[council] Update on NGPC Progress on GAC Advice on New gTLDs

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

https://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-22may13-en.htm
Update on NGPC Progress on GAC Advice on New gTLDs
22 May 2013

The ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) held a discussion in 
Amsterdam on 18 May 2013 regarding how and when it could address the Beijing 
GAC advice. The NGPC structured the discussion around the attached GAC Advice 
Framework<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/gac-advice-framework-21may13-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 52 KB]. The Framework organizes the individual advice items into 
discrete groupings to allow the NGPC to prioritize its work. The NGPC's goal is 
to carefully consider GAC advice and community input and to make decisions that 
will allow the greatest number of new gTLD applications to move forward as soon 
as possible.

As mentioned in our last 
update<https://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-2-10may13-en.htm>,
 the NGPC is developing a scorecard for the advice, marking items as a "1A," 
"1B" and "2." In Amsterdam, the NGPC made progress on identifying the potential 
"1As," i.e., those items for which the NGPC has a tentative position that 
appears to be consistent with the GAC's advice. Final scoring of the items will 
not be possible until the applicant responses to the GAC Advice are summarized 
and reviewed. The NGPC anticipates that it will discuss these items further 
during its next meeting tentatively scheduled for early June.

The NGPC also began discussing the GAC Advice on Safeguards. Currently there is 
an open Public Comment 
Forum<https://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/gac-safeguard-advice-23apr13-en.htm>
 seeking input on how the NGPC should address the GAC's Safeguard Advice. The 
Public Comment Forum closes on 4 June 2013. As shown in the attached, the NGPC 
is evaluating the safeguard advice grouped as follows:

 *   Safeguard Advice Applicable to all strings
 *   Category 1 Safeguard Advice: Consumer Protection, Sensitive Strings, and 
Regulated Markets
 *   Category 2 Safeguard Advice: Restricted Registration Policies (Restricted 
Access and Exclusive Access)

Over the next few weeks, the NGPC will hold a series of calls to discuss 
applicant responses to the GAC advice, the Safeguard advice and related public 
comment, and other matters including responding to the GAC's advice on singular 
and plural strings, its questions in Annex 2, and its requests for briefing 
papers.

The New gTLD evaluation and objection processes remains on track while the NGPC 
continues its deliberations. As mentioned above, the NGPC is prioritizing its 
work in order to allow the greatest number of applications to move forward as 
soon as possible. We will continue to provide updates on the NGPC's progress in 
responding to the GAC Beijing advice.

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