Skip to main content
Resources

ICANN POLICY UPDATE | Volume 14, Issue 8 – August 2014

This page is available in:

PDF Version [337 KB]

https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/update-2014-02-20-en

CONTENTS:

Across ICANN

  1. A Note from David Olive — Assessing ATLAS II and Looking Forward to IGF – Istanbul
  2. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

ASO

  1. Regional Internet Registry Number Resource Policy Discussions

GNSO

  1. GNSO Review Begins — 360 Assessment Tool Released to Collect Community Views and Perspectives

At-Large

  1. At-Large Seeks Your Feedback on the 2nd ATLAS Declaration
  2. Monthly RALO Round-up
  3. ALAC Policy Development Activities from late July to early August 2014
  4. At-Large Community Expands to 181 At-Large Structures

GAC

  1. GAC Open Forum at IGF to be held 2 September in Istanbul

RSSAC

  1. RSSAC Establishes Two Work Parties

Read in Your Preferred Language

ICANN's Policy Update is available in all six official languages of the United Nations. Policy Update is posted on ICANN's website and is available via online subscription. To receive the Update in your Inbox each month, visit the ICANN subscriptions page, enter your e-mail address, and select "Policy Update" to subscribe. This service is free.

ICANN Policy Update statement of purpose

Send questions, comments and suggestions to: policyinfo@icann.org.

Policy Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees

Address Supporting Organization ASO
Country Code Names Supporting Organization ccNSO
Generic Names Supporting Organization GNSO
At-Large Advisory Committee ALAC
Governmental Advisory Committee GAC
Root Server System Advisory Committee RSSAC
Security and Stability Advisory Committee SSAC

Across ICANN

1. A Note from David Olive – Assessing ATLAS II and Looking Forward to IGF – Istanbul

ATLAS II Declaration Open to Input

During ICANN 50, the At-Large community convened 150 At-Large Structures (ALS) from 70 countries for the Second At-Large Summit. "ATLAS II" was held to strengthen the bottom-up structure of the multistakeholder model by building capacity and awareness of the At-Large community and to further develop the At-Large community's engagement in ICANN.

ALS representatives explored the theme of "Global Internet: The User Perspective" over the course of the week. Their work resulted in a declaration with 43 recommendations and 10 observations. Now, the At-Large community will be inviting the broader ICANN community to provide feedback on the declaration. Details for submitting input are available in this issue of Policy Update (see At-Large Seeks Your Feedback on the 2nd ATLAS Declaration). I hope you'll be willing to share your views.

IGF 2014 Approaches

We are only a few weeks away from the opening of the ninth annual Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul, Turkey. IGF 2014 comes at a significant moment in global Internet governance, bringing together stakeholders from across the world to explore eight themes.

For the past year, I have had the privilege of serving as the general manager of ICANN's hub office in Istanbul, growing our presence and engaging more directly and effectively with stakeholders in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.

This year's IGF takes place on 2-5 September and allows me to serve in both my policy and office management roles. Istanbul is a beautiful city filled with centuries of history, a rich culture, and delicious cuisine as well as a growing ICT sector—a fitting host city for this important event.

The superb ICANN Istanbul team and I look forward to welcoming ICANN stakeholders and members of the broader Internet community to Turkey for IGF 2014.

Regards,

David Olive
Vice President, Policy Development Support
General Manager, ICANN Istanbul Hub Office

2. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

Two public comment periods are currently open on issues of interest to the ICANN community. Act now to share your views on the following topics:

Introduction of Two-Character Domain Names for .DEALS, XN-FJQ720A, .CITY, .XYZ, .COLLEGE, .GOP, .TRADE, .WEBCAM, .BID, .HEALTHCARE, .WORLD, .BAND. Four registries representing 12 TLDs requested ICANN to release certain two-character labels. The Registry Services Evaluation Policy requires these proposals to be published for public comment. Comment period ends 29 July; reply period ends 20 August.

Introduction of Two-Character Domain Names for .LUXURY, .WANG, XN--3BST00M, XN--6QQ986B3XL, XN--CZRU2D, XN--45Q11C, .BUILD, .REN, .PIZZA, .RESTAURANT, .GIFTS, .SARL, XN--55QX5D, XN--IO0A7I, and 20 TLDs associated with Top Level Domain Holdings Limited. Seven registries representing 34 TLDs requested ICANN to release certain two-character labels. The Registry Services Evaluation Policy requires these proposals to be published for public comment. Reply period ends 4 September.

At any time, the full list of issues open for public comment, plus recently closed and archived public comment forums, can be found on the Public Comment web page.

The staff also populates a web page to help preview potential "upcoming" public comment opportunities. This page – "Public Comments – Upcoming" page – provides information about potential future public comment opportunities. The page is updated after every ICANN Public Meeting to help individuals and the community to set priorities and plan their future workloads.

ASO

3. Regional Internet Registry Number Resource Policy Discussions

At a Glance

Each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) has a webpage that lists Internet number policy proposals that are under discussion in their respective geographic region. Internet number policy discussions take place on open policy mailing lists and at Public Policy Meetings (list and meeting information is provided).

This is a sample of some of the number policy and other discussions that took place on the RIR policy mailing lists this month.

AFRINIC
Proposal page

There was a great deal of discussion about a proposal (AFRINIC AFPUB-2014-GEN-002-DRAFT-01) that would limit the amount of IPv4 address space that AFRINIC region Internet service providers can use outside the AFRINIC region.

APNIC
Proposal page

Maemura Akinori, Chair of the APNIC Executive Council, said that a set of questions was added to the APNIC 2014 Survey so that community members could provide their views on APNIC accountability measures. The survey was conducted in July.

ARIN
Proposal page

There was discussion about an inter-RIR ASN (Autonomous System Number) transfer proposal (Draft Policy ARIN-2014-15: Allow Inter-RIR ASN Transfers). Concern was raised about the impact of such transfers on the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) system (a system to help with securing Internet routing).

LACNIC
Proposal page

The former President of LACNIC, Raul Echeberria, has begun a blog.

RIPE
Proposal page

There was discussion about changing the "last /8 policy" to let some organizations get one additional small block of IPv4 space.

Next Steps – Future Meetings

AFRINIC 21 will be held in Mauritius 22-28 November 2014.
APNIC 38 to take place in Brisbane, Australia 9-19 September 2014.
ARIN 34 will be in Baltimore, Maryland 9-10 October 2014 (NANOG 62 is 6-8 October 2014).
LACNIC 22 will be in Santiago, Chile in October 2014.
RIPE 69 will be in London 3-7 November 2014.

More Information

Staff Contact

Carlos Reyes, Senior Policy Analyst

GNSO

4. GNSO Review Begins – 360 Assessment Tool Released To Collect Community Views and Perspectives

At a Glance

The 2014 Review of the GNSO has now begun with the publication of a 360 Assessment Survey tool. The 360 Assessment is a new component within the ICANN organizational reviews framework. It is designed to gather data, opinions and observations for an independent examiner (in this case, Westlake Governance) and may help the examiner focus on particular areas of interest or concern during the review process while also potentially informing future GNSO self-improvement efforts. Please participate in this survey and make your voice heard.

Background

The GNSO serves an important function – it is responsible for developing and recommending to the ICANN Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains.

The GNSO Review is part of ICANN's commitment to continuous improvement, accountability and transparency.  It uses mechanisms and measures to maintain public confidence in the viability, reliability and accountability of ICANN.

ICANN's Bylaws (see Article IV, Section 4) require that its various structures, including the GNSO, be reviewed on a five-year cycle. The purpose of the review is to evaluate the organizational effectiveness of the GNSO, acknowledge areas that are working well, identify areas that need improvement and affect needed changes.

The quality, validity and acceptance of the GNSO Review and the resulting improvements depend on community members providing relevant and useful feedback from a diverse and representative group of people. This is the cornerstone of ICANN's bottom-up multistakeholder model.

The result of a healthy dialogue between assessors and community contributors, the 360 Assessment is designed to be an easy-to-use online tool for the GNSO community, other ICANN structures and community members, the Board and staff to provide valuable feedback to the independent examiner.

The 360 Assessment link will remain open until 10 September 2014 23:59 UTC.

More Information

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Sr. Director, Policy Development Support

At-Large

5. At-Large Seeks Feedback on the 2nd ATLAS Declaration

At a Glance

The At-Large community is now seeking community feedback on the ATLAS II Declaration [PDF, 202 KB]. This key deliverable of the Second At-Large Summit (ATLAS II) focuses on the post-ATLAS II endeavors of the At-Large community, ensuring that the user perspective is placed at the center of ICANN activities.

Recent Developments

ATLAS II was held concurrently during ICANN's 50th meeting held in London in June, and attracted nearly 150 At-Large Structures from 70 countries.

Representing Internet end users across the world, the ALSs convened to network, learn, discuss, mentor, and influence ICANN policy on the theme of "Global Internet: The User Perspective."

The ATLAS II Declaration contains 43 "Recommendations" to the ICANN Board, stakeholder groups, and the ALAC on ways to improve their practices. It also includes 10 "Observations" on the wider Internet community.

Next Steps

Download a copy of the ATLAS II Declaration from the ATLAS II website.

If you have comments, suggestions, or inputs on the ATLAS II Declaration, please send your feedback to atlas2comments@icann.org.

More Information

The ATLAS II website contains additional information on the ATLAS II activities and outcomes.

Staff Contact

Heidi Ullrich, Sr. Director for At-Large

6. Monthly RALO Round-up

At a Glance

After meeting face-to-face during the Second At-Large Summit (ATLAS II) during the ICANN 50 Meeting in London, the At Large community's Regional At Large Organizations (RALOs) have started several working groups to carry out the implementation of decisions made during their General Assemblies. In taking these steps, the RALOs expect to streamline their processes, better facilitate discussions among their members and improve the focus of their strategies to achieve better outputs and optimize the internet's end user's participation in ICANN's multi-stakeholder model.

Recent Developments

  • AFRALO – Review of Rules of Procedures (ROPs)

A new working group has been formed to begin analysing the 2009 AFRALO Operating Principles with the aim of updating the rules and harmonizing them with the 2013 ALAC Rules of Procedures – taking into account the realities currently faced by the ALAC and the At-Large community. The adoption of modifications to these rules is a bottom up endeavor, with direct participation of members from At-Large Structures (ALSes) of AFRALO.

  • APRALO – Draft APRALO – APAC HUB strategy

APRALO members are discussing the draft APRALO – ICANN APAC HUB PILOT FRAMEWORK document prepared by the staff of the Asia Global Stakeholder Engagement office.

The objectives of the strategy are to identify synergies and focus areas between APRALO and the ICANN APAC Hub in order to determine key priorities, initiatives and collaboration and to improve the participation of civil society in ICANN's Regional Strategies. The APRALO region plans to provide its comments on August 31st.

  • EURALO members participation in ICANN StudienKreis

EURALO members will participate in the 14th Meeting of the ICANN-Studienkreis to take place on 28–29 August 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Several EURALO members participated in the European Summer School on Internet Governance between 27 July and 2 August 2014 in Meissen, Germany.

  • LACRALO's Governance and ccTLD Working Groups

LACRALO members have reactivated the Governance Working Group. The Group is tasked with reviewing and studying the current LACRALO Operating Principles and Rules of Procedures. The group will study the following documents presented at the LACRALO General Assembly in London 2014: 1) "Proposal for amendment of LACRALO Operating Principles" and 2) "Procedure to improve the participation of ALSes within ICANN".

This group will also look at performance metrics and will prepare subsequent recommendations for LACRALO ALSes. Some of the specific objectives of this working group will be to create thematic areas within LACRALO to study the specific needs of the region and to create criteria forLACRALO's participation in the internet ecosystem (i.e., regional IGFs, global IGFs, LACNIC, /1net, etc.)

The ccTLD working group is working on creating a unified view about ccTLD issues in the region. Some of the specific objectives of the group are to follow up the work of the ccNSO and comment on it when appropriate; to create a map with each country and depict its relationship with ccTLDs; to debate and document a Latin-American/Caribbean view about ccTLD policies and to promote capacity building about ccTLD issues in general.

  • NARALO organizes its Outreach Event at ICANN 51

NARALO has started preparations of the NARALO Outreach event to take place at the ICANN 51st meeting in Los Angeles. See Workspace for details.

Staff Contact

Silvia Vivanco, Manager, At-Large Regional Affairs

7. ALAC Policy Development Activities from late July to early August 2014

At a Glance

The ALAC has maintained its regular pace on preparing Statements in response to ICANN Public Comments. Between late July and early August, the ALAC submitted two Policy Advice Statements.

Recent Developments

ALAC Statement on the Report: Supporting the Domain Name Industry in Underserved Regions

  • The ALAC strongly supports the concept of supporting the Domain Name Industry (DNI) in underserved regions but notes that simply increasing the DNI without corresponding increases in demand will not be helpful.
  • The evolution of DNI programs should adhere to the following principles: 1) While increasing DNI penetration, the standards of suppliers should not be lowered; 2) education at all levels is key; 3) the processes to become a registrar should be clarified and simplified with training and support; 4) the demands placed on registrars should be reasonable based on local cost-of-living and related financial constraints; 5) the second new gTLD round should give preference to applicants from developing economies and undertake an outreach program to ensure a better understanding; and 6) technical and legal supports should be provided to new gTLD applicants in underserved regions.

ALAC Statement on the Universal Acceptance of TLDs Draft Roadmap

  • Universal Acceptance is very important for upholding the public trust in the evolving Domain Name Ecosystem, and for facilitating the participation of broad sections of populations in the world.
  • The ALAC appreciates ICANN's efforts to release the draft roadmap, as it will be of significant benefit to end-user communities.
  • The ALAC stresses the importance of ensuring that there are frequent and free-flowing interactions between the large number of stakeholders working together to achieve Universal Acceptance.
  • The ALAC recommends the creation of an intermediate-term, cross-community mechanism that not only facilitates stakeholder interactions, but also allows organizational retention of issues and learning.
  • The ALAC recommends monitoring of progress of the Universal Access Initiative (UAI) based on jointly identified indicators.
  • The ALAC reiterates the need for ongoing advocacy with all stakeholder communities, particularly end-user communities, for the dissemination of information on Universal Acceptance.
  • The ALAC recommends that ICANN explore the use of mechanisms that allow quick validation of TLDs so as to enhance end-user trust.
  • The ALAC suggests that advocacy and outreach efforts targeting end-users need to be undertaken in consultation with the At-Large community.

Next Steps

More Information

At-Large Policy Development page

Staff Contact

Xinyue (Ariel) Liang, At-Large Policy Coordinator

8. At-Large Community Expands to 181 At-Large Structures

ALAC has certified three new organizations as At-Large Structures (ALSes): Open Source Foundation for Nigeria (OSFON), ISOC Chad, ISOC Mauritius. These new ALSes expand the regional diversity of the At-Large community, which represents thousands of individual Internet end-users. With the addition of these new organizations, the number of accredited ALSes will now total 181.

Votes concerning applications by Instituto Panameño de Derecho y Nuevas Tecnologías (LACRALO) and Our Rights (NARALO) will start this week.

ICANN staff is currently awaiting Regional Advice from AFRALO Leadership for applicant Our Rights, from NARALO Leadership for Online News Association.

Due diligence is also being carried out for three other organizations: ISOC South Africa Gauteng Chapter, Internauta Colombia, and ISOC Gambia.

Recent Developments

The ALAC has voted for the certification of OSFON, ISOC Chad, ISOC Mauritius as At-Large Structures. The certification process included due diligence carried out by ICANN staff and regional advice provided by the relevant Regional At-Large Organizations (in these cases, AFRALO).

Additional information on the new At-Large Structures:

Open Source Foundation for Nigeria is situated in Abuja, Nigeria. Its mission is to promote and educate decision makers in government, education, NGOs, businesses and citizens on the advantages of using the Linux Operating System, Free and Open Source Applications and Open Standard. This organization will be an ALS within AFRALO.

ISOC Chad is situated in Salam, Chad. This organization aims to promote use of the Internet in Chad, and to work for its accessibility, to encourage participation within ISOC and to organize increasing numbers of training sessions geared towards all levels of Internet users. This organization will be an ALS within AFRALO.

ISOC Mauritius is situated in Curepipe, Mauritius. This ALS strives to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world.

Background

One of the strengths of the At-Large community is that it incorporates the views of a set of globally diverse, Internet end-user organizations, or ALSes, organized within five RALOs. The views of these grassroots organizations are collected through an internal, bottom-up, consensus-driven process and find representation in the official documents of the ALAC.

More Information

Staff Contact

Nathalie Peregrine, policy staff support for At-Large

GAC

9. GAC Open Forum at IGF to be held 2 September in Istanbul

At a Glance

On 2 September, the GAC will hold its second-ever "GAC Open Forum" session, at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Istanbul.

Recent Developments

With a goal to inform the community about the GAC and its working methods, the GAC will hold its second-ever Open Forum session, this time at the Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul. Incorporating feedback from the first session at ICANN 50 in London in June, the 2 September session will be longer and allow more time for questions and discussion.

The GAC Open Forum stems from a recommendation from the ATRT2.

Next Steps

The GAC Open Forum session will take place at Istanbul's Lutfi Kirdar International Convention & Exhibition Center, in Room 9, on Tuesday, 2 September from 9:00 to 10:30 UTC (11:00 to 12:30 EEST). The IGF offers remote participation for many sessions.

Background

ICANN receives input from governments through the GAC. The GAC counts 141 governments as members and 31 intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) as observers. These numbers are expected to increase. The GAC's key role is to provide advice to ICANN on issues of public policy, especially where there may be interaction between ICANN's activities or policies and national laws or international agreements. The GAC usually meets three times a year at ICANN Public Meetings to discuss issues with the ICANN Board, Supporting Organizations, Advisory Committees and other groups. The GAC may also discuss with the Board at other times, meeting face-to-face or by teleconference.

More Information

Staff Contact

Olof Nordling, Senior Director, GAC Relations

Julia Charvolen, Coordinator, GAC Services

RSSAC

10. RSSAC Establishes Two Work Parties

At a Glance

At its 20 July 2014 meeting, the RSSAC formed two work parties to complete its work on documents pending publication.

Recent Developments

During its 10 July 2014 meeting, the RSSAC approved scoping statements for two documents slated for publication: "Service Expectations of Root Servers" or "RSSAC 001" and "Measurements of the Root Server System" or "RSSAC 002." These scoping documents were then circulated within the RSSAC Caucus asking for leaders and volunteers to form a work party for each document. The RSSAC appointed these two work parties on 20 July 2014.

Next Steps

The RSSAC 001 Work Party and RSSAC 002 Work Party will now begin their work to finalize their respective document for publication. The work parties have targeted 24 November 2014 for the completion of their work.

More Information

Staff Contact

Carlos Reyes, Senior Policy Analyst

Steve Sheng, Director of RSSAC and SSAC Advisories Development Support

policy-update-aug14-en.pdf  [336 KB]

A note about our terms of service:

We have updated our electronic terms of service to provide greater transparency and align with laws applicable to us. Learn more.

This site uses cookies to deliver an efficient user experience and to help us see how the site is used. Learn more.OK

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."