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ICANN NCUC Blog
ICANN’s 40th meeting is taking place this week March 13-18 2011 in San Francisco. The major topic of conversation will again be the rollout of new gTLDs and, quite specifically the Government Advisory Committee’s recent objections to the final draft of the Applicants Guidebook. Other current issues are WHOIS and .xxx . Bill Clinton will deliver a keynote on Wednesday.
In advance of next week’s ICANN 40 meeting, the ICANN Non-Commercial Users Constituency, of which ISOC-NY is a member, is holding a full day conference – Internet Governance and the Global Public Interest Policy – today Friday March 11 2011. It is underway and remote participation via Adobe Connect.
Vint Cerf will give the keynote at the North American At-Large Showcase at ICANN 40 in San Francisco on Mar 14. ISOC-NY is an At-Large Structure within NARALO and cordially invites you to attend. The event will be held in the Westin Hotel’s Alexandra Room with great views of the city. Vint’s theme – very much in keeping with the purpose of At-Large – will be “Amplifying the Voices of Civil Society”. Admission is free but space is limited so please RSVP at the earliest opportunity.
ISOC-NY is an At-Large Structure in the North American At-Large Regional Organization of ICANN. The entire At-Large Community is invited to participate in a Community Briefing on IPv6 on Friday, 4 March 2011 at 1500 UTC. (0700 PST, 1000 EST, 1200 Buenos Aires, 1500 London, 1600 CET, 2000 Karachi, 2300 Hong Kong, 0200 Sydney (05.03))
There will be Spanish interpretation for this call.
The call will be moderated by Olivier Crépin-Leblond and features a
presentation by Leo Vegoda, Operational Excellence Officer IANA at ICANN.
Please note the NEW Adobe Connect:
http://icann.adobeconnect.com/ipv6march42011/
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ICANN has confirmed that Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker at ICANN’s 40th meeting, scheduled for March 13-18 2011 in Silicon Valley/San Francisco.
*1/13 Antony Van Couvering Confirmed: Bill Clinton to Address ICANN Meeting in SF
ICANN’s 39th Meeting is underway in Cartagena, Colombia. The schedule is here. Conveniently, Cartagena is in the same timezone as NYC.
There will be two Internet Society Chapter / Member meetings held at Cartagena:
Sunday 5 Dec, 7:30-8:30pm (UTC/GMT 6 Dec 00:30-01:30)
http://isoc.org/wp/chapter-meetings/?p=948
Tuesday 7 Dec, 6:30-8:30pm (UTC/GMT 7 Dec 23:30-01:30)
http://isoc.org/wp/chapter-meetings/?p=952
Details on remote participation are on the links.
Notably the ALAC has proposed to oppose the approval of the Final Applicant Guidebook (PAG), citing in particular several instances on which ICANN staff appear to have ignored or overruled community-developed consensus on contentious issues.
Less than a year after ICANN gained its “independence” by signing an Affirmation of Commitments with the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Now, on Dec 2 2010, ICANN has received a sharply critical letter from NTIA head Larry Strickling, suggesting it has not backed up its promises.
The main issue bothering Strickling appears to be the imminent finalization, after 4 years of painstaking gestation, of the new generic Top Level Domain process. He cites half-baked economic analysis of the effects, and a lack of justification, particularly with regard to the decision of the Board to swing from a policy of absolutely no vertical integration between registries and registrars (Mar 2010) to laissez-faire (Nov 2010). In the NTIA’s opinion ICANN is not honoring its commitment to ‘fact-based policy development’, and to ‘provide a thorough and reasoned explanation of decisions taken’.
It can safely be said, on the latter point, that the NTIA are not alone in this assessment, if the efforts of its own Accountability & Transparency Review Team are to believed.
While internationally many probably share the NTIA’s concerns this may well, coming on the heels of the COICA effort, and recent DNS redirecting by the US in the name of  IP protection, be seen as a reminder of American influence, providing fuel for those governments that would like to see control of the domain system passed to the United Nations via the ITU.
It’s sure to be a hot topic at next week’s ICANN Meeting in Cartagena. It seems probable that ICANN will be forced to take the safe course, and yet again delay the gTLD process.
Commentary:
The GNSO Secretariat of ICANN has issued an invitation to a policy update webinar as the ICANN community readies itself for the upcoming meeting in Cartagena. ICANN staff  will give a briefing on the background and current status of each major policy issue currently under discussion.
What: ICANN Policy Update
When: Nov 24 2010 – 9am or 3pm EST
How: RSVP to gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org for call details
Topics:
Slides are here
The ICANN board on Nov 9 2010, citing a lack of consensus, resolved the last remaining overarching issue holding up the new gTLD process by agreeing to eliminate restrictions on cross-ownership between registries and registrars (aka Vertical Integration), and has now published the Proposed Final New gTLD Applicant Guidebook (PFNAG ?) that describes the process of applying for new generic top-level domains.
Public comment is invited here.
Final approval, or a decision to make final changes, is set for the ICANN meeting in Cartagena on Dec 10 2010. Upon approval a 4 month global communications campaign is planned to make sure everybody on the planet knows and understands the content.
Monica Ehmert of IP-Watch has written a report on the recently concluded ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico. She notes the tussle over recognizing the roles of independent organizations (such as the Internet Society) in the management of the Internet.
The opposite position underlining ITU’s need to cooperate with existing self-governing internet organisations was provided by the Swedish delegate speaking for the 48 members of the “European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations†(CEPT). Changes both within the Union and in the cooperation with other organisations are necessary, the delegate said. “We need to be more efficient internally and we need to avoid overlap with the work done by other organisations. This is particularly important in the internet area.†The 2010 plenipotentiary decisions will “guide the ITU in the right direction,†the Swedish delegate said.
Despite ITU making moves towards transparency apparently the key resolutions won’t be published until Feb 2011
The whole package of internet-related resolutions (Resolutions 101, 102, 133 and a new resolution on the new internet protocol, or IPv6) was passed at a late hour on Thursday night, close to the end of the three-week meeting and it needed re-elected ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré’s urgent appeal for a compromise. For days, delegations mainly from the Arab world and from Russia had fought against a reference to the self-regulatory organisations like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Society and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in the internet resolutions.
Proposals to transform ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC) into an “international committee, or create an (ITU) Council working group (…) with powers of supervision over ICANN,†or a “progressive cooperation agreement between ITU and ICANN and define a mechanism to increase the participation of governments†were all struck from the text. Also struck earlier in the Guadalajara meeting was a Russian proposal to integrate the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) whose future is on the agenda of the UN General Assembly this week. The IGF was an outcropping of the 2003-2005 ITU-led World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
How, asked Syrian delegate Nabil Kisrawi, can an intergovernmental UN organisation like the ITU be considered to be on equal footing with a California-based private company like ICANN? An explanation of the concerns of the Arab countries came from the Saudi delegation. Some people just did not want the names of ICANN and the other self-regulatory bodies in the resolutions because, “we think that in fact there’s a risk of undermining the role of the ITU in the internet.†All countries are in favour of having ICANN work under international and not under California law, the Saudi delegation said.
Touré’s last-minute compromise for the internet resolutions asked at least for “reciprocity†in the cooperative efforts of the ITU, ICANN and the other internet management organisations, and this formula is now part of all four internet-related resolutions of the ITU work plan for 2012-2015.
Monica observes:
A delegate from Russia said in the closing ceremony that the conference had stated “that the ITU is open for cooperation and is ready to take the first steps to bring closer together other organisations that are dealing with internet-related matters.†But, he said, the ITU is also “ready to take on itself a leading role in internet governance within the scope of its competence and we ask the secretary-general to inform the General Assembly of the UN and all those concerned in telecommunications on our progress in this field.â€
and she concludes:
Non-governmental organisations have criticised the ITU for many years and the internet self-regulatory bodies looked at the ITU as interested in “taking over.†With the formal acknowledgement of private domain regulator ICANN, the IP-address allocating RIRs, the Internet Engineering Task Force and the World Wide Web Consortium – standardisation organisations for the internet protocol and the Web respectively – in its plenipotentiary documents, the ITU might be seen as giving up its claim as sole representative for future networks. But how much will the ITU give up?
Beau Brendler finishes a three-year term as an elected member of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) to ICANN in December 2010, after which he becomes chairman of the North American Regional Organization of the At-Large (NARALO) of which ISOC-NY is a member structure.
Beau, long a champion of Internet consumer concerns, informs us that he just been engaged as blogger at thinkerNet , and you can read his first effort below.
Beau has promised to include video in his contributions We look forward to many interesting posts!
ICANN held a couple of webinars on Sptember 27 2010 to discuss future public participation scenarios. Recordings and slides can be found here.
They are now requesting that all interested parties comment and take a survey.
Information gathered from the community will be presented at a public consultation in Cartagena, in order to discuss and finalize recommendations to the ICANN Board.
ISOC-NY is an At-Large Structure in the North American Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO) of ICANN. Recent structural changes have meant that, rather than a Liason to the ICANN Board, At-Large now has a seat. NARALO has participated, along with the other Regional Organizations, in the long and intricate process of establishing an election procedure. With its conclusion the call has now gone out for applicants. Deadline is Sep 6 2010. Press release below:
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Prof. Milton Mueller has, in a blog post entitled A new era in domain name economics?, summarized the various positions in the ICANN Vertical Integration Working Group. Resolution of VI question – Â the degree of cross-ownership between registries and registrars – Â is the one remaining outstanding block to the rollout of new gTLDs.
* RACK The status quo. 15% limitations on cross-ownership. Â No exceptions
At present the JN2+ proposal is currently leading with 69% of the WG saying they could live with it. The WG is tasked with coming up with a solution before the ICANN board next meets in September.
More:Â Vertical Integration PDP
The GNSO Vertical Integration Working Group Initial Report is now posted for public comment.
At-Large reference documents / workspaces:
*Community call on Vertical Integration Initial Report (held on 3 August 2010)
*Initial Report on Vertical Integration Between Registrars and Registries (PDF)
*At-Large workspace on Vertical Integration
*Workspace of the GNSO Working Group on Vertical Integration
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)’s 38th Meeting is taking place in Brussels, Belgium on 20-25 June 2010.
Sunday Jun 20:
dial – in and remote participation information for the Non Commercial Stakeholder Group Meeting on Tuesday, 22 June 2010 in Brussels in Room: 313/315 at 09:00 – 17:00 Brussels time.(07:00-15:00 UTC)
http://brussels38.icann.org/node/12467
Chat Room:
http://brussels38.icann.org/chat/room313-315
Audiocast:
http://stream.icann.org/room313-315-16-en.m3u
Virtual Meeting Room
http://ac.icann.org/room313-315
International telephone dial-in information including passcode and country-specific dial-in numbers:
http://ipjustice.org/ICANN/NCSG/NCSG_Passcodes.htm
See ALSO:
NCSG Remote Participation Details for all NCSG-GNSO-related meetings in Brussels:
http://ncdnhc.org/group/ncsgremoteparticipationforbrusselsjuneicannmeeting?xg_source=activity
A fourth draft of the Applicant Guidebook that describes the process of applying for new generic top-level domains was released today along with explanatory memoranda and detailed analysis of comments received. The program continues to improve and moves toward completion thanks to the outstanding collaboration from the ICANN Community working groups whose expertise helped to address and bring toward closure several challenging issues.
ICANN invites community participation in an open consultation on the Process for New gTLD Registry Agreement Amendments and the Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Process. This consultation was organized in response to a request from the Registry Stakeholder Group to discuss concerns they have raised in their stakeholder meetings and public comments fora on new gTLDs. This meeting is open to all interested participants and observers.
The consultation will be held on Tuesday, 13 April from 16:00 to 19:30 UTC (http://timeanddate.com/s/1pcg). A conference call bridge and Adobe Connect access will be available for this discussion and an MP3 will be posted on the new gTLD program web page after the consultation. ICANN will facilitate this discussion from Marina del Rey, CA (limited space will be available to accommodate in-person participation).
Agenda
16:00 – 17:45: Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Process
17:45 – 19:30: New gTLD Agreement Amendment Process
The reference materials for the consultation include the Process for New gTLD Registry Agreement Amendments viewable at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/registry-agreement-amendment-process-15feb10-en.pdf [PDF, 127 KB] and the Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure viewable at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-trademark-pddrp-clean-15feb10-en.pdf [PDF, 94 KB].
If you are interested in participating, please confirm at registry-liaison@icann.org by 9 April 2010. Dial-in details will be made available upon confirmation and requests for in-person participation will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis.
Last October the NYC Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications (DoITT) issued a request for proposals for “services to obtain, manage, administer, maintain and market the geographic Top Domain name .nyc.”. At ICANN’s recent 37th meeting in Nairobi, consensus was reached on the “overarching” issue of intellectual property protection. This leaves only the issue of the final (4th) draft of the Applicants Guidebook, expected before the 38th meeting in Brussels in June 2010, before the much delayed new generic top level domain (gTLD) delegation process can finally grind into action. (One caveat – a policy forbidding cross-ownership of registries and registrars is still not totally set in stone.)
The Internet Society – New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) has for some years been following the .nyc and ICANN process on behalf of the NYC community and will, on Saturday April 10 2010, host a symposium “dot nyc – How are we doing?” at NYU. Vendors Eric Brunner-Williams of CORE Internet Council of Registrars and Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines will reveal details of their proposals to the City, after which there will be a discussion “What’s it for?” about possible applications – civic, community, commercial, and “outside the box” – for a local top level domain.
What: ISOC-NY Event: dot nyc – How are we doing?
When: POSTPONED
Where: Warren Weaver Hall NYU Rm102, 250 Mercer St, NY 10012
Who: Public Welcome. Admission Free.
Webcast: http://livestream.com/isocny
Sponsor: ISOC-NY
Meetup: http://internetpro.meetup.com/51/calendar/13100813/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=108703639164601
Report from the Chair of the At-Large Advisory Committee to the 37th Meeting of ICANN in Nairobi, Kenya:Â PDF |Â PPT
During the 37th ICANN Meeting that took place March 7-12 in Nairobi, Kenya, the At-Large Community was represented by a total of 25 members from all five At-Large regions. These representatives included Members of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), officers of the five Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs), representatives of At-Large Structures (ALSes), At-Large liaisons, At-Large delegates to the Nominating Committee (NomCom), and representatives of the At-Large Community.
CircleID is publishing a series of on-the-spot interviews at ICANN 37 in Nairobi.
In this one Avri Doria details her arguments against the EoI “pre-registration” proposal for new gTLDs.
No doubt in part thanks to Avria, the ICANN Board just voted to withdraw the EoI proposal.
The ISOC meeting alongside ICANN 37 in Nairobi will take place 8:00 – 9:30 am (NYC time) on Thursday 11 March.
Draft agenda:
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. ISOC 2010 Plans for Chapter Development and Support – Dawit Bekele
3. ISOC Participation in ICANN – Bill Graham (TBC)
4. Chapter Plans and Activities for 2010 (all)
5. AOB
Remote participation is via Marratech (join the ISOC Auditorium, no login required).
Further information regarding this ISOC meeting will be published here.
In order to stay up-to-date with ISOC events during ICANN meetings you are invited to subcribe to the [ISOC-at-ICANN] mailing list .
Nairobi is 8 hours ahead of NYC.
Thursday Mar 11:
ALAC and Secretariats Wrap Up Meeting (03.30-05.30 EST)
Internet Governance Forum (06.00-07.30 EST)
Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, gave a speech The Internet: Evolving Responsibility for Preserving a First Amendment Miracle at The Media Institute in Washington DC on February 24, 2010.
In it he suggests that we are now entering on a third stage of Internet development -whereas the Internet has been allowed togrow freely and form its own ecosystems, it is now becoming necessary to for some intervention to allow it to flourish optimally, particularly with respect to free speech. He notes the following initiatives:
Privacy policy. A series of consultations are being launched on how to best preserve user privacy.
Child protection and Freedom of Expression: The Online Safety Technology Working Group, created by Congress and convened by NTIA, will issue a report on the state of the art in child protection strategies online.
Cybersecurity: How do we meet the security challenge posed by the global Internet which will require increased law enforcement and private sector technology innovation yet respect citizen privacy and protect civil liberties. A Commerce Department cybersecurity initiative will address these issues, particularly as they relate to improving the preparedness of industry for cyber attacks.
Copyright protection: NTIA and the US Patent and Trademark Office, are beginning a comprehensive consultation process that will help the Administration develop a forward-looking set of policies to address online copyright infringement in a balanced, Internet-savvy manner.
Internet Governance: The NTIA will conduct a series of administrative reviews to ensure that the agreed upon ICANN commitments are carried out in full.
For an in-depth look at current ICANN Policy topics, go to the January Policy Update at: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/policy/update-feb10-en.htm
A summary of latest developments can be found below
As ICANN’s new GTLD process grinds forward, one aspect specified is that new applications should be compared to benchmarks. This required that such benchmarks be established by research. The resulting KPMG study has just been published.
Some of the findings include:
The report also suggests ICANN’s process is lacking in proper financial scrutiny of applicants
It has been suggested to me that two unmentioned factors contribute to the above results.
The former problem maybe ameliorated in future if proposals to allow vertical integration of some registries and registrars are adopted.
Open-source database and server software isn’t mandated by ICANN, it’s just that most people use it. There are, however, 25% of the surveyed registries who use Windows server software, so it’s not unanimous — just appears to be best practice (not to mention cheaper).
joly 6:13 pm on 03/18/2011 Permalink |
Two significant board resolutions: