ICANN WHOIS MISUSE STUDY FINDINGS WEBINAR INVITATION In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org<mailto:gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org>) to receive the call details. You are invited to participate in a webinar about the recently released Whois Misuse Study, conducted for ICANN by Carnegie Mellon University’s Cylab. This study has now been published for public comment, and community feedback is being invited in order to assist ICANN with evaluating potential changes to Whois policy. The study was commissioned by the GNSO to obtain objective and quantifiable information about the extent, nature, and impact of WHOIS public data misuse – that is, harmful actions taken using contact information obtained from WHOIS – through (1) analyzing reported misuse incidents and (2) conducting experiments to measure misuse and the effectiveness of anti-harvesting measures. CMU was engaged to perform the study using two complementary approaches: (1) a descriptive study to document and analyze WHOIS misuse incidents that have already occurred and (2) an experimental study to stimulate and record misuse in order to measure more reliably the impact of making WHOIS data public and WHOIS query filters applied to deter data harvesting. CMU’s chief researchers on the study, Dr. Nicolas Christin and Mr. Nektarios Leontiadis, and ICANN staff will provide a briefing on Tuesday 17 December at 12.00 UTC and 19.00 UTC, summarizing their findings and conclusions based on the studies they performed and data they analyzed. Amongst other topics, Dr. Christin and Mr. Nektarios will discuss: · CMU’s methodology for the study and the hypothesis tested; · The different project activities that were undertaken for the study; · CMU’s analysis of the data reported and sampled for the study; and · CMU’s conclusions based on the results of its analysis. The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones. Each session, scheduled to run for sixty (60) minutes, will be conducted in English only. The meeting will be run in Adobe Connect with a slide presentation along with a dial-in conference bridge for audio. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of each session. During the course of the webinar, questions may also be submitted using the chat function of Adobe Connect. If you are not able to participate in either of the live sessions, the recording of the session will be made available shortly after the meeting. The policy staff is always available to answer any questions that you email to policy-staff@icann.org<mailto:policy-staff@icann.org>. In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org<mailto:gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org>) to receive the call details. Please indicate which call you would like to join on Tuesday 17 December - at 12.00 UTC or at 19.00 UTC (to convert those times into your local time, see: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedform.html). We will send you an e-mail reminder before the event with log-in and dial-in details. Please DO NOT RSVP to any other ICANN staff member’s e-mail address.