Dear All,

The Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) is seeking one (1) volunteer to serve as its nominee to the newly established Universal Acceptance (UA) Expert Working Group, convened by ICANN. The call for volunteers will be open for a limited period, closing on Friday, 30 May 2025 (23:59 UTC). This Expert Working Group will be composed of up to 12 volunteers and will provide guidance on promoting UA adoption. ICANN has invited the ccNSO to submit one nominee.

Scope of Work

The expert working group will propose guidelines for ICANN's work on UA adoption based on input from targeted stakeholders, including:

• Big Tech and Open-Source Organizations: Update applications and services to support UA.
• Tech Developers and System Administrators: Ensure existing and new software applications support UA and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).
• Domain Name System (DNS) Industry and Related Businesses: Encourage generic top-level domain (gTLD) and country code top-level domain registries, registrars, registry service providers, resellers, hosting providers, Internet service providers, and others to become UA-ready.
• Internet Governance and Policy Professionals: Raise the visibility of UA and its importance to the multilingual Internet within international organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and governments.

Required Expertise

The ccNSO welcomes applications from individuals on behalf of of ccTLD managers (members and non-members of the ccNSO) who have an ongoing commitment to actively participate in the activities of the Expert Group. Furthermore, the nominees must have demonstrated knowledge of UA and IDNs and expertise in one or more of the following areas:

• Technical challenges and solutions for UA.
• Technical training for promoting the use of IDNs and UA.
• IDNs and/or Email Address Internationalization.
• Internet governance or public policy work related to digital inclusion and a multilingual Internet.

ccNSO Council will appoint its delegate to the Expert Group, taking into account the application materials and expertise. In case more than one applicant steps forward, Council make a selection as per the applicable ccNSO internal guideline: https://ccnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/field-attached/guidelines-ccnso-appointees-version-1-procedures-22mar21-en.pdf

Commitment

The Expert Working Group will meet weekly, beginning in July 2025, and work toward the following timeline:

• July 2025: Working group convened
• November 2025: Draft report published for public comment
• February 2026: Final guidelines published

Meetings will be recorded and publicly available, along with supporting materials.

How to Apply

If you are interested in being considered as the ccNSO’s nominee, please submit your expression of interest by Friday, 30 May 2025 (23:59 UTC).

Your submission should include:

• A short statement of interest and motivation
• A summary of relevant experience related to UA, IDNs, or the required expertise areas
• Confirmation of your ability to commit the necessary time through February 2026

Aditionally, please complete the forms below, and follow-up on the instructions regarding the ICANN Account at your earliest convenience:

• 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

• Secondly, complete the ICANN Data Consent form: https://forms.gle/ppaUoRkvaTEKVg7Z9 Via this form, you consent to ICANN processing data to join the working group or committee, and to subscribe you to the relevant mailing list(s). 
• To facilitate your participation in the ccNSO representing your ccTLD, we will require an ICANN Account, which is the ccNSO’s and ICANN’s platform to manage  participation. If you already have an ICANN Account (e.g. for registering at ICANN meetings), please login to your ICANN Account using the email address that you use for your ccNSO work and verify that your profile is up to date.  

            If you do not have an ICANN Account or are unsure, please create an ICANN Account at your earliest convenience. 

For questions or further information, please contact ccnsosecretariat@icann.org

Thank you.

Best regards,

Joke Braeken

joke.braeken@icann.org