NOTES | UAC | 9 April 2025 (7 UTC)
2.
Admin matters
a.
SOI updates
·
Fill out the ccNSO Statement of Interest form:
https://forms.gle/79Jw4wSnNhn5W4Z46
·
Once processed by the Secretariat, you can check your SOI here:
https://community.icann.org/x/doAFEg
·
Read here the ccNSO SOI Guideline:
https://ccnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/field-attached/ccnso-internal-procedure-general-soi-coi-21sep23-en.pdf
No updates
Bart thanks Seda for circulating the links. Relevant to number 4 d on today’s agenda
Abdalmonem: i changed my role. Still working for same organisation. I will update my sOI by the end of the week.
3.
Reports from UA day events (all)
Abdalmomen: i attended events, including one in Rwanda. It went very well. I will keep in touch with them. It went well. I will also go to somalia, for a technical
training. 2-hour awareness session in Saudi Arabia. Tourist country, mekka and medhina.
Seda: 3rd Ua day event. Prevent 2 events: over 16.000 attendants. Events all over the world. Shortlisting criteria. More than 100 proposals. Contracts with many
of them, for sponsorships, are done. More than 50 organisers. Support for the financial side, logistics, logo use etc. ICANN also provides the training materials. Different categories. One of them is raising awareness. 3 different types of trainings available:
Driving curriculum innovation in academic institutions. Second one: UA adoption. Pre-work done, shared with our tech team. Qualify for UA adoption events. Half of
them are UA adoption events this year. We aim for one strategy event per region. There was no proposal from Europe, so we have only 4 regional strategic events. Speakers for all events. The organisers are made aware of the details. UA message getting across
in a streamlined and sustainable way. Half of the events are almost done. 25 events already done. Thanks to Abdalmonem and other volunteers, as well as icann staff. One online UA day event by icann org, where we invited all the UA day organisers and unesco
and uasg. Internal meeting between the organizers and main contributors.
28 march: ICANN org UA day online event. 8 may a UA Day event in Hanoi, VN, right before APAC DNS forum and after the contracted parties summit. More updates by
end of June: outcomes report etc.
Maria: could you share when and where the materials of the UA DAY online event on 28 of March organized by ICANN and UASG will be published?
Seda: I can share the agenda. Was informal, not recorded.
7 events were presented by the organisers.
Abdalmomen: for the global events, there were some videos. ICANN board appreciated the work of the UASG during a Seattle session. I was part of that.
Maria: myself, Anna and Vadim were involved in the UA Day event in Armenia. Strategic event. Strategy globally. Unesco, icann, Maarten Botterman attended in person.
Discussion in the strategies at a global level, and the regional strategies. Aptld attended too, also biggest IDN registries: China, Russia. People shared their thoughts on how to work on UA in the region.
There was also a session on the strategy in Armenia. Local stakeholders involved others in the process. Speakers from local initiatives. Local country representatives.
Regina, myself and .rs representatives attended. Sami attended too. We discussed practical things from what happened in the countries. Regional event. Visitors from 9 countries. Some online attendance. Lots of discussions on the ground, during the sessions.
Lots of Q&A. interesting, and presumably useful. Armenia was a good host.
Anna:
Hello from Armenia!
https://uaday.am/en/2025-eng/
Seda:
In addition to Abdalmonem’s comment, here is the details: ICANN Board Resolution March 2025: 2.c.
Recognizing Universal Acceptance Steering Group's 10 Years of Work and Planning for Continued Work on Universal Acceptance
https://www.icann.org/en/board-activities-and-meetings/materials/approved-resolutions-regular-meeting-of-the-icann-board-13-03-2025-en
Maria: discussion on usage of IDN domain names. Depends on how people use their national language. There were also representations from Bellarus. They see some problems
connected with SEO. Some people think the indexation is still an issue. Serbia mentioned that they have 2 alphabets: latin and cyrillic they struggle with the promotion of the cyriliic script on the internet. In connection with that, they also promote IDNs.
In Bahrain, UA promoted via universities. Gvt support.
In our country we also focus on universities. We also have marketing campaigns regarding the IDN ccTLD. Anniversary this year.
Interesting to see the growth of IDNS. registries looking at IDNS, and thus also interested in UA. Role of the gvt is important. Interesting: how will AI be connected
to the use of domain names? And national languages? Technological track.
Bart: nice segway into the prep of the session in prague.
Discussion regarding the role of the governments.
Sami: the gvt internally uses arabic language for letters. One of the ways of prompting arabic language in gvt to gvt communication. Promote the use of the email
addresses and websites in arabic. Implementation and security concerns. We have not been able to convince them. On the other hand, we had a third hackathon at the end of the month, before the middle east DNS forum. We are trying to showcase. Inviting ministries.
What are the use cases? From gvt side there is a push to promote the language. The uptake is still challenged. Cyber security concerns, and so forth.
Maria: regarding work with universities. I read the lecture on multilingualism on the internet. Universities prepare linguists with technical skills. Multi-disciplinary
approach.
Vadim: discuss technical aspects. Do not admit something does not work. We can show technical solutions in small talks. And that is amazing.
Qing Cai: we had out UA day event at the end of march. We invited icann, experts including from CNNIC. Unesco attended as well. They presented. We spoke about UA
adoption of Chinese domain names. How to become UA ready? Before the UA Day, lots of preparations to make the system UA ready, including email for Chinese domain names. There were some problems. Mail service tests. We encountered a lot of problems. During
the session, also on site and remote training for registrars. Registration service providers. research , with focus on the event. Registration automation. Chinese resolution. Promotion and application. It is a new site for us, highlights and discussion.
Anna: In our UA Day event participated Aleksey Sandikov, Parliament Member and as a result the Parliament of Armenia registered 2 IDN domain names
for Parliament🙂 Sandikov is Chairman of the Commission on National Minorities of Armenia and
this is symbolic
Interesting to see the view from outside. What did Maarten think about the event? First time in Armenia for him. In 2023 there was also a regional
event. This time it was regional also for pacific ocean countries. Guests from outside, unfortunately often online. We had participants from unesco, uasg, icann. Interesting that we had participants in the opening ceremony. The high commission for diaspora
affairs. More possibilities to develop UA. through members of our diaspora. We need to inform them about the possibilities. We had a panel discussion. Key topics were regional policy frameworks driving UA adoption. Regarding the UA development in Armenia:
not easy to involve universities in this process. Not sure why. The teachers say that for them the most interesting bit at this moment is the AI. we will do all we can to develop UA ideas in academia
Bart: is it valuable to have these extended UA day updates?
Green ticks in zoom
Bart: This was useful. Let’s come back to this by the end of may, once the other events have concluded
4.
Proposal UA session Prague (75 minutes, Tuesday, block 3)
Bart: UA session took place in Seattle on Wednesday, block 5. Not ideal. In Prague, the slot will be better. 75 min slot, block 3 on Tuesday, after lunch. The policy
forum has only 4 blocks per day.
i.Introduction (2 minutes)
ii.Summary outcome drivers session Seattle & reference
session polling result recordings (8 Minutes)
iii.Blockers for UA readiness: brief introduction and consultation (20 Minutes)
Staff suggests doing a brief intro. Do a similar type of consultation as what we did in Seattle. This time focus on blockers. What is relevant to people in the room?
Thus you have a more comprehensive picture.
iv. Case study driver and blockers: the interaction between a government and a ccTLDs around UA
readiness (40 minutes)
Interaction between gvt and ccTLDs around UA readiness. This is about the interaction. How can they reinforce UA readiness? What are the thresholds?
·
Keynote : general intro
·
2 Testimonials
·
Polling?
v. Wrap-up and next steps (max. 5 min.)
Bart: this is the proposed high-level structure of the session in Prague
Abdalmonem: thanks to the GAC presenters. How could i be aware about the blockers. What is the benefit for me as a gvt representative, what do
i need to know to help my ccTLD? Maybe gvt is one of the blockers that makes the move towards UA slow.
Bart: This session is first and foremost for ccTLDs. Building a consultation. What the UAC needs to do, after ICANN83, is combine the outcomes
of Seattle and Prague. Make it available for the broader community after the prague session. Either present it as a webinar prior to ICANN84, or the border community in Oman. presentation, guiding people to next steps. At this stage, it is still a consultation.
Your consultation, case study to check the responses from the ccTLDs in the room. Only after conclusion after the consultation, can you share the outcomes.
Abdalmomen: I support sharing this at ICANN84. More cooperation between ccTLDS and GAC
Bart: for Oman, the GAC IDN WG could invite UAC to share what they have been doing?
Regina: i like the idea of the webinar. Targeted to ccTLDs, when it comes to the current state. Include resources available to this group and
UASG. We have some plan to record useful elements of the EU Academy. We could support this recording and add subtitles and share in Oman.
Abdalmomen: I like the approach. Gvt and academic.
I will send a message to Rob and ICANN staff, asking them to be considered for ICANN84. Share how gvt could help the ccTLD managers.
Bart: any questions regarding the structure, flow?
Abdalmomen: in Seattle we received a question regarding what the difference is between activities in CODI and UASG. codi is a new initiative.
If we could have someone from Identity Digital to be part of the session, this would be helpful to both gvt and ccTLDs.
Bart: they already spoke in Seattle, and the session is only 75 min. In total.
Maria: invite registries that are part of a gvt structure, to present in these sessions. Their perspectives are relevant.
Bart: Sami could fulfill that role?
Sami: I will be in Prague
Abdalmomen: many ccTLDds that joined the eastern space. Suggestion to send them a letter to join UAC.
Bart: do you agree with the proposed session flow?
Green marks in the room.
Maria: what does interaction mean between gvt and ccTLDs?
Bart: you have gvt who promote UA readiness, and those who do not.
Cooperation between
Regina: mutual support. Interaction can be broad.
Bart: this is more about the dynamics between gvt and ccTLDs on UA readiness.
Regina: unesco could help here. Their strategy. Moving in this field. It sooner or later moves to national strategies. We could even find a broader
word for “gvt”.
Bart: case study type of approach. Combine both drivers and blockers.
National authorities and ccTLDs
Abdalmomen: at icann80 there was a session for GAC and ME representatives. They already explored the communication between ccTLDs and gvt, and
the challenges. Consider the communication between ccTLDs and gvt. They will be happy to have this on the agenda.
Maria: not only gvt is a blocker. We should present them, but discuss only one in detail this time. The other ones in Oman.
Bart: this session is to check with the community which blockers are relevant to them. See also what Seda circulated. Consult with people in the
room, what blockers are relevant to them? In the case study, see the blockers and drivers combined
Maria; what about the other blockers? What will we do with them?
Bart: combine the outcome for the driver session and the blocker session, together wth the results of the case study. Present it, and then determine
further steps.
5.
Next meetings
6.
AOB
none
7.
Closure
Bye all.