Dear all,

The ccNSO Secretariat is launching a call for volunteers for membership of the IDN Preliminary Review Team (IDN PRT).  The call for volunteers will be open from today 29 April 2019 and will close: Monday, 13 May 2019 (23:59 UTC).

Further background details, including the scope and goals of the IDN, the time commitment and qualification requirements etc, are included below.

How to apply?

If interested, please send the following documents to: joke.braeken@icann.org no later than Monday, 13 May 2019 (23:59 UTC).  

• Your resume, curriculum vitae, or biography.
• If applicable, a letter of support from your employer in respect to the required time commitment to participate actively in the IDN PRT

Next steps

Once we have received your intent to volunteer as IDN PRT member, the ccNSO Secretariat will send you a link to an online Acknowledgement of Terms Form. Via this form, you consent to ICANN processing data in order to add you as a member of the CSC and its mailing list(s). The form explains the information ICANN will process to administer your participation in the IDN PRT and how the information will be used for this purpose. It also describes the rights you have regarding your information. After receiving your application, the documents will be transmitted to the ccNSO Council who will appoint the members to the IDN PRT.

Qualification Requirements

Membership

The PRT is open to :

• representatives of all ccTLD Managers (either ASCII or IDN) can join as members of the IDN PRT. There is no requirement for a ccTLD to be a member of the ccNSO.
• participants from other stakeholder groups, such as the Regional Organisations as defined in Section 10.5 of the ICANN Bylaws, GAC, GNSO, SSAC. Participants shall not be considered members of the PRT. Participants are entitled to participate on equal footing with members, unless the Terms of Reference state otherwise.
• observers
• experts from ICANN Org and PTI. Experts shall not be considered members but are entitled to participate on an equal footing

The PRT should have at least 5 members, who are representatives from ccTLD managers. The members of the PRT shall nominate a Chair, who will be appointed by the ccNSO Council. The Chair should be a member of the PRT.  Further details about the role of the chair are included in the Terms of Reference (see Links-section under “Background” below).

Qualification

Members, participants, and experts commit to participate actively and regularly in the work and are expected to have at least a basic understanding of the reference material (see below)

Time commitment

The IDN PRT is expected to report to the ccNSO Council by mid-July 2019,  hence the DN PRT members and liaisons should be able to participate in weekly calls/meetings.   The meetings will rotate from a timing perspective to share the burden as the membership may be distributed over different time zones.

Outside of the weekly meetings, members and participants may also be asked to participate in other processes such as:

• Provide an update to community at ICANN65
• Provide updates to any group/constituency regarding the IDN PRT at their request.
• The IDN PRT is expected to perform the majority of its work telephonically and via email.

Background

Scope and Goals of the IDN PRT

The intent of the preliminary review of the ccNSO Recommendation to resolve policy issues pertaining to the selection of IDN country code Top Level Domains strings (IDN ccTLD strings) and the inclusion of IDN ccTLD managers in the ccNSO is to identify issues and advise Council on:

• Whether additional work needs to be done on the proposed Bylaw changes included in the ccNSO Recommendation to resolve policy issues pertaining to the selection of IDN country code Top Level Domains strings (IDN ccTLD strings) and the inclusion of IDN ccTLD managers in the ccNSO, and way forward to include IDN ccTLD managers in the ccNSO, based on the 2013 Policy recommendations as soon as possible.
• Scope delineation and mechanism proposals to review and - when considered necessary - update the 2013 Policy Recommendations, taking into account the evolution of the Fast track Process, and other areas pertaining to the introduction and following the introduction of IDN ccTLDs strings which require a recommended policy, for example variant management and retirement of IDN ccTLDs. The mechanisms could consist of an advice to re-launch the PDP or to start a new PDP on the selection of IDN ccTLD strings, taking into account the work done to date.
• Possible mechanisms to cooperate and/or coordinate efforts to harmonize the development processes, procedures and/or criteria pertaining to the selection of (IDN cc)TLD strings

The Review Team should not propose solutions to the issues they have identified, nor propose updates or substantial changes to either: the Fast Track Process, the ccNSO Recommendation to resolve policy issues pertaining to the selection of IDN country code Top Level Domains strings (IDN ccTLD strings) and the inclusion of IDN ccTLD managers in the ccNSO, or other policy or policy related documentation.

If, in the process of the review, the Review Team becomes aware of issues that are out of scope of the Preliminary Review but considered relevant for the future work in this or other areas pertaining to IDN ccTLDs, it will inform the ccNSO accordingly.

To achieve its goal the PRT is expected to:

• Conduct a review of the relevant documentation referenced in Section 6 of these Terms of Reference, and other material considered relevant by the PRT.
• Prepare a consultation document seeking wider community input.
• Conduct a public session at ICANN65 (June 2019) that is intended to inform the community on progress and provide an opportunity to give feed-back and input to the process.
• Produce an Advice to the ccNSO Council, which includes its findings and proposed mechanisms and next steps.

Links

• The ccNSO Recommendation to resolve policy issues pertaining to the selection of IDN country code Top Level Domains strings (IDN ccTLD strings) and the inclusion of IDN ccTLD managers in the ccNSO (https://ccnso.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-26sep13-en.htm)
• IDN Fast Track Implementation Plan and related Guidelines
  (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/fast-track-2012-02-25-en)
• ccNSO Council Statements, Letters and related material:
  • https://ccnso.icann.org/en/about/sataki-et-al-to-namazi-28feb19-en.pdf
  • https://ccnso.icann.org/en/about/council-statement-new-gtld-subsequent-procedures-initial-26sep18-en.pdf
• Relevant ICANN Board Resolutions and related material:
  • Recommendations for Managing the IDN variant TLDs (https://www.icann.org/resources/board-material/resolutions-2019-03-14-en#2.a)
• Terms of Reference (see attachment)

Best regards,

Joke Braeken

ccNSO Policy Advisor 

joke.braeken@icann.org

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