ICANN Announcements

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Participate or Observe: Expedited Policy Development Process on IDNs

3 June 2021

The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Team on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) welcomes anyone to join as a participant or an observer.

The EPDP Team on IDNs is expected to provide the GNSO Council with policy recommendations on:

  1. The definition of all generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and the management of variant labels
  2. How the IDN Implementation Guidelines, which require compliance by the Contracted Parties, should be updated in the future

Please contact gnso-secs@icann.org to sign up as a participant or an observer. By submitting your personal data, you agree that your personal data will be processed in accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy, and you agree to abide by the electronic Terms of Service.

IDNs EPDP Team Model

Taking into consideration the scope of this EPDP and drawing on a number of PDP 3.0 Improvements incorporated in the EPDP charter, the GNSO Council has decided to follow a "Representative + Open" model for this EPDP team, consisting of members, participants, and observers. This model is designed to enable the EPDP team to conduct its work in an efficient manner while creating additional opportunities for broader participation from the ICANN community.

Specific ICANN community groups have been invited to appoint a limited number of members who will drive the deliberations of the EPDP team and participate in the consensus designation process for final recommendations.

Since the IDN topic is of interest to the broader ICANN community and impacts various stakeholders, the EPDP team also welcomes other forms of participation.

Participants can actively engage in all EPDP Team meetings, with the exception of any consensus designation process. As indicated in the EPDP charter, participants are encouraged to possess similar levels of expertise as members with respect to IDN issues, ICANN policies and procedures, and registry and registrar services. They are also expected to track all relevant EPDP deliberations to ensure they remain informed and can contribute when needed. Participants shall abide by a statement of participation.

Observers are subscribed to the mailing list on a read-only basis and are not invited to attend meetings.

See "Section IV: Formation, Staffing, and Organization" of the EPDP charter for more details.

During ICANN71, an outreach session will be held on Monday, 14 June 2021, 16:30-17:30 CEST to provide additional information about this EPDP, including its mission, scope, and how to get involved.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.