Hello Emily, Susan and all, Indeed, on 22 September the GNSO Council passed a resolution requesting that staff prepare an Issue Report on "thick" Whois. The resolution may be found here: http://gnso.icann.org/resolutions/ and the key "resolved" clause says the following: RESOLVED, the GNSO Council requests an Issue Report on the requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs. Such an Issue Report and possible subsequent Policy Development Process should not only consider a possible requirement of 'thick' WHOIS or all incumbent gTLDs in the context of IRTP, but should also consider any other positive and/or negative effects that are likely to occur outside of IRTP that would need to be taken into account when deciding whether a requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs would be desirable or not. (IRTP Part B Recommendation #3) As you may know, preparation of a staff "Issue Report" is the first step to launching a policy development process. Staff is targeting the end of November to release a "preliminary" Issue Report, and will be soliciting public comments on the preliminary report prior to finalizing the report. This approach is consistent with the draft new Policy Development Process that the Council is considering while in Dakar. Since you are asking about "new" GNSO-related Whois activities, I'd also like to take this opportunity to share with you a new Working Group that the GNSO is forming related to Whois. By way of background, in May, 2009 the GNSO Council asked Policy Staff to compile a comprehensive set of technical requirements for the WHOIS service policy tools that reflect not only the known deficiencies in the current service but also include technical requirements that may be needed to support various policy initiatives that have been suggested in the past. A Final Report was published on 29 July 2010. The goals of the report were to collect and organize a set of technical requirements for community consideration which would include current features identified as needing improvement, features to support various past policy proposals, and features recommended by ICANN SOs, ACs, and others in the community. This new working group will be developing a survey to help estimate the level of agreement with various "requirements" in the previous inventory report among the GNSO community. Survey results might help determine whether there is benefit to initiating a working group to develop a plan for considering the technical requirement recommendations in the report. The group is targeting to have a draft survey to the GNSO Council for its review by March 2012, and a final report by October 2012. Volunteers are still welcome to join, especially those with a technical background in Whois and those with expertise in survey development and analysis, and the group will be meeting in Dakar on Wednesday at 8:00 AM. The applicable resolution can be found at the same link provided above. Lastly, the joint SSAC and GNSO Working Group on Internationalized Whois Registration data has published a draft Final Report and there will be a session in Dakar on Thursday from 10-11 AM on the details and recommendations contained in the report. I hope this information is helpful and I am happy to respond to questions or provide additional information. Best regards, Liz From: rt4-whois-bounces@icann.org [mailto:rt4-whois-bounces@icann.org] On Behalf Of Emily Taylor Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2011 11:12 AM To: Susan Kawaguchi Cc: rt4-whois@icann.org Subject: Re: [Rt4-whois] ITRP - B Dear all Thanks Susan - I understand that this was on the GNSO Council agenda for a resolution yesterday, and would appreciate an update from any of our GNSO members, or from staff. On 23 October 2011 11:12, Susan Kawaguchi <susank@fb.com<mailto:susank@fb.com>> wrote: http://forum.icann.org/lists/gnso-irtp-b-jun09/pdfXOiKop29If.pdf "WHEREAS the GNSO Council resolved at its meeting on 22 June to 'consider IRTP Part B Recommendation #3 concerning the request of an Issue Report on the requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs at its next meeting on 21 July'. RESOLVED, the GNSO Council requests an Issue Report on the requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs. Such an Issue Report and possible subsequent Policy Development Process should not only consider a possible requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs in the context of IRTP, but should also consider any other positive and/or negative effects that are likely to occur outside of IRTP that would need to be taken into account when deciding whether a requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs would be desirable or not. (IRTP Part B Recommendation #3)" Susan Kawaguchi Domain Name Manager Facebook Inc. 1601 California Avenue Palo Alto, CA Phone - 650 485-6064<tel:650%20485-6064> Cell - 650 387 3904<tel:650%20387%203904> Please note my email address has changed to skawaguchi@fb.com<mailto:skawaguchi@fb.com> NOTICE: This email (including any attachments) may contain information that is private, confidential, or protected by attorney-client or other privilege. 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