[council] FW: ICANN's IDN variant TLD project

["Jonathan Robinson" <jrobinson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Ram Mohan [mailto:ram.mohan@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: 27 March 2014 10:41
To: 'Jonathan Robinson'
Cc: 'Ram Mohan-ICANN'
Subject: RE: ICANN's IDN variant TLD project

 

Dear Jonathan,

 

Thank you for your email and the excellent idea of a GNSO policy liaison to
the Integration Panel for the IDN Variant Project.  The Board's IDN Variant
Working Group (BV-WG), which I chair, is charged with overseeing the work of
the ICANN staff team on this project. Please feel free to share this email
with the Council and members of the GNSO community as you see fit.

 

As you know, a very significant amount of technical and linguistic work is
being undertaken as part of the IDN Variants program, covering interested
language communities around the world.  ICANN has appointed an IDN
Integration Panel that is charged with the review and synthesis of the work
of each of the planned 17 Label Generation Ruleset (LGR) Panels.  Each LGR
Panel consists of linguistic and technical experts well-versed in that
particular language representation.

 

We anticipate the work to not only be technical and detailed, but to
encompass several years.  The ICANN Board believes that this area of work is
critical and that ICANN has a responsibility to assist in furthering the
state of the art, and has provided resource, budget and oversight
commitments.

 

The work of the Panels and the specific projects within the framework of the
Project are published for public comment and community consultations, which
are conducted at the appropriate time during each phase of work. In
addition, for the implementation work to be done relating to the LGR that is
ultimately developed, SO/AC input has been formally sought.   

 

Given the significant work effort required to pull this off, and the highly
distributed and diverse geographical nature of the LGR panels and the
Integration Panel's work, I would suggest instead that ICANN staff commit to
a regular and frequent schedule of input and feedback with the GNSO.

 

Based upon the Council's request, the Board Variant Working Group has
therefore tasked ICANN staff to immediately initiate a regular feedback and
input mechanism with the GNSO, including but not limited to a full face to
face briefing at the next 5 ICANN meetings.

 

In addition, the BV-WG has tasked staff to work with the GNSO to determine
the utility and timeliness of a "primer" session for the community.

 

I believe this measure would allow the ICANN implementation team to seek
advice from the GNSO in a structured and regular manner, similar to other
ad-hoc teams that the GNSO is forming.

 

The Board's IDN Variant Working Group is available to discuss IDN variants
and ICANN's work on the project with the GNSO community.

 

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. 

 

Best regards,

Ram

 

Chair, ICANN Board IDN Variant Working Group

 

 

From: Jonathan Robinson [mailto:jonathan.robinson@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 8:32 PM
To: rmohan@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: ICANN's IDN variant TLD project

 

Dear Ram,

 

As you may be aware, the GNSO Council passed all 5 of its motions yesterday.
One of these was a motion to close the Joint IDN Working Group and certain
next steps for IDN related issues.

 

During the course of the weekend GNSO sessions and the discussion of this
item, it was recognised that it will remain very important for the GNSO
Council and ensure that we keep a good eye on this are of work.

One suggestion was for a GNSO liaison to ICANN's IDN variant TLD project.

 

Please could you consider this request and let me know your thoughts so that
we know whether or not to proceed to appoint such a liason.

 

Many thanks,

 


Jonathan

 

 

Jonathan Robinson

Chair

ICANN GNSO Council

 

jonathan.robinson@xxxxxxxxxxx

Tel: +44 (0)20 7993 6103

skype: jonathan.m.r