Re: [council] GNSO Council Update for the Translation and Transliteration of Contact Information PDP WG

[Amr Elsadr <aelsadr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi again,

A correction to my note below; the link to the webinar announcement is not the 
correct link. The one Lars provided in the AC room’s chat is the one you’ll 
need to look at: https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2015-01-09-en

Thanks again.

Amr

On Jan 16, 2015, at 12:07 PM, Amr Elsadr <aelsadr@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Following up on the update of the initial report of the translation and 
> transliteration of contact information PDP WG, I thought it best not to paste 
> the entire executive summary in this email. It’s quite long, and has several 
> references in the footnotes that may be useful to look at, so please do look 
> at the report 
> (http://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/gtlds/transliteration-contact-initial-15dec14-en.pdf%20),
>  and encourage your respective groups to provide comments before the February 
> 1st deadline.
> 
> The public comment period announcement is here: 
> https://www.icann.org/public-comments/transliteration-contact-initial-2014-12-16-en
> 
> These are my personal notes, and if Lars and Julie can fill in any gaps I may 
> have missed, I’d be grateful:
> 
> First meeting of the working group was in August 2013.
> The working group was tasked with answering two chartered questions:
> Is mandatory transformation of contact information in the WHOIS database to a 
> single common language and script desirable?
> Who should, in the view of the working group, bear the burden of 
> transformation?
> The working group solicited input at an early stage in its deliberations and 
> received input from:
> ALAC
> The European Commission
> The Government of Thailand
> The People’s Republic of China
> NCSG
> IPC
> FICPI (International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys) - This 
> input was received very late, and was decided to be included as input to the 
> public comment on the initial report
> All input was discussed in great detail by the working group members.
> Special attention was given to the ongoing work of the EWG on registration 
> data services as well as the EWG on internationalised registration data 
> services, both of which were relevant to the work of this working group.
> After review of community comments and extensive working group deliberations, 
> the recommendations provided in the working group's initial report were 
> provided for public comment. This was done in the absence of a formal 
> consensus call, however, with the understanding that a majority of the 
> working group members support these recommendation. They are also provisional 
> recommendations pending review of comments submitted in the public comment 
> period.
> That translation and transliteration of contact information should not be 
> mandatory.
> Any new RDS contemplated by ICANN should allow for non-Latin script to be 
> usable.
> Registrants should provide their contact information in the language/script 
> appropriate for the language the registrar operates in
> Registrars and registries should assure that data fields are consistent and 
> correctly tagged to facilitate future transformation if ever needed
> If registrars wish to transform contact data, this should be displayed in the 
> WHOIS as additional fields along with the original information provided by 
> the registrant
> The field names in the WHOIS should be translated into as many languages as 
> possible
> Based on these recommendations, the question of bearing the burden of 
> transformation is moot. The working group is asking for input specific to 
> this question, especially from those providing input in favour of mandatory 
> transformation.
> A formal consensus call of the working group members will be taken following 
> discussions of any and all input provided during the public comment period, 
> which will close on February 1st 2015.
> An announcement was made about a webinar to be held on January 16th 2015 
> (today at UTC 14:00) covering the findings in the initial report of the 
> working group 
> (http://gnso.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-09jan15-en.htm).
> 
> If anyone has any questions, I’d be happy to try to answer them.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Amr