As you know, on 7 March, we posted a draft of the 2013 RAA for public comment noting the outstanding differences remaining in the negotiations at that time. Differences that have since been reconciled through many additional hours of meeting and dialogue. ICANN and the Registrar Negotiating Team considered as part of the negotiations the public comments received and resolved all the remaining issues and differences. Now the ICANN community is able to review this final draft before it is approved and adopted. And so, we are posting the final draft of the 2013 RAA for public comment.

I must say that I am extremely delighted with the new spirit of partnership that has evolved between ICANN and the registrar community as a whole. On behalf of ICANN, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the Registrar Negotiating Team for their tireless efforts and spirited attitudes in getting us to the finish line. A few of them have offered their own reflections on the process and the Agreement.

Matt Serlin, Chair of the Registrar Stakeholder Group:

“On behalf of the entire Registrar Negotiating Team, I am pleased to see negotiations on the 2013 RAA have come to a conclusion after a long process in which both parties worked long and hard to resolve difficult issues. The outcome of these discussions is a new RAA which will be impactful for everyone involved in the DNS industry including every ICANN accredited registrar. We look forward to continuing to work with ICANN as we now move from the negotiations phase to implementing the numerous new requirements contained in the 2013 RAA.”

James Bladel, GoDaddy.com:

“The new 2013 RAA represents over a year’s work between registrars and ICANN Staff, and is an important milestone in the development of the DNS ecosystem. It raises the bar for service providers, provides new tools for law enforcement, and gives registrars long-term stability in their relationship with ICANN.”

Volker Greimann, Key-Systems Group:

“ICANN and the registrars negotiation teams have worked long and hard towards the completion of a 2013 RAA to address the difficult issues put before us. Despite complicated issues, sometimes moving goalposts and further complications were able to conclude the negotiations with a result that we hope will be a great step ahead for the community. I am especially pleased that the negotiated 2013 RAA recognizes the need for fair and balanced exemption process where applicable law prohibits the direct implementation of certain terms within new requirements, such as the data retention specification.”

Rob Hall, Momentous.com:

“It isn’t just the new RAA that is significant, it is the collaborative way it was created.  Those of us who participated saw the dawn of a new day at ICANN, one where getting things done for the community as a whole takes precedence over any single concern.”

In October ICANN’s President & CEO, Fadi Chehadé, announced an ambitious plan for tackling one of ICANN’s most controversial issues—WHOIS. Undeterred by the decade’s long debate, and encouraged by the WHOIS Review Team’s Report, he challenged the notion that WHOIS couldn’t be fixed, and instead suggested a fresh approach. In line with this vision, the ICANN Board approved a two-pronged strategy to adopt the WHOIS Review Team (RT)’s recommendations to fully enforce the existing WHOIS policy and to follow the SSAC’s recommendations to redefine the purpose and scope of data directory services. When complete, ICANN hopes to transform the current antiquated WHOIS system into one that is better suited for the needs of tomorrow’s Internet.

I’d like to share with you some information on ICANN’s progress on these WHOIS-related activities.

Execution of the WHOIS RT Recommendations. The Board’s November WHOIS resolution prioritized and kicked-off a series of activities throughout ICANN—involving the Board, Staff, registrars, registries, the GNSO, At-Large and other interested community members— to implement the WHOIS RT Recommendations. Highlights include:

• Reshaping online services. Chris Gift, ICANN’s newly appointed Vice President of Online Community Services, has been tapped by Fadi to, among other duties, create an "information portal" that will be a one-stop shop for WHOIS related inquiries targeted at helping consumers understand and use WHOIS. The portal is to include WHOIS look-ups for both thin and thick registries, and links to educational materials and a compilation of WHOIS policy and provisions. This department also will build tools to statistically sample and report on WHOIS accuracy as part of a new effort to increase data accuracy and create accuracy metrics, as recommended by the WHOIS-RT. Research and planning are under way for both of these key initiatives.
• Enhanced Contractual Framework supporting WHOIS. The WHOIS RT noted areas where existing contracts could be enhanced to better support enforcement of current WHOIS obligations, improve accuracy, and issues related to privacy services. In response to these recommendations, ICANN has proposed amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) that include:
• WHOIS Accuracy Specification requiring validation and verification of certain WHOIS data fields.
• Specification on Privacy/Proxy Services that sets minimum requirements (escrow, relay requirements, abuse point of contact, and disclosure of service terms) for services offered by Registrar or its resellers.
• WHOIS Specification describing a minimum Service Level Agreement for WHOIS Port 43 requirements and a commitment to adopt the IETF’s WEIRDS protocol after publication by IETF, which is expected to accommodate IDN WHOIS records.
• Registrant Rights and Responsibilities Specification, that is to be accompanied by significant media outreach, to educate & informs registrants of their obligations to maintain the accuracy of their WHOIS records.
• 2013 RAA to be a Requirement for New GTLDs, in furtherance of ICANN’s commitment to make WHOIS a strategic priority.
• ICANN Compliance efforts to enforce WHOIS obligations. The WHOIS RT offered recommendations to improve ICANN Compliance Team’s structure, communications, and enforcement of WHOIS obligations. Substantial progress has been made. Highlights include:
• Reinforcing WHOIS Compliance as a priority by moving Compliance directly under the CEO.
• A New Consolidated Complaint Management System that improves both the user experience and the compliance operations; phase one was launched this week with WHOIS inaccuracy as a priority.
• Completed rollout of Compliance Process to WHOIS complaints processing; this improved processing quality and efforts, including shortening complaint resolution time.
• Launched an Audit Program that includes review of inaccuracy responses and WHOIS data elements "population," among other elements.
• Increased compliance updates and published the Annual Report

A more complete description of the implementation activities is contained in the table below and detailed program reporting will be regularly issued to enable the community to track the progress of these activities.

Under Development: Next Generation Data Directory Services

In December, ICANN launched a new effort to replace the current WHOIS system with a call for volunteers to serve on an Expert Working Group. After an exhaustive search, the members of the Expert Working Group were announced, and each of them brings extraordinary expertise, leadership and consensus building skills. Led by Jean Francois Baril, the Expert Working Group will start from scratch, and take a fresh look at what the ideal data directory services might be. This effort is expected to produce a model for a replacement system—referred to as the "Next Generation Data Directory Services"—that is to take into account data accuracy and access issues, while at the same time including appropriate safeguards for privacy. The outcome of the Expert Working Group is to serve as a foundation for the GNSO’s creation of new consensus policy (and requisite contract changes, as appropriate), as requested by the ICANN Board.

The Expert Working Group met for two days in Los Angeles, and met again for another two days in London, prior to convening once again in Beijing. For more information on the group’s activities, including meeting reports, please visit the Expert Working Group’s Wiki: or attend the session in Beijing on Monday April for the latest developments regarding this key project.

We will continue to keep you updated on implementation of the WHOIS Review Team recommendations and the Expert Working Group’s progress, and look forward to receiving your input in Beijing, online and in future webinars.

Implementation of WHOIS Review Team Recommendations

The RAA negotiations provide an important opportunity to carefully balance the various requirements voiced by the ICANN community, as well as to evolve relations with the registrars who are at the frontline delivering the innovation and consumer choice enabled by the new gTLD program.

We discussed several items that had been tabled since this group met last year and made headway in considering additional enhancements that will complete the agreement in a manner that best achieves our goals rooted in the public interest.

We continued to explore how the proposed RAA can be synchronized with the new gTLD Registry Agreement that ICANN published for comment on 5 February 2013. Assuming such alignment, this will bring a more cohesive framework across these agreements.

I will endeavor, with every tool available, to ensure that all agreements with our contracted parties are embraced in the broadest way plausible, and furthermore to support efforts by ICANN as it works to create a level playing field for all participants in this growing sector.

Without compromising any of our principles, we hope to achieve closure as soon as possible. I look forward to continuing this spirited and collaborative dialogue with the registrars as ICANN and the registrars are committed to moving through this process in a deliberative and expeditious way.

Meeting participants (as pictured) include:

Top Row (from left to right):

Margie Milam, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, ICANN
Matt Serlin, Registrar Stakeholder Group Chairman, MarkMonitor, Inc.
Jeff Eckhaus, Registrar Stakeholder Group Vice-Chair/CTO, eNom and Demand Media
Fadi Chehadé, President and CEO, ICANN
Rob Hall, Registrar Stakeholder Group, Momentous
Cyrus Namazi, Vice President of DNS Industry Engagement, ICANN
Samantha Eisner, Senior Counsel, ICANN

Bottom Row (from left to right):

Mike Zupke, Director of Registrar Programs, ICANN
Akram Atallah, Chief Operating Officer, ICANN
James Bladel, Registrar Stakeholder Treasurer, GoDaddy, Inc.
Tim Cole, Senior Director of Registrar Relations, ICANN

Not Pictured/Conference Call:

John Jeffrey, General Counsel and Secretary, ICANN
Becky Burr, Advisor to Registrar Stakeholder Group, Neustar, Inc.
Volker Greimann, Registrar GNSO Representative – Europe, Key-Systems GmbH, KeyDrive Group

The agenda, with presentation materials and audio recordings can be found at http://meetings.icann.org/meetings/registry-registrar-jan13-en.

ICANN hosted the event at the Hotel Okura Amsterdam on 24-25 January 2013. For the first time the schedule included a half-day session dedicated to ICANN newcomers followed by an opening keynote address by ICANN Board Member Bertrand de La Chappelle. A number of speakers and panel discussions filled the agenda along with an evening cocktail event hosted by .pw the professional web.

The meeting wrapped up Friday afternoon with a roundtable hosted by ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé. Survey feedback by attendees was overwhelmingly positive with over 84% agreeing that the event met or exceeded expectations.

This was the fourteenth regional meeting of its kind since 2005. These events are distinguished from the regular international ICANN meetings in that they are not structured, for example, to influence policy development. If you are interested in the policy development and a broader interaction with ICANN stakeholders, please join the upcoming ICANN Meeting in Beijing in April this year.

These regional meetings are a chance for ICANN staff and representatives from gTLD registries and ICANN-accredited registrars to meet informally to discuss topics important to our industry and business relationships. They happen regularly in different locations (regions) around the world. Previous meetings, for example, took place in Shanghai, Prague, New Orleans, and Rome.

Although the meeting is tailored to regional ICANN-accredited registrars and gTLD registries, other registrars and registries located around the globe that may have a regional or business interest also attend.

At this regional meeting staff is planning to introduce a new feature dedicated to newcomers to the ICANN process on the morning of the first day.

The agenda is not final yet, however some of the anticipated agenda items are:

• Registrar/Registry Onboarding with new gTLDs
• RAA Amendments
• Developments in Contractual Compliance
• Policy updates
• ICANN restructuring update
• Internet Security Developments

The joint registrar and registry regional meeting model was introduced in 2006 as an educational opportunity for ICANN and its contracted parties to share information about registry and registrar operations within the domain name industry. The model has evolved over time based on feedback received and changes in the domain registration environment. The meetings largely focused on the policies and procedures registration service providers are obligated to implement and enforce as a result of either their contract with ICANN or with one another.

These regional meetings are distinguished from the regular international ICANN meetings in that they are not structured, for example, to influence policy development. If you are interested in the policy development and a broader interaction with ICANN stakeholders, please join the upcoming ICANN Meetings in person or through remote participation. The next international ICANN Meeting is scheduled for Beijing in April 2013.

All presentation materials will be published on the ICANN website after the meeting.

The space to attend this meeting is limited and interested registrars and registries are asked to pre-register. Other parties who may be interested in becoming an ICANN-accredited registrar or gTLD registry and wish to attend as observers should contact regionalevents@icann.org for further details.

We look forward to seeing you in Amsterdam!

These regional events are a chance for ICANN staff and representatives from gTLD registries and ICANN-accredited registrars to meet informally to discuss topics important to our industry and business relationships. These events happen regularly and in different locations around the world. Previous events, for example, took place in Tokyo, Munich, Toronto, and Rome. It is a great opportunity to exchange ideas, learn and network.

The regional event model was introduced in 2006 as an educational opportunity for ICANN and its contracted parties to share information about registry and registrar operations within the domain name industry. The events have been largely focused on the policies and procedures registration service providers are obligated to implement and enforce as a result of either their contract with ICANN or with one another.

These regional events are distinguished from the regular international ICANN meetings in that they are not structured, for example, to influence policy development. If you are interested in the policy development and a broader interaction with ICANN stakeholders, please join the upcoming ICANN Meeting in Prague in June this year.

Agenda 17 May 2012 Sessions

Schedule Thursday [PDF, 1.09 MB]

Presentations 17 May 2012 Sessions

Agenda 18 May 2012 Sessions

Schedule Friday [PDF, 1.09 MB]

Presentations May 18 Sessions

We thank all attendees and remote participants for a productive event. We value your feedback. The next regional meeting has not yet been scheduled. Information about future sessions will be made available in the future.

Registry and Registrar ICANN teams

这些区域性会议使 ICANN 工作人员、来自 gTLD 注册管理机构和 ICANN 委任注册服务商的代表有机会进行非正式会面，讨论对本行业及业务关系至关重要的议题。这些会议定期在全球不同地方举行。例如，此前曾分别在东京、慕尼黑、多伦多和罗马举行。这些会议是交流想法、了解信息和相互联络的绝佳机会。

区域性会议模式于 2006 年作为 ICANN 及其合同签约方的教育机会而引入，双方可借此机会分享与注册管理机构和注册服务商在域名行业内运营有关的信息。这些会议主要关注注册服务提供商根据其与 ICANN 签订的合同或彼此之间签订的合同而有义务履行和强制执行的政策与程序。

这些区域性会议与 ICANN 定期国际会议之间的区别之一在于，这些会议的目的不在于影响政策制定。如果您对政策制定和更广泛地与 ICANN 利益主体互动感兴趣，请参加我们即将于今年六月举行的 ICANN 布拉格会议。

2012 年 5 月 17 日会议议程

星期四日程 [PDF, 1.09 MB]

2012 年 5 月 17 日会议演示文档

2012 年 5 月 18 日会议议程

星期五日程 [PDF, 1.09 MB]

2012 年 5 月 18 日会议演示文档

我们对所有现场出席和远程参与本次富有成效的会议的人员表示感谢。我们非常重视大家提出的反馈意见！下次区域性会议的时间待定。关于未来会议的信息将随后提供。

注册服务管理机构和注册服务商 ICANN 团队

Эти региональные мероприятия дают сотрудникам ICANN, представителям реестров рДВУ и аккредитованных ICANN регистраторов возможность встретиться в неофициальной обстановке, чтобы обсудить важные для нашей отрасли и деловых взаимоотношений темы. Данные мероприятия проводятся регулярно и в разных странах мира. Например, предыдущие встречи проходили в Токио, Мюнхене, Торонто и Риме. Это отличная возможность обменяться идеями, узнать много нового и поделиться мнениями с коллегами.

Модель региональных мероприятий была введена в 2006 г. как учебно-просветительская возможность для ICANN и сторон, связанных с ней договорными обязательствами, обменяться информацией по вопросам деятельности реестров и регистраторов в рамках отрасли доменных имен. В центре проводимых мероприятий находились главным образом политики и процедуры, которые поставщики услуг регистрации обязаны внедрять и соблюдать в результате заключения договоров с ICANN или друг с другом.

Эти региональные мероприятия отличаются от регулярных международных конференций ICANN в том отношении, что они, например, не предназначены для оказания влияния на разработку политики. Если вас интересует разработка политик и расширение взаимодействия с заинтересованными сторонами ICANN, посетите следующую конференцию ICANN, которая пройдет в Праге в июне этого года.

Повестка заседаний, прошедших 17 мая 2012 г.

Расписание на четверг [PDF, 1,09 Мб]

Презентации, проведенные в ходе заседаний 17 мая 2012 г.

Повестка заседаний, прошедших 18 мая 2012 г.

Расписание на пятницу [PDF, 1,09 Мб]

Презентации, проведенные в ходе заседаний 18 мая 2012 г.

Мы благодарим всех, кто лично или удаленно принял участие в этом крайне плодотворном мероприятии. Мы высоко ценим ваш вклад в нашу работу. Сроки проведения следующего регионального совещания еще не определены. Сведения о следующих заседаниях будут обнародованы в будущем.

Представители реестров и регистраторов в ICANN

Ces évènements régionaux représentent une possibilité pour le personnel de l’ICANN et les représentants des registres des gTLD ainsi que pour les registrants accrédités de l’ICANN de se rencontrer de manière informelle pour discuter de sujets qui sont importants pour notre industrie et nos relations commerciales. Ces évènements ont lieu régulièrement dans des endroits différents dans le monde entier. Des évènements précédents ont eu lieu par exemple à Tokyo, Munich, Toronto et Rome. C’est une grande opportunité pour échanger des idées, pour apprendre et pour travailler en réseau.

Le modèle de l’évènement régional a été présenté en 2006 en tant que possibilité éducative pour l’ICANN et pour ses parties contractantes de partager des informations à propos de l’exploitation des registres et des bureaux d’enregistrement au sein de l’industrie des noms de domaine. Les évènements ont été notamment ciblés sur l’enregistrement des politiques et des procédures que les prestataires de services sont obligés de mettre en œuvre et de renforcer suite à leur contrat avec l’ICANN ou avec une autre organisation.

Ces évènements régionaux se distinguent des réunions internationales habituelles de l’ICANN en ce sens qu’ils ne sont pas structurés, par exemple, pour influencer le développement de la politique. Si vous êtes intéressés par le développement de la politique et par une interaction plus étendue avec les parties prenantes de l’ICANN, veuillez participer à la prochaine ICANN Meeting in Prague en juin de cette année.

Agenda des sessions du 17 mai 2012

Schedule Thursday [PDF, 1.09 MB]

Présentation des sessions du 17 mai 2012

Agenda des sessions du 18 mai 2012

Schedule Friday [PDF, 1.09 MB]

Présentation des sessions du 18 mai 2012

Nous remercions tous les participants, présents et à distance, de cette rencontre si productive. Nous apprécierons vos commentaires.

La prochaine réunion régionale n’a pas encore été planifiée.

L’information sur les futures sessions sera disponible prochainement.

Équipes des registres et des bureaux d’enregistrement de l’ICANN