[council] Latest Draft Interim Report of Working Group on ICANN Geographic Regions Review Available

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

For your attention:

Latest Draft Interim Report of Working Group on ICANN Geographic Regions Review 
Available
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-28may10-en.htm

28 May 2010

In preparation for community discussions at the next ICANN International 
Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, the community-wide Geographic Regions Review 
Working Group (WGGR) is making the latest working draft of its Interim Report 
available to the community. The draft document can be found on the Socialtext 
Wiki page of the working group (http://tinyurl.com/WGGRwiki) at this link - 
Draft WGGR Interim Report v5 [DOC, 188 KB].

Formed by the ICANN Board, the WGGR has been tasked to study and review the 
issues related to the definition of the ICANN Geographic Regions, to consult 
with community stakeholders and to develop and submit proposals to the Board to 
resolve any problematic issues relating to the current definition of the ICANN 
Geographic Regions.

First Phase of Work: The WGGR produced an "Initial Report" in July of 2009 (see 
- 
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/geographic-regions/initial-report-geo-regions-review-wg-31jul09-en.pdf.
 The Initial Report identified the various applications and functions to which 
"ICANN Geographic Regions" are currently applied by existing ICANN structures 
(e.g., geographic diversity among volunteer leaders). It briefly documented 
other regional structures used within ICANN but not defined in the Bylaws and 
documented a number of potential "matters" that working group members (from the 
ALAC, ASO, ccNSO, GAC and GNSO) thought should be covered during the Working 
Group's subsequent investigations.

Second Phase of Work: The second phase of the WGGR effort is to produce an 
Interim Report that builds on the foundation of the Initial Report and begins 
to focus on General Principles, Specific Considerations and some of the 
critical issues ("Matters") that it will address in its Final Report document. 
In its present form, the draft document addresses two particular areas: (1) a 
review of the underlying objectives and general principles of geographic 
regions; and (2) identification of specific matters to be addressed in the 
Final Report.

Members of the WGGR have determined that additional community input would 
substantially enhance preparation of its Interim Report. Draft Version 5 [DOC, 
188 KB] of the Interim Report is still a work-in-progress and is being formally 
provided to the community solely for discussion purposes and so that WGGR 
members will have the option to discuss its contents with their respective 
communities - as well as the general ICANN community - during the Brussels 
meeting next month. Previous drafts of the Interim Report have been made 
regularly available on the Working Documents page of the WGGR wiki site. That 
wiki page is set up to accept community comments and such comments about the 
Interim Report and the WGGR's work in general are welcomed and will be shared 
with and viewed by WGGR members. Of course, a full Public Comment Forum will be 
opened for community comments on the Interim Report document when it is 
published.

Public Forum in Brussels: As part of its efforts in Brussels, the WGGR also 
plans to conduct a public session on Thursday morning (24 June) to discuss the 
geographic regions framework and collect community ideas about potential future 
options for the framework.

Community Survey Available: As part of its Interim Report preparations, the 
WGGR has also sponsored a community survey to gather information on the impact 
and application of the geographic regions framework on various communities 
within the ICANN ecosystem. That brief survey can be reached at this link - 
WGGR 2010 Survey and members of the ICANN community are all invited to 
participate.

Background Information:

The ICANN Geographical Regions were originally created as a means of obtaining 
geographical diversity in the composition of the ICANN Board. By an ICANN Board 
resolution in 20001 , the ICANN Staff was instructed to assign countries to 
geographic regions on the basis of the United Nations Statistics Division's 
current classifications2 . It also introduced the concept of "citizenship" in 
relation to the use of ICANN Geographic Regions.

Subsequently, ICANN Geographic Regions were applied in various ways when 
defining the organisational structures for the ALAC, GNSO, and ccNSO.

Currently the ICANN Bylaws define five geographic regions3:

    * Africa;
    * Asia/Australia/Pacific;
    * Europe
    * Latin America/Caribbean; and
    * North America

Staff Person Contact responsible for this effort: Robert Hoggarth 
(policy-staff@xxxxxxxxx)

1 www.icann.org/en/minutes/minutes-16jul00.htm

2 http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm

3 www.icann.org/en/general/bylaws.htm#VI-5


Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://gnso.icann.org