Hi Councillors -Attached (and below for quick reading) you'll find my update from the GNSO. Hope it's helpful! Regards Patrick Myles GNSO councilors to IDN Guidelines WG The GNSO will soon discuss nominations to endorse for the IDN guidelines WG (to revise 2011 implementation guidelines). It's likely there will be 3 representatives. Nominees to the group will be contacted this week to ask for their resumes for council consideration. CWG on the use of Country and Territory Name TLDs As a follow on from the joint ccNSO/GNSO session at ICANN53 where the CWG described a concern in lack of input from GAC, the GNSO have an action to open up dialogue with GAC chairs in order to see how best work in this area can be improved. New gTLDs Subsequent Rounds Staff are to create an issue report Issue Report preceding a potential Policy Development Process on new gTLD subsequent rounds. It's likely there will be a delay (extension requested by staff) on the work of the issue report given the work involved. It's worth noting that if a PDP results from the Issue Report then per the PDP Manual other groups such as SSAC and other SO/ACs will have to be solicited for input by the PDP Working Group at an early stage. On a related point, via a letter from S Crocker he referred to Beijing GAC communique which advised '...strings representing generic terms, exclusive registry access should service a public interest goal'. The Board asked the GNSO to include this issue in work on subsequent rounds of the new gTLD program. New gTLD auction proceeds Following from discussions at ICANN53 there is a prospect of a scoping document preceding a possible working group. Focus is on the structure and process to deal with this work rather than substance of what actually to do with the funds. Timing for the discussion paper is expected early September followed by a public comment period. The paper will capture inputs from the discussions at ICANN53. It was noted that there is a desire from board level that this work receive attention from outside the ICANN community as much as possible. Update on Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Issues (PPSAI) This group produced their initial report<https://www.icann.org/public-comments/ppsai-initial-2015-05-05-en> in May 2015 and now reviewing public comments and will hold a public session at ICANN54 (Dublin) as well as submit the final report to the GNSO council. The topic has received a lot of interest (11,000 comments and 350 survey responses). More information<https://www.icann.org/news/blog/ppsai-wg-status-update-and-observations> New ICANN Meeting Strategy There is a drafting team to work on how the GNSO will work under the new ICANN meeting structure. They have developed a skeleton schedule for how they will organize their meetings and have noted that close coordination is needed with other ICANN groups especially for meeting B. For meeting B, Tuesday's (day 2) is likely to be the 'intra-community work' day - Ie GNSO policy sessions and joint sessions with other SO/ACs. GNSO have also requested a draft schedule of the Board to help with planning. Skeleton schedule available upon request. GNSO review of ICANN53 GAC communique GNSO have started the practice of informally reviewing GAC communiques after ICANN meeting with the objective to help the Board understand GNSO positions on topics the GAC have raised. The latest review of the GAC communique is published here<http://gnso.icann.org/en/drafts/review-gac-communique-08jul15-en.pdf> and makes reference to existing policy or ongoing work in relation to gTLD safeguards and the protection of IGOs. Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services to Replace WHOIS A preliminary issue report has been published on next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services to Replace WHOIS and open for public comments until 6 September. The report has tried to capture much of the work already done on this topic (including article 29 WP letters) and includes background, EWG final recommendations, introduction of a framework to address independent policy areas, discussion of proposed issues and draft PDP WG charter. Points raised by councillors: - Dept of Commerce desire to ensure Whois data is kept public - is in scope to this WG? - Report includes a lot of background including Whois discussions going back to 2003, however does not a previous ad-hoc group on internationalised registration data More details<http://gnso.icann.org/en/correspondence/presentation-next-generation-rds-23j...> Public comment<https://www.icann.org/public-comments/rds-prelim-issue-2015-07-13-en> CCWG ICANN Accountability The 2nd draft Proposal went live in early August and the GNSO have encouraged councillors to share it widely referring also to the public comment opportunity. Notes from July council meeting - - Analysed first public comment period (presented outcomes in ICANN53). Big issue at that time was legal vehicle to exercise community powers was criticised. Group has agreed on new reference model (2 day face to face in Paris). - Voluntary model not considered robust enough for community to enforce their rights - Membership model - fear that SO/AC having membership status would have statutory rights under California law to start derivative lawsuits - therefore deemed a risk as it could destabilise ICANN. - New model (single membership model) puts all SO/ACs together and can jointly exercise rights as a single member. This model has good acceptance. - SSAC and RSAC to be removed from voting area (they prefer to remain advisory) - GAC: questionnaire published which is producing variety of views as to whether GAC is advisory or whether they should have voting powers. Question on whether if GAC had voting rights, would it be consistent with NTIA condition of no governmental control - Hope by ICANN Dublin SO/ACs will approve recommendations being formed.