Introduction
Tijani Ben Jemaa, ALAC member from the African Regional At-Large Organization (AFRALO) and ALAC Leadership Team (ALT) member and Alan Greenberg, ALAC member from the North American Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO) and the ALAC Liaison to the GNSO composed an initial draft of this Statement [PDF, 225 KB] after discussion of the topic within At-Large and on the Mailing Lists.
On 18 July 2014, this Statement was posted on the At-Large Report: Supporting the Domain Name Industry in Underserved Regions Workspace.
On that same day, Olivier Crépin-Leblond, Chair of the ALAC, requested ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC to send a Call for Comments on the Recommendations to all At-Large members via the ALAC-Announce Mailing List.
On 23 July 2014, a version incorporating the comments received was posted on the aforementioned workspace and the Chair requested that Staff open an ALAC ratification vote on the proposed Statement on 23 July 2014 and close on 30 July 2014.
The Chair then requested that the Statement, referenced AL-ALAC-ST-0714-02-00-EN, be transmitted to the Public Comment process, copying the ICANN Staff member responsible for this Public Comment topic, with a note that the Statement was pending ALAC ratification.
On 31 July 2014, Staff confirmed that the online vote resulted in the ALAC endorsing the Statement with 12 votes in favor, 1 vote against, and 0 abstention. You may review the result independently under: https://www.bigpulse.com/pollresults?code=4131Isv99TeRcWqgTBzE7wH2.
Summary
- The ALAC strongly supports the concept of supporting the DNI in underserved regions but notes that simply increasing the DNI without corresponding increases in demand will not be helpful.
- The evolution of DNI programs should adhere to the following principles: 1) While increasing DNI penetration, the standards of suppliers should not be lowered; 2) education at all levels is key; 3) the processes to become a registrar should be clarified and simplified with training and support; 4) the demands placed on registrars should be reasonable based on local cost-of-living and related financial constraints; 5) the second new gTLD round should give preference to applicants from developing economies and undertake an outreach program to ensure a better understanding; and 6) technical and legal supports should be provided to new gTLD applicants in underserved regions.
Reason for Opposition to the ALAC Statement from Evan Leibovitch [PDF, 52 KB]