Monday, 13 April 2020 ICANN Community Leadership Digest The ICANN org Policy Development Support function publishes this twice-weekly digest to help ICANN community leaders track requests and follow updates. Table of Contents Information Sharing REMINDER: PIR Transaction and Proposed Public Interest Commitments Update REMINDER: Call for Expressions of Interest: Standing Panel for ICANN’s Independent Review Process ICANN68 Planning NEW: ICANN68 to be Held as Remote Public Meeting NEW: ICANN68 Virtual Meeting Survey Public Comment CLOSES TODAY: Revised Community Travel Support Guidelines Proposal for Chinese Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules Proposal for Bangla Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules Phase 1 Initial Report of the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs Policy Development Process Addendum to the Initial Report of the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data Team – Phase 2 Guidelines for Developing Reference Label Generation Rules (LGRs) for the Second Level Version 2 Information Sharing REMINDER: PIR Transaction and Proposed Public Interest Commitments Update Executive: Göran Marby, ICANN President and CEO Since Public Interest Registry (PIR) formally notified ICANN of the proposed change of control transaction on 14 November 2019, the ICANN org and Board have worked together to thoughtfully and thoroughly evaluate the proposed acquisition to ensure that the .ORG registry remains secure, reliable, and stable. Throughout this process, ICANN has urged PIR, the Internet Society (ISOC), and Ethos Capital (Ethos) to engage and consult with the .ORG community, and to provide full transparency regarding the proposed transaction. Today, ICANN is publishing PIR's recently updated Public Interest Commitments (PICs), which were received by ICANN on 7 April 2020. PIR proposes that these PICs be added to the .ORG Registry Agreement should ICANN approve the change of control request submitted by PIR. Two versions of the PICs are being published: a "clean" version and a "redline" version that shows changes made by PIR from its 16 March 2020 version submitted to ICANN following PIR's Public Engagement process. The revised PICs that ICANN is publishing today are in response to additional questions posed by ICANN as part of its diligence around the change of control request. On 3 April 2020, ICANN provided PIR with two sets of questions. One set of questions are in follow-up to previous ICANN inquiries designed to further understand the proposed transaction and its potential effect on PIR and the .ORG top-level domain (TLD). The second set of questions relate specifically to the proposed PICs. PIR has indicated that it is working to answer all of the questions from ICANN. It is ICANN's intention to post PIR's responses to these questions when they are available, subject to any appropriate requests for confidentiality made by PIR. Many people have questioned the enforceability of PICs by ICANN. To be clear, PICs are enforceable by ICANN. Any Internet user may submit complaints to ICANN Contractual Compliance. In addition, ICANN Contractual Compliance may identify an issue through its proactive monitoring. ICANN's follow-up questions to PIR seek to ensure that ICANN has a clear understanding of each commitment within the PICs, such that it could be enforced should the need arise. The ICANN Board continues to have reservations regarding the enforceability of PIR's proposed PICs. The .ORG Registry Agreement stipulates a specified time period for ICANN to approve or withhold consent of the proposed change of control of PIR. ICANN and PIR have agreed to extend the deadline several times since the original deadline in mid-January, and the deadline for ICANN's response is now Monday, 20 April 2020. Similar to when voluntary commitments in the form of PICs were proposed by applicants for new generic TLDs, ICANN is providing PIR's proposed PICs to the ICANN community with this public notice. Given the fast-approaching deadline for ICANN to make a decision to approve or withhold consent on the requested change of control of PIR, the typical 30-day public notice period has been condensed to seven days. We recognize the full engagement of the .ORG community in PIR's consultation process, but wanted to ensure ICANN remained fully transparent in what is being considered, the concerns still present in the Board's review, and what the Board will be reviewing. How to Participate: Feedback may be submitted as a comment to this blog or through correspondence to me or the ICANN Board. We thank the ICANN community for its active participation in this matter and remain committed to keeping you informed of new developments. REMINDER: Call for Expressions of Interest: Standing Panel for ICANN’s Independent Review Process Announcement On 31 March 2020, ICANN opened a call for Expressions of Interest for panelists to serve on the omnibus Standing Panel for ICANN's Independent Review Process (IRP). The deadline to submit Expressions of Interest is Friday, 31 July 2020 at 23:59 UTC. Candidates for the IRP omnibus Standing Panel should review the Expressions of Interest document before submission. The document includes the following information: Panel Position Description Required or Highly Preferred Skills Required or Highly Preferred Experience Time Commitment Compensation and Selection Expressions of Interest should be submitted to IRP-Standingpanel-EOI2020@icann.org by 23:59 UTC on 31 July 2020. ICANN68 Planning NEW: ICANN68 to be Held as Remote Public Meeting Announcement On 9 April 2020, the ICANN announced that its ICANN68 Policy Forum, which was to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will now be held via remote participation only. The ICANN Board of Directors has made the decision that ICANN68 will not proceed as an in-person meeting. Instead, the Board has directed the ICANN org to explore additional community feedback and suggestions, in order to develop a meaningful and productive ICANN68 Policy Forum while we are unable to meet in person. The meeting, scheduled for 22-25 June 2020, will be the second time ICANN has held a Public Meeting solely with remote participation. ICANN67, which was originally slated to be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 7-12 March 2020, was held as ICANN's first entirely remote virtual meeting following the declaration of COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization. With an increasing number of countries issuing stay-at-home, lockdown, or social-distancing orders to its citizens to slow the spread of COVID-19, gatherings and international travel are effectively on pause for the foreseeable future. The health and safety of ICANN's community is a top priority, and as such, convening ICANN68 as an in-person meeting is no longer feasible. Following the success of ICANN67 as a Virtual Community Forum, the ICANN org sought the ICANN community's feedback on how to improve future virtual meetings. In its decision, the Board also directed ICANN org to coordinate with the ICANN community on the best way forward in order to meet the expected outcomes of an ICANN Policy Forum. The community's feedback will be incorporated into the planning and execution of ICANN68. ICANN thanks the Kuala Lumpur host committee and our regional partners in Asia Pacific (APAC), who have provided their support and expertise throughout the planning process for ICANN68. We look forward to returning to the APAC region for future ICANN Public Meetings. Those interested in attending the virtual meeting will still be required to register. An announcement will be posted once registration is open. To learn more about remote participation, visit ICANN Public Meetings. More information, including information about the meeting's time zone, language interpretation options, and final schedule will be provided at a later date. NEW: ICANN68 Virtual Meeting Survey Dear Community Leaders: Updated survey results for the preliminary ICANN68 Virtual Meeting Strategy Survey are now available. We would now like to invite the Chair and Vice Chair of each ICANN Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee, and members of the ICANN68 planning group, to participate in a second survey by 16:00 UTC on Wednesday, 15 April. This second survey is intended to advance the discussion on our next call on Wednesday, 15 April at 19:00 UTC. While the results of the survey will not be viewed as decisive or representative of the entire community’s wishes on a specific topic, we encourage you to share the questions with your groups. Once again, if you are unable to complete the survey in advance, there will still be an equal opportunity to express your views during the call. Please let us know if you have any questions. Best regards, Tanzanica Public Comment CLOSES TODAY: Revised Community Travel Support Guidelines Close Date: Monday, 13 April 2020 Proposal for Chinese Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules Close Date: Monday, 20 April 2020 Proposal for Bangla Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules Close Date: Thursday, 23 April 2020 Phase 1 Initial Report of the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs Policy Development Process Close Date: Monday, 27 April 2020 Addendum to the Initial Report of the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data Team – Phase 2 Close Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2020 Guidelines for Developing Reference Label Generation Rules (LGRs) for the Second Level Version 2 Close Date: Tuesday, 12 May 2020 Volume 2, Issue 30 | Archive | Next Issue: Thursday, 16 April 2020 ICANN | 12025 Waterfront Drive, Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90094-2536 Unsubscribe ccnso-council@icann.org Update Profile | About Constant Contact Sent by david.olive@icann.org in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today!