FYI:

Thursday, 9 April 2020

ICANN Community Leadership Digest

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

to help ICANN community leaders track requests and follow updates.

Table of Contents

Information Sharing

· NEW: PIR Transaction and Proposed Public Interest Commitments Update

· NEW: Addressing Recent Zoom News

· ENDS TOMORROW: Your Feedback about this Digest

· REMINDER: Call for Expressions of Interest: Standing Panel for ICANN’s Independent Review Process

Public Comment

· CLOSES MONDAY: Revised Community Travel Support Guidelines

· Proposal for Chinese Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules

· Proposal for Bangla Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules

· Phase 1 Initial Report of the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs Policy Development Process

· Addendum to the Initial Report of the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data Team – Phase 2

· Guidelines for Developing Reference Label Generation Rules (LGRs) for the Second Level Version 2

Information Sharing

NEW: PIR Transaction and Proposed Public Interest Commitments Update

Executive: Göran Marby, ICANN President and CEO

Since Public Interest Registry (PIR) formally notified ICANN of the proposed change of control transaction on 14 November 2019 [r20.rs6.net], the ICANN org and Board have worked together to thoughtfully and thoroughly evaluate the proposed acquisition to ensure that the .ORG registry remains secure, reliable, and stable. Throughout this process, ICANN has urged PIR, the Internet Society (ISOC), and Ethos Capital (Ethos) to engage and consult with the .ORG community, and to provide full transparency regarding the proposed transaction.

Today, ICANN is publishing [r20.rs6.net] PIR's recently updated Public Interest Commitments (PICs), which were received by ICANN on 7 April 2020. PIR proposes that these PICs be added to the .ORG Registry Agreement [r20.rs6.net]should ICANN approve the change of control request submitted by PIR. Two versions of the PICs are being published: a "clean [r20.rs6.net]" version and a "redline [r20.rs6.net]" version that shows changes made by PIR from its 16 March 2020 version submitted to ICANN following PIR's Public Engagement process. [r20.rs6.net]

The revised PICs that ICANN is publishing today are in response to additional questions posed by ICANN as part of its diligence around the change of control request. On 3 April 2020, ICANN provided PIR with two sets of questions. One set of questions are in follow-up to previous ICANN inquiries designed to further understand the proposed transaction and its potential effect on PIR and the .ORG top-level domain (TLD). The second set of questions relate specifically to the proposed PICs. PIR has indicated that it is working to answer all of the questions from ICANN.

It is ICANN's intention to post PIR's responses to these questions when they are available, subject to any appropriate requests for confidentiality made by PIR.

Many people have questioned the enforceability of PICs by ICANN. To be clear, PICs are enforceable by ICANN. Any Internet user may submit complaints to ICANN Contractual Compliance. In addition, ICANN Contractual Compliance may identify an issue through its proactive monitoring. ICANN's follow-up questions to PIR seek to ensure that ICANN has a clear understanding of each commitment within the PICs, such that it could be enforced should the need arise. The ICANN Board continues to have reservations regarding the enforceability of PIR's proposed PICs.

The .ORG Registry Agreement stipulates a specified time period for ICANN to approve or withhold consent of the proposed change of control of PIR. ICANN and PIR have agreed to extend the deadline several times since the original deadline in mid-January, and the deadline for ICANN's response is now 20 April 2020.

Similar to when voluntary commitments in the form of PICs were proposed by applicants for new generic TLDs, ICANN is providing PIR's proposed PICs to the ICANN community with this public notice. Given the fast-approaching deadline for ICANN to make a decision to approve or withhold consent on the requested change of control of PIR, the typical 30-day public notice period has been condensed to seven days. We recognize the full engagement of the .ORG community in PIR's consultation process, but wanted to ensure ICANN remained fully transparent in what is being considered, the concerns still present in the Board's review, and what the Board will be reviewing.

How to Participate: Feedback may be submitted as a comment to this blog [r20.rs6.net] or through correspondence to me or the ICANN Board.

We thank the ICANN community for its active participation in this matter and remain committed to keeping you informed of new developments.

NEW: Addressing Recent Zoom News

Executive: Ashwin Rangan, Senior Vice President, Engineering and Chief Information Officer

ICANN’s video conferencing platform, Zoom, has been in the news quite a bit. With shelter-in-place and work-from-home becoming more familiar, not only for the ICANN community but the world at large, Zoom has become a vital tool for many businesses. With this recent increase in Zoom usage, we’ve also seen a number of bugs, flaws, and security vulnerabilities come to light.

It’s natural that a hugely popular system like Zoom will be poked and prodded, and it’s likely that alarming bits of information will continue to be revealed in the coming weeks and months.

However, it’s important to remember that almost any piece of software has bugs and glitches. What’s vitally important in these moments is how the software vendor reacts to receiving such information. In this regard, ICANN applauds Zoom for their efforts. Every time a new vulnerability has been exposed, Zoom has reacted swiftly by releasing patches within a day or two, while remaining transparent about the nature of the underlying issues.

If you care to learn more about any specific vulnerability or how Zoom has responded, we highly recommend taking a look at Zoom’s blog, which is available here [r20.rs6.net]. As stated before, it’s likely that this won’t be the last time we will hear about Zoom’s flaws, either from security researchers or new attack vectors.

While we continue to monitor developments, ICANN remains committed to Zoom. We strive to offer the best solutions to our community, and at this time, we are still confident that Zoom fits the bill.

If you have any questions or comments regarding Zoom and how it may relate to you, please do not hesitate to reach out to mts@icann.org.

ENDS TOMORROW: Your Feedback about this Digest

Executive: David Olive, Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support

Reflecting on the first year of the ICANN Community Leadership Digest, the ICANN org Policy Development Support function seeks your feedback. Please take this brief survey [r20.rs6.net] by Friday, 10 April 2020.

REMINDER: Call for Expressions of Interest: Standing Panel for ICANN’s Independent Review Process

Announcement [r20.rs6.net]

On 31 March 2020, ICANN opened a call for Expressions of Interest for panelists to serve on the omnibus Standing Panel for ICANN's Independent Review Process (IRP). The deadline to submit Expressions of Interest is 31 July 2020 at 23:59 UTC.

Candidates for the IRP omnibus Standing Panel should review the Expressions of Interest document [r20.rs6.net]before submission. The document includes the following information:

· Panel Position Description

· Required or Highly Preferred Skills

· Required or Highly Preferred Experience

· Time Commitment

· Compensation and Selection

Expressions of Interest should be submitted to IRP-Standingpanel-EOI2020@icann.org by 23:59 UTC on 31 July 2020.