[council] Call for volunteers - 'thick' Whois PDP Drafting Team

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Call for Volunteers for Drafting Team to develop Charter for 'thick' Whois PDP 
WG

Introduction

At its meeting on 14 March 2012, the GNSO Council initiated a Policy 
Development Process (PDP) on 'thick' Whois (see 
http://gnso.icann.org/en/resolutions#20120314-1). Following a short delay, the 
GNSO Council decided at its last meeting that a group of volunteers should now 
be convened to draft the charter for the PDP Working Group, which is to be 
approved by the GNSO Council.

Task of the Drafting Team

The Drafting Team will be tasked with developing a charter for the PDP Working 
Group on 'thick' Whois'. The elements of the Charter should include, at a 
minimum, the following elements as specified in the GNSO Working Group 
Guidelines<http://gnso.icann.org/council/summary-gnso-wg-guidelines-06apr11-en.pdf>:
 Working Group identification; Mission, Purpose and Deliverables; Formation, 
Staffing and Organization, and; Rules of Engagement. The proposed charter will 
be submitted to the GNSO Council for its consideration.

Volunteers

If you are interested to participate, please send an email to the GNSO 
Secretariat 
(gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>). You 
will be required to complete a Statement of Interest in order to participate.

Background Information on the Issue

For the generic top-level domain (gTLD) registries, ICANN specifies Whois 
service requirements through the registry agreements (ICANN 2009 Registry 
Agreements) and the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). Registries satisfy 
their Whois obligations using different services. The two common models are 
often characterized as "thin" and "thick" Whois registries. This distinction is 
based on how two distinct sets of data are managed. One set of data is 
associated with the domain name, and a second set of data is associated with 
the registrant of the domain name. A thin registry only stores and manages the 
information associated with the domain name. This set includes data sufficient 
to identify the sponsoring registrar, status of the registration, creation and 
expiration dates for each registration, name server data, the last time the 
record was updated in its Whois data store, and the URL for the registrar's 
Whois service. With thin registries, Registrars manage the second set of data 
associated with the registrant of the domain and provide it via their own Whois 
services, as required by Section 3.3 of the RAA 3.3 for those domains they 
sponsor. COM and NET are examples of thin registries. Thick registries maintain 
and provide both sets of data (domain name and registrant) via Whois. INFO and 
BIZ are examples of thick registries.

The GNSO Council requested an Issue Report on 'thick' Whois at its meeting on 
22 September 2011 noting that the Issue Report should 'not only consider a 
possible requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs in the context of 
IRTP, but should also consider any other positive and/or negative effects that 
are likely to occur outside of IRTP that would need to be taken into account 
when deciding whether a requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs 
would be desirable or not'.

The Final Issue Report was submitted by ICANN Staff on 2 February 2012 (see 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/final-report-thick-whois-02feb12-en.pdf) and 
in this report a number of issues are outlined that will need further 
consideration should a PDP proceed. The staff recommendation notes that staff 
has confirmed that the proposed issues are within the scope of the ICANN policy 
process and the GNSO and notes that it is reasonable from the staff's 
perspective to expect that further investigation of 'thick' Whois for all gTLDs 
would be beneficial to the community generally, as it would allow for an 
informed decision by the GNSO Council as to whether 'thick' Whois for all gTLDs 
should be required or not.

Recommended Reading for Volunteers


 *   Final Issue Report on 'Thick' Whois 
(http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/final-report-thick-whois-02feb12-en.pdf)
 *   GNSO Working Group Guidelines, including charter guidelines 
(http://gnso.icann.org/council/annex-1-gnso-wg-guidelines-08apr11-en.pdf)




Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
http://gnso.icann.org