Secretary's Notice | Secretary's Notice of ICANN Board Action -- Without a Meeting | 29 November 2011

EFFECTIVE DATE: 29 November 2011

THE ICANN BOARD OF DIRECTORS PASSED THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION EFFECTIVE 29 NOVEMBER 2011 BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT, WITHOUT A MEETING, PURSUANT TO THE ICANN BYLAWS AT:

Section 19. ACTION WITHOUT MEETING

Any action required or permitted to be taken by the Board or a Committee of the Board may be taken without a meeting if all of the Directors entitled to vote thereat shall individually or collectively consent in writing to such action. Such written consent shall have the same force and effect as the unanimous vote of such Directors. Such written consent or consents shall be filed with the minutes of the proceedings of the Board.

ALL VOTING MEMBERS RESPONDED CONSENTED TO THE FOLLOW RESOLUTION BY ELECTRONIC MEANS:

RESOLUTION

Whereas, SX is the ISO 3166-1 two-letter country-code designated for Sint Maarten (Dutch part);

Whereas, ICANN has received a request for delegation of .SX to SX Registry SA B.V.;

Whereas, ICANN has reviewed the request, and has determined that the proposed delegation would be in the interests of the local and global Internet communities;

It is hereby resolved (2011.11.29.01), that the proposed delegation of the .SX top-level domain to SX Registry SA B.V. is approved.

RATIONALE

Why the Board is addressing the issue now?

Staff present delegation and redelegation requests for country-code domains to the Board for decision, once staff are satisfied the applicant has provided a sufficiently complete application that has a reasonable prospect of a positive Board decision. In line with ICANN's commitments to perform timely processing of requests relating to the IANA function, and the DNS root zone in particular, the ICANN Board seeks to evaluate such requests at its next scheduled Special Meeting.

This specific proposal is being presented for consideration out of the regular Board consideration schedule, as there are only minor changes to the original application presented to the Board at its 11 October 2011 meeting, and earlier approval will help facilitate the local Internet community to migrate to the domain at the same time as they migrate to their new international telephony country code.

What is the proposal being considered?

The proposal is to approve a request to IANA to change or designate the sponsoring organisation (also known as the manager or trustee) of a country-code top-level domain. In line with established practice, the ICANN Board is involved in making the decision to proceed with such requests as one step of this multi-step process.

Which stakeholders or others were consulted?

In the course of evaluating a delegation application, ICANN staff consults with the applicant, the current operator (if applicable), and other directly connected parties. In line with ICANN's practice of keeping incomplete root zone change requests in confidence, ICANN has not performed open consultation on this matter.

What concerns or issues were raised by the community?

Any concerns or issues are raised within the public report that will be published in conjunction with this action. This report will be published on the IANA website at http://www.iana.org/ should the root zone change request has successfully completed final processing, usually 1-2 months after the Board's decision.

What significant materials did the Board review?

The Board is involved in assessing requests against a variety of public interest criteria. This criteria includes establishing the country-code is eligible (e.g. listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard); establishing the proposed manager is supported by the local Internet community; establishing the proposed operator is operationally and technically competent; establishing the proposed manager is based locally and bound under local law; establishing the proposed manager operates fairly and equitably; establishing that in cases there is a transfer of operations that an appropriate plan is in place to preserve ongoing stability of the domain; and establishing that the action is compatible with any applicable local laws and regulations. During the staff compilation process, the applicant is asked to provide a variety of materials in support of these various aspects. Pertinent information from these supplied materials and other staff research is provided to the Board, and published in a public report at the end of implementing an approved request.

What factors the Board found to be significant?

The Board considers factors described in the public report, in relation to the basic principles of country-code domain delegation described earlier.

Are there positive or negative community impacts?

The timely approval of country-code domain name managers that meet the various public interest criteria is positive toward ICANN's overall mission, and the local communities to which country-code top-level domains are designated to serve. In this specific case, approval of the request in November will help facilitate plans within the country to execute migration in conjunction with migration to their new international telephony country code.

Are there fiscal impacts or ramifications on ICANN (strategic plan, operating plan, budget); the community; and/or the public?

The administration of country-code delegations in the DNS root zone is part of the IANA functions, and the delegation action should not cause any significant variance on pre-planned expenditure. It is not the role of ICANN to assess the fiscal impact of the internal operations of country-code top-level domains within a country, other than ensuring the operator is based in country and has the appropriate mechanisms to allow the local Internet community to properly oversee the domain's ongoing operation.

Are there any security, stability or resiliency issues relating to the DNS?

For country-code top-level domain delegations, ICANN seeks to approve only such requests where reasonable concerns have been satisfactorily addressed, and the proposed new manager has demonstrated a sufficient level of operational and technical competency where such concerns should be minimal.