As of 00:00 UTC today – 4 days after the launch of the Fast Track Process we have new requests coming in.

The total number is 10 requests. They spread over 5 different languages.

Details about the process is at: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

Please keep asking questions. Is there is anything we can explain better? The FAQ will be updated shortly to include everything you ask here as well.

The launch went smoothly. We have since monitored the system and everything is working.

As of 10pm Pacific time (15 November 2009) we have received:

- 6 requests from countries/territories
- representing 3 different languages

Following the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Final Implementation Plan, no additional details will be reported by ICANN – that is, until requests has been successfully processed.

That said, we will be providing additional stats (as the above) updates in regular time intervals.

No countries or territories has reported problems using the system, at this time.

All details for participants and access to the system is available directly from http://www.icann.org or directly at: http://icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

Inquiries for the system are to be submitted to idncctldrequest@icann.org

A quick note to participants:

When uploading supporting material, please note that each file must be limited to 10MB. If you have larger files, please indicate that in the text box provided, and send the files to idncctldrequest@icann.org We will try to find a better solution to this soon.

We are very much looking forward to receiving additional requests and processing everything, to make IDN ccTLDs a reality for Internet users around the world!

It is being held 28 February through 5 March, at the Sheraton and also at the nearby Melia Mexio Reforma hotel.

All ICANN staff, board members, and community members are invited and encouraged to attend the sessions, all of which are open to everyone.

As proposed by At-Large Community, the Summit has the following objectives:

• Develop the Community’s capacity for engagement in ICANN by increasing its knowledge and understanding of the key issues confronting ICANN and ICANN’s roles and responsibilities;

• Provide an opportunity for the community to finalise and present its advice on some of the most important issues facing the ICANN community today, and last but not least,

• Highlight the successes of the community in recent years and build upon them to ensure that the interests of the world’s more than 1 billion individual Internet users are well represented in the development of Internet name and number policy.

Summit activities include:

• An opening and closing General Session of all participants (Saturday the 28th),

• Five working groups on key policy issues confronting ICANN,

• Thematic Sessions (workshops on topics submitted by community members for inclusion in the Summit programme)

and much more!

The structure, format, and content of the Summit have been developed through a completely bottom-up process. For example, the five policy working group topics were chosen by surveying the entire At-Large community. Members were asked to rank in order of preference their priorities for policy work during the Summit, and the top five choices were then automatically selected as the subjects for the five working groups to tackle. The subjects are:

• At-Large Community Engagement in ICANN

• The Future Structure and Governance of ICANN

• New gTLDs including IDN gTLDs

• ICANN Transparency and Accountability

• DNS Security Issues within ICANN’s Remit

The Thematic Session subjects are all community driven, too. Community members were asked to propose topics and the format for these sessions and the Summit working group is then taking the proposals and scheduling them. Details of these sessions will shortly be posted to the main meeting schedule at http://mex.icann.org/full-sched.

These sessions are designed to provide Summit delegates with a greater understanding of At-Large and ICANN mandates, structures, and processes and supply the tools needed by At-Large to better involve and engage their members in ICANN activities and policy development processes. Many of them delve into specific policy subjects in more detail and with an At-Large-specific viewpoint.

The opening General Session on Saturday will consist of a full schedule of briefings and panel discussions on current work in ICANN, many led by community members with expertise in the subjects concerned, such as DNSSec, IDNs, and the IPv4-IPv6 transition.

The Closing General Session on Thursday will provide a wrap up of key outcomes and deliverables and identify next steps for the At-Large Community. Expect the unexpected on Thursday morning – it will be a tour-de-force summary of the Summit using a very audiovisual format that should keep everyone engaged.

Last but not least, the public workshop on Wednesday entitled “eCrime and Abuse of the DNS Forum” which is sure to be one of the most popular workshops of the entire ICANN meeting is being organised in cooperation with the Summit and will have various experts from At-Large participating in it.

For those who are interested in learning more, visit the Summit microsite at http://www.atlarge.icann.org/summit. We hope to see you in Mexico City!

Mexico City is no exception. Although this time, it is very much easier to get a quick overview of what is out for public comment by looking at the front page of the ICANN website (the third box down on the right).

Just to present you with another avenue to finding out about these public comment periods, there are all listed below with quick explanations of what they are and the dates when they close.

Open comment periods

1. GNSO Constituency Renewals. Closes 25 FEB
As part of the ongoing changes to ICANN’s main policy-making body, the GNSO, all the existing constituencies have put in submissions stating that they have followed the bylaws and so should be reconfirmed as valid constituencies. You are free to comment on these submissions.

2. IPv4 Global Policy. Closes 26 FEB
We are running out of IPv4 address space and so ICANN has been working with the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) to decide what system we follow as the addresses get more and more scarce. The policy here proposes that each RIR be allocated one “slash-8″ – equating to roughly 16.7 million IP addresses – as soon as they are only five blocks left. If you have a comment on this you can make it between now and 26 February.

3. Single and Two-Character .BIZ Domains. Closes 15 MAR
The company that runs the .biz registry, NeuStar, wants to make single and two-character domains available. Until recently, no registries were allowed to do this because of technical concerns. But those rules have relaxed over the past year or so. To be allowed to create, for example, i.biz, NeuStar has to change its contract with ICANN, and ICANN puts all contract changes out for public comment and review. So if you have an opinion about this, you can make it online.

4. Geographic Regions Working Group Charter. Closes 24 MAR
As an organization hoping to represent global stakeholders, ICANN has followed the common approach of splitting the world up into different regions in order to make things manageable. The problems is: where do you draw the lines? It may seem simple but the closer the issue is looked at, the more complex it becomes. So, in order to review what these regions are and who they include, ICANN has created a Working Group to go through all the issues and make recommendations at the end of it. The first step in that process is to create a charter for the group – outlining the scope and methodology that will be followed. This public comment period opens that charter up to public review.

5. Fast Track Proposed Solutions. Closes 6 APR
The Fast Track is the process by which governments and the managers of different countries’ registries will be able to apply for and receive versions of their country name in different languages scripts at the top-level of the Internet i.e. the part after the dot in a domain name. An example would be “China” in Chinese characters. These “internationalized domain names” or IDNs are being put out on the Internet for the first time as the technical issues that make it possible have only recently been resolved.

It is not a simple process by any means, so ICANN has been producing drafts of an “implementation plan” to make this process a reality. In this iteration, as well as the latest version of the Fast Track Implementation Plan, there will be three papers identifying specific issues that still need to be resolved. You can see all the papers in question and make comments about them now and until 6 April.

6. ALAC Review Final Report. Closes 17 APR
ICANN regularly reviews of its main supporting organizations and advisory committees to make sure they remain relevant and in the correct format. The At Large Advisory Committee or ALAC exists to represent ordinary Internet users and it has been under review for roughly a year and the process is drawing to a close. A final report of the working group created to carry out much of the review has been released for its final piece of public comment before being formally submitted to a Board Committee that then puts it forward to a vote by the whole Board. So if you want your say on how ordinary Internet users should be represented within the ICANN model, this is your last chance. Until the ALAC is reviewed again in a few years.

7. Operating Plan and Budget FY2010. Closes 30 APR
People are constantly asking how much money ICANN has and how it decides where to spend it. What few people recognise however is that those decisions are heavily influenced by the community itself. Every year, ICANN runs through a public strategic planning process that outlines what the organization needs to do in the next year. It then turns that into an Operating Plan and from that devises its budget. The community is invited every year to provide their feedback on the process of where ICANN spends it money. This is a comment period on the first version of the Operating Plan and Budget for ICANN’s 2010 financial year. The comments from this will be used to revise the plan and budget and it will then be put out a second time before being approved by the Board in June.

And that’s it for now. Much of the community will be focussed on the revised Applicant Guidebook for new generic top-level domains that will come out in the next day or so, but please do not forget these other public comment periods.

You can view all open and recently closed public comment periods on one page, as well as an archive of older comment periods: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/.

During the Cairo meeting in general, ICANN together with Domaine.info produced a number of videos covering the main sessions and topics, with each video fronted by a member of either the staff or a chair of the relevant supporting organization or advisory committee.

You can find all of those videos posted on the Cairo site at http://cai.icann.org/video, and on the ICANN main site under the “Video” tab.

This video features consultant Patrick Sharry talking about the AC/SO session, which he helped moderate. This joint session will be repeated in Mexico City on the first day of the meeting with a slightly different format following feedback from the community on the first meeting.

Below is a transcript of the video and off to the right is the video itself.

# ICANN and Domaine.info
# ICANN, CAIRO Egypt- November 3, 2008
# Open Joint Session, GNSO,ccNSO, GAC, ALAC Domain.Name.Space
# Hello, my name is Patrick Sharry
# Today I facilitated a very important meeting.
# For the first time at an ICANN meeting,
# we had the chairs of the SOs and ACs.
# organize themselves together for a joint meeting of those groups.
# There were two topics discussed, we talked about the President’s Strategy Committee and
# the Improving Institutional Confidence work
# and we also talked about new gTLDs, IDN ccTLDs, and the issues around those things.
# It was a meeting that ran very well,
# and not least because people recognized how important it was,
# to bring these groups together to talk about issues of such importance.
# During the PSC session. we started with a presentation by the chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush.
# Peter outlined the recent work that the President’s Strategic Committee had been doing,
# and ran through a few slides that talked about the relevant areas that we needed to consider.
# We then got some views from the Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee chairs
# who were seated at the top table.
# And from there, we began a conversation with the community as a whole with an open mike session.
# There were a number of comments on many different aspects of that work.
# As the conversation proceeded, I tried to capture on the white board, some of the key topics of those conversations.
# That list of topics, will then be presented to staff and to other parts of the organization for further consideration,
# as we move into the next phase of the improving institutional confidence project.
# In the second half of our session, we concentrated on new gTLDs, IDN ccTLDs and the issues that surround that.
# We began with comments from each of the Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee chairs,
# They told us what was important in these areas from their own SO or AC perspective,
# And also why those things should be of importance to the community as a whole.
# We interspersed conversations from the SO and AC chairs, with comments from the floor,
# and in particular, we had a particularly productive session at the end where we looked at the issue of geographic names.
# This conversation produced interesting interplay between a number of people in the ICANN community,
# about the issue of what was a gTLD and was a ccTLD
# How should the process run and who should be involved.
# Again, as we had this conversation, I collected on the white board the main topics that people were covering.
# This list will be put into the process of one of a number of items that have been collected this week,
# to help the team who are working on IDN ccTLDs and new gTLDs to further their work,
# as part of the community consultation that they are doing in order to come up with the next phase of that for our next meeting in Mexico.
# Thank you for listening to all of this. It was a very important meeting for the ICANN community,
# as we work forward, I’m sure that we’ll find better ways of running these meetings,
# and that means by the time we get to Mexico and beyond, we’ll actually have even more productive ways
# of bringing these important parts of the ICANN community together. Thanks again for your time. Bye bye.
# Copyrights Domaine.info 2008 All Rights Reserved
# Your comments and reactions are welcome Vos commentaires et reactions sont les bienvenues participate@icann.org

• Two new Board members
• Two members of the ALAC
• One member of the ccNSO Council
• One member of the GNSO Council

In total, 78 individuals applied (13 female and 65 male). The geographic split saw 27 apply from Europe, 20 from North America, 15 from Africa, 14 from Asia-Pacific and 8 from Latin America and the Caribbean.

All the successful applicants, introduced below, will take up their positions at ICANN’s 33rd international public meeting in Cairo, starting on 2 November. We wish them all the best in their new roles.

Board of Directors

The ICANN Board makes all final decisions pertaining to ICANN’s work. It comprises 21 members – 15 voting and six non-voting. The Nominating Committee chooses eight of the voting members, a majority, over a three-year period.

In addition, each of the three supporting organizations within ICANN chooses two voting members each, and the president (also the CEO) makes up the final voting member. The non-voting members are liaisons from each of the six advisory committees.

The successful applicants will serve a three-year term on the Board and they are:

Steve Crocker (USA, North America)

Dr Steve Crocker has served on the ICANN board as a non-voting liaison representing the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) since 2003. He is the CEO and co-founder of Shinkuro, a company focused on dynamic sharing of information across the Internet. He has also served on the board of the Internet Society (2003-06).

Dr Crocker has been involved in the Internet since its inception. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was part of the team that developed the protocols for the Arpanet and laid the foundation for today’s Internet. He organized the Network Working Group, which was the forerunner of the modern Internet Engineering Task Force, and initiated the Request for Comment (RFC) series. He remains active in Internet standards work through the IETF and IAB. For this work, he was awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award.

Dr Crocker’s experience includes research management at DARPA, USC/ISI and The Aerospace Corporation, and co-founder of CyberCash and Longitude Systems. He earned his BA in mathematics and PhD in computer science at UCLA, and he studied artificial intelligence at MIT.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time as SSAC chair and liaison to the Board. But I’ve done it for long enough and I think for the health of the organization, we should have a transition.

“The organization is going through maturation and I want to be a part of helping it evolve while making sure that the technical aspects run smoothly with the organizational aspects.”

Katim S. Touray (Gambia, Africa)

Dr Katim S. Touray is an independent development consultant based in Gambia. A follower of the early Internet, he is a well-known advocate for the network and its uses across a range of media and to a wide variety of audiences for over 15 years.

With a B.Agric, an MS, and PhD degrees in Soil Science (from the universities of Nigeria, Montana State and Wisconsin-Madison, respectively), Dr Touray worked for a number of years for Ministry of Agriculture in The Gambia, and serves as Chairman of the National Agricultural Development Agency (NADA). He has also conducted consultancies on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the media, HIV/AIDS, and other subjects for non-governmental organizations, as well as government and UN agencies.

Dr Touray has significant experience as a producer and host of African music, educational, and public affairs programs on community radio and TV in the US, and national radio in Gambia. He has written a number of articles about the Internet and ICT, and helped found the Consumer Protection Association of The Gambia (CPAG). Dr Touray is self-educated about the Internet and ICT in general. He is also a free and open source software enthusiast and advocate, and serves on the Council of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA).

“I’m really excited and looking forward to working in ICANN. It’s a privilege to have been chosen and I see it as a challenging opportunity.

“I hope to be an active representative of Africa on the Board of ICANN, representing not just the the middle classes but also those in villages who a lot of people don’t see as users but for whom the Internet will have a lot of benefit. I think I can also be an active member in helping to build bridges between the various interest groups, and ensure that the greater good is taken care of.”

At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)

The At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) represents the interests of individual Internet users within ICANN.

The Committee comprises 15 members – three from each of ICANN’s five geographic regions. Two members are chosen from each region by its Regional At Large Organization (RALO) and the third in each case is selected by the Nominating Committee. A chair is selected annually by the members.

Two of the five NomCom places were filled this year and the successful applicants will serve two-year terms. They are:

Alan Greenberg (Canada, North America)

Alan Greenberg has forty years of experience with computing and networking technologies. For much of his career, he worked for McGill University in Montreal, Canada, covering software design and development, education technology support, and management and policy development. He has taught courses in computer architecture and design, as well as managed Internet Society workshops which taught personnel from 150 developing countries how to build, support, manage and use the Internet in their countries.

Since retiring as Director of Computing and Telecommunications at McGill, he has served as an independent consultant focusing on the effective use of technology in developing countries. More recently he has worked with several donor countries providing guidance on how they should focus their technology-related support of developing and least-developed countries.

He has been a Nominating Committee appointee to the ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) since 2006, also acting as liaison to the GNSO.

Mr Greenberg holds a BSc degree in Mathematics and Physics, and an MSc in Computer Science, both from McGill University.

“I am delighted to have been re-appointed to the ALAC. When I was first appointed two year ago, it was to the Interim ALAC, with 10 of its members appointed by the Board and five by the NomCom. Now all five RALOs are functioning and the ten Board-appointed members have been replaced by those selected within their own regions. I look forward to continuing to work with the ALAC, helping to ensure that it truly represents user issues and needs within ICANN.”

Adam Peake (UK, Europe)

Adam Peake has been involved in ICANN since its creation in 1998, most recently as Associate Chair of the Nominating Committee in 2006 and 2007.

He was an early member of the non-commercial users constituency, a founding member of the .ORG Advisory Council (to May 2006), and a member of the NAIS Project that in 2000-2001 contributed to the review of the At-Large elections and public representation and participation in ICANN.

Mr Peake is currently a senior researcher at the Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM), International University of Japan, where he works on telecommunications, Internet and broadband policy, performs follow-up activities for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and teaches a short course on Internet policy for MBA students. He has been involved in Internet policy-making activities since the mid-1990s.

Mr Peake was co-coordinator of the WSIS Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus from 2003 to 2006, and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) between 2006 and 2008. He is a UK citizen and currently lives in Japan.

“Having been a member of the Nominating Committee for a number of years, I’m very pleased to be able to add myself to the list of volunteers that I have seen go before me.

“ALAC is an essential part of ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and a great deal of effort has been put in to create the RALOs, but as yet we’re not managing to get voices coming through. So I hope I’ll be in a position to help with that essential user voice.”

ccNSO Council

The Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO) develops policy and makes recommendations relating to country-code top-level domains within ICANN. Its decisions are made by the ccNSO Council.

The Council comprises 18 members – three from each of five geographic regions, plus three chosen by the Nominating Committee. Members of the ccNSO from each region select their three representatives. A chair is selected annually by the members.

One of the three NomCom places was filled this year and the successful applicant will serve a three-year term. That person:

Jian Zhang (China/USA, Asia-Pacific/North America)

Jian Zhang is the director of International Business and Policy Development department at CNNIC.
She has over 10 years of experiences in ICT and networking, having also worked at GTE Internetworking, Nextel Communications and Cisco Systems. At CNNIC, Ms Zhang has worked on both domestic and international policy areas, including policy analysis and development strategy. She is on the Board of the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD) – an organization for ccTLD registries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ms Zhang has an MS in Information Systems from Northeastern University, Massachussets. She has hands-on experience with Internet technology and management as well as valuable skills in cross-cultural communications.

“I am quite honored by the Nominating Committee and I thank them for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Internet society.

“As a Council member I hope to make a contribution to the work that is going on, particularly with respect to international TLDs.”

GNSO Council

The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) is the main policy development arm of ICANN. Its decisions and recommendations are made by the GNSO Council.

There are 18 members of the GNSO Council, comprising three members from each of the GNSO’s six constituencies, plus three chosen by the Nominating Committee. There are also two non-voting liaisons and a chair chosen from the Council members.

The Nominating Committee 2008 chose one new Council member, who will serve a two-year term:

Terry Davis (USA, North America)

Terry Davis has over 30 years’ experience in large-scale systems and network design, security, implementation, and operations. Heralding from the aviation industry, he is currently in charge of Aircraft Network and Security Architecture & Strategy for Boeing and was previously the Chief Network Engineer for Connexion by Boeing, the in-flight Internet service.

Mr Davis has also been Vice-President of Professional Services for ViaLight, a fiber to the home company; a Technology Leader for Internet security company Adario; and Senior Corporate Security Architect for the Boeing as well as an aircraft simulation designer, network engineer, and system programmer.

An active contributor to and participant in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) since 1992 and he is also a member of the North American IPv6 Task Force (NAv6TF). In addition, he has served his city and county governments for almost 20 years as a commissioner for Land Use and Development, Basin Water, and Cable TV.

Mr Davis holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University and an MS in Strategic Planning for Critical Infrastructure from the University of Washington. He is a Boeing Technical Fellow, a member of the IEEE and the American Society of Civil Engineers, and is a registered professional engineer in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Washington. He and his wife Jennie have been residents of Issaquah, Washington for over 20 years.

“I’m extremely honoured to have been selected – it surprised me very much. As to what I want to accomplish in the role, I think the domain name space is one of the most critical things going forward – we have some real challenges in TLDs as well as with security.

“The aviation industry, for example, is just beginning to make planes Internet capable, and there is lots of activity around aircraft naming and addressing. This is going to provide some real challenges.”

What do the independent reviewers want to hear about? Any observations you may have about the role of the At Large Advisory Committee, or its structure, or its operation. All submissions/comments are confidential.

What is the ALAC? It is the part of the ICANN organisational structure that deals with the “at large” community, which means Internet users as a whole. You can find out more about ALAC at its website: http://www.atlarge.icann.org/.

And more information about the review itself is available here.

Please email comments to alacreview@westlakenz.com.

ALAC has been undergoing a lot of change in the past year. We are definitely living in interesting times! We’ve had a turnover of almost the entire ALAC, with only 2 members at this time having had more that 1 years’ experience on the ALAC. We’ve moved from working in English only to working consistently in English, Spanish and French! We have had a lot of cultural adjustment to make, and this is ongoing. Growing pains, indeed! It has been painful, and I am sure there are more painful steps to be undergone, but I believe the worst is over. I truly believe in the potential of the At Large to make valuable input into ICANN policies and processes, and to advise the Board on behalf of Internet users. I hope you all share my belief!

There’s still a need to review the mission of the ALAC, and put new goals in place. For the past year, our focus has been on ending the Interim ALAC and forming the real ALAC. This has finally been achieved. All that remains is for the APRALO to have their signing ceremony, postponed to February in Delhi by circumstances. But they are all up and running.

We thank all the members of the ALAC (past and present) and of the ALSes who have worked so hard to make this a reality. The ALAC would greatly appreciate continued involvement in At Large from those of us who are moving on. The knowledge and experience of the past will be invaluable to the ALAC as it moves forward.

What we’ve done recently…

The ALAC on Sunday went through a one-day strategy session, including team-building and SWOT analysis. This was very useful, as we have five new members appointed by NomCom taking their seats at the end of this meeting, and only 2 of 15 members of the ALAC will have been there for more than one year at the conclusion of this ICANN meeting, so this is the full transition.

Therefore, this meeting was designed to facilitate building the new team. We think a common vision of the ALAC by its members is vital to move forward successfully and that vision was shared by all as the outcome of the session.

The Secretariats of the RALOs have also been meeting in LA, as you may have read in yesterday’s ICANN Newsletter. About that story, I will simply paraphrase Mark Twain and say that the rumors of ALAC’s discontent and predicted death have been greatly exaggerated.

The Secretariats have had a very productive meeting. They have set up systems for cross-regional coordination and information sharing. We do not want the regions to function as silos, but rather to have a truly global organisation. To this end, the At Large is currently working on a proposal to have a Summit of the regions.

Despite all this work being done on organisational issues, we still have managed to develop some policy positions. (with the able and invaluable contribution of the At Large members, and I want to single out to thank for their incredible work – Hong Xue, Danny Younger, John Levine and Vittorio Bertola)

We have developed policy on IDNs, via an At Large working group. This has been provided to the Board.

On IDNs in brief,

The ALAC emphasizes the pressing need from the user community for IDNs. We support a balanced and effective fast-track approach for implementation of IDN ccTLDs. We welcome the new PDP proposal from the ccNSO and reiterate our strong commitment to bring the individual users’ voices to this policy-making process. ALAC has submitted to the Board the status report on IDN ccTLDs issues, which contains our recommendations on the principles, policies and implementation of IDN ccTLDs. We primarily recommend that implementation of IDN ccTLDs comply with all the technical standards to ensure the interoperability and security and selection and accreditation of any IDN ccTLD be subject to sufficient, transparent and effective consultations in the pertinent ccTLD user community.

Given that the IDN test is going on and the IDN protocols are being reviewed, we are keen to know whether there is a timeline for implementation of IDN gTLDs under the auspices of the new gTLD process.

Finally, ALAC has organised an IDN workshop from the users’ prospective, at the IGF, in collaboration with the ccNSO, GAC and ICANN Staff .

We have developed, via working groups, policy positions on several other issues (maybe some of you attended Danny’s excellent presentation on the RAA yesterday). Those are expected to be approved by the ALAC in the very near future, and will be officially transmitted as advice to the Board.

in brief on the RAA

While the ALAC regards the synthesis of public commentary on Registrar Accredition Agreements to be a good start, we are concerned that a number of proposals made by the at-large community and consumer organizations, intended to make more concrete some specific contract enforcement provisions between ICANN and registrars, along with compliance with the agreements themselves, have been classified “unfeasible” or outside ICANN’s scope (Section F).

A number of provisions in section F were suggested to give consumers assistance, direction and help in choosing a registrar; means of redress when disputes arise; objective and public data detailing registrar problems; and some assignation of responsibility on registrars to provide security enhancing and stability (for example, DNSSEC). Perhaps somewhat predictably, the classification of at-large and user comments on the RAA into what probably will be done, might be done through other means or venues, and what probably is not going to be done, seems to go easy on registrars while still leaving substantial gaps in the registrar agreements for abuse of the user community.

Section F, item 21 states, “We ask ICANN staff to prepare a summary of the current practices, fees and burdens imposed on registrants by a significant sample of registrars. (The ALAC is ready to ask for an Issues Report if necessary).” We have not yet determined if this step is necessary.

In response to the GNSO’s recommendations to the Board on new gTLDs, At-Large convened a workgroup under Danny Younger to draft a response. Working in record time, this group put together a position paper. Although not yet a formal ALAC position, the ALAC, in conjunction with the RALO’s, is reviewing this position and will be sending its formal position to the Board shortly.

Another major item is the GNSO, and we believe that there are three issues related to this new document.

1. There is a discussion on whether At Large should be represented on the GNSO which ends with the statement that users could participate in the commercial or non-commercial groups “depending on how they viewed their registration”. Surely the BGC understands that not all users have their own registrations. Something over 1 billion of then are just “users”.

2. The argument is made that since the ALAC/At-Large exists to advise the Board, they do not need a presence on the GNSO. This presumes that it is adequate to be reactive to GNSO policy drafts. In reality, inputs received during comment periods do not have a good record of making it into next revisions unless there are strong advocates for it. The move to working groups which can include individuals may help this, but a vote on the GNSO council will still be an effective mechanism for helping to ensure that end user needs are addressed during the policy creation process instead of after.

3. The new Board Governance Committee proposal does not mention Liaisons, apparently because the BGC did not see any reason to change things. But the report does explicitly say that there should be regular contact between the various SO and the ALAC and mentions telephone conference calls between the Chairs. If such calls make sense, certainly the corresponding Liaison should also be included.

Our Issues report request on Domain Tasting is moving through the GNSO AND THE ALAC HAS CONTINUED TO PUT MUCH EFFORT INTO THIS PROCESS..

We continue to build relationships both with other groups within ICANN and without. Our statement on IP v4-v6 in the ASO yesterday was well received.

I repeat it here

We are aware that sometime within a few years the current pool of IPv4 addresses will expire, which may have a significant impact on the use of Internet by broad public.

We ask the global address allocation registries to make sure that the allocation of the remaining pool of IPv4 addresses be done in a fair and equitable manner. The challenge here is what exactly we mean by “fair and equitable” – and we understand that this requires an open and inclusive policy development process. We respect the work done by the RIRs so far and we are willing to actively participate more.

We are concerned about the potential creation of a “black market” of the IPv4 addresses and call for a rational way to make a secondary market a reality. We also call for a reasonable way of recollecting the unused IPv4 address blocks.

We also like to call for more outreach work initiated by the address community to make sure that the issues are understood clearly and the solutions are communicated openly.

We understand that the best solution to this challenge is to make a smooth and orderly transition to the broad use of IPv6. There are several challenges and tasks to make that to happen:

- Organize awareness campaign for the need for timely transition

- Avoid media scares by providing accurate information to wider public

- Make sure all “public sites” by governments and commercial service providers implement IPv4-v6 dual capacity in a timely manner

- That measures be taken to help developing countries to prepare for the transition in a timely and affordable manner

- Prepare a timeline under which we can operate the transition program, such as outreach, technical assistance and other preparation in a timely manner so that suitable, reliable and effective planning can be made

In sum, the ALAC has gone through a very difficult transition and has come out ready to take on its responsibilities as an Advisor to the Board, with the input of the user community. We have, through our ALSes, several million members, and we are working to

1. Educate users on the issues
2. Bring their concerns to the Board
3. Advise the Board on the user perspective in policy issues
4. Work with ICANN staff to make ICANN more user-friendly, including multi-lingual documents and other tools to allow users to participate without the need to learn English

This is my last presentation to you as Chair of ALAC, and I wish to say – it’s been a very interesting experience, I learned a lot, and I enjoyed most of it. I will definitely stay involved in ICANN and the ALAC in any role required. I’d like to introduce you to our new Chair (as of Friday), Cheryl Langdon-Orr from the Asia Pacific RALO. Please wish her a very successful tenure.

Thanks

For background, please see the Issues Report on Domain Tasting.

We took some pictures and have finally got around to going through them and sticking them on ICANN’s server, and here they are for the viewing pleasure of all out there.

Full-size versions of the pictures can be found on this webpage.