Briefing Note: Dubai Regional Outreach Meeting, 1-3 April 2008

ICANN opened its regional outreach meeting in Dubai on Tuesday April 1st 2008 with address by H.E. Mr. Mohamed Nasir Al Ghanim, Director General of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates. In his address, Mr. Al Ghanim acknowledged ICANN’s ongoing efforts to engage with Internet community in the United Arab Emirates and in the Middle East.
The meeting was attended by more than 80 participants representing governments, ccTLD managers, and businesses. In his opening speech, Paul Twomey President and CEO of ICANN highlighted strategic issues facing ICANN such as strengthening ICANN as an international multi-stakeholder model, the review of the Joint Project Agreement, IDNs, and new gTLDs.
This was followed with a keynote speech by TAGOrg Chairman, and a presentation by Arab Emirates Domain Administration (aeDA). The following sessions discussed ICANN multi-stakeholder model and means of participation in this model. Presentations were provided by ICANN Global Partnerships as well as members of GAC, ccNSO, ALAC, APTLD and the ISOC Chapter of UAE (Emirates Internet Group). Discussions on IDNs started by end of Day 1 with an update on IDNs from ICANN followed by a presentation from SaudiNIC (.sa) highlighting Arabic language versus Arabic script in domain names. Comments were raised as regards the timing of introduction of IDNs in the “cc” as well as the “g” space, as well as other aspects in relation to confusingly similar characters, phishing, etc.
Intensive and deep discussions on IDNs in Day 2, particularly in relation to the Arabic script being used across several languages like Arabic, Persian, Urdu and many others. Discussions have shown the complexity of the issue particularly with regard to confusingly similar characters and policies and/or guidelines needed to make sure that security, stability and interoperability of the DNS is maintained. IDN technical experts involved in the IDNA protocol revision at IETF were keen to take part in the meeting remotely and informed participants of work taking place in this area.
There was also a report on the Arabic Script IDN WG’s first meeting, which was facilitated by UN ESCWA, PIR and Afilias, and held on 30-31 March shortly prior to this meeting. The WG informed the meeting of the goals of their endeavor, namely ensuring a roadmap for thoughtful implementation of Arabic script in IDNs. The WG was comprised of linguists and IDN experts who explored a layered model to help identify and categorize the issues. The proposed model is composed of 4 levels: IDNA protocol, unified Arabic script, Registry/Language/Policy and application/user. There was a suggestion of inserting a middle Registrar level. Extensive and interactive discussions took place with regard to the process or the mechanism of sorting out technical and policy issues at the various levels from the protocol all the way up to the application and user interface levels and how this layered model could be useful for compiling other script tables. There was also a discussion with regard to ICANN's role in this process and how it can help facilitate the work going forward. It was clear that a lot of collaborative work is required - it is an effort that has to be carried out and supported by community members and that should eventually lead to solutions that are satisfactory to the end user as well as the registrant while at the same time assuring security and interoperability of the Internet.
The whole afternoon of Day 2 was on the ccTLD fast track, a process aiming at the introduction of a limited number of IDN ccTLDs within a short time frame. Representatives of the IDNC WG discussed the background of the fast track process and the first draft of a methodology for selection and designation of an IDN ccTLD under the fast track. The proposed methodology is still under discussion by the IDNC WG. There was broad support from those present for the guiding principles, staged approach, and proposed criteria. It was clear that the methodology needs to be further specified, for instance the selection of the committee of linguistic experts and the technical committee. Issues that were raised and have not been discussed yet in the IDNC WG: how to deal with script tables, cases where the name of the territory itself may be contentious, and legal arrangements.
In Day 3, the focus was on the business side of domain names. ICANN presented on gTLD Registries and Registrars. Questions were raised on data escrow procedures, agreements with ccTLD registries as opposed to agreements with gTLD Registries, and public consultations intended for new gTLD applications. Four of the ICANN Accredited Registrars presented this morning, each with a different business model tailored to geographical, cultural or business need. A good discussion followed on why this business is not yet widespread in the region, and what the barriers are that could be discouraging businesses from going into it. The discussion also touched on online advertisement and how this business looks like in the region. The reaction to that was that online advertisement is yet in its infancy in the region though some pointed out that we should not necessarily be copying models from other places as local businesses should always be able to develop the model that best suits the needs of the markets they go after. There was a consensus that an effort needs to be exerted by community and by ICANN in order to raise more awareness about the opportunity and to try to alleviate any hurdles in the process. Participants also seemed to agree that there is a lot of innovation going on in this area and no matter what the situation is today in the region, it is going to change.
The Registry panel was very rich in the information it provided. It addressed various facets of the Registry operations, business models, challenges, distribution channels of Registrars and Resellers, Registry back-ends and core components, financial, legal and administrative services, as well as solutions developed for ccTLD Registries. Few questions were raised, of which was one on insurance and how Registries could work with big insurance companies and help lessen barriers to entry. Panelists said that there would possibly be a solution with more information sharing required with the insurance companies to make them aware of the risks.
Prior to the last presentation on new gTLDs, ICANN’s CEO made few remarks and said that ICANN would welcome feedback from participants on this meeting and on the notion of “regional meetings” in general. He further highlighted how ICANN has evolved into a community of 10,000 people from all over the world, 3,000 of which are actively participating in the ICANN process. He noted that domains names are changing from being “identifiers” to being “identities”, and added that the new gTLD process has come out of discussions and work carried out by the ICANN community over the past 3 years. He invited participants to come to the ICANN meeting in Paris in June to take part in further discussions about new gTLDs and IDNs that will be taking place there.
The last presentation was on new gTLDs in which ICANN informed participants about the applicant, application steps/rules, RFP, evaluation and objection processes, and the way forward. A Question was raised in relation to timeline for each of the steps shown in the presentation. Another question was on legal liability and jurisdiction issues. There was also a discussion on the methodology behind the policy as some participants were concerned that ICANN have come up with a policy that is not tested and hence the consequences of its implementation are uncertain. ICANN’s CEO clarified that the policy has come out of intensive work by GNSO and community over the past 3 years, and that ICANN have also learned from the past two gTLD rounds, and from understanding what is going on in second level domains.
In general, the meeting was a good opportunity for Internet community in the Middle East to gather and to network with other members of ICANN community. The participants interest in IDNs, was as anticipated very strong, and that for this region as some participants demonstrated there is a pressing need for having IDN implemented at the top level and particularly ccTLDs. Appreciation for the challenges, both technical, policy and political were important points of discussion and interest to build on the dialogue of the meeting. The meeting also showed that more awareness and information sharing is needed in areas pertaining to Registries and Registrars, as well as with regard to new gTLDs. There was both publicly said and informally expressed positive feedback for such regional meetings, and some participants generally and informally expressed an interest that ICANN do such an event annually, addressing specific topics of interest. Participants expressed that in many cases they cannot attend the ICANN meetings, and these events are important to focus on specific areas of interest, as well as the opportunity to meet and have one on one conversations with ICANN staff.