Dear Justine, Thank you for the questions. For your first question, it’s just shorthand for the more detailed criteria for determining the timing of the next round found in the draft Applicant Guidebook (see section 7.8 Subsequent Application Rounds). For question 2, no, that timeline reflects the anticipated launch of the program (i.e., accepting applications) and a very speculative ending date, which would trigger the caveats I included in my original email. I hope this helps. Best, Steve From: Justine Chew <justine.chew.icann@gmail.com> Date: Sunday, September 7, 2025 at 6:46 PM To: Steve Chan <steve.chan@icann.org> Cc: "council@icann.org" <council@icann.org> Subject: [Ext] Re: [council] Updated Prioritization Working Document Dear Steve, Thanks for this information. Could you please clarify: 1. At the bottom of page 5, under gTLDs and Urgency column, does "... once the list of applied-for strings for the 2026 round are confirmed,.." refer to String Confirmation Day?; and 2. In the chart on page 2, does "New gTLD Program" refer to SPIRT? Thanks, Justine On Sat, 6 Sept 2025 at 00:31, Steve Chan via council <council@icann.org<mailto:council@icann.org>> wrote: Dear Councilors, Attached, please find an updated work prioritization document. As was requested the last time this document was discussed by the Council, we have added educated guesses on what the next steps are for each area of work and based on those assumptions, we tried to assess a level of effort. In addition, we’ve also added a timeline graphic that tries to show how current and anticipated work lines up against each other, along with key inputs/dependencies related to the items in the prioritization matrix. I want to include some caveats to the things we’ve added, since this exercise is definitely more art than science. First, staff does not expect that we got the “What Could the Future Work Look Like” column precisely right in every instance, nor are we trying to get ahead of Council decisions. Second, please do not hold us to any of the dates we’ve included in the timeline graphic, other than for the Latin Diacritics PDP! While we recognize how useful it is to have a timeline graphic, there is a ton of guesswork involved; I’m not even sure I want to describe the dates as educated guesses! Despite the caveats, I hope this attached document proves useful to the Council’s work prioritization efforts during the upcoming September Council meeting. Best, Steve Steven Chan VP, Policy Development Support & GNSO Relations Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 12025 Waterfront Drive, Suite 300 Los Angeles, CA 90094-2536 Email: steve.chan@icann.org<mailto:steve.chan@icann.org> Skype: steve.chan55 Mobile: +1.310.339.4410 Find out more about the GNSO by visiting: https://learn.icann.org/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__learn.icann.org_&d=DwMGaQ&c=FmY1u3PJp6wrcrwll3mSVzgfkbPSS6sJms7xcl4I5cM&r=DRa2dXAvSFpCIgmkXhFzL7ar9Qfqa0AIgn-H4xR2EBk&m=jLNFXvpu9gNdUeHi-G6sjWNCF9w4_AwhzzUDFZy2elE&s=o7Auz997kA-HPv9PHJCjFVZw7Pgo8krw4MxfqCwBrIU&e=> Follow @GNSO on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ICANN_GNSO<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_ICANN-5FGNSO&d=DwMGaQ&c=FmY1u3PJp6wrcrwll3mSVzgfkbPSS6sJms7xcl4I5cM&r=DRa2dXAvSFpCIgmkXhFzL7ar9Qfqa0AIgn-H4xR2EBk&m=jLNFXvpu9gNdUeHi-G6sjWNCF9w4_AwhzzUDFZy2elE&s=kWw4fQPNjw2lVKy1UjTxS2F0BmjEAzaDFWNmsYywbmE&e=> Transcripts and recordings of GNSO Working Group and Council events are located on the GNSO Master Calendar <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__gnso.icann.org_en_group...> _______________________________________________ council mailing list -- council@icann.org<mailto:council@icann.org> To unsubscribe send an email to council-leave@icann.org<mailto:council-leave@icann.org> _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.