key policy issues during 2012.  And we made significant policy impacts outside of the public comment process as well.

First, we led the CSG in advocating implementation improvements for the gTLD expansion.  We published an extensive list in January, leading to the "CSG list of 8" in Toronto.  Several improvements from that list are still alive in the Strawman, while others have been incorporated in the RAA negotiations and latest registry agreement for new gTLDs.

Second, BC members have been critical to review teams required by the Affirmation of Commitments, including Whois and Security & Stability.   The BC also led the drafting of metrics and targets for 60 measurements to evaluate the new gTLD program in terms of Consumer Trust, Consumer Choice, and Competition.  This work will feed into another Affirmation-mandated review during 2014.

In this role I also support our BC representatives on GNSO Council.  As they are directly engaged in policy debates and voting, our Councilors deserve timely and specific guidance from the BC membership on relevant issues.

In the year ahead, the BC must press general business interests at ICANN.  In just a few months, ICANN will begin delegations of  new gTLDs, including single-registrant TLDs for BC member companies.  As new gTLDs are launched we'll quickly assess the effectiveness of rights protection mechanisms.  Beyond new gTLDs, ICANN will be implementing recommendations and conducting additional reviews mandated by the Affirmation of Commitments.  

If the membership returns me to this post, I would continue working on the quantity and quality of our statements and positions.   I am sure that BC members have additional ideas on how the vice chair for policy coordination could be more effective.   If re-elected, I look forward to hearing those ideas.


Statement of Interest:

For 12 years I have been executive director of NetChoice, a coalition of e-commerce companies and online services, including AoL, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, NewsCorp, Overstock, Reed-Elsevier, TrueCar.com, VeriSign, Yahoo, and several thousand small online sellers, primarily in the US.  (see http://www.netchoice.org  )    

I set the policy agenda for NetChoice and frequently testify at international fora, before the US Congress, and in state legislatures, on issues relating to Internet governance, e-commerce taxation, privacy, and consumer protection.   I represent NetChoice at ICANN meetings and at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).  I also publish research and policy documents and maintain a blog at http://blog.netchoice.org  

I have no financial ownership or management role in any registries, registrars or other firms that are, or aspire to be, contract parties with ICANN.  Please note that one of my member companies is a large registry operator, and some of my member companies have applied for new gTLDs. 

The nature of my interest in ICANN is to maintain the integrity and availability of e-commerce and internet services.

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Steve DelBianco
Executive Director
NetChoice
+1.202.420.7482