Dear All,

This is a reminder that the ccNSO seeks volunteers for the Working Group which is tasked to develop policy recommendations for the (de)selection of IDN ccTLD strings, as part of the fourth ccNSO Policy Development Process (ccPDP4). In time,  the results of this ccPDP will replace the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process, which currently guides  the selection process of IDN ccTLD strings.  Detailed background information about ccPDP4 is included below.  Recently, the ccNSO Secretariat held to inform the community about the topics to be addressed and the working methods of the ccPDP4 WG. Consult the recording and slide deck here.  This announcement will become available on the ccNSO website [ccnso.icann.org] as well.

Call for volunteers

Opening date for this call for volunteers is Thursday, 16 July 2020. The call for volunteers will close Friday, 7 August 2020 (23:59 UTC). If you are interested in participating in this policy development process, consult the instructions included under the heading "How to apply?".

Who can join?

• Membership of the WG is open to representatives of all ccTLD managers (whether members of the ccNSO or not). 
• If you are not directly related to a ccTLD Manager but are interested in becoming a member, you are kindly requested to demonstrate support form  a ccTLD manager. 
• In addition, the WG is open to 
  • Participants: representatives from Regional Organisations or other ICANN stakeholder groups 
  • Experts: PTI staff, experts on the ISO 3166-1 list and relevant ICANN staff. 
  • Observers: ccPDP4 Issue Manager, any person appointed as observer by the chair of the WG.

Participants and experts shall not be considered members of the WG, and are entitled to participate on equal footing with members, unless the charter states otherwise.

Members, participants, and experts commit to participate actively and regularly in the work of the WG and are expected to have at least a basic understanding of the reference material (see below).  The group composition will be listed on the ccNSO website. 

Workload and working method

ccNSO Working Groups typically meet through telephone conferences (1 hour to 90 minutes - bi-weekly), and potentially during the ICANN meetings. However, most work is done online. The ccPDP4 Working Group is expected to create at least 2 sub-groups:

1. Sub-group 1: Focusing on the review of the confusing similarity evaluation
2. Sub-group 2: Development of recommendations for the Management of Variant IDN ccTLD.

How to apply?

If you are interested in applying for membership of the ccNSO PDP4 Working Group on the (de)selection of IDN ccTLD strings, kindly send an e-mail to joke.braeken@icann.org. Are you interested in acting as chair or vice-chair for this group? Please specify this in your e-mail. Closing date of this call for volunteers is Friday, 7 August 2020 (23:59 UTC).

By applying you commit to participate actively and regularly in the work of the WG and express to have at least a basic understanding of the Reference Material (see below). By applying you also commit to the charter of the WG, including but not limited to the internal decision making and standards of behavior.

Next steps

The ccNSO Council will appoint the members to the Working Group as soon as possible, after closure of the call for volunteers. Once the members have been appointed, the ccNSO Secretariat will send you a Public Data Consent Form. Via this form, you consent to ICANN processing data in order to add you as a member of the Working Group and its mailing list(s). The form explains the information ICANN will process to administer your participation in the Working Group and how the information will be used for this purpose. It also describes the rights you have regarding your information.

About ccPDP4

In September 2013, the ccNSO submitted the IDN country code policy development process (ccPDP2) Board Report to the ICANN Board of Directors. The recommended policy ccPDP2 contains two parts:

1. High-level proposals for the criteria and requirements for the IDN ccTLD string selection and activities, roles, and responsibilities of the actors involved in the string selection and string evaluation processes and procedures.
2. Proposals to enable the inclusion of IDN ccTLDs in the ccNSO.

By mutual understanding between the ccNSO  and the ICANN Board, the Fast Track Process evolved, to test and gain more experience with the policy aspects pertaining to the introduction of IDN ccTLDs.  The latest step in the evolution of the Fast Track Process was the introduction of the Risk Mitigation Panel and related process in case of confusing similarity of a requested IDNccTLD string in 2018.

In March 2019 the ccNSO Council tasked a team (Preliminary Review Team or PRT) to review ccPDP2 in light of the impact of the following related processes on the recommended policies:  

• The evolved Fast Track Process, 
• The request of the ICANN Board of Directors with respect to IDN Variants and
• Other relevant developments such as retirement of the (IDN) ccTLDs

Based on its high-level analysis, the PRT identified various issues with the recommended policy for the selection of IDN ccTLD strings and advised Council to launch a ccNSO Policy Development Process (ccPDP4) to address these  issues, including the de-selection of IDN ccTLD strings.  In January 2020, the ccNSO Council requested an Issue Report.  In May 2020, after the Issue Report was submitted  to Council, including the opinion of ICANN’s General Counsel, the ccNSO Council initiated the  ccNSO Policy Development Process 4 to develop policy for the (de-)selection of IDN ccTLD strings.  In addition, it was  proposed to conduct ccPDP4 by way of a chartered working group, according to the proposed timeline.

The Issue report will be published for comments shortly. The public comments, if any, will be used to inform the discussions of the WG.

Reference Materials & Links

• Issue report
• ccPDP4 section on ccNSO website: https://ccnso.icann.org/en/workinggroups/idn-cctld-strings.htm [ccnso.icann.org]
• ccPDP4 Workspace:  https://community.icann.org/x/ZoBIC

Best regards,

Joke Braeken

ccNSO Policy Advisor 

joke.braeken@icann.org

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