[council] Request for Proposals for WHOIS Consumer Trust Research

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-10jul11-en.htm

Request for Proposals for WHOIS Consumer Trust Research

*Deadline for applications 25 July 2011*

10 July 2011

1.    Introduction

1.1. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an 
internationally organized, non-profit public benefit corporation responsible 
for coordinating critical Internet resources. These include Internet Protocol 
(IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) 
and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain Name System (DNS) management, and 
root server system management. ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational 
stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad 
representation of global Internet communities; and to develop policy 
appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes.

As part of its work, ICANN implements policy for WHOIS services that provide 
public access to data about registered domain names. The extent of data 
collected at the time of domain name registration, and the ways such data can 
be accessed, are specified in agreements established by ICANN for domain names 
registered in gTLDs. For example, ICANN requires accredited registrars to 
collect and provide free public access to the name of the registered domain 
name, name servers, registrar, the date the domain was created, when its 
expires, the name and contact information for the domain name's Registered Name 
Holder, technical contact and administrative contact. Anyone can obtain this 
data by using a WHOIS client to send an RFC 3912-formatted query to TCP port 
43, or by submitting a web form query to a WHOIS server. Data is returned in an 
unspecified human-readable form, predominately but not exclusively represented 
in US-ASCII.

1.2. ICANN has made commitments in an Affirmation of Commitments with the U.S. 
Department of Commerce related to WHOIS. In Section 9.3.1: "ICANN additionally 
commits to enforcing its existing policy relating to WHOIS, subject to 
applicable laws. Such existing policy requires that ICANN implement measures to 
maintain timely, unrestricted and public access to accurate and complete WHOIS 
information, including registrant, technical, billing and administrative 
contact information. One year from the effective date of this document and then 
no less frequently than every three years thereafter, ICANN will organize a 
review of WHOIS policy and its implementation to assess the extent to which 
WHOIS policy is effective and its implementation meets the legitimate needs of 
law enforcement and promotes consumer trust."

Based on this commitment, ICANN organized a WHOIS Review Team, which began its 
work in January 2011. The WHOIS Review Team is comprised of volunteer community 
members and includes designated nominees by the Chair of the Governmental 
Advisory Committee and the CEO of ICANN, representatives of the relevant 
Advisory Committees and Supporting Organizations, experts and representatives 
of the global law enforcement community and global privacy experts. Resulting 
recommendations from the WHOIS Review Team will be provided to the Board and 
posted for public comment. The Board will take action within six months of 
receipt of the recommendations.

1.3. Pursuant to the above mandate to review WHOIS policy, the WHOIS Review 
Team seeks to engage an independent consumer research organization to undertake 
data collection and analysis of consumer trust as it relates to the commitment 
to provide unrestricted and public access to accurate and complete WHOIS 
information as described above.

2.    Objectives

2.1. The overall objective for seeking independent research is to be able to 
evaluate the effectiveness of WHOIS policy and its implementation as it relates 
to promoting consumer trust. It is expected that this research will provide a 
consumer perspective that cannot be obtained from the internal communication 
work with ICANN stakeholder groups to obtain input and opportunities for public 
comment.

2.2. Section 4 of the Affirmation of Commitments states: "ICANN and DOC 
recognize that there is a group of participants that engage in ICANN's 
processes to a greater extent than Internet users generally." The WHOIS Review 
Team has concluded that this wider group must also be polled to determine to 
what level they trust the Internet and specifically ICANN's role in 
establishing that trust as it relates to implementation of WHOIS policy.

2.3. The WHOIS Review Team is planning to prepare its preliminary findings and 
recommendations in September 2011. The results of this research are viewed as a 
critical input for that task. Therefore, interested parties are asked to submit 
applications no later than 25 July 2011. The intention is to select a firm and 
begin the research work by 15 August 2011. The target date for research results 
is 19 September 2011.

3.    Terms of Reference

3.1. The first deliverable required is to construct and formulate appropriate 
questions and provide recommendations on an optimum representation of consumer 
characteristics given the objectives. Examples of these characteristics are: 
consumers who do and do not hold a domain name, who use the Internet, who have 
used or not used WHOIS data, etc.

3.2. The second deliverable is to perform online surveys on a global scope in 
multiple languages and scripts, compile and analyze the results and report 
findings. The findings should be presented in both an overview and with 
appendices that show supporting details. A minimum of ten (10) key countries is 
required and must be reasonably distributed across countries in the Asia 
Pacific region, the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa and shall include, 
at least, three developing countries. The surveys must collect a minimum of 100 
responses per country. Surveys should be conducted in the language that is 
local for each country. A fair and balanced approach must be employed to 
canvass all age and gender groups equally.

4.    Tender Scope and Conditions

4.1. Statement of Suitability. The Statement of Suitability must include a 
detailed outline of the applicant's ability to perform this work, including 
references and examples of past research projects, publications, and other 
relevant information. Preference will be given to applicants who can 
demonstrate experience conducting global consumer research related to using the 
Internet. Disclose and describe any business relationship or association with 
ICANN, a registry, a registrar or proxy service provider.

4.2. Work Approach. The Work Approach must detail the manner in which the 
applicant would respond to the Terms of Reference, providing details about how 
the specified research would be conducted. Applicants are encouraged to 
elaborate upon the research tasks as needed to quantify effort, enumerate 
assumptions, and identify dependencies.

The successful applicant will be expected to interact with the ICANN WHOIS 
Review Team via email, conference calls, and video conference to refine 
proposed research methodologies, finalize input sources/participants, and 
review research progress.

Weekly informal progress updates are expected and should be communicated with 
the designated point of contact for the WHOIS Review Team.

4.3. Tools or Resources. The response must include descriptions of the tools 
and resources and any other relevant capabilities that will be used to carry 
out the research work.

4.4. Team. The applicant shall designate and specify the individuals that will 
work on and provide the deliverables. It shall provide a full biography for 
each designated individual and assign one individual as the main contact person 
for the ICANN WHOIS Review Team. Any change in the designated individuals 
and/or their roles and responsibilities requires consent from the ICANN WHOIS 
Review Team.

4.4. Contractual Relationship. The successful applicant will be required to 
enter into a standard contractor agreement with ICANN wherein the successful 
applicant shall warrant, among other things, that it will operate under a 
non-disclosure agreement and agree to assign and waive any relevant 
intellectual property rights of the deliverables, research, and work.

4.5 Selection. ICANN has no obligation to select any applicant. Selection 
criteria will not be based solely on price and will consider overall value and 
ability to deliver quality results in the desired timeframe.

4.6. Schedule and Fees. The proposal should include a work schedule, including 
key milestone dates and a statement of proposed fees. Fees should be inclusive 
of related project expenses, including (but not limited to) electronic, postal, 
and telephone communication; computer hardware, software, and services; and 
travel costs.

5.    Deadline/Requirements:

By 12:00 p.m. UTC on 25 July 2011, interested applicants shall submit proposals 
via email to: 
rfp-whois-cons-trust@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:rfp-whois-cons-trust@xxxxxxxxx> to the 
attention of Olof Nordling. A confirmation email will be sent for each proposal 
received. Any proposal received after 12:00 p.m. UTC on 25 July 2011 will not 
be considered.







Glen de Saint Géry

GNSO Secretariat

gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://gnso.icann.org