RE: [council] Update on Whois studies

[Liz Gasster <liz.gasster@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chuck and all,

I would like to have our analysis complete by the Nairobi meeting, and I am 
working toward that goal, but I'm hesitant to commit to that now, especially in 
light of the 15-working-day document deadline for public meetings. I understand 
the need in terms of planning for Nairobi, and I think I'll have a better sense 
in a couple of weeks, so I will commit to sending another update the first week 
in February.  Hope this helps.

Thanks, Liz

From: Gomes, Chuck [mailto:cgomes@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 6:40 AM
To: Liz Gasster; Council GNSO
Subject: RE: [council] Update on Whois studies

Thanks Liz.  Very helpful.

In planning for our agenda(s) in Nairobi, it would be helpful to know soon 
whether you think Whois Studies should be on the agenda there.

Chuck

________________________________
From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Liz Gasster
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 8:20 PM
To: Council GNSO
Subject: [council] Update on Whois studies
All,

Attached and following, please find an update on the Whois studies that the 
policy staff has been working on.

I.                    Background:

The GNSO Council concluded that a comprehensive, objective and quantifiable 
understanding of key factual issues regarding the gTLD Whois system would 
benefit future GNSO policy development efforts. In March 2009, the GNSO Council 
asked ICANN staff to conduct research on feasibility and cost estimates to 
study several high priority aspects of WHOIS, and to report back to the Council 
with that information for further decision-making. Staff has categorized these 
studies into three areas (the first three areas listed in the attached chart), 
and is soliciting bids from independent researchers to help determine costs and 
feasibility issues in each area using an RFP approach.  The GNSO Council 
resolution making this request can be found here:  
http://gnso.icann.org/resolutions/#200903.


II.                  Update:
Following is a list of the study RFPs that are being issued (may include more 
than one study), with a short update on each:


1.       WHOIS Misuse -- Studies will assess extent of misuse of public Whois 
data to generate spam or for other illegal or undesirable activities.   One 
Misuse study will survey registrants about specific acts they have experienced 
that they believe occurred using Whois contact data; survey registrars about 
how Whois can be queried, and survey others about reported incidents from 
cybercrime, research and law enforcement organizations.  A second Misuse study 
will measure a variety of harmful acts by classifying messages sent to 
unpublished test domain names registered specifically for the study using a 
representative sample of registrars. The study will compare harmful acts 
associated with public vs. non-public addresses and examine impact of public 
Whois and anti-harvesting measures. An RFP was released on 28 September and 
closed on 27 November 2009.  3 responses were received. Staff review and 
analysis is underway.



2.       WHOIS Registrant Identification - Study will explore Whois 
registrations and the extent to which domains used by legal persons (commercial 
entities) or for commercial purposes are: 1) not clearly identified as 
commercial entities in Whois (perhaps their identity is obscured or suggests 
the registrant is a non-commercial entity); and 2) are correlated to use of 
privacy and proxy services. An RFP was released October 23 and closed on 23 
December 2009.  5 responses were received. Staff review and analysis is 
underway.

 1.  Whois Proxy and Privacy Services - Studies will look at: 1) the extent to 
which domain names used to conduct illegal or harmful Internet activities are 
registered via proxy and privacy services to obscure the perpetrator's 
identity; and 2) the degree to which proxy and privacy services impede or delay 
timely identification of perpetrators. More information about these studies 
will be available in the coming weeks.


III.                Next steps and timeframe:
There is a significant amount of work involved in drafting RFP terms of 
reference for the third set of studies at the same time that we are analyzing 
responses for the first two study areas. Staff is taking great care with the 
analysis and budget implications, and the third set of studies is complex.   
Due to delays in preparing an RFP for the third set of studies, we have been 
delayed in our review of the RFP responses. We are just beginning that analysis 
now, and following that review, we will then be presenting information to the 
GNSO Council for its consideration and action.  For these reasons, the staff 
analysis on the first two sets of studies will likely take several more weeks 
to complete.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information.

Thanks, Liz