UAC | Wed, 17 December 2025 (8 UTC)
Welcome by Abdalmonem
Apologies for last week, calendar issue.
2.
Admin matters
a.
SoI update
Consult the
ccNSO SOI Guideline
Complete the SOI
template
Check the ccNSO Statements of Interest
b.
Action items
Staff to share the workplan doc as a google document. UAC members to review and add comments in the google doc. Discussion regarding content and next steps at the
next meeting
Completed. See item 3 on the agenda
c.
Update Expert group
Sami: meeting yesterday. IGO plan. Academia comments. UAC plans. Generic summary. Implementation of the plan in Bahrain. Replicated in other countries from an academic
perspective. Use unesco to leverage the cultural aspects
Bart: ccTLD role? For discussion at an upcoming meeting with UAC
Sami: They requested an update from us. I mentioned that UAC is engaged with GAC. they asked for a report from our side, and the engagement between UAC and GAC,
so they can leverage on that.
Bart: regarding ICANN85, potential presentations. Any views from the Expert group?
Sami: nothing new. Perhaps Abdalmomen has some inputs
Abdalmoment: see topic 6. GAC. One of the suggestions was to cooperate locally, via task forces. Similar to IPv6 taskforce. We are still discussing how it goes for
government and IGO. Perhaps ITU? Most of the governance topics there, related to connecting the unconnected.
d.
Update UA Day selection
Abdalmomen: deadline for evaluation committee was last Friday. Not all scores received. Meeting maybe tomorrow. To deal with the evaluation of the applications
68 applications, including regional and local submissions. Awareness sessions to UA days.
2 regional applications.
Regina: similar number as last time. Less applications from EU and NA. aim to have a good geographical coverage. Will be reflected in the final scoring. Final meeting
tomorrow. Then go out with the results.
I did not evaluate last year, but the year before. I think the level and expertise of the events has improved compared to my previous experience.
Seda: Yesterday we received all scores from all members. I am compiling them. Around 10 ccTLDs. Updates to follow.
Abdalmomen: timeframe for UA Day. will start 25 March until end May. short timeframe. Not like last year.
Any reason why?
Seda: We focus on UA adoption day events. We expect 30 events, almost half of the number from last year. The UA adoption type of events take more time to deploy.
We are still shortlisting. 30 events in this short timeframe is still possible. This allows time for ICANN to get the contracts signed, and the organisers have time to achieve their goals.
Abdalmomen: we have a limited number of applications from the EU. Is the EU region already happening with the UA adoption plan? Or were they not aware?
Bart: Seda cannot speak on behalf of EU region
Maria: event in Armenia. Will include several ccTLDs. When will the results be know, so we can start preparing?
Seda: We just gathered all the scores from the review team. Tomorrow we will have a meeting, then hopefully post it online. We aim to contact all shortlisted ones
in a week time, even though the publication might not happen before the holiday break
Regina: EU less relevant region. We see that from the engagement of the ccTLDs. The prevailing script is latin. Not as relevant to the region. Armenia is in the
AP region.
We have good cooperation with the Faroe islands. Aim to get more EU colleagues on board.
Maria: My question to Seda. Can you explain what is meant by the events regarding adoption?
Seda: shares screen with New UA adoption practice for the organisers to follow. 3 steps. Specific requirements for UA Adoption Events. Once they implement it, they
will publish it online. Share high level info with their audience. Did they come across issues? Demonstration events.
3.
Review of workplan:
Maria: plan from world cafe. Is this plan a good match for this UAC? Or just an overview of the ideas from the WC?
Bart: This just captured the discussions. Obviously you cannot do everything. You need to select
Bart: 1. Does this reflect your thinking? 2. Is this in the remit of UAC? Some suggestions were too broad. You can make suggestions to governments, but that’s it.
Beyond your mandate. Finally, do you have the resources? The resources from volunteers and staff are limited.
Maria: yes, that is clear.
>> definition
Regarding the first suggestion. I added links to definitions.
Not clear why this suggestion came up
Bart: people may not be familiar. Maybe what is out there, is not concise enough? What would be a success indicator ?
I could use a tool and come up with a suggestion. A summary of the resources you referred to.
Maria: If we want to do this, I would think about a ccTLD focus. Explain it for them. What does it mean for a ccTLD to be UA ready? That is a good idea.
Abdalmomen: I support Maria. Important to eventually include it in the UAC library.
Maria: agree.
Abdalmomen: 2 main parts. ccTLDs. But also the interaction between UAC and other stakeholders. That is within scope of UAC.
QingCai: what definition? There is already what is UA. We should not repeat the work of the UASG. the single UA definition. We use simple words in China. “Make chinese
domains as useful as english ones”
Maria: agree.
QingCai: Chinese as script.
Bart: language-script combination.
QingCai: users do not distinguish between script or language.
Maria: the main focus is “equal support” of domain names and email addresses. Regardless of script, language, TLD. in all software. Processed equally. That is the
main point.
>> toolkit
Maria: i added references. There are blocks that explain how different stakeholders can play a role in UA adoption. The examples are practical. We can se them. Not
sure what is meant by “toolkit”. There are ideas what stakeholders can do, but there are not many instruments. We could add some links to research, gitbuh sources etc, … again, we address ccTLDs. E.g. talk to this stakeholder, and suggest to do step 1,2,3.
Not enough practical tools.
Bart: this was more about the motivation. Compelling use cases. Why would a gvt do this? Doc on how to do this is available. Rather address the motivational part.
Abdalmomen: i like the idea. Share the role of the gvt with the GAC UA-IDN WG. Strengthen the relation between the 2 committees
Bart: have 2 good examples. Successful drivers. Combine in a doc, use a video etc. make people aware.
Maria: hard to do. In our country several laws were implemented regarding the support of Russian and Russian federation languages on the internet specifically. Keyboard,
dictionaries. Big tech was included in this as well, and acted, once the law was effective.
QingCai: technical material? See what UASG developed. We have experts to develop tech materials, namely the UA Expert Group. If it is a study case like Maria suggested,
that is something else. So, what is this proposal about?
Bart: what to do to become UA ready. ccTLD, ICANN, UASG all produced a lot. Going back to discussions from Dublin: what are the compelling use cases? Why would a
ccTLD invest time to do it.
Sami: This is the same point we had an expert working group to use successful used cases and replicate that in other countries. Like UA curriculum adoption in bahrain
the University professors went to oman to train universities there and now discussing with Kuwait.
Maria: gvt, business…. Motivation for ccTLDs is different from motivation for governments.
Bart: good point.
Sami: universities trained. Training now in Oman. capacity building. Outsourcing training to universities. Ripple effect. Educating the people.
Bart: can you put a one-pager together. Motivate why you do this? This helps people. Taking that bridge to become UA ready.
Question for group; technical toolkit vs motivational toolkit?
Maria: not so many technical guidance out there. UASG did a lot. But there is not a step-by-step guide. Would be something for the UA Expert Group.
Bart: would you have the time to do this…. ? writing down success stories is feasible. Takes time, but can be done.
Regina: A motivational toolkit elaborated together with the GAC IDN working party would be good. As next step it can be enlarged if need be
Voting via zoom
Green: motivational
Red: technical
Bart: clear direction of travel. Green ticks
Maria: audience is important! For ccTLDs? For governments?
Bart: you work for ccTLDs. But you think also about who is served by the ccTLD. Some ccTLDs are run by governments.
Ann: not every ccTLD is run by gvt. I like the motivational approach. Wider stakeholder approach. Some cctlds are run by non for profit organisations
etc. keep that in mind.
Bart: in principle ccTLDs. But could be broader as well, if available.
Action item #1:
UAC members to please think about their environments: Are there interesting use cases that really made a difference in UA acceptance? Not just share what people did, but show the impact,
how it made a difference. Please share on the UAC mailing list
4.
Joint meeting Tech Day: potential speakers, roundtable, bearing in mind the typical tech day audience:
ICANN85 ccNSO Draft Block schedule 09122025 .pdf
From Eberhard Lisse: Tech Wg would like advice not only for a host presentation, but also for an IDN/UA round table.
Bart: would be good to include a presentation from NIXI, India.
Maria: probably we can invite people who developed the RFC regarding the EPP protocol. Was implemented recently. ICANN was included
in this. I do not like their decision, but it is an interesting case.
Bart: please respond to the e-mail i will send after this meeting, to keep Eberhard in the loop as well.
Abdalmomen: like the suggestion form Eberhard to include India. Overall, this works.
5.
Work session ICANN85
Saturday, block 4
15:00–16:00 local (09:30 UTC-10:30 UTC)
6.
Next meetings:
·
14 January | 08:00 UTC
·
28 January | 13:00 UTC
·
11 February | 08:00 UTC
·
25 February | 13:00 UTC
·
ICANN85 – 7-12 March
7.
AOB
9.
Adjourn
Happy holidays.