In Brief
The Generic Names Supporting Organization is looking for volunteers to participate in a new cross-community Working Group (CWG) on the Use of Country and Territory Names as TLDs (UCTN). This CWG has been charted jointly with the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and it is expected to review the current status of representations of country and territory names as they exist under current ICANN policies, guidelines and procedures and to provide advice on whether to develop a framework, applicable across all SOs and ACs – and if so, provide advice to the content of such a framework.
What this CWG will do
The UCTN CWG has been charted to address three issues:
- To review the current status of representations of country and territory names, as they exist under current ICANN policies, guidelines and procedures;
- To provide advice regarding the feasibility of developing a consistent and uniform definitional framework that could be applicable across the respective SOs and ACs; and
- Should such a framework be deemed feasible, to provide detailed advice as to the content of the framework.
When tackling these issues, the UCTN CWG is advised to take into account the Final Report of the ccNSO Study Group on the Use of Names for Country and Territory. According to its Charter, the scope of this CWG is limited to: 1) representations of names of countries, territories and their subdivisions listed on or eligible to be listed on the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 code International Standard for country codes and codes for their subdivisions, hereafter: Country and Territory names (note: other geographical indicators, such as regions, are excluded); 2) the use of Country and Territory names as Top Level Domains (note: the use of Country and Territory names at the second or other level is excluded). However, if issues become apparent to the Co-chairs of the CWG that are considered relevant, but outside the scope of the CWG, the Co-Chairs of the WG, after consulting the members of the WG, shall inform the Chairs of the participating SOs and ACs.
How this team will work
ICANN WGs use transparent, open processes. The operational aspects of this CWG will be further determined by the co-chairs at the start of the CWG's operations, but typically meetings are recorded, mailing lists are publicly archived and GNSO members are expected to submit Statements of Interest (SOI) in order to participate. The group may decide to collaborate using a public workspace for draft materials and all final work products and milestones will be documented.
Please note that as a working group member you are expected to attend conference calls and to actively participate in online discussions.
How to Join
The CWG is open to anyone interested to join. If you are interested to participate, please send an email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) preferably by 18 April 2014 at the latest, to indicate your interest to join this Cross Community Working Group.
Background
The ccNSO Study group on the use of Names for Country and Territory published its Final Report in September 2013 (http://ccnso.icann.org/node/42227). The first of the two recommendations of the Study Group to the ccNSO Council was to establish a cross community working group to:
- Further review the current status of representations of country and territory names, as they exist under current ICANN policies, guidelines and procedures;
- Provide advice regarding the feasibility of developing a consistent and uniform definitional framework that could be applicable across the respective SOs and ACs;
- And, should such a framework be deemed feasible, provide detailed advice as to the content of the framework.
The ccNSO Council adopted the recommendations and, as the objective of the proposed Working Group is considered to be of common interest to the broader community, other Supporting Organisations (SOs), Advisory Committees (ACs) and others were invited to participate in the working group on equal footing, and should be preferably undertaken as a collaborative effort. To this end the ALAC, GNSO and GAC were invited by the ccNSO Council to participate in a Joint Working Group. The GNSO Council adopted the charter for the CWG at its meeting on 26 March 2014.