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ICANN POLICY UPDATE | Volume 11, Issue 8 — August 2011

PDF Version [1.6 MB]

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/policy/

CONTENTS:

Across ICANN

  1. ICANN Stakeholders Weigh In on IANA Contract
  2. A Closer Look at the New Public Comment Web Pages
  3. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

ccNSO

  1. United Arab Emirates Becomes 117th ccNSO Member
  2. Paul Szyndler to Lead Country Name TLD Study Group
  3. ccNSO Elects Jian Zhang to NomCom

GNSO

  1. GNSO Improvements: PDP Final Report Receives Final Review
  2. GNSO Council Adopts Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Final Report, Recommendations
  3. Other Issues Active in the GNSO

ASO

  1. Policy Proposal for Recovered IPv4 Address Blocks Approaching LACNIC and AfriNIC Adoption

Joint Efforts

  1. Draft Final Report on New gTLD Applicant Support Expected in August
  2. At-Large, GAC Issue Joint Policy Statement
  3. Other Issues Active as Joint Efforts

At-Large

  1. AFRALO Plans Informative, Culture Events for Dakar
  2. ALAC Members Get Social

SSAC

  1. Issues Active in the SSAC

Read in Your Preferred Language

ICANN Policy Update is available in all six official languages of the United Nations. Policy Update is posted on ICANN's web site and 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: policy-staff@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. ICANN Stakeholders Weigh in on IANA Contract

At a Glance

The ccNSO and ALAC have each submitted separate policy comments on the Further Notice of Inquiry into the performance of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, published by the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Recent Developments

Both the ccNSO and ALAC submitted official statements to the NTIA to meet the deadline of 29 July 2011. This was the first time the ccNSO (Council and membership) used its newly-defined process to develop a statement or position paper. For ALAC, this marked the second time the committee has submitted comments in response to inquiries on ICANN's performance of the IANA functions. Both the ccNSO and ALAC wrote in support of ICANN's multi-stakeholder model.

Background

ICANN currently performs the IANA functions, on behalf of the United States Government, through a contract with the NTIA. NTIA issued an initial Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on 25 February 2011, seeking public comment to inform the procurement process leading to the award of a new IANA functions contract. The NOI received more than 80 public comments on a detailed set of questions related to enhancing the performance of the IANA functions. The current contract is set to expire on 30 September 2011, though it does include an option to extend performance for an additional six months.

The NTIA published a Further Notice of Inquiry (FNOI) in June 2011, and requested public comments on the contract's draft statement of work.

More information

Staff Contacts

Bart Boswinkel, ccNSO Senior Policy Advisor

Seth Greene, Interim At-Large Manager


2. A Closer Look at New Public Comment Web Pages

At a Glance

Screenshot of a sample Public Comment solicitation

Screenshot of a sample Public Comment solicitation

Following on last month's launch of the redesigned Public Comment web pages, the Public Participation Team has been working with a focus group of ICANN community volunteers to gather initial feedback on further improvements.

Recent Developments

In June 2011, the ICANN Public Comment landing page was redesigned and restructured to support the implementation of the Accountability and Transparency Review Team Recommendations relating to how community members provide input on ICANN matters. After this first step, ICANN staff has been working with a focus group of community volunteers appointed by ICANN's SO and AC Leaders. The focus group is providing feedback on further improvements to the public comment process such as the Stratification/Prioritization of various proceedings and the Comment/Reply Comment structures. Process improvements are expected to be integrated into the Public Comment system and web pages by the end of this year.

Key features of the redesigned site are listed below.

Open Public Comments

On this redesigned page, the user will find the list of all current open Public Comment topics. Clicking on one of them will take you to that specific topic's Public Comment box, where you will see the following fields:

  • Comment Period: In addition to the usual Opening and Closing dates, this section now also designates a specific "Closing Time" noted in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). We hope this will make the deadline very clear and easy to understand.
  • Originating Organization: This field indicates which group of the ICANN multi-stakeholder model requested Public Comment feedback. Possible entries could be: ICANN Policy Department, ICANN Board of Directors, GNSO Council, At Large Advisory Committee, etc.
  • Purpose: A summary of why this Public Comment topic is being opened and its overall objective(s).
  • Current Status: The state of activities relevant to this solicitation.
  • Next Steps: An outline of what is expected to happen next (e.g., decisions to be made) based on the public comments.
  • Staff Contact: The name of the ICANN staff contact person regarding the specific Public Comment.
  • Important Information Links:
  • In this part of the Public Comment box, you will find four links as follows:

Public Comment Announcement: On this page you will find further details about the Public Comment as follows:

    Screenshot of a sample Public Comment Announcement
  • Section I: Description and Purpose - A detailed summary of the topic and essential information about the purpose of the Public Comment solicitation.
  • Section II: Background - This area describes any previous contextual information that will be helpful to prospective participants - including actions/decisions leading up to this solicitation for community input about the topic.
  • Section III: Document and Resource Links - This area will be used if there are other relevant materials provided though hyperlinks or other relevant document references.
  • Section IV: Additional Information (optional) - This section will be filled in if there is additional information relevant to this solicitation that is not covered above.

To Submit Your Comments (Forum): You can click this link for the email address that allows you to submit your comments regarding the Public Comment topic.

View Comments Submitted: You can click this link to see those comments on the topic that are already submitted.

Report of Public Comments: This link will be highlighted when the topic is closed for further comments and the staff summary report is published.

Upcoming Public Comments

This brand new section provides a list of topics being considered by various ICANN organizations including an "Estimated Timeframe" in which the topic may be opened for Public Comment.

Each link on the list will take the user to a box related to the topic providing information regarding the Originating Organization and a Description of the issue.

Please note this list is compiled based on input provided by various ICANN organizations and groups. Having a topic in this list does not assure that there will be an open Public Comment period on the issue, but is only an indication that the matter is being considered.

Recently Closed Public Comments

With the new look of this page, we now indicate whether or not a staff summary report has been published regarding a recently closed Public Comment. The original Public Comment boxes are also accessible for reference purposes.

Archived Public Comments

The page is the landing page for archives sorted by closing date - based on the calendar year and then in months. To maintain the level of transparency required for these processes, all original data about a Public Comment period is kept accessible from these pages, including individual comments.

Next Steps

Please review these new designs and provide any comments, suggestions or other feedback to Public Participation staff. After the focus group feedback is received and analyzed, ICANN will open a Public Comment period to receive wider community feedback, which we will report in future Policy Update issues.

Background

These improvements to the Public Comment web pages are part of an overall effort to improve the Public Comment process. The overall effort supports the implementation of the Accountability and Transparency Review Team Recommendations relating to how community members provide input on ICANN matters.

More Information

Staff Contact

Filiz Yilmaz, Senior Director, Participation and Engagement


3. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

Numerous public comment periods are open on issues of interest to the ICANN community. Act now to share your views on such topics as:

For the full list of issues open for public comment, plus recently closed and archived public comment forums, visit the Public Comment web page.


ccNSO

4. United Arab Emirates Becomes 117th ccNSO Member

At a Glance

A country code operator from the Middle East region was approved as a new ccNSO member in July 2011.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO Council has approved Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, the ccTLD operator of .ae (United Arab Emirates) as a new member. UAE is in the southeast Arabian Peninsula, bordering the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.

Background

The ccNSO now counts 117 members. As of July 2011, there have been a total of seven applications to the ccNSO this calendar year.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


5. Paul Szyndler to Lead Country Name TLD Study Group

At a Glance

The ccNSO has appointed Mr. Paul Szyndler as chair of its Study Group on the use of country and territory names as TLD strings.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO has appointed Paul Szyndler, the general manager – public affairs of .au Domain Name Registration Ltd., as chair of the Study Group on the use of country and territory names as TLDs.

Next Steps

The Study Group will focus on the development of a typology for different kinds of country and territory names (i.e. official names and historical names) and provide examples of each category in different languages.

Background

The Study Group's goal is to provide the ccNSO Council, ccTLD community and other interested stakeholders, including the GAC and GNSO Council, with an overview of the scope and issues associated with the use of country and territory names as TLD strings. It also will provide the scope and impact of alternative action paths on IDN ccTLD and new gTLD processes.

Members of the Study Group come from the ccNSO, GAC, GNSO and At-Large.

More Information

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, ccNSO Senior Policy Advisor


6. ccNSO Elects Jian Zhang to NomCom

At a Glance

ccNSO Council selected its voting delegate to ICANN's Nominating Committee.

Recent Developments

Ms. Jian Zhang, director of international business and policy development for the China Internet Network Information Center and board member of the Asia Pacific Top-Level Domain Association, was elected as the ccNSO appointee to NomCom. She succeeds Mr. Giovanni Seppia, external relations manager at .eu, who declined to stand for another term.

Next Steps

Ms. Zhang will represent ccNSO as a voting delegate on NomCom in 2011.

Background

The Nominating Committee is an independent committee tasked with selecting a majority of the members of the Board of Directors and other key positions within ICANN's structure. The ccNSO has one voting delegate on the committee. The Council put out a call for volunteers for the position to the ccTLD community, and received six responses. The Council cast votes online, choosing Ms. Zhang.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


GNSO

7. GNSO Improvements: PDP Final Report Getting Final Review

At a Glance

Members of the GNSO community are working to implement a comprehensive series of structural and operational changes designed to improve the effectiveness and accessibility of the organization. The effort is reaching an end and below is information on the most recent developments.

Recent Developments

At its 21 July conference call meeting, the GNSO Council directed its Policy Development Process Work Team (PDP-WT) to review a staff summary and analysis report as well as the various community comments submitted regarding the work team's Final Report. The Final Report recommends a wide variety of improvements to the GNSO's Policy Development Process that PDP-WT members have been working for many months to develop. The Council expects that the PDP-WT will submit an updated version of its Final Report to the GNSO Council as soon as possible, preferably in time for consideration at the Council's meeting in Dakar, Senegal in October 2011.

Background

The Final Report contains 47 recommendations, an outline of the proposed new Annex A to the ICANN Bylaws and a supporting document that is envisioned to be included in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures as the PDP Manual.

The most substantial of the recommendations include:

  • Recommending the use of a standardized Request for an Issue Report Template;
  • The introduction of a Preliminary Issues Report which shall be published for public comment prior to the creation of a Final Issues Report to be acted upon by the GNSO Council;
  • A requirement that each PDP Working Group operate under a Charter;
  • Changing the existing Bylaws so that upon initiation of a PDP, public comment periods are optional rather than mandatory, at the discretion of the PDP Working Group;
  • Changing the timeframes of public comment periods including (i) a required public comment period of no less than 30 days on a PDP Working Group's Initial Report and (ii) a minimum of 21 days for any non-required public comment periods the PDP WG might choose to initiate at its discretion;
  • Maintaining the existing requirement of PDP WG producing both an Initial Report and Final Report, but giving the WG discretion to produce additional outputs;
  • A recommendation allowing for the termination of a PDP prior to delivery of the Final Report;
  • New procedures on the delivery of recommendations to the Board including a requirement that all are reviewed by either the PDP Working Group or the GNSO Council and made publicly available; and
  • The use of Implementation Review Teams

Further details and background on the different recommendations, the proposed Annex A and PDP Manual can be found in the Final Report [PDF, 1.5 MB].

More Information about the GNSO Improvements Effort

Staff Contact

Robert Hoggarth, Senior Policy Director


8. GNSO Council Adopts Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Final Report, Recommendations

At a Glance

The GNSO Council on 21 July 2011 adopted the Final Report and recommendations stemming from a two-year process that examined current registrar policies regarding the renewal, transfer and deletion of expired domain names.

Recent Developments

The ICANN Board is next in line to consider the Final Report and Recommendations made by the Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group after the GNSO Council reviewed, discussed and approved the document in July. Among the recommendations that will be considered next by the Board are:

  • Providing a minimum of eight days after expiration for renewal by registrant;
  • Having unsponsored gTLDs and registrars offer Redemption Grace Periods;
  • Requiring posting of fees charged for renewal; requiring that at least two notices prior to expiration are sent at set times, one after expiration; that an expired web site must explicitly say that registration has expired, and offer instructions on how to redeem the domain; and
  • Development of educational materials about how to prevent unintentional loss.

Next Steps

If the ICANN Board adopts the recommendations, the GNSO Secretariat will issue a call for volunteers to the PEDNR Working Group for the Implementation Review Team.

Background

For a history of the ICANN community's policy development activities on this topic, please refer to the PEDNR background page.

More Information

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Senior Policy Director


9. Other Issues Active in the GNSO


ASO

10. Policy Proposal for Recovered IPv4 Address Blocks Approaching LACNIC and AfriNIC Adoption

At a Glance

Now that IANA has allocated all the addresses in IPv4, Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) have discussed a number of proposed global policies for handling IPv4 address space returned from the RIRs to IANA. The RIRs have yet to agree on a new policy.

Recent Developments

After failing to reach consensus on two preceding proposals, a third proposal on allocation of recovered IPv4 address space has been launched and introduced in the five RIRs. APNIC, the registry that originated the proposal, has adopted it, and LACNINC has passed the final call stage and is awaiting adoption. AfriNIC has entered the final call stage. The proposal is in the discussion stage with the remaining two RIRs.

In this proposal, IANA would establish and administer a pool of returned address space to be allocated to all RIRs simultaneously in reduced but equal blocks. Pool size permitting, allocations would occur every six months.

Next Steps

If and when this policy proposal is adopted by all five RIRs, the Number Resource Organization Executive Committee and the Address Supporting Organization Address Council will review the proposal and forward the policy to the ICANN Board for ratification and implementation by IANA.

Background

IPv4 is the Internet Protocol addressing system used to allocate unique IP address numbers in 32-bit format. With the massive growth of the Internet user population, the pool of unique numbers (approximately 4.3 billion) has been depleted and a 128-bit numbering system (IPv6) is taking its place.

More Information

  • A Background Report for the new, third proposal is posted on the ICANN web site and includes a comparison between the proposals so far on this theme.
  • Background Report for the second proposal.

Staff Contact

Olof Nordling, Director, Service Relations


Joint Efforts

11. Draft Final Report on New gTLD Applicant Support Expected Soon

At a Glance

The Joint Applicant Support Working Group is devising recommendations to ICANN to assist applicants from developing economies increase their participation in the New Generic Top-Level Domain Program. The new gTLD application window is scheduled to open in January 2012.

Recent Developments

The JAS-WG is working on a Draft Final Report to be sent to the GNSO and ALAC at the end of August. The Final Report will contain a more comprehensive set of recommendations. Several staff members are supporting the JAS-WG effort. The group is also working on a Public Comment Summary and Analysis of the Second Milestone Report. The Public Forum closed on 29 July 2011.

Next Steps

The JAS-WG has continued its recent Final Report drafting effort and plans to release a Draft Final Report in the coming weeks. Staff is working on implementation plans to be available in time for the New gTLD Program launch.

More information

Staff Contact

Karla Valente, Director, gTLD Registry Services


12. At-Large, GAC Issue Joint Policy Statement

At a Glance

The ALAC and GAC submitted their first joint policy statement on the Second Milestone Report of the Joint Applicant Support Cross-Community Working Group (JAS-WG).

Recent Developments

The ALAC and GAC submitted their first joint policy statement on the Second Milestone Report of the JAS-WG on 4 August 2011. An excerpt states:

The GAC and ALAC strongly believe that the Board must take all necessary steps to ensure that there are no barriers that would prevent the new gTLD round in 2012 from being fully inclusive to stakeholders and communities in all countries so that this is a truly global opportunity to contribute to the evolution of the domain name system. We are encouraged therefore by the reference to the JAS-WG in the resolution of the ICANN Board which launched the round of gTLD expansion, as demonstrating the Board's commitment to taking full account of the concerns and specific needs of individual stakeholders and communities in developing countries.

Background

The JAS WG was formed in April 2010 to bring together members of ICANN's Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees to determine how to create specific support for new gTLD applicants from developing countries.

More information

Staff Contact

Seth Greene, Interim At-Large Manager


13. Other Issues Active as Joint Efforts


At-Large

14. AFRALO Plans Informative, Cultural Events for Dakar

At a Glance

The African Regional At-Large Organization (AFRALO) will hold three major events in Senegal's capital city Dakar during the 42 nd ICANN Public Meeting. These will be a capacity-building program, the AFRALO showcase, and an AFRALO General Assembly.

Recent Developments

In preparation for the ICANN Public Meeting in Dakar on 23-28 October 2011, AFRALO is planning the following events:

Capacity-building Program: Aimed at AFRALO members, this program will focus on enhancing capacity and capabilities as well as raising awareness of ICANN's policy issues, organizational structure and various ongoing activities. Attendees will gain the knowledge and confidence they need to more effectively participate in ICANN's policy development process. Sessions for AFRALO ALSes will be conducted by ICANN staff and held in the early morning hours in order to permit attendance at the main ICANN sessions.

AFRALO Showcase: With a theme of "Internet Development and African Participation," this showcase will assess the best ways in which African Internet users and ALSes can continue to participate in the Internet's evolution. African artists and musicians will add a touch of local color to the event.

General Assembly: AFRALO will hold a series of meetings during the week in an attempt to reach consensus on a number of issues regarding its policies, structure, and activities – issues that will influence its operations for years to come. In addition, AFRALO will discuss ICANN's various open policy forums and formulate any related AFRALO comments. AFRALO members are encouraged to attend and make your voice heard.

More information

Staff Contact

Gisella Gruber-White, At-Large Administrative Support


15. ALAC Members Get Social

At a Glance

ALAC gains Facebook friends and Twitter followers as the first phase of increasing its presence on social media begins.

Recent Developments

At-Large members recently called for staff to increase the community's presence on social media. As a result, ALAC now has 501 friends on Facebook, an increase from 118; and 71 followers on Twitter, an increase from 18.

Next Steps

If you are a social media user, please friend At-Large Staff on Facebook and follow @ICANN_At-Large on Twitter. Staff plans to expand into Google+ next.

More information

Staff Contact

Matt Ashtiani, At-Large Coordination Officer


SSAC

16. Issues Active in the SSAC

update-aug11-en.pdf  [1.6 MB]

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."