November 2006 - council - lists.icann.org

minor correction
by Ken Stubbs Nov. 9, 2006

Nov. 9, 2006

in my previous correspondence i meant to say We need to acknowledge this reality, " IF NOT", then we will end right back up in 12-18 months with the same problems & dis functionality. I suspect that many in the ICANN community see the need for injection of new perspectives, personalities & enthusiasm into this body. I I hope that my actions will start the ball rolling in a positive way. My very best wishes to you all, Ken Stubbs

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Updated Draft Agenda for Council meeting - Thursday 16 November 2006 - NOTE NEW TIME
by Bruce Tonkin Nov. 8, 2006

Nov. 8, 2006

Hello Maureen, > > I also request that we add an update on the work of PDP Feb 06 TF > (renewals) to the Agenda, with placement on agenda also as > appropriate and at the Chair's discretion. I have added this to the agenda, as agenda item 5. See below. Regards, Bruce Tonkin *** NOTE Change in time following daylight savings on/off in Southern/Northern Hemisphere *** Draft Agenda for Council meeting - Thursday 16 November 2006 Coordinated Universal Time UTC 12:00 (11:00 LA, 14:00 Washington DC, 19:00 UTC, 20:00 Brussels, 6:00 Melbourne next day 17 November) Item 1: Update any statements of interest Item 2: Approval of Minutes - 19 October 2006 Item 3: Proposed bylaws amendment to improve transparency with respect to contract approvals Item 4: Update on new gTLDs work Item 5: Update on PDP-Feb06 with respect to existing gTLDs Item 6: Update on Next steps for improving the GNSO structure and processes Item 7: Update on planning for Sao Paulo Item 8: Any other business Regards, Bruce Tonkin

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Draft Agenda for Council meeting - Thursday 16 November 2006 - NOTE NEW TIME
by Bruce Tonkin Nov. 8, 2006

Nov. 8, 2006

*** NOTE Change in time following daylight savings on/off in Southern/Northern Hemisphere *** Draft Agenda for Council meeting - Thursday 16 November 2006 Coordinated Universal Time UTC 12:00 (11:00 LA, 14:00 Washington DC, 19:00 UTC, 20:00 Brussels, 6:00 Melbourne next day 17 November) Item 1: Update any statements of interest Item 2: Approval of Minutes - 19 October 2006 Item 2: Proposed bylaws amendment to improve transparency with respect to contract approvals Item 3: Update on new gTLDs work Item 4: Update on Next steps for improving the GNSO structure and processes Item 5: Update on planning for Sao Paulo Item 6: Any other business Regards, Bruce Tonkin

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GNSO Council draft minutes 19 October 2006
by GNSO.SECRETARIAT＠GNSO.ICANN.ORG Nov. 8, 2006

Nov. 8, 2006

[council[at]gnso.icann.org] Dear Council Members, Please find the draft minutes of the GNSO Council teleconference held on 19 October 2006. Please let me know if you would like any changes made. Thank you very much. Kind regards, Glen ....................................................................................... 19 October 2006 Proposed agenda and related documents List of attendees: Philip Sheppard - Commercial & Business Users C. - absent - apologies Marilyn Cade - Commercial & Business Users C. Alistair Dixon - Commercial & Business Users C - absent - apologies Greg Ruth - ISCPC Antonio Harris - ISCPC Tony Holmes - ISCPC - absent - apologies Thomas Keller- Registrars Ross Rader - Registrars Bruce Tonkin - Registrars Ken Stubbs - gTLD registries June Seo - gTLD registries Cary Karp - gTLD registries Lucy Nichols - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent - apologies Ute Decker - Intellectual Property Interests C Kiyoshi Tsuru - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent Robin Gross - NCUC. Norbert Klein - NCUC. Mawaki Chango - NCUC - absent Sophia Bekele - Nominating Committee appointee Maureen Cubberley - Nominating Committee appointee - absent - apologies Avri Doria - Nominating Committee appointee 14 Council Members (20 Votes quorum) ICANN Staff Dan Halloran - Deputy General Counsel Denise Michel - Vice President, Policy Development Olof Nordling - Manager, Policy Development Coordination Liz Williams - Senior Policy Counselor Maria Farrell - GNSO Policy Officer Glen de Saint Géry - GNSO Secretariat GNSO Council Liaisons Suzanne Sene - GAC Liaison Bret Fausett - ALAC Liaison - absent Jonathan Nevett Registar Constituency chair - invited guest Rita Rodin - ICANN Board member - absent - apologies Quorum present at 12:12 UTC. MP3 Recording Bruce Tonkin chaired this meeting Approval of the agenda Item 1: Update any statements of interest Ross Rader updated his statement of Interest http://www.byte.org/blog/_WebPages/StatementofInterestsforRossRader.html Item 2: Approval of the GNSO Council minutes of 28 September 2006. Ken Stubbs moved the adoption of the minutes. Motion approved. Decision 1: The GNSO Council minutes of 28 September 2006 were adopted. .Item 3: Correspondence - Letter sent to the Board regarding biz, info, org agreements http://www.gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg02880.html Bruce Tonkin has not received a response, but the ICANN Board minutes note that http://www.icann.org/minutes/resolutions-18oct06.htm the ICANN Board has requested the staff to engage an outside agency to deliver findings on economic questions relating to the domain registration market. - Letter sent to the chair of the GAC regarding advice on new gTLDs http://forum.icann.org/lists/gtld-council/msg00225.html Suzanne Sene, on behalf of the GAC thanked the GNSO Chair for the letter and commented that a proposed response was being drafted which would be sent shortly. Item 4: Proposed bylaws amendment to improve transparency with respect to contract approvals - Jon Nevett and Alistair Dixon to provide proposed changes to the wording supplied by the General Counsel - Jon Nevett to be invited to attend Jon Nevett, the Registrar Constituency chair, invited to attend the GNSO Council meeting commented that Alistair Dixon proposed alternate language under the new section 7 under the transparency article: http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg02899.html Notice and comment on gTLD agreement approvals: "With respect to any proposed GTLD registry or registrar agreement that includes contractual provisions that would have an effect materially different from other past or current ICANN agreements, ICANN will notify the GNSO Council and post the proposed agreement for public comment on the ICANN website at least twenty-one days (and if practical, longer) prior to any final approval of the agreement." Jon Nevett further noted that the General Counsel's language related only to gTLD Registrar and Registry agreements but the question arose whether the scope should include the broader definition of gTLD contracts that, in a transparent organisation should be published for public comment. Discussion indicated that tenders should be published and pragmatic transparency was favoured on procurement issues. The GNSO, in making a recommendation on transparency should focus on anything that concerned the business of the GNSO. 'Materiality' was a broad term that could be defined in several ways. It could refer to financially material, as well as material within ICANN's mission with respect to security and stability of the Internet. There was also discussion as to whether the bylaw amendment should also cover agreements such as the ccTLD managers agreements, root server operators agreements and the Regional Internet Registries agreements. It was considered overstepping the GNSO mandate to require ICANN to post all agreements or moving into material areas outside of the GNSO scope. There was general agreement that Jon Nevett would provide revised language to the GNSO Council framed around: 'any contracts with a material impact on the jurisdiction of the GNSO, including but not limited to Registrars and Registries. Bruce Tonkin referred to the decision taken at the GNSO Council meeting on 28 September 2006: in relation to the PDPFeb06 Policies for Contractual Conditions: Existing Top Level Domains c) To ask the General Counsel within 14 days to list all ICANN agreements sections on consensus policy d) To ask the General Counsel within 14 days to compare and contrast the PDP06 Terms of Reference with the so –called “picket fence” consensus policy areas and provide a without prejudice assessment of likelihood of in or out of scope indicating uncertainty as necessary. Dan Halloran, Deputy General Counsel, reported that for (c) a draft comparison table for registry agreements was posted at :http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/draft-comparison-of-icann-registry-agreements-20061009.htm while the response for (d) will be forthcoming during the week. Item 5: Next steps with respect to IDNs - Olof Nordling to identify issues that require resolution prior to issuing a call for new gTLDs that use IDN domains, and propose a possible new terms of reference - Consider whether to address terms of reference via a separate PDP, or initially use a working group approach Note the GNSO Council did form a working group to review the issues report in May 2006, see: http://www.gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-gnso-18may06.shtml and this working group could be re-formed to focus on a few issues in collaboration with the ccNSO. Olof Nordling referred to the Revised Terms of Reference http://gnso.icann.org/issues/idn-tlds/idn_tor_draft-12oct06.htm, Registering IDN gTLDs labels would require examining a number of issues and determining whether they would be policy or technical. For example, the minimum length of the label in the source script, not to be confused with the coded script, would be at the policy and possibly the implementation level. What rules should govern permissible script/language in an IDN-gTLD label? Should the script/language used for an IDN-gTLD label be exclusively propagated on all lower levels in the sub-domain tree, noting that there is no such restriction in place for current gTLDs? The proposal is to examine the essential elements for launching the first round and then consider whether there are other issues that should be addressed in a more detailed manner from the policy side, such as modifications to the UDRP or WHOIS rules. The issue could be progressed by either: - a policy development process, or - a working group approach coordinated with the ccNSO with advice from the technical group to develop guidelines. Discussion indicated that the document did not reflect the distinction between similarities between strings in the root zone file ( e.g. starting with "xn-") and strings that look similar once rendered onto a users display as a result of an application located on the user's computer. It has not yet been determined how to describe the actual policy concern. Bruce Tonkin commented that IDNs conceptually were no different from the general topic of reserved words or the constraints on the strings for new gTLDs. The Amsterdam discussion indicated that strings should be permitted that could be translated on the client side into something that looked like a different script or different set of unicode characters thus the issue would be what technical constraints could be put on the strings. The Business constituency noted that if consensus policy were developed and adopted any launched IDNs should comply with that consensus policy. In moving forward, there was general support for a working group model that would monitor developments in the IETF, receive regular briefing from the other relevant groups working on IDNs, and could advise the Council on next steps. Bruce Tonkin proposed that: 1. The existing IDN working group with its mailing list should be reinstated. http://www.gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-gnso-18may06.shtml 2. Interested constituency members could join. 3. Cary Karp and Olof Nordling would work together to define some of the issues and revise the language. 4. Cary Karp would compile an update of the different documents. Item 6: Next steps for improving the GNSO structure and processes The GNSO Review was built into the ICANN bylaws http://www.icann.org/general/archive-bylaws/bylaws-28feb06.htm#IV - Possible approaches for working on PDP process, versus GNSO structure One of the suggestions that arose from the discussion was that the GNSO have its own dialogue about its evolution and support a cross Supporting Organisation dialogue and at the same time have interaction with the Board and a group of individuals from the GNSO. There was general agreement that there should be individual participation in an independent group to examine the LSE proposals. Commonalities in the LSE Review and the Patrick Sharry report should be sought. Further, it was suggested that the recommendations could be divided into 3 categories: 1. Internal processes, such as the Policy Development Process following up on recommendations from the previous review by Patrick Sharry where a small working group could examine such issues as improving the timelines in the PDP . http://gnso.icann.org/announcements/announcement-22dec04.htm 2. Resource issues, such as a better structure of the GNSO website, and better communication of the outcomes of the GNSO, which could be a staff function. 3. Structural changes, such as changing the number of constituencies, which could be dealt with by individuals not representing a group and members of the Board. Denise Michel reported that following up from the resolution passed at the GNSO Council meeting on 28 September 2006 Decision 4. The GNSO Council resolves to direct staff to begin gathering the information data, conduct the research and pull together all the back ground and historical information that would be needed for the review and then recommend changes to the PDP. Work had started on gathering the data on the PDP actions and the basic data would be available in the next few weeks to provide a foundation for revising the work of the PDP. Denise Michel reminded the Council that the ICANN bylaws required: "The results of such reviews shall be posted on the Website for public review and comment, and shall be considered by the Board no later than the second scheduled meeting of the Board after such results have been posted for 30 days. The consideration by the Board includes the ability to revise the structure or operation of the parts of ICANN being reviewed by a two-thirds vote of all members of the Board." The Board Governance committee, a sub-committee of the ICANN Board, was taking the lead on recommending a road forward and was interested in creating a joint Board-GNSO working group to help guide work in interaction with the community to help develop recommendations for consideration by the community, the Council and the Board. Thus the views expressed by the Council could be accommodated by creating a joint Board - GNSO working group with a specific mandate to address the structural issues. Staff could propose a schedule for the implementation of operational issues that did not require new decisions by the community. The joint working group could also work closely with a Council working group on the Policy Development Process (PDP) on a set of recommendations that could be developed in conjunction with the Council and the community for consideration going forward. The Board needed an agreed upon process and it was foreseen that a joint Board-GNSO working would be responsible for delivering a set of recommendations that the GNSO, the Board and the community could consider. It was clarified that a joint Board-GNSO working group would not preclude the GNSO from initiating information gathering on the PDP and the suggestion of a small committee of former task force chairs, and people with experience of the PDP bylaws could be fitted into the joint working group. Next steps: The formation of a joint ICANN Board - GNSO working group. Item 7: Update on planning for Sao Paulo Currently as is posted on: http://www.icann.org/meetings/saopaulo/ The GNSO Council will hold meetings for a full day on Sunday 3 December 2006. Council members should be prepared to arrive in time. Item 8: Any other business 8.1 Status Update from PDP Feb06 Policies for Contractual Conditions: Existing Top Level Domains Interim Chair, Avri Doria, http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg02906.html Bruce Tonkin asked what the anticipated task force timing was taking into account the recent Board resolution, http://www.icann.org/minutes/resolutions-18oct06.htm on the economic analysis that was requested by the ICANN Board on economic questions relating to the domain registration market. The impact on the PDPFeb06 task force timelines could not yet be determined but it was not foreseen that the work of the task force would stop to wait for the report to be issued. It was suggested that there be interaction between the economist retained by ICANN and the PDPFeb06 task force, particularly as there would be a public comment period in the near future. Bruce Tonkin proposed that, in the future, task forces and working groups should deliver written status reports 7 days prior to the GNSO Council meeting. Bruce Tonkin formally closed the meeting and thanked everybody for participating. The meeting ended: 13:45 UTC * Next GNSO Council teleconference 16 November at 19:00 UTC. see: Calendar Summary of work Items arising from the minutes: 1. Arising from Item 4: Proposed bylaws amendment to improve transparency with respect to contract approvals Jon Nevett to provide revised language to the GNSO Council framed around: 'any contracts with a material impact on the jurisdiction of the GNSO, including but not limited to Registrars and Registries. 2. a. The existing IDN working group with its mailing list should be reinstated. http://www.gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-gnso-18may06.shtm 2. b. Interested constituency members please notify the GNSO secretariat to be subscribed to the working group list 2. c. Cary Karp and Olof Nordling would work together to define some of the issues and revise the language. 2. d. Cary Karp to compile an update of the different documents relating to IDNs. 3. Task forces and working groups to deliver written status reports 7 days prior to the GNSO Council meeting. -- Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org

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Proposed bylaws amendment to improve transparency with respect to contract approvals
by Bruce Tonkin Nov. 8, 2006

Nov. 8, 2006

GNSO Council: Per the discussion at the last Council meeting, the following is a draft amendment to the ICANN Bylaws reflecting the Council's intent to ensure that contracts material to the GNSO are published for public comment. Alistair and I have collaborated on the wording of this draft. Thanks. Jon Nevett Notice and comment on gTLD agreement approvals "With respect to any proposed agreement relating to generic top-level domains that includes provisions that would have an effect materially different from other past or current ICANN agreements or practices, including but not limited to gTLD registry and registrar agreements, ICANN will notify the GNSO Council and post the proposed agreement for public comment on the ICANN website at least twenty-one days (and if practical, longer) prior to any final approval of the agreement."

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New appointee to the GNSO Council starting 8 dec 2006 - Jon Bing
by Bruce Tonkin Nov. 7, 2006

Nov. 7, 2006

From: http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-06nov06.htm The ICANN Nominating Committee has appointed Jon Bing (Norway - Europe) for a two year term commencing at the end of the ICANN Annual Meeting for 2006 (ie 8 Dec 2006). A quick search on the Internet reveals: http://www.jus.uio.no/iri/om_iri/folk/ansatte/bing/cv.html http://www.bing.no/english/jon_bing.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bing Regards, Bruce Tonkin

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ICANN Nominating Committee for 2006 Completes Selections
by GNSO.SECRETARIAT＠GNSO.ICANN.ORG Nov. 7, 2006

Nov. 7, 2006

[To: ga[at]gnso.icann.org; announce[at]gnso.icann.org] [To: liaison6c[at]gnso.icann.org; council[at]gnso.icann.org] [To: regional-liaisons[at]icann.org; ICANN Nominating Committee for 2006 Completes Selections http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-06nov06.htm The ICANN Nominating Committee for 2006 has completed its selections: ICANN Board of Directors Roberto Gaetano (Italy - Europe) Steven Goldstein (USA - North America) Rajasekhar Ramaraj (India - Asia) Term: Conclusion of ICANN Annual Meeting for 2006 until conclusion of ICANN Annual Meeting for 2009 ccNSO Council J. Beckwith Burr (USA - North America) Term: Conclusion of ICANN Annual Meeting for 2006 until conclusion of ICANN Annual Meeting for 2009 GNSO Council Jon Bing (Norway - Europe) Term: Conclusion of ICANN Annual Meeting for 2006 until conclusion of ICANN Annual Meeting for 2008 Interim At-Large Advisory Committee Alan Greenberg (Canada - North America) Annette Muehlberg (Germany - Europe) Term: Conclusion of ICANN Annual Meeting for 2006 until conclusion of ICANN Annual Meeting for 2008 The biographies of the Nominees will be posted shortly at <http://icann.org/committees/nom-comm/candidate-bios-2006.htm>. The 2006 Nominating Committee will also be posting a summary of its work on its web page at <http://www.icann.org/committees/nom-comm/>. The 2006 Nominating Committee received 90 Statements of Interest, drawn from all five of the geographic regions. The nominees will assume their duties at the conclusion of the ICANN Annual Meeting for 2006 in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 8 December 2006. -- Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org

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Procedures for working groups and chairing working groups
by Bruce Tonkin Nov. 1, 2006

Nov. 1, 2006

Hello All, With respect to the GNSO IDN working group, questions are starting to arise about how the chair should be selected, membership, and rules of procedures. The ICANN Bylaws have various rules relating to formal GNSO task forces. See: http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#AnnexA We are currently operating under the old NamesCouncil rules and procedures for matters not otherwise covered in the bylaws. From: http://www.gnso.icann.org/council/names-proceduresv7.shtml There is a section on Working Groups. Generally anyone member of the GNSO can join a working group. There is a concept of a Supervisory Chair and a Working Group chair. The Working Group chair is elected from within the Working group. I assume the Supervisory Chair might be appointed by the Council. I guess I have been acting as the default Supervisory Chair as Chair of the Council, until the Council chooses otherwise. Given the recent review of the GNSO - it is probably worth revisiting the old rules and procedures, as there are probably useful concepts here that did not find their way into the bylaws. See below. Comments welcome. Regards, Bruce Tonkin 10. Procedures for working groups 10.1 Definition of working group A working group is a group established by the Names Council (NC) of the Domain Name Supporting Organisation (DNSO) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at its own initiative or by way of considering a petition from the General Assembly, and charged with a specific task. 10.2 Objective The objective of a Working Group is to: 1. formulate positions on policies, 2. facilitate the development of consensus support for policies 3. produce a report to the NC highlighting these positions and level of support. 10.3 Membership Working Groups are open to all DNSO participants defined as follows: - members of the Names Council - the Names Council secretariat - members of the ICANN Board - the ICANN officers and staff - the GA Chair and Co-Chair - members of the General Assembly (GA) defined as subscribers to the ga(a)dnso.org, announce(a)dnso.org or the GA voting register. Persons new to the ICANN process who wish to participate in a working group will be asked to join the ga-announce list to qualify for membership. Working Group membership is open throughout the life of the Working Group. 10.4 Criteria Before establishing a working group the Names Council will consider the following criteria: a) whether the issue is relevant to the mission of the DNSO b) the need for a consensus policy c) whether the issue overlaps with that of an existing Working Group d) whether there is sufficient interest within the DNSO in the issue and enough people willing to expend the effort to produce the desired result e) whether there is enough expertise within the DNSO on the issue. 10.5 Terms of reference The Names Council will nominate an individual or establish a small interim committee to draft terms of reference (a charter) which will at minimum specify: - a narrow and achievable objective - a timeframe for achieving the objective - a set of interim objectives by which to measure progress - a member of the Names Council who will act as a Supervisory Chair - a short descriptive name for the Working Group The draft terms will be posted to the NC list and the DNSO ga-announce mailing list as a public notice that the formation of the Working Group is being considered. After a review period lasting at least a week the NC, after reviewing comments, will approve the original or modified terms. Following this the DNSO secretariat will establish: - a mailing list or such other electronic forum - a procedure for subscribing and un-subscribing to the Working Group - a dedicated web page on the DNSO web site (www.dnso.org) - an accessible mailing list archive 10.6 Supervisory Chair and WG Chair The Supervisory Chair has five key functions: 1. to be responsible for the initial establishment of the WG 2.to act as returning officer for holding elections for a WG chair. These elections should take place early but not too early once WG participants have got to know one another. Specifically, a vote to choose such a person from early group participants whose chairing abilities may be unknown should be avoided. The Supervisory Chair may themselves stand for election in which case another NC member will supervise the election 3. to take on all the responsibilities of the Chair especially including the start of substantive discussion, until the election is complete 4. to provide frequent liaison with the Names Council 5. to ensure the WG Chair is fulfilling his/her responsibilities The WG Chair's key functions are: 1. to be responsible for fulfilling the terms of reference in the time specified, 2. to be responsible for working group discipline, focus and achievements, 3. to prepare and chair face-to-face and on-line sessions, 4. to ensure that the Working Group operates in an open and fair manner, 5. to ensure that discussions are relevant (the Chair should propose a set of topics for e-mail subject headers), 6. to intervene to stop off-topic communication, 7. to summarise outcomes of each issue, 8. to achieve interim and final objectives in conformance with the terms of reference. And for face to face meetings the WG Chair is required: 9. to ensure an attendance list is made, 10. to publish a short report on the session within 10 days. The WG Chair and the Supervisory Chair report to the Names Council. 10.7 Removal of the Supervisory Chair or Working Group Chair In the event that the WG Chair: acts contrary to these rules and procedures or beyond the scope set forth in the Working Group's terms of reference, or fails to achieve interim results then the Supervisory Chair after consultation with the Names Council, upon the reasonable request of one or more Working Group members, shall have the authority to remove and hold elections for another WG Chair. In the event that the Supervisory Chair: acts contrary to these rules and procedures or beyond the scope set forth in the Working Group's terms of reference, or fails to fulfil the responsibilities of a Supervisory Chair, as set forth above, then the Names Council shall have the authority to remove and appoint another Supervisory Chair.

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