Dear Councilors, We are forwarding the announcement below as the subject of WHOIS accuracy and the ongoing work on an Accuracy Reporting System is likely to be of interest to many in the GNSO community. The announcement has already been sent to the SO/AC leaders, but you may also wish to notify your respective groups. Thanks and cheers Mary [CANN]<http://www.icann.org/> News Alert https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2016-06-08-en ________________________________ WEBINAR: WHOIS Accuracy Reporting System Phase 2 Cycle 2 Report 8 June 2016 On 8 June 2016, ICANN published the WHOIS Accuracy Reporting System (ARS) Phase 2 Cycle 2 report. ICANN will hold an interactive webinar on 16 June 2016 UTC to review findings of the study and their implications for the community. The Cycle 2 report acts as a follow-on to the Phase 2 Cycle 1 report published in December 2015. In Cycle 2, ICANN measured both the overall accuracy for syntax (formatting) and operability (e.g., does an email or telephone call go through?) of a sample of WHOIS records in gTLDs. The results include comparisons based on: * Registrar Accreditation Agreements (2009 RAA v. 2013 RAA) * Top-level domain types (e.g., new or "legacy" gTLDs) * Trends in data from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2 * Regional accuracy differences, including two new sub-analyses: reasons for error by region and language script type vs. accuracy The WHOIS Accuracy Reporting System is an ICANN initiative born out of recommendations from the 2012 WHOIS Review Team to improve oversight of the WHOIS Program. ICANN committed to proactively identifying potentially inaccurate gTLD WHOIS contact data and forwarding potentially inaccurate records to gTLD registrars for investigation and follow up. The ARS reports provide information on nonconformances (based on the applicable Registrar Accreditation Agreement), which ICANN's Compliance team uses for follow-up with registrars regarding potentially inaccurate records. ________________________________ Webinar Details & How to Attend Date / Time: 16 June 2016, 14:30 - 15:30 UTC Use the time zone converter<https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html> to determine when the webinar will occur in your local area. Join Online: https://icann.adobeconnect.com/gdd Join the Teleconference: View phone numbers<https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/whois-ars-webinar-dial-in-number...> [PDF, 143 KB] (Passcode: GDD) The webinar will be conducted in English. Recordings will be published in the knowledge center of the WHOIS website at: http://whois.icann.org/en/knowledge-center. ________________________________ Further Information * Phase 2 Cycle 2 Report<https://whois.icann.org/sites/default/files/files/whois-ars-phase-2-report-c...> [PDF, 2.6 MB] * Phase 2 Cycle 1 Report<https://whois.icann.org/en/file/whois-ars-phase-2-cycle-1-report-syntax-and-...> * Phase 1 Report<https://whois.icann.org/sites/default/files/files/whois-ars-phase-1-report-2...> [PDF, 1.4 MB] * Pilot Study Report<http://whois.icann.org/sites/default/files/files/ars-pilot-23dec14-en.pdf> [PDF, 1.5 MB] * WHOIS<http://whois.icann.org/en> ______________________________________________