Hello All, There are a couple of paragraphs in recent announcements from ICANN that relate to the GNSO. Ie from: Advisory Concerning Demand to Remove VeriSign's Wildcard http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-03oct03.htm "ICANN is sympathetic to concerns that have been expressed by VeriSign and others about the process by which proposed changes in the operation of a top-level domain registry are evaluated and approved by ICANN. To deal with these concerns, ICANN's President and CEO Paul Twomey is asking the Generic Names Supporting Organization to formulate a proposal for a timely, transparent and predictable procedure for the introduction of new registry services, including as to how a reasonable determination of the likelihood that a proposed change will have adverse effects. This process, to be conducted under the GNSO's new streamlined policy development process, should be completed by 15 January 2004." Also from: Letter From Paul Twomey to Russell Lewis http://www.icann.org/correspondence/twomey-to-lewis-03oct03.htm "Various press reports have quoted VeriSign representatives as being concerned about the processes by which changes in the operation of top-level domains are evaluated and approved by ICANN. I share those concerns. The introduction by registry operators of new products or services that do not threaten adverse effects to the Internet, the DNS or the top-level domains which they operate should not be impeded by unnecessary or prolonged processes. On the other hand, VeriSign, like other operators of top level domains, occupies a critical position of public trust, made even more important given the fact that it is the steward for the two largest generic top level domains. This means that VeriSign has both a legal and a practical obligation to be responsible in its actions in operating those top level domains. To ensure that this obligation is carried out, there must be a timely, transparent and predictable process for the determination of the likelihood that a proposed change in the operation of a generic top-level domain under contract with ICANN will have significant adverse effects. To this end, I will be asking the GNSO to begin to create such a procedure, taking into particular account any comments submitted by other ICANN advisory bodies, liaisons, and constituencies. I will request the GNSO to make its recommendations no later than 15 January 2003." I assume we will be hearing more from the ICANN President on the request to the GNSO, but we should start considering how to manage this request. Note especially the deadline of 15 Jan 2003. I will place the issue on the agenda for the meeting in Carthage, but it may be worthwhile having a short 1 hour teleconference in the next 14 days to discuss the agenda for Carthage in more detail and possibly schedule some targeted meetings in advance to deal with specific items of the GNSO agenda prior to the formal meeting (which will be the last meeting of the Counsel with its present membership). Regards, Bruce Tonkin