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ICANN POLICY UPDATE | Volume 14, Issue 12 – December 2014

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


Busy 2014 Ending, Eventful 2015 Ahead

Public Comment Improvements Coming in January

After months of work by the Policy Development Support and Online Community Services Teams, enhancements to ICANN's public comment proceedings will be launching on 26 January 2015.

In addressing recommendations from the recent ATRT2 effort, two major changes will be implemented: 1) suspending the reply cycle and extending the standard comment period to a target of 40 days, and 2) launching an inquiry feature to allow for community feedback on staff summary reports. These improvements will be featured in redesigned landing pages for each comment proceeding.

Over the next few weeks, the Policy Development Support Team will brief both staff and community stakeholders on these changes to allow for a smooth transition. We welcome feedback on these enhancements and will review the implementation of these changes in six months. For more details on these changes, please review my message in last month's Policy Update at https://www.icann.org/resources/newsletter/policy-update-2014-11-21-en.

Monthly Update from Theresa Swinehart

The operational communities of the IANA functions are in the homestretch towards meeting the 15 January 2015 target deadline to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) Request for Transition Proposals. Additionally the parallel but interrelated Enhancing ICANN Accountability Process has kicked into high gear this month and community participation has been impressive. Although technically not "policy development", these are critically important community activities that we all should follow and support in some way.

Please read Theresa Swinehart's recent update on these important activities for more information: http://bit.ly/1x4U38o

With best wishes for the New Year,

David Olive

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

Across ICANN

  1. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

Address Supporting Organization (ASO)

  1. Regional Internet Registry Number Resource Policy Discussions

Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)

  1. First Draft of ccNSO Meeting Agenda for ICANN 52 Published
  2. Working Group for Secure Email Communication for ccTLD Incident Response Plans Secure Email List

Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)

  1. Update on Work on Second Level Protections for International Organizations
  2. Should Contact Information be Translated or Transliterated?

At-Large

  1. ALAC Policy Development Activities
  2. December Monthly RALO Round Up
  3. The At-Large Community Reaches 180 At-Large Structures

Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)

  1. GAC Engagement in Community Working Groups
  2. Interview with the New GAC Chair, Thomas Schneider

Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)

  1. RSSAC Approves Two Advisories

Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)

  1. SSAC Publishes Advisory on Maintaining the Security and Stability of the IANA Functions Through the Stewardship Transition

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. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

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

Board Working Group Report on Nominating Committee (BWG-NomCom)

ICANN is posting for public comment the report prepared by the Board Working Group on Nominating Committee (BWG-NomCom).

.MADRID - Introduction of Two Approved Launch Programs

The Comunidad de Madrid's applications for two Approved Launch Programs for its .MADRID TLD are being posted for comment to give the community an opportunity to review and provide feedback.

ICANN Draft Five-Year Operating Plan

In line with ICANN's commitment to the multi-stakeholder model, the ICANN Draft Five-Year Operating Plan (Version 1 FY2016-FY2020) is provided for community discussion and public comment.

New gTLD Auction Rules for Indirect Contention

ICANN is seeking community input on the detailed rules (i.e. methodology and processes) for Auctions involving Contention Sets containing Indirect Contention relationships.

Cross Community Working Group (CWG) on Naming Related Functions Draft Transition Proposal

Associated with the IANA Stewardship Transition, this draft transition proposal is the result of work by the names community to meet the requirements associated with this transition as defined by the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG). The CWG has now published its draft transition proposal for public comment.

Proposed Renewal of .JOBS Sponsored TLD Registry Agreement

ICANN is posting for public comment the proposed agreement for renewal of the 2005 Registry Agreement for .JOBS. This proposal is a result of discussions between ICANN and Employ Media LLC.

Release of Country and Territory Names within the .BMW and .MINI TLDs

This Public Comment period aims at gathering community input on proposed amendments to the .BMW and .MINI Registry Agreements.

IDN TLD Program - Label Generation Ruleset (LGR) Tool Project (P1) -LGR Tool Set Specifications Now Open for Public Comment

ICANN intends to develop a tool to allow the Generation Panels and the community to develop and use Label Generation Ruleset (LGR) in the new machine-readable XML-based format. ICANN is releasing the set of requirements for the development of this LGR tool for public comment.

Translation and Transliteration of Contact Information PDP Initial Report

This public comment is to obtain input on the recommendations put forward in this Initial Report by the members of the Translation and Transliteration of Contact Information PDP Working Group (see story in this Policy Update issue)

IDN TLDs - LGR Procedure Implementation - Maximal Starting Repertoire Version 2 is Now Open for Public Comment

ICANN is releasing for public comment version 2 of the Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR-2). This upwardly compatible version of the MSR adds six additional scripts to the repertoire.

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.


Address Supporting Organization (ASO)

2. Regional Internet Registry Number Resource Policy Discussions

At a Glance

Each of the 5 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: http://www.afrinic.net/en/community/policy-development/policy-proposals/

There was discussion of a new proposal that would reserve some IPv4 address space for Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in the region. The proposal will go back to the list for more discussion. The proposal is available at: http://afrinic.net/en/community/policy-development/policy-proposals/1231-resource-reservation-for-internet-exchange-points

Discussions took place on other topics including: Out of Region Use of AFRINIC Internet Number Resources, Whois Database Update Process, AFRINIC Service Guidelines, and Anycast Resource Assignments in the AFRINIC region.

APNIC

Proposal page: http://www.apnic.net/community/policy/proposals

APNIC is currently calling for policy proposals to be discussed at APNIC 39. Policy proposals must be submitted by Friday, 30 January 2015. To submit a policy proposal to the Policy SIG Chairs you can use the online form at http://www.apnic.net/community/policy/proposals/submit or send your proposal in TEXT format to policy@apnic.net using the policy proposal template: http://www.apnic.net/community/policy/process/proposal_template.txt

The APNIC 38 meeting report was made available at: https://conference.apnic.net/38/report

ARIN

Proposal page: https://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/

There was discussion of a newly revised version of ARIN Draft 2014-1 "Out of Region Use" with several statements of support.

ARIN-2014-17, "Change Utilization Requirements from last-allocation to total-aggregate," was posted with revised text to the mailing list.

LACNIC

Proposal page: http://www.lacnic.net/en/web/lacnic/politicas

The LACNIC Public Policy Forum took place in Santiago, Chile.

The first policy discussed at the forum (LAC-2014-2) proposes a modification to the text describing ASN allocation requirements. It was authored by Jorge Lam and seeks to clarify and simplify LACNIC's ASN assignment process. This proposal achieved consensus and is now in the last-call-for-comments period until December 18 after which the LACNIC Board will be able to ratify the policy. https://politicas.lacnic.net/politicas/detail/id/LAC-2014-2/language/en

The second policy discussed (LAC-2014-3) seeks to update the Policy Development Process. It was authored by Ricardo Patara and seeks to establish terms and responsibilities for the process. It was decided that a new version of the proposal would be submitted excluding the text on a potential appeals process and sent back to the list for further comments. https://politicas.lacnic.net/politicas/detail/id/LAC-2014-3/language/en

RIPE

Proposal page: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/policies/current-proposals/current-policy-proposals

RIPE 69 took place in London, UK 3-7 November 2014.

The meeting report included the following on the activities of the Address Policy Working Group:

"Discussions on a number of open policies, including inter-RIR transfers, relaxing the IPv6 requirement for /22 allocations, removing the multi-homing requirement for AS Numbers, and IPv6 and AS Number transfer policies.

If consensus is reached, a new proposal will be created to combine the IPv4, IPv6 and AS Number transfer policies into one single "Internet number resource transfer policy".

There are around 70 cases of organizations opening new local Internet registries (LIRs), requesting /22 allocations from the last /8, and then transferring these allocations and closing the new LIR. The WG decided it would work on a policy to establish a two-year holding period for these /22 allocations in which they cannot be transferred."

Next Steps

  • APNIC 39 and APRICOT 2015 will be held in Fukuoka, Japan 24 February-6 March 2014.
  • ARIN 35 will be in San Francisco, California 13-15 April 2015.
  • LACNIC 23 will be held in Peru 3-8 May 2015.
  • RIPE 70 will be in Amsterdam, The Netherlands 11-15 May 2015.

More Information

Staff Contact

Carlos Reyes, Senior Policy Analyst


Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)

3. First Draft of ccNSO Meeting Agenda for ICANN 52 Published

At a Glance

The first draft agenda for the ccNSO Meeting at ICANN 52 in Singapore has been published.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO Programme Working Group has set a first draft agenda for the Singapore meeting, taking into account feedback received to the survey of the previous meeting as well as topical issues.

Next Steps

The draft agenda will be continuously updated with speakers, detailed topics and summaries of presentations.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, Policy Specialist & ccNSO Support Manager


4. Working Group for Secure Email Communication for ccTLD Incident Response Plans Secure Email List

At a Glance

The ccNSO Working Group for Secure Email Communication for ccTLD Incident Response (SECIR WG) moves forward with its work, aiming to set up an interim secure email communication list shortly.

Recent Developments

The SECIR WG has decided to realize the first version of the SECIR services using an existing but dormant TLD-OPS mailing list at the DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Center. The TLD-OPS mailing list enables the group to set up a running system quickly, thus enabling the community to experience its added value.

Next Steps

Once it is established, as many ccTLD operators as possible, including non-ccNSO members, will be invited to join this email list.

Background

The SECIR Working Group is working on the implementation of a ccTLD Contact Repository, consisting of a secure mailing list that enables ccTLD operators to obtain each other's contact details and exchange rudimentary incident messages. It will be designed to work with similar lists of regional organizations, such as CENTR, or LACTLD.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, Policy Specialist & ccNSO Support Manager


Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)

5. Update on Work on Second Level Protections for International Organizations

At a Glance

The GNSO's Policy Development Process (PDP) Working Group (WG) on access to curative rights protection mechanisms by International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) and International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) has made substantial progress on its work. This WG was tasked with investigating whether or not the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) or the Uniform Rapid Suspension procedure (URS) should be amended to address certain problems and concerns of IGOs and INGOs in using these curative rights mechanisms.

In the meantime, the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council continue to discuss next steps for reconciling previous GNSO recommendations and Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice that had been provided to the ICANN Board concerning preventative protections for IGOs and certain INGOs (such as may be provided through the Trademark Clearinghouse).

Recent Developments

In June 2014, the GNSO Council chartered the current IGO-INGO Curative Rights WG to explore whether existing curative rights protection mechanisms such as the UDRP and URS should be amended or if a separate, narrowly tailored dispute resolution procedure ought to be developed instead to address the problems currently faced by IGOs and INGOs in using these procedures.

Following the issuance of the GAC Communiqué from the Los Angeles meeting in October, the WG developed a set of follow up questions that has since been conveyed to the GAC by the newly appointed GAC-GNSO Liaison, Mason Cole, in an effort to facilitate the GAC's engagement with the GNSO on this topic. The WG has also sent a set of specific questions to a coalition of IGOs engaged with ICANN on these issues, as part of its research into the extent of the challenges faced by IGOs in using the UDRP and URS. In addition, the WG recently agreed to exclude INGOs from further consideration in the PDP. The WG's early research showed that the distinctions between IGOs and INGOs were sufficient to merit a continuing focus only on IGOs.

In addition to the GAC, the WG has reached out to all GNSO Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies as well as all other ICANN Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees, advising them of its recent deliberations and soliciting their input on its work.

Next Steps

Regarding the ongoing PDP on curative rights protections for IGOs, the WG expects to consider all input received from the GAC, the IGO coalition and other ICANN SO/ACs, Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies as it continues to work through its Chartered tasks. The WG intends to hold a community meeting at the next ICANN Public Meeting in Singapore, in February 2015, to present its preliminary findings to the community and obtain feedback that will assist it in developing final policy recommendations.

Regarding certain preventative protections previously recommended by the GNSO in an earlier PDP, the NGPC and the GNSO Council continue to discuss the issues raised by inconsistencies between these with the GAC advice received on such protections.

Regarding those of the GNSO's previous recommendations already adopted by the ICANN Board, an Implementation Review Team will be formed to work with ICANN staff to develop an Implementation Plan.

Background

IGOs and INGOs currently have difficulties relying on the UDRP and URS to protect their identifiers at the second level. For IGOs, the procedural requirement to agree to submit to the jurisdiction of a court for purposes of an appeal is seen as potentially jeopardizing their status as being immune from national jurisdiction. For both IGOs and INGOs, the current mechanisms are premised on the ownership of a trademark or other equivalent right – while some may own trademarks in their names and/or acronyms, this is not necessarily the case for all IGOs and INGOs.

In November 2013, the GNSO Council unanimously approved all the consensus recommendations of its PDP WG on the Protection of International Governmental Organizations in All gTLDs (IGO-INGO PDP WG). One of these recommendations had been that the Council request an Issue Report, as a preceding step to a possible PDP, on the issue of access to and use of curative rights protection mechanisms such as the UDRP and the URS by protected IGOs and INGOs.

The Preliminary Issue Report was published for public comment on 10 March 2014. A report of public comments received was published on 16 May 2014, and a Final Issue Report incorporating relevant public comments was prepared and sent to the GNSO Council on 25 May 2014. The GNSO Council voted to initiate a PDP based on the Final Issue Report on 5 June 2014, and approved the Charter for the PDP WG on 25 June 2014. A point of particular note is the specific limitation of the PDP to only those IGO and INGO identifiers that had previously been listed by the earlier IGO-INGO PDP WG as eligible for protection, in its consensus recommendations adopted by the GNSO Council in November 2013.

On 30 April 2014, the ICANN Board had resolved to adopt those of the original IGO-INGO PDP WG's consensus recommendations that are not inconsistent with GAC advice received on the topic. On 16 June 2014, the Board's NGPC requested that the GNSO Council consider amending those remaining recommendations that are inconsistent with GAC advice, in line with the GNSO's documented processes as described in its PDP Manual. On 7 October 2014, the GNSO Council sent a reply to the NGPC and is awaiting the NGPC's further response.

The GAC's Los Angeles Communiqué had advised against modifying the UDRP and URS. Through the newly appointed GAC-GNSO liaison, the WG has invited the GAC and affected IGOs to provide further input on this topic.

More Information

Staff Contact

Mary Wong, Senior Policy Director


6. Should Contact Information be Translated or Transliterated?

At a Glance

The PDP Working Group on Translation and Transliteration of Contact Information has published its Initial Report on 15 December. The Report will be open to Public Comment until 1 February 2015.

Recent Developments

The PDP Working Group was formed this month and has been tasked with answering two questions: 1) Should domain name registration contact information (commonly referred to as 'Whois data') be translated or transliterated into one single script or language and if so, 2) Who should bear the costs of such a requirement? Currently, a majority of PDP Working Group members do not favor recommending a mandatory translation or transliteration.

Community members are encouraged to submit their views on both these questions, putting forward arguments that will inform the group's deliberations in the run-up to the Final Report.

Next Steps

Once the PDP Working Group has reviewed all comments received, members will start preparing their Final Report. The group is planning to meet face-to-face in Singapore during ICANN 52.

More Information

Staff Contact

Julie Hedlund, Policy Director
Lars Hoffmann, Policy Specialist


At-Large

7. ALAC Policy Development Activities

At a Glance

Between mid-November and mid-December 2014, the ALAC's policy development activities consisted of the following:

  1. ALAC Statement on the Public Interest Commitment ALAC Review – Follow Up [PDF, 228 KB]
  2. ALAC Statement on the Cross Community Working Group to Develop an IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CWG) Draft Transition Proposal
  3. Charter of the Cross Community Working Group (CCWG) on Enhancing ICANN Accountability [PDF, 462 KB]

Recent Developments

  1. During ICANN 51 in Los Angeles, the ALAC Statement on the Public Interest Commitments [PDF, 211 KB] (PICs) was submitted to the ICANN Board, calling for a freeze on the most sensitive Category 1 TLDs as defined by the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) until appropriate public interest safeguards are put in place.

    Under review by the Board New gTLD Process Committee (NGPC), this advice has received a lot of notice, particularly from the Registries [PDF, 84 KB]. To reinforce its position, the ALAC urgently submitted a follow-up Statement [PDF, 228 KB] to the ICANN Board on 19 November 2014, which sets out the details in its advice. Gaining momentum across constituencies, the ALAC advice has rallied support from the Business Constituency [PDF, 194 KB], the GAC [PDF, 285 KB], and other sources.

  2. In response to the public comment request on the Cross Community Working Group to Develop an IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CWG) Draft Transition Proposal, Alan Greenberg, ALAC Chair, and one of the ALAC participants in the CWG, drafted a Statement, which was based on extensive discussion among At-Large participants in the CWG. The Statement analyzes the CWG's proposed structures and suggests alternative solutions.

    To enhance At-Large members' understanding in the IANA stewardship transition issue and ALAC's position on the RFP, two webinars were held in early December, with the second one focusing on the draft ALAC Statement with detailed illustrations [PDF, 1 MB]. While the draft Statement is still under development and soliciting comments across the community, the ALAC submitted it to the public comment process on 16 December 2014 in the interest of receiving feedback and constructive suggestions from CWG members and others outside the At-Large community. Taking further comments into consideration, a final version will likely be ratified by the ALAC and submitted prior to the completion of the comment period on 22 December 2014.

  3. The ALAC adopted the Charter of the Cross Community Working Group (CCWG) on Enhancing ICANN Accountability [PDF, 462 KB], in which two ALAC members took part in drafting. In early December, the ALAC selected one member from each Regional At-Large Organization (RALO) to be its official representatives in the CCWG.

    The At-Large representatives are: Tijani Ben Jemma (AFRALO), Cheryl Langdon-Orr (APRALO), Sebastien Bachollet (EURALO), León Sánchez (LACRALO) and Alan Greenberg (NARALO).

Next Steps

More Information

Staff Contact

Xinyue (Ariel) Liang, At-Large Policy Coordinator


8. December Monthly RALO Round Up

At a Glance

All RALOs are wrapping up this year's activities and outlining plans for next year's initiatives. The 5 RALO Secretariats will hold a conference call to discuss cross-RALO issues in preparation for ICANN 52. Among the most relevant issues to be discussed are RALO Updates of Rules of Procedures (ROPs), At-Large Structure Decertification and Performance metrics as well as implementation of ATLAS II Recommendations.

See the wiki for further details on this meeting. A brief update of the monthly RALO developments is provided below.

Recent Developments

  1. AFRALO

    AFRALO Rules of Procedures Working Group continues making steady progress in the compilation and approval of various documents. The themes being discussed include individual membership, weighted vote, member performance, decertification, quorum and certification criteria. See the wiki for further details.

    The Taskforce "Outreach for more African representation in ICANN leadership positions" has produced a Flyer [PDF, 650 KB], which was distributed during the latest AFRINIC meeting in Mauritius.

  2. APRALO

    APRALO leaders continue working on the organization of the APRALO Singapore Showcase, including pursuing Sponsorship opportunities. See Showcase wiki page for updates.

    APRALO members continue working with the APAC HUB in Singapore on implementing the APAC HUB – APRALO strategy.

    The first stage of the strategy Focus Area 1: Language Localization is well underway. It must be highlighted that this project is a true example of bottom-up community engagement. For example, ISOC-Delhi, has completed translation of several ICANN materials into Hindi, which is an official language of India and the major native language across northern India. See Working Group - Hub Pilot Framework- Language Localization Initiative to see the translated documents and further details.

  3. EURALO

    EURALO members are discussing issues such as the EuroDIG planning process for Sofia, June 2015, call for proposals and Open Planning meeting, review of new ALS applications, EURALO budget planning for 2015 and CROPP submissions. Members have started brainstorming ideas for the proposal for a face-to-face meeting during the ICANN 2015 autumn meeting in Dublin.

  4. LACRALO

    LACRALO members are discussing and providing inputs on the following documents a Proposal for the Procedure for the Preparation, Issuance and Publication of Statements, a Proposal of New ALS Recruitment Program, and a Metrics Proposal.

    LACRALO has published a schedule for Elections for LACRALO's Chair and Secretariat 2015.

    LACRALO email mail lists are undergoing a testing phase to improve the quality of the automated translation tool. See discussion-of-LACRALO-mailing-list-issues for updates.

  5. NARALO

    NARALO's Chair Garth Bruen has requested a leave of absence from 8 December 2014 until 13 April 2015 due to personal reasons that prevent him from fulfilling his obligations as Chair. The request was sent to the NARALO list on 10 December 2014 and received full support from NARALO's members. Pursuant to NARALO current Bylaws full consensus was reached.

    NARALO's leadership is organized as follows: NARALO's Acting Chair: Evan Leibovitch; NARALO's Acting Secretariat and Vice Chair: Judith Hellerstein.

    For further details please see: https://community.icann.org/display/NARALO/NARALO+Regional+Officers

More Information

Staff Contact

Silvia Vivanco, Manager, Regional Affairs


9. The At-Large Community Reaches 180 At-Large Structures

At a Glance

The ALAC has certified three new organizations as At-Large Structures (ALSes). 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 180.

The ALAC is also implementing a new ALS online application form, which replaces the current Word document format. The online form will be found on the At-Large website, but will also be available on the RALO wiki homepages in order to increase outreach. Pending approval from RALO Chairs, the form will be available in English but also in translated versions to accommodate RALOs in which several languages are spoken.

Recent Developments

The ALAC has voted for the certification of three organizations as ALSes. The certification process included due diligence carried out by ICANN staff and regional advice provided by the relevant Regional At-Large Organization (in this case, AFRALO).

ISOC South Africa is situated in Midrand, South Africa.

The leadership is relatively young and very energetic, and they are active in engaging universities and colleges in order to raise awareness about the Chapter. They are also fostering working collaborations with government entities, telecom companies, academics, ISOC-ZA and other related civil society organizations (importantly youth owned organizations).

DigitalSense Africa is based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Members are usually active via public forums, and themes of discussion are taken from the industry issues of concern both at the local, regional and global levels. It is structured to strengthen attendance at the annual face-to-face engagements such as the Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance for Development (NDSF-IG4D) and Nigeria IPv6 Roundtable. The organization also promotes industry events in the country and internationally, which is viewed as beneficial to member enlightenment and education.

ISOC Rwanda based in Rukiri, Rwanda.

The group has recently undergone a status change to allow the organization to operate as a non-profit entity. Leadership regularly applies for event funding and conducts numerous events such as seminars in local privacy and online access, and participates in the national IGF and IPv6.

Next Steps

Staff is currently awaiting regional advice from AFRALO Leadership for the Cameroon League for Development, from LACRALO for Asociacion para las Mejoras de las Tecnologias de la Informacion y Comunicacion (AMTICS), and from EURALO for the Internet Support Foundation.

Background

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

More Information

Staff Contact

Nathalie Peregrine, Policy staff support for At-Large


Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)

10. GAC Engagement in Community Working Groups

At a Glance

The GAC recently adopted the proposed charter for the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) and appointed five members to this group. The GAC is already participating actively in both the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) and the Cross Community Working Group to Develop an IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CWG).

Recent Developments

The GAC recently resolved to adopt the proposed charter for the CCWG-Accountability. Five GAC Representatives from Argentina, USA, Denmark, African Union Commission and Niue, have been appointed as members. In addition, one of the GAC members in the ICG, the GAC Representative from Iran, has been appointed as one of two ICG liaisons to the CCWG-Accountability. Multiple other GAC Representatives have also signed up as participants.

This engagement in the CCWG-Accountability comes in addition to active GAC participation with members appointed to both the ICG and the CWG on Naming Related Functions since the launch of these two initiatives.

Next Steps

The GAC is conferring internally with its members in these groups in order to convey timely input. These developments also serve to illustrate a trend that the GAC is undertaking in more activities between ICANN meetings. Traditionally, the GAC has focused its activities and decisions on face-to-face meetings, but the increase in community initiatives and issues to address have prompted continuous inter-sessional work by GAC members.

More Information

Staff Contact

Olof Nordling, Senior Director, GAC Relations
Julia Charvolen, Coordinator, GAC Services
Karine Perset, GAC Relations Advisor


11. Interview with the New GAC Chair, Thomas Schneider

At a Glance

In a recent interview, the new GAC Chair emphasized his efforts to reinforce trust and accountability in both the ICANN model and the public interest during the upcoming transition period. Asked about the proposed bylaws change that would set a higher threshold for the Board to reject GAC advice, he noted that the GAC and the Board should strive for consensus decisions and stressed the need to be sensitive to perceptions and to engage with the rest of the community.

Recent Developments

Interviewed right after his election at ICANN 51 in Los Angeles, Thomas Schneider, stated the priorities for the GAC in its advisory role within ICANN and highlighted that trust and accountability are critical to the effectiveness of ICANN's multistakeholder model. He said that stakeholders who may not agree with specific decisions would nevertheless respect and approve of the outcomes, provided they were confident in the fairness of the process and knew that differing viewpoints had been taken into account.

Mr. Schneider also addressed the matter of a proposed bylaws change applying a 2/3 majority-voting threshold for the Board to reject GAC advice, instead of the current simple majority. He emphasized the need for the Board and the GAC to strive for consensus-based decisions and to engage with the rest of the community by providing all relevant background information and explanations, while also being sensitive to perceptions.

Next Steps

Following reactions from other stakeholder groups, the proposed bylaws change decision is on hold and the topic may also be relevant in the context of the wider ICANN accountability discussions. The bylaws currently direct the Board to look for a solution "in good faith and in a timely and efficient manner" should the Board disagree with advice from the GAC.

More Information

Staff Contact

Olof Nordling, Senior Director, GAC Relations
Karine Perset, GAC Relations Advisor
Julia Charvolen, Coordinator, GAC Services


Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)

12. RSSAC Approves Two Advisories

At a Glance

At its regular meeting on 20 November 2014, the RSSAC approved RSSAC001 and RSSAC002, the first two formal advisories produced by the RSSAC under its reorganized structure.

Developments

In RSSAC001, the RSSAC describes the best practice service to be provided by root servers, and defines the operational expectations that users might reasonably anticipate of both that service and the root server operators. This document highlights that a diversity of approach is desirable in the root server system, and replaces, together with an upcoming Request For Comments from the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) (see below), an earlier direction (RFC 2010, RFC2870) on implementation with a set of protocol and service expectations that root server operators must satisfy.

In RSSAC002, the RSSAC identifies and recommends an initial set of parameters that would be useful to monitor for establishing a baseline and identifying trends for the root server system. The implementation of these measurements (and future refinements to them) by root server operators will form an early warning system that will assist in detecting and mitigating any effects (or the absence of such effects) associated with the growing size of the root zone. A common set of expectations for data collection will help identify any changes that might challenge the normal performance of the DNS root server system associated with growth of the root zone or other evolutionary changes in the DNS and the Internet.

Next Steps

RSSAC002 is published on the RSSAC publications webpage. RSSAC001 will be held for publication in tandem with a complementary RFC by the IAB, specifying the DNS Root Name Service Protocol and Deployment Requirements (the current draft is available here).

These documents are general advice to the technical community, particularly the root server operators. In accordance with its charter, RSSAC is working with the root server operator organizations on deployment of the recommendations and plans a status report to the community.

More Information

Staff Contact

Carlos Reyes, Senior Policy Analyst


Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)

13. SSAC Publishes Advisory on Maintaining the Security and Stability of the IANA Functions Through the Stewardship Transition

At a Glance

On 10 December 2014 the SSAC published SAC069: SSAC Advisory on Maintaining the Security and Stability of the IANA Functions Through the Stewardship Transition.

Recent Developments and Next Steps

On 10 December 2014 the SSAC published SAC069: SSAC Advisory on Maintaining the Security and Stability of the IANA Functions Through the Stewardship Transition [PDF, 669 KB]. In this Advisory, the SSAC considers issues that may affect the security and stability of the DNS both during and after the transition of the NTIA's stewardship role of the IANA Functions, and makes several recommendations. This Advisory complements SAC067, "Overview and History of the IANA Functions," and SAC068, "Report on the IANA Functions Contract," and assumes familiarity with the information contained in those two Reports. Section 2 describes the way in which NTIA's role in the current IANA Functions arrangement contributes to the security, stability, and resiliency of the IANA Functions activities. Section 3 presents questions and issues that must be addressed by the Internet community in order to preserve the security, stability, and resiliency of the IANA Functions activities through (and beyond) the transition. Section 3 also contains specific SSAC recommendations.

The SSAC notes that work on this document commenced in May 2014, early in the IANA Stewardship Transition proposal process. Since then, its initial input on the subject has been published as SAC067 and SAC068, and the operational communities of the IANA Functions have made substantial progress on their transition proposals to be submitted to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG). As a result, some of the findings and recommendations in the advisory may have been overtaken by events. However, the SSAC believes that the general thrust of the report is accurate and beneficial to the public discourse on the IANA Stewardship Transition.

Next Steps

The advisory may serve to inform the Cross Community Working Group to Develop an IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CWG) during its public comment period on a draft transition proposal [PDF, 1.71 MB]. In addition, the SSAC will brief the ICANN community on the advisory at the ICANN 52 Meeting in Singapore in February 2015.

Background

On 14 March 2014, the U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced its intention to transition out of its current stewardship role with respect to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions. In that announcement, NTIA called upon the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to "convene global stakeholders to develop a proposal to transition the current role played by NTIA in the coordination of the Internet's domain name system (DNS)." The NTIA also specified a set of criteria that must be met by the proposal.

During this process, as the stakeholder communities discuss and formulate their expectations and proposals for a post–NTIA IANA Functions arrangement, it will be important to understand the role that NTIA currently plays with respect to the IANA Functions.

More Information

Staff Contact

Steve Sheng, Director, SSAC and RSSAC Advisories Development Support

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."