Dear At-Large IDN Working Group, Root LGR Project Team and VIP Team, APRALO is organizing a Multistakeholder Policy Roundtable in Beijing that focuses on 2 topics. One of them is on community readiness for IDN Variant TLDs (see program attached and pasted below - Policy Roundtable II). You are all invited to attend and I do hope to see you there or at least on adobe connect participating remotely. Best regards, Rinalia Abdul Rahim Co-Chair, APRALO Beijing Organizing Committee Vice Chair, At-Large IDN Working Group Executive Committee, ALAC ---- *APRALO Multistakeholder Policy Roundtable * *@ ICANN 46 [Beijing, PRC]* Date: 8 April 2013 (Monday) Time: 17:00-19:00 Meeting Room: Function Room 6 ICANN’s new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) Program will bring a dramatic expansion of the Top Level Domain Space where 1930 new gTLD applications have been received. 303 (15.7%) of the new gTLD applications are from the Asia Pacific region and 100 (86%) of the new gTLD applications for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) are for the languages of the Asia Pacific region. The APRALO Multistakeholder Policy Roundtable in Beijing will feature discussions on two thematic areas related to the new gTLDs with an emphasis on issues of concern to the end user and the public interest. [17:00-18:00] Policy Roundtable I - End User Protection with New gTLDs [18:00-19:00] Policy Roundtable II - Community Readiness for IDN Variant TLDs *Policy Roundtable I **[17:00-18:00]*** Theme: New gTLDs and Implications for the Asian-Australasian-Pacific Region Topic: End User Protection with New gTLDs Discussion Questions: 1. How can end users be best protected in the event that new gTLDs fail or are unsustainable? 2. What are the issues associated with turning applicant commitments into contractual obligations? 3. What are the issues related to the enforceability of contractual obligations and what recommendations should be made regarding the scaling up of ICANN compliance? Co-Chair: Rinalia Abdul Rahim (ALAC Executive Committee Member, Asia Pacific Region) & Holly Raiche (Chair, APRALO) *Lead Discussants:* 1. End User – Jeremy Malcolm (Senior Policy Officer, Consumers International) 2. Government – Peter Nettlefold (Vice Chair, ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee & GAC Lead on New gTLDs) 3. Business – Zahid Jamil (Executive Committee Member, ICANN Business Constituency & Member, GNSO Council) 4. ICANN Compliance - Maguy Serad (Vice President, ICANN Contractual Compliance Services) Participation: This roundtable is open. Members of the following ICANN community are especially invited to attend - ICANN At-Large community, ICANN Advisory Committees, ICANN Supporting Organizations, ICANN Board, ICANN Legal & Law Enforcement. * * *Policy Roundtable II **[18:00-19:00]*** Theme: Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Implications for the Asian-Australasian-Pacific region. Topic: Community Readiness for IDN Variant Top Level Domains (TLDs) Discussion Questions: 1. Will the introduction of IDN Variant TLDs de-stabilize the Internet and undermine its security? 2. What is the level of readiness among language communities already active in ICANN in forming “Generation Panels” to propose script character repertoires and variant rules for the Root Zone that will enable variant IDN TLDs? What are the key issues in moving forward? 3. How can the readiness of language communities not yet active in ICANN be supported? Co-Chair: Rinalia Abdul Rahim (ALAC Executive Committee Member, Asia Pacific Region) & Holly Raiche (Chair, APRALO) Moderator: Edmon Chung (Chair, At-Large IDN Working Group & At-Large IDN Policy Liaison) * * *Discussants:* · Arabic Script - *Sarmad* Hussain (Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science, Pakistan) · Chinese Script – Wang Wei (China Domain Name Consortium) · Indic Script - Ram Mohan (Afilias) · Japanese Script – Hiro Hotta / Yoshiro Yonaya (Japan Registry Services) *· **Khmer Script - Norbert Klein (Internet Society Cambodia) *** *· *Korean Script - *Young*-*eum Lee (Korea National Open University)* ** *· **Sinhala Script - *Harsha Wijayawardhana (Internet Society Sri Lanka) ** · *ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee - *Jim Galvin (Deputy Chair, SSAC) Participation: This roundtable is open. Members of the following ICANN community are especially invited to attend - ICANN At-Large community, ICANN Variant Implementation Program Team, ICANN IDNA Root Label Generation Project Team Members, ICANN Advisory Committees, ICANN Supporting Organizations, ICANN Board.