Dear all,

Please find included below a number of recent news alerts by ICANN, including:

Further information can be found below.

Best regards,

Joke Braeken

Community Dialogues on Consumer Safeguards

ICANN published a recording of a recent discussion on consumer safeguards in the Domain Name System (DNS). The recording, presentation [PDF, 1.0 MB], and supplementary documents are now available.

The meeting, held on 11 January 2019, in Washington, D.C., was intended to gauge local interest in holding a community-wide dialogue on consumer safeguards topics, such as DNS infrastructure abuse, at a future ICANN meeting. Nearly 50 ICANN community members participated and concluded that a sub-group of the participants should attempt to draft an agenda for a community-wide dialogue at a future ICANN meeting.

If you have additional input on these topics as well as the safeguards summary document, please send it to Jamie Hedlund, Senior Vice President for Contractual Compliance & Consumer Safeguards at jamie.hedlund@icann.org, or Bryan Schilling, Consumer Safeguards Director at bryan.schilling@icann.org.

ICANN Board creates Working Group on Anti-Harassment

The ICANN Board Working Group on Anti-Harassment was created by the Board in resolution 2019.01.16.01 to oversee a review of the community's understanding of the existing Community Anti-Harassment Policy and the procedures and practices that follow from it.

The working group is a subset of the ICANN Board. Any recommendations it develops shall be presented to the entire Board for review and consideration.

Suggestions for improvements to existing procedures and practices in the implementation of the current Anti-Harassment Policy will be informed through dialogue and in consultation with the community.

The members of the working group are: Becky Burr, Chris Disspain, Avri Doria, Rafael Lito Ibarra, Manal Ismail, Merike Kaeo, and Tripti Sinha. Sarah Deutsch will serve as Chair of the working group.

The Board is committed to enabling a culture of trust and mutual respect in efforts to prevent harassment in ICANN's multistakeholder community.

ICANN Publishes Documents Regarding the Implementation of the Procedure for Release of Two-Character Labels

ICANN Org published two documents regarding ICANN organization’s procedure for the release of two-character labels at the second level. These documents were prepared to provide additional background information for an ongoing discussion between the ICANN Board and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) regarding the GAC’s advice on two-character country codes at the second-level, including its most recent advice in the GAC Barcelona Communiqué.

The first document details the specific steps taken by the ICANN org leading up to the release of two-character labels in November 2016. This document also responds to specific questions raised by the GAC regarding the release.

Click here to download the ICANN Organization Memo on the Implementation of the Procedure for Release of Two-Character Labels and Standard Measures to Avoid Confusion with Corresponding Country Codes[PDF, 395 KB]

The second document is a historical overview of two-character labels at the second level. The overview includes actions taken by both the ICANN Board and org based on GAC Advice. The document also includes an appendix of communications between the ICANN Board, org and the GAC during the development of the procedure for release of two-character labels.

Click here to download the Historical Overview of Events Regarding Two-Character Labels at the Second Level in the New gTLD Namespace [PDF, 500 KB]

Both documents are also available on the Two-Character ASCII Labels information page.

During its meeting scheduled in Los Angeles later this week, from 26 - 27 January 2019,
the ICANN Board plans to formally respond to the GAC advice contained in the Barcelona Communiqué via the established GAC Advice Consideration Process.

Apply Now for ICANN and PTI Leadership Positions

The ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom) invites interested individuals to submit an expression of interest in key leadership positions within ICANN and Public Technical Identifiers (PTI). Selected individuals will have a unique opportunity to work with accomplished colleagues from around the globe to help shape the Internet's technical coordination and policy development. The deadline to submit applications is 18 March 2019 at 23:59 Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). NomCom is also accepting recommendations of suggested candidates.

The NomCom is inviting applications and recommendations for the following positions:

· Three members of the ICANN Board of Directors.

· One member of the PTI Board of Directors.

· Three regional representatives to the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) – one from the Asia, Australia, and Pacific Islands region, one from the Latin America and Caribbean Islands region, one from the Africa region.

· Two members of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council.

· One member of the Country Code Names Supporting Organization(ccNSO) Council.

Guided by the broad public interest, those selected will work to fulfill ICANN's mission to coordinate the global Internet's system of unique identifiers, and in particular, to ensure its stable and secure operation. The selected leaders will make a valuable public service contribution toward the evolution of the Domain Name System as an essential global resource.

Read more about the qualifications, the application deadline and process, the Meetings, Travel, Reimbursement, and Compensation here: https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2019-01-17-en or learn more by visiting the 2019 NomCom website. If you have any questions or comments, email nomcom2019@icann.org.

Amendment to the IANA Naming Functions Contract, Annex A

The purpose of this public comment proceeding is to obtain community input on a proposed Amendment to the IANA Naming Functions Contract between ICANNand Public Technical Identifiers (PTI). If approved, the Amendment would allow the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) and PTI/ICANN to change the IANANaming Function's Service Level Agreements (SLAs) without the need to do a contract amendment every time an SLA change is needed. Instead, the SLA change would follow an SLA Change Process that provides a process to achieve amendments to the SLAs in a timely fashion while requiring consultations with the IANA Function naming customers and broader ICANN community as appropriate.

Close date: 18 February 2019

Best regards,

Joke Braeken

ccNSO Policy Advisor

joke.braeken@icann.org

Follow @ccNSO on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccNSO

Follow the ccNSO on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ccnso/

http://ccnso.icann.org