April 2011 - NA-Discuss - lists.icann.org

ICANN Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Oversight Hearing
by Eric Brunner-Williams May 5, 2011

May 5, 2011

Colleagues, The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet will hold a hearing on: "ICANN Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Oversight Hearing", on Wednesday 5/4/2011 - 10:00 a.m., at 2141 Rayburn House Office Building. There is, as yet, no hearing documentation and no witness list, though these will be forthcoming. http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_05022011.html I'll post a follow-up when either hearings documentation or witnesses are posted at the Subcommittee's web site. Eric

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ALAC Statement to the ICANN Board on the RAA Negotiations - Call for Comments
by ICANN At-Large Staff May 4, 2011

May 4, 2011

Dear All, On behalf of Olivier Crépin-Leblond, ALAC Chairman, please find a draft ALAC Statement to the ICANN Board on the RAA Negotiations drafted by Olivier: URL: https://community.icann.org/display/alacpolicydev/ALAC+Statement++to+the+ICA NN+Board+on+the+RAA+Negotiations+-+April+2011?focusedCommentId=13862676#comm ent-13862676 Short URL: https://community.icann.org/x/zYbT The statement will be discussed during the ALAC Meeting of Tuesday, 26 April. However, comments and suggestions are welcome through 23:59 UTC on Friday, 29 April. Please add your comments directly to the wiki page above or send At-Large staff an e-mail at staff(a)atlarge.icann.org. An ALAC vote will begin shortly thereafter. Regards, Heidi Ullrich, Seth Greene, Matt Ashtiani, Gisella Gruber-White, Marilyn Vernon, ICANN At-Large Staff

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Call for Community Volunteers for IDN Variant TLD Case Study Teams
by ICANN At-Large Staff April 28, 2011

April 28, 2011

Dear All, Please see below a message sent on behalf of the ICANN IDN Variant Issues Project Team calling for community volunteers for IDN Variant TLD Case Study Teams. The deadline for applications is 19 May. ** Dear Members of the Community, The delegation and management of variant TLDs remains an important issue. The ICANN community seeks to develop solutions to enable the delegation of Variant TLDs for the benefit of users around the world. After consultation with the community, ICANN outlines its approach to move forward by publishing the Final Proposal for the IDN Variant TLDs Issues Project ( http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/idn-variant-tlds-delegation-20apr11 -en.pdf) and the Call for Volunteers ( http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/idn-variant-tlds-call-for-volunteer s-case-study-teams-20apr11-en.pdf) The Project will undertake work to identify issues associated with the beneficial and safe delegation of IDN variant TLDs through six case studies include the following scripts: Arabic, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, and Latin. Each team will be comprised of the following: team coordinator, community representatives, linguistic experts, DNS and IDNA experts, security & scalability experts, policy experts, and registry/registrar operations experts. The call for volunteer document describes the details of expertise needed, as well as the volunteer selection process. Successful completion of the project depends on having team members with the right skills in each of the six case studies to perform the substantive work. Therefore ICANN, through its supporting organizations and advisory committees, and through its contacts with the international Internet community, is soliciting the participation of community volunteers in each of the six case study teams. Interested experts are invited to submit their résumé and an expression of interest statement demonstrating how they meet the qualifications for one or other of the expertise areas in a specific case study. Applications should be sent to idnvarianttlds(a)icann.org no later than 19 May 2011. Additionally, ICANN would welcome proposals from organizations interested in volunteering to provide local host facilities to each of the six IDN Variant Issues Project case study teams. Local host organizations are expected to provide meeting and other facilities to support the case studies work. However, it should be emphasized that it is not necessary to have a local host organization for a case study to proceed. Interested organizations should send an expression of interest to idnvarianttlds(a)icann.org no later than 19 May 2011. Warm regards, ICANN IDN Variant Issues Project Team P.S. The announcement is also available at: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-20apr11-en.htm. ** Regards, Heidi Ullrich, Seth Greene, Matt Ashtiani, Gisella Gruber-White, Marilyn Vernon, ICANN At-Large Staff

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Current State of the UDRP Webinar Announcement
by ICANN At-Large Staff April 26, 2011

April 26, 2011

* Sent on behalf of the GNSO Secretariat * Current State of the UDRP Webinar Announcement http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-21apr11-en.htm In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat(a)gnso.icann.org<mailto:gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org>) to receive the call details. 21 April 2011 You are invited to participate in a webinar on the current state of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). The ICANN Policy Staff is holding this Webinar on Tuesday 10 May at 15:00 UTC. The webinar will explore the current state of the UDRP. Attendees will hear the viewpoints from experts in the field on the effectiveness of the UDRP, and whether it should be modified or amended. This webinar is designed to solicit current information and data on the UDRP for reference in an Issue Report to be published by Staff. UDRP providers, panelists, attorneys and other observers of the UDRP process will be invited to share their perspective on this key ICANN policy. The UDRP has not been reviewed by the GNSO Council since its adoption. The Issue Report will speak to how t he UDRP has addressed the problem of cybersquatting to date, and explore any insufficiencies or inequalities associated with the process. This Issue Report will then be considered by the GNSO Council as it decides whether to commence a new policy development process (PDP) on the UDRP. The webinar is scheduled to run for 120 minutes, will be conducted in English only. The meeting will be run in Adobe Connect with a slide presentation along with a dial-in conference bridge for audio. Participants will have opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentations. During the course of the webinar, questions may be submitted using the chat function of Adobe Connect. If you are not able to participate in the live session, the slides and MP3 will be made available shortly after the meeting. In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat(a)gnso.icann.org<mailto:gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org>) to receive the call details. We will send you an e-mail reminder before the event with log-in and dial-in details. Please DO NOT RSVP to any other ICANN staff members e-mail address.

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On the RAA issue - forwarded
by Evan Leibovitch April 26, 2011

April 26, 2011

*From:* Kieren McCarthy <kierenmccarthy(a)gmail.com> *Date:* April 23, 2011 7:34:31 AM PDT *To:* "na-discuss(a)atlarge-lists.icann.org" < na-discuss(a)atlarge-lists.icann.org> *Subject:* *Re: NA-Discuss Digest, Vol 54, Issue 26* Hello all, My two cents worth on the RAA statement. It seems a little one-sided and demanding. I don't think it does the ALAC any good to 'pick sides' in another SO's dispute. As such, It would have far greater impact if you acknowledged the statement put out by the Contracted House, and then explained why, in the ALAC's view, this was not sufficient to pull away from allowing other stakeholders to view the process. You could even try to act as peacemaker and suggest to the Board that both sides find a mutually agreeable observer - who could be from anywhere in the community (ALAC?). The last thing I'd note is that the statement doesn't really explain why individual Internet users are impacted by this. The average Internet Joe doesn't care about the multistakeholder model - but he does care about the rules surrounding domain names. I think the statement would be much stronger if it was clearer why the ALAC was sticking its oar in- because this has an impact far beyond the GNSO Council. Hope this is helpful, Kieren [from mobile device]

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Public Comment: Proposal for Renewal of the .NET Registry Agreement
by Eric Brunner-Williams April 26, 2011

April 26, 2011

Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the following issue, which I've not seen mentioned yet in the ALAC Working List or the NARALO discussion list. In the period from the selection of ICANN as the New Entity to the present date, the single act that most reduced the monopoly in gTLD registry function was the redelegation of the .ORG registry, affecting, and benefiting, several millions of registrants and the users of their resolved resources for web pages, mailing list, and other programmatic resources. Given the competition policy rational for the existence of the corporation, and the obvious difference between establishment of new registries benefiting by a presumption of contract renewal, absent cause, and the maintenance of a legacy monopoly market, abusing the presumption of contract renewal, and the At Large purpose of representing the public interest, I propose that a comment be drafted to the effect that its signers, perhaps entire At Large regional organizations, even the At Large Advisory Committee, prefer that the presumptive renewal language not appear in legacy contracts currently held by the monopoly operator. The announcement by ICANN is here: http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-11apr11-en.htm Thank you all for your time and attention, Eric

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On the transparency of ICANN/registrar negotiations
by Evan Leibovitch April 22, 2011

April 22, 2011

Hello all, In advance of Monday's conference, I'd like to call your attention to something that I'd like to discuss. This statement will be up for discussion at the Tuesday ALAC meeting and I'd like to get NA feedback. https://community.icann.org/display/alacpolicydev/ALAC+Statement++to+the+IC… Thanks! - Evan

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Newest Member of At-Large Support Staff - Matt Ashtiani
by ICANN At-Large Staff April 21, 2011

April 21, 2011

Dear All, Please see below an announcement from David Olive, ICANN Vice President for Policy Development, on the newest member of the At-Large staff: ** Dear All, I am very pleased to announce that Matt Ashtiani will be joining the Policy Team as the At-Large Coordination Officer. After a brief transition period, Matt will take on the full responsibilities of this position as part of the At-Large Secretariat providing support to the ALAC and At-Large community. Matt joined ICANN as the Constituency Travel Coordinator in June 2009. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a triple Bachelor of Arts in International Developmental Studies, Political Science, History and a minor in Middle Eastern/North African Studies. After his undergraduate career Matt moved to Dublin, Ireland where he completed his Masters of Philosophy in International Peace Studies with a specialty in International Relations from Trinity College Dublin. In addition to English, Matt speaks fluent Farsi and some Spanish. Matt is based at ICANN's headquarters in Marina del Rey, California. Matt can be reached directly at matt.ashtiani(a)icann.org Regards, David Olive ICANN Vice President for Policy Development ** At-Large staff wish to welcome Matt and very much look forward to working with him on supporting the At-Large community. Regards, Heidi Ullrich, Seth Greene, Matt Ashtiani, Gisella Gruber-White, Marilyn Vernon ICANN At-Large Staff

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ALAC Statement on the Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group Proposed Final Report - Call for comments
by ICANN At-Large Staff April 20, 2011

April 20, 2011

Dear All, On behalf of Olivier Crépin-Leblond, ALAC Chairman, please find the draft ALAC Statement on the Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group Proposed Final Report drafted by Olivier : URL: https://community.icann.org/display/alacpolicydev/ALAC+Statement+on+Post-Exp iration+Domain+Name+Recovery+Working+Group+Proposed+Final+Report+-+April+201 1 Short URL: https://community.icann.org/x/cYLT The public comment announcement for this issue is available at: http://icann.org/en/public-comment/#pednr-proposed-final-report. This public comment closes on Friday, 22 April Please add your suggestions or revisions using the comments function on the wiki page above or send At-Large staff an e-mail at staff(a)atlarge.icann.org by 23:59 UTC on Friday, 22 April. An ALAC vote will begin shortly thereafter. Regards, Heidi Ullrich, Seth Greene, Gisella Gruber-White, Marilyn Vernon, ICANN At-Large Staff

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New draft of the Applicant Guidebook for New gTLDs is now available for public comment
by ICANN At-Large Staff April 19, 2011

April 19, 2011

Dear All, The new draft of the Applicant Guidebook for New gTLDs is now available for public comment. Guidebook and Public Comment Forum <http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/comments-6-en.htm> (see: http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/comments-6-en.htm) On 15 Apri; 2011, ICANN posted for public comment the Discussion Draft of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook. In keeping with the draft timeline <http://icann.org/en/minutes/draft-timeline-new-gtlds-18mar11-en.pdf> [PDF, 117 KB] approved by the ICANN Board at its meeting in San Francisco, this draft of the Applicant Guidebook will be open for comment for 30 days, through 15 May 2011. This posting includes a "track changes" version of the six modules of the Applicant Guidebook, along with a series of new Explanatory Memos related to changes made as a result of the recent consultations between ICANN's Board and Governmental Advisory Committee: 1. Trademark Protections (Trademark Claims <http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/trademark-protection-claims-use-15apr1 1-en.pdf> & Sunrise Services; and The Requirement for Demonstrating Use) [PDF, 284 KB] 2. GAC and Government Objections; Handling of Sensitive Strings; Early Warning <http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/gac-objections-sensitive-strings-15apr 11-en.pdf> [PDF, 91 KB] 3. Exemptions to Objection Fees for Governments <http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/exemptions-govt-objection-fees-15apr11 -en.pdf> [PDF, 331 KB] 4. Root Zone Scaling <http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/root-zone-scaling-15apr11-en.pdf> [PDF, 286 KB] 5. Market and Economic Impacts <http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/market-economic-impacts-15apr11-en.pdf > [PDF, 480 KB] 6. Registry-Registrar Separation <http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/registy-regsitrar-separation-15apr11-e n.pdf> [PDF, 400 KB] These memos were developed to document the latest position on these topics by taking into account the current thinking, discussions and public comments received. Each memo not only reflects GAC advice but also contains the reasoning and rationale on each of the relevant issues regarding the launch of the New gTLD Program and Applicant Guidebook. Also being posted today is the ICANN Reply <http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/board-notes-gac-scorecard-clean-15apr1 1-en.pdf> [PDF, 275 KB] to the GAC Comments (on the ICANN Board's Notes on the GAC Scorecard). Keeping with the draft timeline, ICANN plans to post a final version of the guidebook by 30 May 2011, in time for consideration of the New gTLD implementation program at an extraordinary meeting of the ICANN Board to be held on Monday, 20 June 2011, at the ICANN meetings in Singapore <http://singapore41.icann.org/> . Regards, Heidi Ullrich, Seth Greene, Gisella Gruber-White, Marilyn Vernon, ICANN At-Large Staff

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