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ME SPACE session topics - ICANN81
by Amin Hacha Aug. 17, 2024

Aug. 17, 2024

Hello everyone, We trust this message finds you in good spirits. As we gear up for the ME Space session at ICANN81 in Istanbul, we've taken the time to gather community proposals and feedback on topics of interest for our region. In our preparation, we will take in hand the three following topics: 1. The New gTLD Program, with a focus on the Applicant Support aspect. 2. Registrant Rights and Responsibilities (RRR). 3. Strengthening Cybersecurity Resilience in Middle Eastern Countries: Challenges and Collaborative Solutions. We'll be sharing a draft Google document for each topic. If you'd like to contribute to any of these topics, please share your email address so we can add you to the document. Each working group will have a two-week window (until the end of August 2024) to finalize the topic name for inclusion in our proposed agenda for the session. Topics may be subject to updates or changes as needed by the working group members. We expect drafts to be finalized at the end of September ( one month and a half from now). We are truly grateful for your support and look forward to working together on these impactful initiatives. Best regards, Amin and Layal

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ICANN Publishes New DNSSEC Trust Anchor to Prepare for 2026
by Fahd Batayneh Aug. 17, 2024

Aug. 17, 2024

https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/icann-publishes-new-dnssec-t… The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), through the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions it facilitates, recently published an update to the trust anchors for Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). DNSSEC trust anchors serve as the ultimate points of trust for the DNSSEC system. DNSSEC secures the DNS by validating authentic domain name data that has not been altered by third parties. Updates to the trust anchors require careful coordination among Internet infrastructure operators to ensure a seamless transition and maintain the security and stability of the DNS. The recent update adds a new cryptographic key that is planned to be used to sign the DNS root zone starting in 2026. Software vendors and system package maintainers are encouraged to begin their processes for distributing this new trust anchor. ICANN plans to prepublish the new cryptographic key in the DNS starting on 11 January 2025, with a standby period of nearly two years before a rollover in October 2026. This provides ample opportunity to propagate the new trust anchor and provides the capability to roll over to it sooner should a rollover have to occur on an accelerated timeline. Operational announcements regarding the rollover are published on the root-dnssec-announce mailing list. Discussion is encouraged on the separate ksk-rollover mailing list. More information on the rollover is published at https://www.iana.org/dnssec/files.

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UA Day 2024 Report Highlights Strong Interest in Universal Acceptance Adoption
by Fahd Batayneh Aug. 15, 2024

Aug. 15, 2024

https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/ua-day-2024-report-highlights-strong… The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) have published the Universal Acceptance (UA) Day 2024 Report, which provides a comprehensive overview of participation numbers, types of sessions held, and promotional efforts for the second annual UA Day. UA Day 2024 attracted participation from thousands of members in the global Internet community and garnered nearly 50 percent more session proposals than the inaugural 2023 event. Universal Acceptance ensures that all domain names and email addresses, regardless of language or script, work in Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems. UA is key to enabling a more digitally inclusive and multilingual Internet. UA Day was established in 2023 as an opportunity to engage and mobilize technical and language communities, companies, governments, and Domain Name System (DNS) industry stakeholders to better understand the benefits of UA. Following the success of UA Day 2023, the second annual UA Day was organized in 2024, consisting of multiple types of events focused on creating UA awareness, capacity, and strategy. UA Day events were held between March and May 2024 to allow flexibility for local organizers, with most events taking place on or around 28 March. The call for proposals continued to include the event types from UA Day 2023, including UA awareness, technical training, and strategy sessions. In addition to those three categories, two new event types were introduced this year, including UA academic curricula sessions, focused on integrating Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) and UA-related topics into existing technical curricula. Event organizers also held UA adoption sessions, in which participants conducted a UA adoption exercise and shared challenges and solutions around becoming UA-ready. The two new event types comprised nearly a third of the 52 events held this year, with three UA academic curricula sessions and 12 UA adoption sessions. UA adoption events, in particular, are very important because they not only build technical capacity, but also demonstrate real-world adoption, encouraging others to be UA-ready. UA Day 2024 Participation Highlights: Total participants: 6,544 Proposals received: 133 Events held: 52 Countries/territories represented: 47 Languages represented: 23 (Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Bangla, Bemba, Burmese, Chinese, English, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Korean, Lao, Macedonian, Nyanja, Portuguese, Serbian, Sesotho, Sinhala, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, and Thai) UA Day events were held by regional and local organizations, the UASG, global partners, and ICANN. This year's keystone UA Day event was held in Belgrade, Serbia, on 28 March in partnership with the Serbian National Internet Domain Registry Foundation (RNIDS). Thanks to all who organized, participated, and helped make this year's event a success. For more information about UA Day 2024, read the full recap report. For a gallery of photos from UA Day events worldwide, visit ICANN's Flickr page. To learn more about UA, visit icann.org/ua and uasg.tech, and follow the hashtag #Internet4All on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.

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Advancing a Multilingual Internet: ICANN Publishes 2024 IDN Report
by Fahd Batayneh Aug. 8, 2024

Aug. 8, 2024

https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/advancing-a-multilingual-int… Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published the IDN Report June 2024. The report provides an overview of the status of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) at the top and second levels of the Domain Name System (DNS), as well as the IDN-related work done by the ICANN organization (ICANN org) and ICANN community from January 2023 to June 2024. The full report is available here. IDNs enable people, businesses, and governments around the world to use domain names in local languages and scripts, and are key to enabling a more digitally inclusive, multilingual Internet. In pursuit of the current ICANN Strategic Plan's goal to encourage IDNs and Universal Acceptance (UA), ICANN org has been working with the community to make the DNS accessible in local languages for a linguistically diverse global population, while maintaining the stability and security of the DNS. ICANN org publishes the IDN Report annually to help track the status of IDNs and highlight ongoing IDN work. The June 2024 edition of the report continues to cover four main areas: delegation and registration statistics, IDN policy being developed by the ICANN community, IDN-related projects at ICANN org, and IDN implementation and operations at ICANN org. The highlights of this reporting period include the latest statistics for IDN top-level domain name delegations and second-level domain name registrations, as well as progress on policy development work by Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) and the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO). The report also includes information about ICANN org's multiple projects to support these policies and work related to assist with IDN implementation efforts. For more information on IDNs and ICANN org's IDN Program, visit the IDN homepage.

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Join ICANN’s Discussion on the Resolution of Contention Sets in the Next Round
by Fahd Batayneh Aug. 4, 2024

Aug. 4, 2024

https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/join-icanns-discussion-on-th… The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) organization will hold a community-wide discussion on the resolution of contention sets in the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program: Next Round. A contention set is a group of gTLD applications that contain identical strings of characters. For example, if two different applicants apply for .TLDSTRING, they would be identified as a contention set. Virtual meetings will be held on 13 and 14 August 2024 at 13:00–15:00 UTC via Zoom. Two additional meetings, which may be held if more time is needed, are scheduled for 21 and 22 August 2024 at 13:00–15:00 UTC. The dialogue on the topic comes at the direction of the ICANN Board of Directors, which accepted Advice item 2a(ii) of the Governmental Advisory Committee's (GAC) ICANN80 Kigali Communiqué. The goal of the discussion will be to consider which mechanisms should be established for the resolution of contention sets in the next round of applications for new gTLDs. The mechanism must be consistent with existing policy, operationally viable, agreeable to the community, and not have an impact on the current timeline for implementation. To ensure that the concerns expressed in the ICANN80 Kigali Communiqué and related GAC and At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) advice are addressed, the discussion will focus on two issues related to the resolution of contention sets: Alternatives to private auctions for the voluntary private resolution of contention sets by applicants. Alternatives to the ICANN auction of last resort as the mechanism to resolve contention sets in the absence of any private resolution. The Board plans to review the outcome of the community-wide discussion during its workshop 6–8 September 2024. It will then provide the ICANN organization (org) with any necessary direction on the implementation of the resolution of contention sets. This community discussion is open to everyone in the community. To participate, please submit this form or email nextround_policyimplementation(a)icann.org. All participants must agree to abide by the ICANN Expected Standards of Behavior, and sign into Zoom using their full name. Participants should familiarize themselves with the relevant Final Report on the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process recommendations, the relevant GAC and ALAC advice, as well as the report "Addressing Monetary Means of Private Resolution" by NERA, among other resources. ICANN org will also prepare a briefing, which summarizes the issues and provides some potential approaches, to facilitate discussion. The briefing document will be published on the workspace no later than Friday, 9 August 2024.

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ME SPACE - ICANN81 Session Preparation and Topic Finalization
by Amin Hacha July 31, 2024

July 31, 2024

Hello everyone, Thank you, Tijani, for suggesting the topic “The New gTLD Program, Especially the Applicant Support Part of it”. we’ve received positive responses from several individuals willing to assist with the statement. We would appreciate it if you could handle this part. Fouad, your suggestions are good. We propose working on the second session to draft a statement for our future efforts in this area. We will await further input from those ready to contribute. Hadia, we appreciate your topic name suggestions. The final nomination will be decided by the working group during the drafting process. Houda, could you please clarify if by “multilingual internet,” do you mean Universal Acceptance? To allow more time for responses and suggestions, we propose extending the deadline to* Wednesday, July 31, 2024.* As stated in our initial email, we aim to cover various topics of interest to our region during the session in Istanbul. We look forward to your continued contributions in the coming days. Best regards, Amin and Layal

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ICANN Webinar to Highlight RDRS, a Tool to Access Non-Public Domain Name Registration Data
by Fahd Batayneh July 26, 2024

July 26, 2024

https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/icann-webinar-to-highlight-r… The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is pleased to announce an upcoming virtual event on the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS), scheduled for Thursday, 8 August 2024, at 16:00 UTC (9:00 a.m. PST; 12:00 p.m. EDT). The RDRS provides a more consistent and standardized format for handling requests to access nonpublic registration data related to generic top-level domains (gTLDs). We invite all stakeholders to register for this informative session, which will educate potential requesters with an aim of increasing overall participation. About the Session This webinar will explain the purpose and benefits of RDRS to registrants and those with a need to access non-public gTLD registration data. In addition to providing an overview and sharing resources, the webinar will provide an overview of the service and more. The webinar will be followed by a Q&A session, allowing prospective and current users to engage directly with the speakers. Webinar Information: RDRS: New Tool for Accessing Non-Public Domain Name Registration Data Webinar Aug 8, 2024, 16:00 UTC Register for the session here. Benefits of the Service The RDRS is a free, global ticketing system that handles nonpublic gTLD registration data requests, standardizing the process for both registrars and requestors. This service simplifies the process for various users, including consumer protection advocates, cybersecurity investigators, government officials, intellectual property professionals, and law enforcement authorities, who have a legitimate interest in accessing nonpublic gTLD registration data. Registrars benefit from the service because it offers a centralized mechanism to manage and track all nonpublic data requests. Registrars receive automated alerts whenever a request is submitted. A standardized request form ensures that the correct information and supporting documents are provided, simplifying the evaluation process for registrars. Requesters can access the RDRS here. Registrars can use the service through the Naming Services portal. More Information Implemented at the direction of the ICANN Board, the RDRS was set up to collect demand and usage data that would inform policy decisions related to a System for Standardized Access/Disclosure For more information, including user guides, Frequently Asked Questions, instructional videos, and more, visit the RDRS webpage.

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ME SPACE meeting in ICANN81 Istanbul
by Amin Hacha July 24, 2024

July 24, 2024

Dear friends and colleagues, As ICANN 81 Istanbul will be held in our regional area, we are all invited to work together in making the upcoming ME Space meeting a success in Istanbul. Through previous calls and discussions, we have identified the following seven topics that may interest our community: 1. Regulating Emerging Technologies: Exploring DMA as a Guideline. 2. The Impact of Cyber Threats on ME Countries. 3. KINDNS Initiative: Why Operators in the Region Should Join. 4. AI Impact on ccTLD Operation. 5. Strategies to Increase Domain Name Sales in Current Markets. 6. Cybersecurity Enhancement and Awareness. 7. Rights and Responsibilities of Domain Name Registrants (RRR) in the Middle East. Before we begin preparing for the Istanbul meeting, we invite you to review these topics and suggest any modifications or additional topics relevant to our region. Additionally, please let us know if any of these topics interest you and if you are ready to work on a draft or statement, or if you are available to contribute to it. *We kindly request your feedback, comments, and any related topics by the deadline of next Friday, July 26, 2024.* Regards, Amin and Layal

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ICANN Board Seeks Input on Draft Strategic Plan and Operating Plan Framework
by Fahd Batayneh July 24, 2024

July 24, 2024

https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/icann-board-seeks-input-on-d… The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors is seeking input from the ICANN community on the draft ICANN Strategic Plan and draft Operating Plan Framework for the next five years. The ICANN Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2026–2030 presents a simplified yet comprehensive vision that balances clarity with depth, addressing the multifaceted needs of ICANN's stakeholders. The Strategic Plan is complemented by a five-year Operating Plan Framework, which details the key activities required to deliver on the Strategic Plan. The Board needs your feedback on the clarity and relevance of our vision, the appropriateness of the strategic objectives, and the detailed strategic goals and strategies designed to achieve them. Additionally, we seek your input on the proposed progress indicators and identified strategic risks. Furthermore, your input on the key activities identified in the draft five-year Operating Plan Framework to achieve each strategy are critical. Your comments will help the ICANN Board and organization (org) refine and enhance the plans to better serve our mission and the community. The five-year Operating Plan Framework is designed to outline the high-level activities necessary to effectively execute the five-year Strategic Plan. The specific details of prioritization and resource allocation will be defined during the annual Operating Plan and Budget process. To facilitate structured input on the draft plans, the Board has provided a Guided Submission Form for this proceeding. The purpose of this form is to help gather the feedback in an organized manner, making it easier for the Board and org to analyze and integrate the suggestions. The Board will provide an overview of the draft plans and the Public Comment process during two community webinars, on Tuesday, 30 July, at 16:00 UTC and on Wednesday, 31 July, at 00:00 UTC. The Public Comment period will be open for 57 days. For more information and to participate in this proceeding, please visit this webpage. Submissions Opening Date: 23 July 2024 Submissions Closing Date: 17 September 2024

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FW: ICANN to Host Webinars on Applicant Support Program Outreach
by Fahd Batayneh July 24, 2024

July 24, 2024

Dear All, Please see below. Thank you, Fahd Date: Tuesday, 23 July 2024 at 5:27 PM Subject: ICANN to Host Webinars on Applicant Support Program Outreach Hi everyone – ICANN will host two webinars this month to discuss the upcoming launch of the Applicant Support Program (ASP). The webinars will be offered at two times, and you only need to register for one: Webinar 1: Europe, Middle East, and Africa Regions Tuesday, 30 July 2024, at 15:30–16:30 UTC [icann.zoom.us] Webinar 2: The Americas Region Wednesday, 31 July 2024 at 16:00–17:00 UTC [icann.zoom.us] More details can be found here. Thank you. Best, -- Giose McGinty Stakeholder Engagement Senior Specialist, NA and LAC Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Cell: +1 310 773-7865

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