[To: council[at]gnso.icann.org; liaison6c[at]gnso.icann.org] [To: ga[at]gnso.icann.org; announce[at]gnso.icann.org] [To: regional-liaisons[at]icann.org] http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-18feb09-en.htm Public Comment: Fast Track Proposed Solutions 18 February 2009 A public comment period opens today on a number of proposed implementation features in the "Fast Track" process, as well as an updated version of the Fast Track's Implementation Plan . The Fast Track is a mechanism to introduce a limited number of non-contentious internationalized country-code top level domain names (IDN ccTLDs) to the Internet. In the initial draft of the Fast Track Implementation Plan, a number of open issues were identified that require further input from the community and need to be resolved to complete the implementation. There are separate papers of proposed implementation details (listed below). The papers are based on comments and input received from the community, notably from meetings held at ICANN's international public meeting in Cairo in November 2008. Along with the papers are: an updated Draft Implementation Plan; a document providing a consolidated overview of the comments received and document containing staff considerations regarding the comments received on the initial Draft Implementation Plan. This new version of the plan is intended to elicit further community feedback both during and after the ICANN meeting in Mexico City next month (1-6 March 2009). The public comment period that opened today covers both the Draft Implementation Plan and the papers. Comments received will be used to revise the plan in preparation of a Final Implementation Plan. The comment period ends on 6 April 2009. Please note that the papers listed below are proposed discussion drafts only. Potential IDN ccTLD requestors should not rely on any of the proposed included details as it remains subject to further consultation and revision. Please also note that it is expected there will be several updates to this announcement as papers are released as they are finalized and translated. The papers describe: 1. Documentation of Responsibility between ICANN and prospective IDN ccTLD Managers [PDF, 156K] 2. Development and use of IDN tables and character variants for second and top level strings [PDF, 120K] Related links: Public comment period: http://forum.icann.org/lists/ft-implementation/ Revised Fast Track Draft Implementation Plan: (coming) Staff considerations on received comments: (coming) Working Group Final Report (with public comments): http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/staff-considerations-idnc-wg-f... [PDF, 269K] Fast Track webpage: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/ Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org