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ICANN POLICY UPDATE | Volume 12, Issue 5 – June 2012

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Special ICANN 44 Prague Meeting Edition

ICANN 44 Prague Meeting Logo

PDF Version [553 KB]

http://www.icann.org/en/resources/policy/update

CONTENTS:

Across ICANN

  1. ICANN 44 Preview
  2. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

ccNSO

  1. Comores and Iceland Join ccNSO
  2. Strategic and Operational Planning Working Group Submits Comments on ICANN Budget
  3. ccNSO Council Requests Changes to Public Comment Process
  4. ccNSO Joins ICANN In Support of Protecting All Two-Letter ASCII Strings
  5. ccNSO Travel Funding for ICANN 45 Now Open

GNSO

  1. GNSO Working Group Submits Initial Draft of Whois Technical Requirements Study
  2. IRTP Part C Initial Report Published: New Change of Registrant Policy, Time-Limiting Form of Authorization, Requiring Registries to use IANA IDs
  3. Community Asked to Review Draft Report on Whois Proxy/Privacy Reveal and Relay Feasibility Survey

ASO

  1. ICANN Board Ratifies Policy Proposal for Recovered IPv4 Address Blocks

At-Large

  1. At-Large Community Members Prepare for ICANN’s Prague Meeting including Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the ALAC
  2. ALAC Continues High Number of Policy Statements, Comments and Communications
  3. LACRALO Engages in Organizational Strengthening Activities: Capacity Building Sessions and Working Groups

SSAC

  1. Issues Active in the SSAC

GAC

  1. Where to Find GAC Information

Read in Your Preferred Language

ICANN Policy Update is available in all six official languages of the United Nations. Policy Update is posted on ICANN's web site and available via online subscription. To receive the Update in your Inbox each month, visit the ICANN subscriptions page, enter your e-mail address, and select "Policy Update" to subscribe. This service is free.

ICANN Policy Update statement of purpose

Send questions, comments and suggestions to: policy-staff@icann.org

Policy Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees

Address Supporting Organization ASO
Country Code Names Supporting Organization ccNSO
Generic Names Supporting Organization GNSO
At-Large Advisory Committee ALAC
Governmental Advisory Committee GAC
Root Server System Advisory Committee RSSAC
Security and Stability Advisory Committee SSAC

Across ICANN

1. ICANN 44 Preview

At a Glance

There is a short time left before the ICANN Community convenes at ICANN 44 in Prague, 24-29 June 2012. Unlike the previous meetings, this meeting wraps up officially on Thursday, bringing a new structure to the Board Community interaction.

Recent Developments

During recent meetings, the ICANN Board held interactive sessions with Advisory Committees and Supporting Organizations (ACs/SOs) and their constituent parts. Such meetings are again scheduled on Tuesday in Prague with At-Large, ccNSO, Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG), Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG), Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG) and with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG).

At the beginning of the Public Forum session on Thursday, 28 June, the ICANN Board will provide a report to the whole ICANN community. They will outline what they have heard during the week from their meetings with AC/SOs and their constituent parts and will identify those matters they expect to be dealing with between the Prague and Toronto meetings. Afterwards, the Public Forum will continue with time for the community to address the Board directly during an open microphone session.

During the open microphone session, specific agenda point s have been pre-set for the ICANN 44 Public Forum. Following the same practice used for almost a year now, ICANN community leaders are providing input into the forum agenda.

Some other sessions scheduled for ICANN 44:

Sunday: As usual, we will have Newcomer's Tracks on Sunday of the ICANN 44. This track is geared towards to the needs of new participants at the ICANN Public Meeting but all sessions are open to anyone who would like to have a refresher on fundamental subjects and issues. During these sessions ICANN staff will provide an Introduction to ICANN and the ICANN Community, the multistakeholder model and ICANN Engagement tools, an overview of the ICANN Ombudsman's role, a Policy Update preview for the week, an introduction to Registries & Registrars, a report on Recent Developments in the Domain Name Space and a briefing on Contractual Compliance at ICANN.

Newcomers' Track sessions are marked in green on the Meeting Schedule.

If you are a Newcomer, make sure you collect your green badge from the Registration Desk and drop by the Newcomers' Lounge to meet our Newcomers' Team.

Monday: Based on input from ICANN community leaders, Monday includes specific sessions on issues including an Update on the RAA Negotiations, Ethics and Conflicts of Interest, ICANN and the Internet Governance Landscape, a New gTLD Program Update, a Forum on DNS Abuse, and a session on Planning for the Next gTLD Round.

Thursday: There are two sessions related to participation and engagement on Thursday. The ICANN Outreach Community Working Session will include a community discussion on coordinating outreach and community-building efforts. The Public Participation Committee and Community Consultation will feature a discussion between the committee and the community on Public Comment Processes and Language Services.

Also, make note of the social events scheduled throughout the week:

  • CEO Farewell Reception on Monday.
  • Music Night on Tuesday.
  • Gala Night on Wednesday.
  • Closing Reception on Thursday.

Have a great meeting!

More Information

Staff Contact

Filiz Yilmaz, Senior Director, Participation and Engagement


2. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

Numerous public comment periods are currently open on issues of interest to the ICANN community. Act now to share your views on such topics as:

Whois Technical Requirements Survey - Draft. The Working Group is soliciting input from experts on technical requirements for a new Whois protocol, in particular people knowledgeable about technical aspects of Whois who can help assess if the survey asks the right questions and in the right style to elicit technical feedback. Comment period closes 20 June.

Public Comment Solicitation for FY13 Community Travel Support Guidelines. Changes in the FY13 guidelines include new proposed booking and reimbursement procedures and the inclusion of data on FY13 special approved SO/AC budget requests. Comment period closes 22 June.

Interisle Consulting Group's Whois Proxy/Privacy Reveal & Relay Feasibility Survey. Consider the survey results detailed in this draft report, ask questions, request clarifications, and share perspectives about the feasibility of conducting a full study into Whois Proxy/Privacy Reveal & Relay handling for gTLD domain names. Comment period closes 25 June.

Preliminary GNSO Issue Report on the Protection of International Organization Names in New gTLDS. Should ICANN provide additional protections to the names of certain international organizations at the first and second levels for names introduced through the New gTLD Program? Comment period closes 25 June.

Proposed Revised Process for Handling Requests for Removal of Cross-Ownership Restrictions on Operators of Existing gTLDs. An effort to create a process for existing registries to seek removal of cross-ownership restrictions related to names in the TLDs they operate. Reply period closes 28 June.

DRAFT - ICANN Language Services Policy and Procedures. Staff seeks to formalize policies and procedures for translation, simultaneous interpretation, teleconference interpretation, transcription (of recorded sessions) and RTT (real-time-transcription, also known as scribing). Comment period closes 2 July.

ICANN's FY13 Security, Stability and Resiliency Framework. This document, published annually, describes ICANN's role in the ecosystem and operational priorities in security, stability and resiliency of the Internet's unique identifiers. Comment period closes 2 July.

Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy Part C Policy Development Process Initial Report. Recommendations for change to registrant policy and Form of Authorization, among other suggestions. Comment period closes 4 July.

Request for Community Input on Formulation of 2013-2016 Strategic Plan. Provide input and feedback on goals and objectives for ICANN's activities from 2013 to 2016. Comment period closes 4 July.

ICANN Board Conflicts of Interest Review - Independent Expert Report. A team of independent international experts reviewed ICANN's conflicts of interest and ethics frameworks. Comment period closes 6 July.

Whois Policy Review Team Final Report. This final report incorporates extensive feedback and fact-finding efforts into its recommendations for improvements to Whois Policy. Reply period closes 11 July.

DRAFT Statement of ICANN's Role and Remit in Security, Stability and Resiliency of the Internet's Unique Identifier Systems. In response to a review team's findings, ICANN asks for feedback on a draft statement of its role and remit in relation to the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet's unique identifier systems. Reply period closes 16 July.

For the full list of issues open for public comment, plus recently closed and archived public comment forums, visit the Public Comment web page.


ccNSO

3. Comores and Iceland Join ccNSO

ccNSO Logo

At a Glance

The country code operators for Comores and Iceland were approved as members of the ccNSO.

Recent Developments

Comores Telecom, the ccTLD operator of .km (Comores), and ISNIC - Internet Iceland ltd., the ccTLD operator of .is (Iceland), are new ccNSO members. Comores is a group of islands at the northern mouth of the Mozambique Channel, about two-thirds of the way between northern Madagascar and northern Mozambique. Iceland is an island between the Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of the United Kingdom.

There are now a total of 132 ccNSO members.

Next Steps

The ccNSO is looking forward to fruitful cooperation with the new members.

Background

Since the beginning of 2012, eight new members joined the ccNSO. It now counts 132 members.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


4. Strategic and Operational Planning Working Group Submits Comments on ICANN Budget

At a Glance

ccNSO Working Group Submits two comments on ICANN's FY13 draft Operating Plan and Budget.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO Strategic and Operational Planning WG (SOP) submitted two comments on ICANN's FY13 draft Operating Plan and Budget. The first was on the change in public comment procedures that makes it effectively impossible for a group like the SOP to provide comments. The second submission included several substantive points, such as:

  • Focus of ICANN and community efforts is essential. Thirteen strategic priorities, 25 strategic projects and the New gTLD Program risk overstretching the capacity of staff and/or volunteers.
  • ICANN should introduce measurable milestones, goals and deliverables.
  • 19 percent cost increase and 11 percent revenue increase shows unbalanced growth.

Background

The SOP WG was created at ICANN's 33rd meeting in Cairo in November 2008. The goal of the WG is to coordinate, facilitate, and increase the participation of ccTLD managers in ICANN's strategic and operating planning processes and budgetary processes. The WG may provide input to the public comments forum and work directly with ICANN or other Supporting Organizations and Advisory WGs.

More Information

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, ccNSO Policy Advisor


5. ccNSO Council Requests Changes to Public Comment Process

At a Glance

ccNSO Council requests a review of the public comment process to ensure that Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees have sufficient time to reach agreement and comment.

Recent Developments

At its meeting on 12 June 2012, the ccNSO Council adopted a resolution to request the ICANN Board Public Participation Committee to review and make changes to the current public comments process to allow the ccNSO and other SOs and ACs an adequate opportunity for meaningful and timely comment.

Background

In January 2012 ICANN's public comment process was adjusted to implement Recommendation numbers 15-17 of the Accountability and Transparency Review Team. Based on experiences over the last few months, the ccNSO finds it difficult to coordinate its comments within the constraints of its own guidelines for Statements.

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, ccNSO Policy Advisor


6. ccNSO Joins ICANN In Support of Protecting All Two-Letter ASCII Strings

At a Glance

ccNSO Council supports ICANN's position that all possible strings of two letter combinations (aa-zz) should be protected under the Fast Track Process.

Recent Developments

At its meeting on the 12 June 2012, the ccNSO reconfirmed the Fast Track rule that it should not be possible that IDN ccTLD strings are interpreted as two-letter ASCII characters (letters AA-ZZ). The action was in response to letter seeking ccNSO input on the issue from Elise Gerich, ICANN's Vice President, IANA and Technical Operations.

At the same time the ccNSO Council acknowledged that changes have been suggested to the Fast Track confusingly similarity review process. However, these suggested do not imply a change to the principle of protecting two-letter ASCII codes.

Background

A requirement of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track process is that an IDN ccTLD string may not be confusingly similar to any two-letter (aa-zz) codes. This is to avoid issues with current and future allocation on the ISO 3166 standard. In the interest of stability of the Internet and to avoid confusing Internet users, ICANN has protected all two-letter combinations as suggested. However, as ICANN's VP IANA and Technical Operations has informed the chair of the ccNSO, there have been a number of occasions where an applied for string has been deemed to be confusingly similar to a two-letter ASCII string and therefore could not be assigned. ICANN has sought input from the ccNSO on the position ICANN has taken with regard to this matter. 

More Information

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, ccNSO Policy Advisor


7. ccNSO Travel Funding for ICANN 45 Now Open

At a Glance

ccNSO Travel Fund Committee opens the travel funding application period for the ICANN Public Meeting in Toronto, Canada.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO Travel Fund Committee is now accepting applications to the ICANN Public Meeting in Toronto, Canada 14-19 October 2012.

Next Steps

Applications are welcome until 12.00 noon UTC on 21 June 2012, at the latest.

Background

ccNSO travel funding is made available for those community members who actively participate in the work of the ccNSO and make a special contribution to its projects and meetings. However, you do not need to be a ccNSO member to receive funding.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


GNSO

8. GNSO Working Group Submits Initial Draft of Whois Technical Requirements Study

At a Glance

The Whois Survey Working Group (WSWG) aims to draft, implement, and analyze the results of a survey measuring the level of support for various technical requirements outlined in the GNSO Whois Service Requirement Report [PDF, 63 KB]. The Whois Survey Working Group will produce a report to be delivered to the GNSO Council describing the results of the survey and recommendations for next steps concerning the Whois service requirements.

Recent Developments and Next Steps

  • The WSWG conducted an internal test control group with persons familiar with technical requirements of Whois.
  • The WSWG released the draft survey and opened a Public Comment Period until 16 July 2012 to solicit community input.
  • The WSWG will consider the comments received as part of their deliberations and development of the final version of the Whois Requirements Survey. Upon submission to the GNSO Council, the survey will be announced and released for community participation. The survey will be available for 30 days. Afterwards, the WSWG will compile, analyze and report on the survey results to produce a final report outlining possible Whois Technical requirements.

More Information

Staff Contact

Liz Gasster, Senior Policy Counselor


9. IRTP Part C Initial Report Published: New Change of Registrant Policy, Time-Limiting Form of Authorization, Requiring Registries to use IANA IDs

At a Glance

The aim of the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP) is to provide a straightforward procedure for domain name holders to transfer their names from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another. The GNSO Council is reviewing and considering revisions to this policy through a series of Working Groups. The IRTP Part C WG has now published its Initial Report.

Recent Developments and Next Steps

The IRTP Part C PDP Working Group has been tasked to consider the following three questions:

  1. "Change of Control" function, including an investigation of how this function is currently achieved, if there are any applicable models in the country-code name space that can be used as a best practice for the gTLD space, and any associated security concerns. It should also include a review of locking procedures, as described in Reasons for Denial #8 and #9, with an aim to balance legitimate transfer activity and security.
  2. Whether provisions on time-limiting the Form Of Authorization (FOA) should be implemented to avoid fraudulent transfers out. For example, if a Gaining Registrar sends and receives an FOA back from a transfer contact, but the name is locked, the registrar may hold the FOA pending adjustment to the domain name status, during which time the registrant or other registration information may have changed.
  3. Whether the process could be streamlined by a requirement that registries use IANA IDs for registrars rather than proprietary IDs.

The WG has now published its Initial Report [PDF, 1.23 MB], which in addition to background information, includes an overview of the WG's deliberations and community input received to date. The report contains the following four preliminary recommendations:

  • Recommendation #1 (Charter Question A) – The IRTP Part C WG recommends the adoption of change of registrant consensus policy, which outlines the rules and requirements for a change of registrant of a domain name registration. The WG shares the view now that such a policy should follow the five steps as outlined in the section 5 of the Initial Report under the heading "proposed change of control process for gTLDs." However, WG members also recognize that there are additional details and/or steps that may need to be added and therefore request community input on the proposed process and related notes.
  • Recommendation #2 (Charter Question B): the WG recommends Section 2 of the IRTP be revised to insert the following section: "2.1.4 Once obtained, an FOA is valid for 45 or 60 calendar days, or until the domain name expires, or until there is a Change of Registrant, whichever occurs first." The WG recorded rough consensus for the above recommendation, but some WG members noted that support was conditional on a second recommendation related to this charter question being considered by the WG, detailed in Recommendation #3.
  • Recommendation #3 (Charter Question B): the Standard FOA is enhanced to support FOAs that have been pre-authorized or auto-renewed by a Prior Registrant who has chosen to opt out of this time-limiting requirement after having received a standard notice as to the associated risks. This enhancement would introduce a modified FOA, which would serve exclusively as a notification to the Prior Registrant that their pre-authorized domain transfer had occurred. The implementation of this recommendation should be accompanied by the appropriate security measures to protect Registrants from hijacking attempts using pre-approval as the attack vector. The WG is planning to discuss the details of such security measures in further detail in the next phase of its work.
  • Recommendation #4 (Charter Question C): The WG recommends that all gTLD Registry Operators be required to publish the Registrar of Record's IANA ID in the TLD's thick Whois. Existing gTLD Registry operators that currently use proprietary IDs can continue to do so, but they must also publish the Registrar of Record's IANA ID. This recommendation should not prevent the use of proprietary IDs by gTLD Registry Operators for other purposes, as long as the Registrar of Record's IANA ID is also published in the TLD's thick Whois.

In addition to input on these preliminary recommendations, the WG is looking for community feedback on a number of other open items. These include:

  • Whether the proposed change of registrant policy should be accompanied by a restriction that would prevent a change of registrar immediately following a change of registrant for 60 days;
  • Whether this change of registrant policy should be incorporated as a stand-alone policy or as part of the existing IRTP;
  • Which changes to registrant information should qualify as a "change of registrant", and;
  • Whether there are any other expected impacts of the proposed recommendations in addition to those already anticipated by the WG.

A public comment forum has been opened. Comments can be submitted until 5 July. In addition, the WG is planning a workshop at the ICANN meeting in Prague during which the Initial Report will be presented and discussed.

Background

The IRTP is a GNSO consensus policy that was adopted in 2004 with the objective to provide registrants with a transparent and predictable way to transfer domain name registrations between registrars. As part of its implementation, it was decided to carry out a review of the policy in order to determine whether it was working as intended or whether there are any areas that would benefit from further clarification or improvement. As a result of this review, a number of issues were identified that were grouped together in five different policy development processes or PDPs, titled A to E, that are being addressed in a consecutive order.

More Information

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Senior Policy Director


10. Community Asked to Review Draft Report on Whois Proxy/Privacy Reveal and Relay Feasibility Survey

At a Glance

"Whois" is the data repository containing registered domain names, registrant contacts and other critical information. An independent consultant published its draft report of a survey, now available for public comment, measuring the feasibility of a larger study on proxy and privacy services.

Recent Developments

At the GNSO Council's request, ICANN asked Interisle Consulting Group to conduct a survey to determine whether or not the study of relay and reveal requests associated with proxy and privacy services contemplated by the GNSO Council would in fact be feasible, and, if so, how such a study should be designed in order to secure the greatest possible participation from potential information sources and thereby deliver the most useful data to guide and inform further policy development on Whois.

Interisle conducted a multilingual survey among three broadly defined constituencies: initiators of relay/reveal requests; proxy/privacy service providers; and registrars involved in processing relay/reveal requests and responses.

Among the survey findings:

  • A full study of Whois privacy and proxy relay and reveal requests could, if defined in such a way as to resolve identified barriers, provide some—but not all—of the data anticipated by the GNSO Council;
  • Such a study (if overseen by ICANN) would be well received by people on many sides of the Whois information access debate;
  • Attention to issues including confidentiality and convenience in the design of the study would improve the quantity and quality of the data delivered. However it may not entirely overcome the asymmetric reluctance of potential participants from different constituencies to contribute; and
  • The results of a full study thus encumbered might not satisfy the expectations of the GNSO Council or the ICANN community with respect to statistical validity or independent verifiability.

Next Steps

The community is asked to consider the survey results, ask questions, request clarifications, and share perspectives about the feasibility of conducting a full study into Whois Proxy/Privacy Reveal & Relay handling for gTLD domain names. In parallel, ICANN and Interisle will conduct a Webinar in July 2012 to facilitate feedback by summarizing this survey's purpose, methodology, key findings, and conclusions.

Background

The Domain Name Registration Data Directory Service (Whois) is an Internet standard mechanism for providing public access to identity and contact information about domain name registrants. ICANN-accredited domain name registrars are contractually obligated to provide accurate information about all registrants via Whois, either directly or through a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry. Some registrars and third-party service providers offer registrants the opportunity to limit the public disclosure of their personal contact information by offering privacy services that publish alternative contact information. Other providers act as "proxies" by registering domain names for another user, who may access and use the domain name through a separate arrangement with the proxy service provider.

Over time, the public-information requirement and the use of proxy and privacy services have led to debates among privacy and data protection advocates and law enforcement and intellectual property interests over access to domain name registrant data. This issue has been challenging to address, and in the absence of accurate and authoritative information about the way in which registrant contact information access is affected by the use of privacy and proxy services, the debate has been driven more by anecdote than by data. Recognizing this as an impediment to resolving the issue, ICANN's GNSO Council has commissioned several studies to collect reliable data on Whois deployment and use, including this study of the effect of proxy and privacy services on access to domain name registrant data.

More Information

Staff Contact

Liz Gasster, Senior Policy Counselor


ASO

11. ICANN Board Ratifies Policy Proposal for Recovered IPv4 Address Blocks

ASO Logo

At a Glance

The ICANN Board at its 6 May meeting ratified a policy proposal developed by consensus among the five Regional Internet Registries for handling IPv4 address space returned from the RIRs to IANA.

Recent Developments

The ICANN Board approved a proposal originated by APNIC and adopted by all five RIRs on the allocation of recovered IPv4 address space. Prior to being considered by the Board, it was posted for public comment and reviewed by the Number Resource Organization Executive Committee and the Address Supporting Organization Address Council.

In the approved new process, IANA will establish and administer a pool of returned address space to be allocated to all RIRs simultaneously in equal blocks of smaller size than the traditional /8. Pool size permitting, allocations will occur every six months.

Next Steps

IANA will implement the policy.

Background

IPv4 is the Internet Protocol addressing system used to allocate unique IP address numbers in 32-bit format. With the massive growth of the Internet user population, the pool of unique numbers (approximately 4.3 billion) has been depleted and a 128-bit numbering system (IPv6) is taking its place.

More Information

Staff Contact

Olof Nordling, Director, Services Relations


At-Large

12. At-Large Community Members Prepare for ICANN’s Prague Meeting including Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the ALAC

10 years of At-large at ICANN

At a Glance

Representatives from the At-Large community plan to hold 21 meetings during the 44th ICANN Public Meeting in Prague, Czech Republic 24-29 June 2012. These include their traditional policy meetings, meetings with various constituency groups, and meetings with the ICANN Board of Directors.

In addition, the members of the At-Large community will be celebrating the 10-Year Anniversary of the ALAC in its current form as well as the five-year anniversary of the five Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs). EURALO is organizing an ALAC Anniversary Event on Monday, 25 June between 16:00-19:00 in the Grand Ballroom. This event will feature a panel of former ALAC Chairs, including Jacqueline Morris and Cheryl Langdon-Orr, the current Chair, Olivier Crépin-Leblond, and "ALAC historian" Wolfgang Kleinwächter. The panelists will discuss the challenges they faced during their terms as ALAC Chair, the achievements of the ALAC, and their vision for its future. The event will include a slide show, a question and answer period and conclude with music and cocktails.

Recent Developments

The ALAC and the At-Large community will be commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the ALAC (2002-2012) in Prague. In the years since its inception, the ALAC has significantly increased its contribution to the ICANN Policy development process in terms of both quality and quantity of statements (0 statements in 2002, 40 statements in 2011, and 15 statements between January and April in 2012) submitted to various ICANN Public Comment Forums. The ALAC has created over 15 active Working Groups and Sub-Committees that contribute toward the ALAC's policy development. The ALAC contributed to the formation of the RALOs, which are also celebrating their five-year anniversaries. In terms of outreach and capacity building, the ALAC has also successfully held an At-Large Summit in 2009 and has more recently held RALO capacity-building sessions and General Assemblies during ICANN Public Meetings.

The ALAC 10-year anniversary event in Prague will be the start of commemorative activities that will continue through the end of the calendar year.

The ALAC will be busy in policy development activities in 21 At-Large meetings, which include:

  • ALAC and Regional Leadership Working Session 1
  • An At-Large Improvements Taskforce Meeting
  • An ALAC Meeting with the NCSG
  • An At-Large New gTLD Working Group Meeting
  • An ALAC Anniversary Event
  • An APRALO Monthly Meeting
  • An At-Large Meeting with the ICANN Board
  • At-Large Meeting with the GAC
  • Two ALAC Policy Discussion Sessions 
  • A Joint At-Large New gTLD WG and Review Group Meeting
  • An At-Large Registrant Rights and Responsibilities Working Group
  • At-Large Future Challenges Working Group Public Workshop
  • An ICANN Academy WG
  • An At-Large Regional Secretariats Meeting
  • An ALAC Lunch Meeting with Board
  • An AFRALO/AfrICANN Meeting
  • At-Large IDN Working Group
  • At-Large Rules of Procedure & the ALAC Metrics Sub-Committee Meetings
  • An ALAC and Regional Leadership Wrap-Up Meeting
  • An ALAC Executive Committee Meeting

In addition, At-Large community members will also participate actively in many of the other meetings taking place during the ICANN Public Meeting in Prague either in-person or using remote participation tools.

More Information

  • More information reagrding At-Large Meetings scheduled to take place during the ICANN Public Meeting in Prague, including agendas in English, French and Spanish and remote participation instructions
  • More information on the ALAC Anniversary Event

Staff Contact

ICANN Policy Staff for At-Large


13. ALAC Continues High Number of Policy Statements, Comments and Communications

At a Glance

ALAC is continuing its high rate of preparing statements in response to ICANN public comments periods, comments and communications. Between April and mid-June 2012, the ALAC submitted 10 statements.

Recent Developments

The ALAC statements submitted between April and mid-June are:

More Information

Staff Contact

Heidi Ullrich, Director for At-Large


14. LACRALO Engages in Organizational Strengthening Activities: Capacity Building Sessions and Working Groups

At a Glance

As LACRALO continues to move forward with its organization strengthening strategies, it has started a series of activities to inform LACRALO At-Large Structures (ALSes) of important policy issues as well as build on the outcomes of the LACRALO Costa Rica Events activities. A recent initiative has been inviting guest speakers, including policy experts and ICANN staff, to present on a policy topic of particular interest to the region. In addition, four LACRALO Working Groups that were created by LACRALO ALSes during the ICANN Public Meeting in Costa Rica with the aid of Elad Levinson, Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness, have started their work.

Recent Developments

As a continuation of the series of capacity-building sessions started in Costa Rica, LACRALO is inviting speakers to its monthly teleconferences. In April, Mikey O'Connor, of the Commercial Stakeholder Group, presented on the issue of Fake Renewals.  The May teleconference included a presentation by Karla Valente, Director of the gTLD Registry Programs on the New gTLDs and the implications of its implementation in the region. Both presentations were very well attended and were followed by active participation of ALSes in Q&A sessions.

The four Working Groups created during Elad Levinson's Working Sessions in Costa Rica started work on Monday, 21 May. The groups are Strategic Planning, Communication, Translation, and Governance. Rodrigo de la Parra, Vice President for Latin America and Elad Levinson were invited to participate in the calls. Elad and Rodrigo have offered their assistance to support LACRALO as its moves forward with its organization strengthening strategies. The groups have begun with discussions of General Guidelines for work methodologies prepared by LACRALO leaders. Each Working Group will have a President or Coordinator, it will make a statement outlining the purpose of the each group, the background of the issue, list general and specific objectives, address the work methodology and rationale of the group and present a work chronogram, according to its specific objectives.

The WGs will report progress to the LACRALO Secretariat periodically through their respective coordinators and will publish documents for the region to comment on their respective LACRALO wiki pages (see below). The target date to finalize the work is 2 December 2012.

More Information

The LACRALO capacity-building sessions can be viewed on the following pages

The LACRALO Working Groups may be viewed on the following pages:

Staff Contact

Silvia Vivanco, Manager Regional Affairs


SSAC

15. Issues Active in the SSAC


GAC

16. Where to Find GAC Information

At a Glance

ICANN receives input from governments through the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). The GAC's key role is to provide advice to ICANN on issues of public policy, and especially where there may be an interaction between ICANN's activities or policies and national laws or international agreements. The GAC usually meets three times a year in conjunction with ICANN meetings, where it discusses issues with the ICANN Board and other ICANN Supporting Organizations, Advisory Committees and other groups. The GAC may also discuss issues between times with the Board either through face-to-face meetings or by teleconference.

More Information

Staff Contact

Jeannie Ellers, ICANN staff

update-jun12-en.pdf  [552 KB]

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."