Dear all,

Please find below the notes and action items from today’s meeting on Wednesday, 25 August 2021 at 13:00 UTC.

A doodle poll will be circulated shortly to assist with scheduling next week’s meeting. Please respond to this poll as quickly as possible.

Best regards,

Steve, Marika, and Emily

IDNs EPDP – Notes and Action Items

Meeting #3 on 25 August 2021

Action Items:

ACTION ITEM 1: Members to read background documents included in Edmon’s welcome email and confirm when they have done so here. The welcome email is available at: https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/gnso-epdp-idn-team/2021-July/000002.html

ACTION ITEM 2: Staff to circulate and members/participants to fill out doodle poll to schedule next week’s meeting and future meetings.

Notes:

1. Roll Call & SOI Updates

2. Welcome & Chair Updates

• Today’s discussions under agenda item 4 will assist in development of the work plan. Please refer to the document included on the agenda for a summary of the proposed approach.
• Members are reminded to read the background documents included in the Chair’s welcome email and confirm when they have done so.

ACTION ITEM 1: Members to read background documents included in Edmon’s welcome email  and confirm when they have done so here. The welcome email is available at: https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/gnso-epdp-idn-team/2021-July/000002.html

• Additional clarification on the role of members and participants in the EPDP: In normal discussions, members and participants take part on equal footing. Members will have an opportunity to present perspectives from the groups they represent. Only members take part in consensus calls.

3. Background briefing from ICANN org (continued from last week)

• Please refer to slides for a summary the key takeaways from this presentation.
• Edmon highlighted the mapping document as a key resource for presenting work completed previously as it relates to items in the EPDP charter.
• Question: Will the EPDP be looking at the IDN Implementation Guidelines? Is version 4.0 authoritative?
• Answer: The focus is on the process to update the IDN Implementation Guidelines and not the substance, but the issue is not completely straightforward. Version 4.0 is not fully approved at this time. The operational track was tasked to suggest adjustments. If that is not possible, this EPDP will look into the future process for updating the Guidelines and also look into what is needed to put version 4.0 into place.
• Additional clarification: Version 4.0 is not currently authoritative because it was not ratified by the Board due to the fact that process concerns were raised. Most registry operators are currently using version 3.0.

4. Begin initial review of charter questions

• Initial review approach document suggests that the EPDP work through the topics in the charter in sequence, A-G.
• No objections raised to deliberating on the topics in the order they are presented in the charter.
• Next step is to conduct a general discussion of each topic to get a sense of range of positions & interests and understand whether the topic and its charter questions are fit for purpose to solicit early input from the SOs/AC/SG/Cs. The Working Group will also consider how much time is needed to deliberate on each topic using a poll.
• Topic A: Consistent definition and technical utilization of RZ-LGR. This topic covers a lot of materials that has been covered elsewhere, but it is important to confirm previous work and make sure that we have a consistent definition of variants and how this relates to RZ-LGR.
• Suggestion to call the informal poll a collection of perspectives or temperature of the room, because both members and participants will take part. Suggestion was noted.
• Question: Are there external dependencies for topics A-G that will impact the workload for addressing these topics?
• The mapping document outlines specific areas where the EPDP may need to coordinate with the SubPro IRT. This is something the EPDP leadership and staff will need to track, but is not necessarily a dependency.
• Topic G will depend on the operations track.
• Topic A estimated level of effort: High = 10+ call hours: 5/23 (22%); Medium = 5 to 10 call hours (15/23): 65%; Low = < 5 call hours: (3/23) 13%
• One member noted that Topic A may have some dependencies with Topic B.
• Response: This was taken into account of the sequence of the charter questions. The two topics will flow into one another.
• Topic B “Same entity” at the top-level defines what IDN variant is all about. Includes fundamental questions about the same entity principle.
• Topic B estimated level of effort: High = 10+ call hours: 7/22 (32%); Medium = 5 to 10 call hours (7/22): 32%; Low = < 5 call hours: (8/22) 36%
• Given the split of responses, the leadership team will need to think through what this means for budgeting time in the work plan.

5. AOB

• Current time slot will conflict every other week with the ALAC CPWG call.
• Proposal for new reoccurring time slot: 13:00 UTC on Tuesday or Thursday.
• Staff will send out a doodle to confirm the slot for next week and future meetings.

ACTION ITEM 2: Staff to circulate and members/participants to fill out doodle poll to schedule next week’s meeting and future meetings.

• Edmon will be meeting with the ICANN General Counsel for guidance on timing for his transition out of the Chair role. Additional updates will follow.