Public Comment is a vital part of our multistakeholder model. It provides a mechanism for stakeholders to have their opinions and recommendations formally and publicly documented. It is an opportunity for the ICANN community to effect change and improve policies and operations.
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The GeoTLD Group is the not-for-profit organisation of geographic top-level domains identifying a city, region, language or culture. Its Members operate 34 geoTLDs across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and North-America.
UA and GeoTLDs share the goal of ensuring that everyone can use the internet with domain names and email addresses that best align with their interests, identity, business, culture, or language. This includes the seamless use of IDNs and TLDs that are longer than two- or three-characters after the dot.
The GeoTLD Group, with the support of ICANN, established and coordinates the GeoTLD Universal Acceptance (UA) Local Initiative to promote cooperation between GeoTLDs and their local stakeholders on UA and help organise UA outreach and training tailored to local contexts and needs. As noted in the draft Guidelines, GeoTLDs are close to their local communities. This proximity, including to local governments, makes them well positioned to drive UA awareness and adoption at the local level.
We appreciate the work of the UA Expert Working Group (EWG) and the opportunity to comment on the draft Guidelines for Advancing Universal Acceptance (UA) Adoption. We also wish to acknowledge ICANN for its continued efforts to promote UA adoption. Our comments are based on our experience with the GeoTLD UA Local Initiative and supporting cooperation between geoTLDs and their local stakeholders on UA outreach and training.
Defining UA readiness and adopting a tailored approach for different types of stakeholders is key. These are, rightly, the cornerstones of the EWG’s guidelines, as reflected in the General Guidelines and by the document’s overall approach and structure. They should be the practical starting point for all UA-related activities, including focused and local ones. However, Guideline 1 focusses on big tech organisations and the open-source communities. The UA EWG may consider adding a more generic formulation of this cornerstone guidance, before the current Guideline 1, and broaden Guideline 2 to include materials defining what UA-readiness means for individual stakeholders and what actions they can take to support UA adoption.
When organising a UA awareness or training event for, for example, computer engineering students, academic staff, local website developers, registrars, trade or e-commerce associations, or local government officials, it is important to clearly and concretely define what UA readiness means for that specific group, why they should aim to be UA-ready, and what practical steps they can take to become UA-ready. General definitions or explanations are not appealing. In some cases, the message “what one can do” may be limited to requesting the provider, IT company, or the applications or platforms to implement UA fixes. However, this still contributes to creating bottom-up demand for UA.
We look forward to continuing to work with ICANN on UA awareness and capacity building, including within the DNS industry, in line with the EWG’s suggested guidelines under section 6.
The GeoTLD Group welcomes the draft Guidelines and provides comments based on our experience with the GeoTLD UA Local Initiative and supporting cooperation between geoTLDs and their local stakeholders on UA outreach and training.