Dear all,

Please find included a note from the co-chairs of the cross-community WG on Use of names of country and territories as TLDs on submission of the Final Paper of this WG.

Kind regards,

Bart

From: "Gutierrez, Carlos Raul" <carlosraul@gutierrez.se>
Date: Friday 23 June 2017 at 12:01
To: "katrina@nic.lv" <katrina@nic.lv>, "James M. Bladel" <jbladel@godaddy.com>
Cc: "haforrestesq@gmail.com" <haforrestesq@gmail.com>, "Annebeth B. Lange" <annebeth.lange@uninett.no>, Emily Barabas <emilybarabas@gmail.com>, Bart Boswinkel <bart.boswinkel@icann.org>, Marika Konings <marika.konings@icann.org>
Subject: [Ext] Final Paper of the CWG on UCTN

Dear Katrina and James,

As co-chairs of the Cross-Community Working Group on the Use of Country and Territory Names as Top-Level Domains (CWG – UCTN) we are pleased to submit its Final Paper (https://ccnso.icann.org/workinggroups/ccwg-ctn-final-paper-15jun17-en.pdf)[ccnso.icann.org] for discussion within your respective SOs and making a decision on the recommendations of the Working Group.

The CWG – UCTN was chartered by the ccNSO and GNSO in 2014, and its objective is, drawing on the collective expertise of the participating community to:

Further review the current status of representations of country and territory names, as they exist under current ICANN policies, guidelines and procedures;
Provide advice regarding the feasibility of developing a consistent and uniform definitional framework that could be applicable across the respective SOs and ACs; and
Should such a framework be deemed feasible, provide detailed advice as to the content of the framework.

Following extensive discussion and consultation with the broader community, as documented in the Final Paper, and throughout its deliberations to date, the CWG has noted an increase in the complexity and divergence of views and interests with respect to the use of names of country and territories as TLDs in all forms (2-letter, 3-letter code and full names). Accordingly, the development of a consistent and uniform definitional framework to guide the definition of rules on the use of country and territory names as top-level domains based on a consensus across the SOs and ACs, has proven difficult to achieve. Further, the CWG notes that its work overlaps with other efforts in the community, and given its limited mandate, the CWG has concluded that it will not be able to develop a consistent and uniform definitional framework.

Therefore, the majority of the membership of the Cross-Community Working Group concludes that continuing its work is not conducive to achieving the harmonized framework the charter seeks.

Recommendations

A substantial majority of the membership of the CWG recommends the ccNSO and GNSO to approve the following recommendations/conclusions:

To wind down this CWG, in accordance with and as foreseen in the charter.
The ICANN community consolidates all policy efforts relating to geographic names (as that term has traditionally very broadly been defined in the ICANN environment to this point) to enable in-depth analyses and discussions on all aspects related to all geographic-related names. This is the only way, in our view, to determine whether a harmonized framework is truly achievable.
Future policy development work must facilitate an all-inclusive dialogue to ensure that all members of the community have the opportunity to participate in such an important issue. Again, we believe that this is the only way to determine whether a harmonized framework is truly achievable.

The CWG could not agree on any recommended course on how to organise future work (i.e. how to effectuate recommendation 2 above).

Once the ccNSO and GNSO have taken a decision on the recommendations, this information will be included in the form of a final Final Report, together with the Final Paper. This CWG will then close.

The co-chairs

Annebeth Lange (ccNSO)

Heather Forrest (GNSO)

Carlos Raul Gutierrez (GNSO)

i.A.

Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez

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Skype: carlos.raulg

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