[announce] ICANN Exploring Certification of Backend Registry Operators

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http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-31jan08.htm
ICANN Exploring Certification of Backend Registry Operators

31 January 2008

* * In advance of the ICANN meeting in New Delhi, India, this
announcement is to inform the community that ICANN is exploring a
potential initiative for the certification of backend registry operators
for new gTLDs. ICANN has identified registry operator certification as
an area that may improve the application process for new gTLDs and
improve security and stability by creating a pool of available and
pre-qualified registry operators in the event of registry failure.

ICANN is an internationally organized non-profit public benefit
organization that administers certain features of the Internet's unique
identifiers. As a private-public partnership, ICANN is dedicated to
preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting
competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet
communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through
bottom-up, consensus-based processes. A general description of ICANN is
available at http://icann.org/tr/english.html
<http://www.icann.org/tr/english.html>.

*Background*

The idea of creating a certified registry operations provider program is
not new. In March 2003, ICANN released criteria for stable registry
operation to be used in the selection of new sponsored TLDs:
http://www.icann.org/riodejaneiro/stld-rfp-topic.htm#D1.

Since the March 2003 ICANN meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a wide
range of community members (registrars, ccTLD registry operators,
Non-Commercial Constituency members, among others) have encouraged ICANN
to move forward with the creation of an Accredited Registry Services
Provider program (or similar program). As an example, the 15 March 2006
GNSO Issues Report on Technical Criteria for new gTLDs referenced the
idea of creating an accredited registry operator's system (see
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/tech-criteria-15mar06.htm). The
topic was also raised in the GNSO Public Forum in Lisbon, Portugal in
March 2007 and during the November 2007 ICANN meeting in Los Angeles,
California.

Additional research and discussion on this potential initiative is
anticipated as staff moves toward the introduction of new gTLDs and
implementation of the gTLD registry failover plan in the near future.
Further information will be provided on the ICANN website.
--
Glen de Saint GÃry
GNSO Secretariat - ICANN
gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org
http://gnso.icann.org