From: Ram Mohan [mailto:ram.mohan@icann.org] Sent: 27 March 2014 10:41 To: 'Jonathan Robinson' Cc: 'Ram Mohan-ICANN' Subject: RE: ICANN's IDN variant TLD project Dear Jonathan, Thank you for your email and the excellent idea of a GNSO policy liaison to the Integration Panel for the IDN Variant Project. The Board's IDN Variant Working Group (BV-WG), which I chair, is charged with overseeing the work of the ICANN staff team on this project. Please feel free to share this email with the Council and members of the GNSO community as you see fit. As you know, a very significant amount of technical and linguistic work is being undertaken as part of the IDN Variants program, covering interested language communities around the world. ICANN has appointed an IDN Integration Panel that is charged with the review and synthesis of the work of each of the planned 17 Label Generation Ruleset (LGR) Panels. Each LGR Panel consists of linguistic and technical experts well-versed in that particular language representation. We anticipate the work to not only be technical and detailed, but to encompass several years. The ICANN Board believes that this area of work is critical and that ICANN has a responsibility to assist in furthering the state of the art, and has provided resource, budget and oversight commitments. The work of the Panels and the specific projects within the framework of the Project are published for public comment and community consultations, which are conducted at the appropriate time during each phase of work. In addition, for the implementation work to be done relating to the LGR that is ultimately developed, SO/AC input has been formally sought. Given the significant work effort required to pull this off, and the highly distributed and diverse geographical nature of the LGR panels and the Integration Panel's work, I would suggest instead that ICANN staff commit to a regular and frequent schedule of input and feedback with the GNSO. Based upon the Council's request, the Board Variant Working Group has therefore tasked ICANN staff to immediately initiate a regular feedback and input mechanism with the GNSO, including but not limited to a full face to face briefing at the next 5 ICANN meetings. In addition, the BV-WG has tasked staff to work with the GNSO to determine the utility and timeliness of a "primer" session for the community. I believe this measure would allow the ICANN implementation team to seek advice from the GNSO in a structured and regular manner, similar to other ad-hoc teams that the GNSO is forming. The Board's IDN Variant Working Group is available to discuss IDN variants and ICANN's work on the project with the GNSO community. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Best regards, Ram Chair, ICANN Board IDN Variant Working Group From: Jonathan Robinson [mailto:jonathan.robinson@ipracon.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 8:32 PM To: rmohan@afilias.info Subject: ICANN's IDN variant TLD project Dear Ram, As you may be aware, the GNSO Council passed all 5 of its motions yesterday. One of these was a motion to close the Joint IDN Working Group and certain next steps for IDN related issues. During the course of the weekend GNSO sessions and the discussion of this item, it was recognised that it will remain very important for the GNSO Council and ensure that we keep a good eye on this are of work. One suggestion was for a GNSO liaison to ICANN's IDN variant TLD project. Please could you consider this request and let me know your thoughts so that we know whether or not to proceed to appoint such a liason. Many thanks, Jonathan Jonathan Robinson Chair ICANN GNSO Council jonathan.robinson@ipracon.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7993 6103 skype: jonathan.m.r