Email from ICANN

FYI:

From: ICANN Community Digest <digest@icann.ccsend.com>
Reply-To: "policyinfo@icann.org" <policyinfo@icann.org>
Date: Monday, June 23, 2025 at 10:07 AM
To: Julie Bisland <julie.bisland@icann.org>
Subject: [Ext] NEW: ICANN RFI: Evaluator Panels for String Similarity and Variant Justification

Monday, 23 June 2025

ICANN Community Digest

Click here to learn more about the New gTLD Program [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]

Applicant Support Program [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]

Registry Service Provider Evaluation Program [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]

The ICANN organization Policy Development Support function publishes this twice-weekly digest

to help ICANN community groups track requests and follow updates.

Do you have any ideas for improving the ICANN Community Digest?

Write to us at policyinfo@icann.org!

Table of Contents

Information Sharing

· NEW: ICANN Obtains Successful Court Ruling, Reinforcing Call for Fair AFRINIC Board Elections, Court Requires Receiver to make a Communique to Members

· NEW: ICANN RFI: Evaluator Panels for String Similarity and Variant Justification

· NEW: Next Steps for Monitoring the Effectiveness of ICANN’s Multistakeholder Model

· ICANN Materials Provide Prospective New gTLD Applicants Clarity on Key Topics

· Next Round Champions Toolkit Available in the Six ICANN Languages

· ICANNWiki Seeking Volunteers

🚨 Action Items 🚨

· ICANN Call for Nominations: Universal Acceptance Expert Working Group

· Call for ASP Mentors

Public Comment

· NEW: Public Comment Summary Report: Africa Regional Plan for Fiscal Years 2026-2030

· ONE WEEK FROM TODAY: Updated ICANN Community Participant Code of Conduct Concerning SOIs

· ONE WEEK FROM TODAY: PSR on Expired Domain Deletion and Expired Registration Recover Policies

· Final Proceeding for Proposed Language for the Draft Next Round Applicant Guidebook (AGB)

· Proposed Next Round Base gTLD Registry Agreement - Public Comment 1 of 2

· Root Zone Label Generation Rules Version 6 (RZ-LGR-6)

· Maximal Starting Repertoire Version 6 (MSR-6)

Events

· These events occur in June 2025.

Information Sharing

NEW: ICANN Obtains Successful Court Ruling, Reinforcing Call for Fair AFRINIC Board Elections, Court Requires Receiver to make a Communique to Members

ICANN continues to pay close attention to AFRINIC’s ability to maintain its obligations as an RIR.

Read more. [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]

NEW: ICANN RFI: Evaluator Panels for String Similarity and Variant Justification

The purpose of this RFI is to gather insights from prospective providers regarding their methodologies, expertise, and perspective on the potential challenges that may arise while conducting evaluations of String Similarity, Variant Justification, or both, under ICANN's policies and guidelines.

Deadline: 11 August 2025

Read more. [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]

NEW: Next Steps for Monitoring the Effectiveness of ICANN’s Multistakeholder Model

We are confident that the Strategic Outlook Trends exercise places ICANN on the right path to identifying strengths and weaknesses, as well as new community needs and expectations, in a comprehensive and structured manner.

Read more. [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]

Next Round Outreach, Engagement, and Communications Snapshot

We’re excited to introduce the Next Round Snapshot, a new monthly recap that highlights key updates shared during the IRT Outreach meetings. This report covers recent activities across the Applicant Support Program (ASP), Registry Service Provider (RSP) evaluation, regional and topical engagement, web traffic stats, and communications milestones. Developed in response to GAC feedback, this snapshot supports visibility and alignment across teams working on the New gTLD Program: Next Round.

📅 Published monthly following each IRT Outreach meeting

📎 Check out the inaugural April/May edition here [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net].

For questions, contact globalsupport@icann.org.

ICANN Materials Provide Prospective New gTLD Applicants Clarity on Key Topics

ICANN org is developing supplemental, complementary materials to aid prospective generic top-level domain (gTLD) applicants in understanding the Next Round application requirements, and how to navigate the application and evaluation processes.

Blog [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net].

Key Topic Overview Documents. [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]

Next Round Champions Toolkit Available in the Six ICANN Languages

ICANN is working with the community to identify potential Applicant Support Program (ASP) applicants – especially in regions that are currently under-represented in ICANN. If you are interested in helping to raise awareness among your own contacts or communities, please use the materials in the Next Round Champions Toolkit [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net].

To stay up to date on the New gTLD Program: Next Round and ASP, join the mailing list: nextroundinfo@icann.org. ASP leads, targets, and ideas can be sent to engagement.newgTLDprogram@icann.org.

ICANNWiki Seeking Volunteers

ICANNWiki is seeking volunteers to assist with creating and editing articles and content for the site. Do you want to help? Getting started is as simple as requesting an account [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]. Then, make sure to read the short content guide [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net] to get a feel for what belongs in the wiki. Also, feel free to take a look at some data source suggestions [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net] on where to find reliable data. Happy editing!

Action Items

ICANN Call for Nominations: Universal Acceptance Expert Working Group

ICANN is inviting the ALAC, ccNSO, GAC, GNSO, and SSAC to each submit one nomination by 25 June 2025.

Read more. [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]

Call for ASP Mentors

ICANN is seeking volunteer mentors who would like to offer their expertise to supported applicants as part of the ASP in the new gTLD Program: Next Round [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net]. ICANN is looking for mentors who can share insights and experience across ICANN Languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish) to support diverse gTLD applicants.

Mentors may play a role in: advising applicants on navigating the gTLD application process and DNS industry; identifying resources; providing guidance; sharing experiences as appropriate; and helping supported applicants navigate the ICANN community and Public Meetings. If you or someone in your network might be interested, please refer to the mentor registration announcement [danh45uab.cc.rs6.net] for more information.

Questions about the ASP or becoming a supported applicant Mentor can be sent to globalsupport@icann.org.