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Chair’s Blog: Recap of ICANN77 and the June Board Workshop

19 July 2023
By
Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair

Tripti Sinha is Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at the University of Maryland (UMD) in the Division of Information Technology. She leads Advanced Cyber Infrastructure and Internet Global Services (ACIGS) and the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX). She has over three decades of progressive experience in Internet and Cyber-Infrastructure technologies. Her wide-ranging experience includes leadership positions in engineering, operations, finance, governance, advocacy and policy. In her current role, she is the chief executive of the MAX, which operates a high-performance regional research and education (R&E) 100G network for advanced cyber-infrastructure services and research. She is also responsible for UMD's High Performance Computing service and strategy. Tripti is active internationally as the executive and operational head of UMD's global operation of DNS root services. She previously served as Co-Chair of ICANN's Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) from 2015-2018.

In the United States, she is very involved in the Internet2 community on activities related to the US national R&E Internet backbone. She is also Chair of the Board of Directors of The Quilt whose mission is to provide advocacy for research and education networking on the US national agenda. She has served on many other non-profit and private sector technology advisory boards.

Tripti has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and did graduate work in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. She was born in India and lives in the United States. As a child and young adult, she moved back-and-forth between the USA and India which gave her an appreciation for global pluralism. She is proficient in English and Hindi, and has an understanding of Punjabi, Urdu and the ancient Sanskrit language. Tripti has a keen interest in Information and Communication Technology innovation, entrepreneurship, governance and policy, and international affairs. Tripti was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board of Directors by the Nominating Committee in 2018.  Her term will expire at the Annual General Meeting 2024.

The ICANN Board of Directors and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to a successful ICANN77 Policy Forum. I'm especially grateful for your efforts to allow us to move forward with launching the next round of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

The Board's adoption in March of 98 of the recommendations contained in the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process Final Report kicked off the process to open the next application round. During ICANN77, the ICANN Community and Board came together to complete the four deliverables that we agreed on at the last meeting, including a plan for handling closed generics. I appreciate the unique approach of the Facilitated Dialogue on Closed Generic gTLDs, which made real headway on this issue. The ICANN Organization (Org) also delivered an overview of the work required to complete the program development.

Next, the Board looks forward to continuing its discussions with the Community on the pending next round policy recommendations, and to ICANN Org's delivery of the implementation plan by 1 August. But although the next round of the New gTLD Program is a top priority across ICANN, it was not the only area of focus at the June Board Workshop and ICANN77.

During the workshop, which took place in Washington, D.C., just before the Policy Forum, the Board received an update on ICANN Org's implementation of the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS). We reviewed the proposed success criteria for the service developed by the Generic Names Supporting Organization. ICANN Org also updated the Board on its progress toward launching the ICANN Grant Program, which is on track to open the first application window in March 2024.

At ICANN77, the Board held a joint session with the Governmental Advisory Committee, which focused on how to support applicants in the next round of new gTLDs. We also discussed how to implement the Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation policy – a priority for the Board – and a possible tie-in to the RDRS.

In addition, the Board's CEO Search Committee shared the results of the first phase of the CEO search process in a plenary session. Committee Chair Chris Chapman went over the position description, which is based on the input shared during the 14 Listening Sessions that the Board held between March and May. The CEO search effort has now entered the next phase, and the Board has issued a Request for Proposals for an executive search firm with extensive global reach.

I'd like to once again thank everyone for their contributions to the CEO search effort, and for a fruitful ICANN Public Meeting. The Board will continue to update the Community on our progress over the next few months, until we meet again for the ICANN78 Annual General Meeting.

Authors

Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair
Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair

Tripti Sinha is Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at the University of Maryland (UMD) in the Division of Information Technology. She leads Advanced Cyber Infrastructure and Internet Global Services (ACIGS) and the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX). She has over three decades of progressive experience in Internet and Cyber-Infrastructure technologies. Her wide-ranging experience includes leadership positions in engineering, operations, finance, governance, advocacy and policy. In her current role, she is the chief executive of the MAX, which operates a high-performance regional research and education (R&E) 100G network for advanced cyber-infrastructure services and research. She is also responsible for UMD's High Performance Computing service and strategy. Tripti is active internationally as the executive and operational head of UMD's global operation of DNS root services. She previously served as Co-Chair of ICANN's Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) from 2015-2018.

In the United States, she is very involved in the Internet2 community on activities related to the US national R&E Internet backbone. She is also Chair of the Board of Directors of The Quilt whose mission is to provide advocacy for research and education networking on the US national agenda. She has served on many other non-profit and private sector technology advisory boards.

Tripti has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and did graduate work in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. She was born in India and lives in the United States. As a child and young adult, she moved back-and-forth between the USA and India which gave her an appreciation for global pluralism. She is proficient in English and Hindi, and has an understanding of Punjabi, Urdu and the ancient Sanskrit language. Tripti has a keen interest in Information and Communication Technology innovation, entrepreneurship, governance and policy, and international affairs. Tripti was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board of Directors by the Nominating Committee in 2018.  Her term will expire at the Annual General Meeting 2024.

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