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ICANN Policy Update | Volume 15, Issue 8 | September 2015

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

POLICY UPDATE

Volume 15, Issue 8 – September 2015


Stay Knowledgeable and Informed on Policy Development Efforts to Prepare for ICANN54

As the community broadly focuses on the IANA Stewardship Transition and the work of the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability, policy development efforts continue to progress within our Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees are maintaining focus on their individual work plans.

These important SO-AC efforts are at the core of ICANN's mission, and keeping track of the various complex issues and work efforts is a challenge for all members of the community. The Policy Development Support team is committed to increasing access to information about this work. Since ICANN53, the various regional newsletters distributed by our Communications team have featured highlights from policy development efforts as well as an overview of current public comment proceedings.

Our Policy Development Support team will continue to collaborate with staff colleagues across ICANN's various departments and hubs to ensure this information is current and promoted regularly via all available platforms, including social media channels. Our goal is to keep the entire community knowledgeable and informed about this work, making participation and engagement more efficient and effective.

With ICANN54 approaching, the Policy Development Support team is also preparing for the Pre-ICANN54 Policy Update Webinar. Two sessions (10:00 UTC and 19:00 UTC) will provide updates from across the policy development community and preview what participants can expect in Dublin. Please sign-up for the webinar and receive remote participation details by completing this form.

Our next issue will focus exclusively on ICANN54 news and developments. Until then, please read about ongoing work in the ASO, GNSO, ALAC, GAC, and RSSAC in this issue or the most recent issues of the APAC, EMEA, or LAC newsletters.

Best regards,

David Olive's Signature

David Olive

Vice President, Policy Development Support
General Manager, ICANN Istanbul Hub Office


Contents

Across ICANN

Address Supporting Organization (ASO)

Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)

At-Large/At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)

Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)

Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)


Publication Information

Policy Update is posted on ICANN's website and is available via online subscription. To receive Policy Update in your inbox each month, please visit the subscriptions page.

Please send questions, comments, and suggestions to: policyinfo@icann.org.

Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees

Address Supporting Organization ASO
Country Code Names Supporting Organization ccNSO
Generic Names Supporting Organization GNSO
At-Large Advisory Committee ALAC
Governmental Advisory Committee GAC
Root Server System Advisory Committee RSSAC
Security and Stability Advisory Committee SSAC

Across ICANN

Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

Several public comment proceedings are currently open on issues of interest to the ICANN community.

Proposal for Armenian Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules (LGR)
This proposal is being posted for public comments to allow those who have not participated in the Armenian Generation Panel to make their views known to the Panel so it can finalize the proposal for integration into the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone.
Public Comment Period Closes: 30 September 2015, 23:59 UTC

Design Team Review of Plan for DNS Root Zone KSK Change
This public comment proceeding seeks to review the Design Team's findings to date related to issues and plans for changing the cryptographic key used to originate the DNSSEC chain of trust.
Public Comment Period Closes: 5 October 2015, 23:59 UTC

Proposal for Arabic Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules (LGR)
This proposal is being posted for public comments to allow those who have not participated in the Arabic Generation Panel to make their views known to the Panel so it can finalize the proposal for integration into the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone.
Public Comment Period Closes: 6 October 2015, 23:59 UTC

Release of Country and Territory Names within the .BROTHER, .GEA, .ACO, .SECURITY, .PROTECTION, .THEATRE and .RENT TLDs
This public comment proceeding aims at gathering community input on proposed amendments to the .BROTHER, .GEA, .ACO, .SECURITY, .PROTECTION, .THEATRE and .RENT Registry Agreements to allow the registration of country and territory names currently reserved under Section 4 of Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement.
Public Comment Period Closes: 14 October 2015, 23:59 UTC

Preliminary Issue Report on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures
This public comment proceeding is being opened to obtain community input on the Preliminary Issue Report on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures.
Public Comment Period Closes: 30 October 2015, 23:59 UTC

New gTLD Auction Proceeds Discussion Paper
This is a discussion paper summarizing input to date, identifying issues and seeking further input on how to manage the proceeds from ICANN-conducted auctions for contested new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) strings. This paper calls for broad, open and inclusive public comment and encourages participation from all sectors, regions and levels of engagement with the ICANN community.
Public Comment Period Closes: 8 November 2015, 23:59 UTC

New gTLD Program Implementation Review Draft Report
This public comment period is being opened to obtain community input on the draft Program Implementation Review report.
Public Comment Period Closes: 7 December 2015, 23:59 UTC

At any time, the full list of issues open for public comment, plus recently closed and archived public comment proceedings can be found on the Public Comment web page.

ICANN staff also populates a web page to help preview potential "upcoming" public comment proceedings. The Upcoming Public Comment page provides information about potential future public comment opportunities. The page is updated after every ICANN public meeting to help individuals and the community set priorities and plan future workloads.


Address Supporting Organization (ASO)

LACNIC Interview: "Changing Internet Resource Policy is Easy, Simple"

The policies governing Internet resource management in the LACNIC service region are proposed and established by the community, which means that changing these policies is also up to LACNIC members. With the community's consensus, the process for modifying these rules is quite simple.

A recent example of a successful modification to one of LACNIC's policies began as a proposal submitted by George Lam of Level 3. Lam's proposal suggested changing the requirements for the assignment of Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs).

"While working, I would sometimes receive comments from colleagues and clients mentioning that their ASN requests had been denied, although, in my opinion, their applications were valid. The lack of an ASN would often complicate what should have been a simple solution," Lam stated.

Based on these comments, Lam recommended changes to the ASN assignment policy. After a brief process, he proposed a policy that was "clearer and broader in scope, thus benefiting many organizations in need of an ASN."

Lam noted that the process had been simpler and easier than he had initially thought it would be. "I was even lucky enough to present the proposal after LACNIC implemented a tool that allows discussing policy proposals via teleconference, which made it even easier to understand the various opinions and resulted in a better proposal," Lam added.

Lam, who is responsible for designing and growing Level 3's IP network in Latin America, noted that promoting a policy change had been a great experience. "I feel like I have made my small contribution to the community," he said.

It is worth it.

Lam encourages members of the LACNIC community to submit proposals for change. "For various reasons, people may think their proposals are not worth submitting, but they need to know that any change that would improve current policies, no matter how small, will be worth it. During the process they will hear opinions for and against, all aimed at improving the proposal. They will also find the entire community's support," he concluded

Help Create LACNIC Policies

This video describes how LACNIC policies are developed, policies that may help improve operations. To participate, please subscribe to the LACNIC policy mailing list.

ICANN Staff Contact

Carlos Reyes, Policy Specialist


Fujisaki, Siddiqui, and Sweeting Continue Service on ASO Address Council

Tomohiro Fujisaki has been an appointed member of ASO Address Council for the APNIC region since 2009, and an elected member since 2012. Fujisaki was recently re-elected to a new two-year term that will run from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2017.

Aftab Siddiqui has served on the ASO Address Council since January 2014 as the member appointed by the APNIC Executive Council. Siddiqui has been re-appointed to a new one-year term that will run from January 2016 through December 2016.

The ARIN Board of Trustees also appointed John Sweeting to the remaining two years of Ron da Silva's term, which ends on 31 December 2017. Sweeting was appointed in July 2015 after Ron da Silva was selected by the ASO Address Council to fill Seat 9 on the ICANN Board of Directors when Ray Plzak finishes his service.

ICANN Staff Contact

Carlos Reyes, Policy Specialist


Regional Internet Registries Number Resource Policy Discussions

At a Glance

Each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) has a web page that lists all the Internet number resource policy proposals that are under discussion. Policy discussions take place on open policy mailing lists and at Public Policy Meetings (list and meeting information is provided below).

These are some examples of Internet number resource policy and other discussions that took place recently on the RIR policy mailing lists and/or at meetings.

AFRINIC | Proposal page

AFRINIC23 will be held 28 November through 4 December in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo. This is a week later and in a different location than previously scheduled. The initial meeting dates were delayed by a week in order to allow community members to attend both RIPE71 meeting and AFRINIC23.

A new mailing list has been created, community-discuss@afrinic.net, for discussion of AFRINIC-related matters by the community. This is different from the members-discuss list (which is restricted to AFRINIC members, not open to non-members) or the Resource Policy Discussion list (which is intended for discussion of resource policy, not for other topics). To subscribe, visit: < https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community-discuss> , or via the email interface at <community-discuss-request@afrinic.net>.

APNIC | Proposal page

During the Open Policy Meeting at APNIC 40, Sumon Ahmed Sabir was elected to a two-year term as co-chair of the APNIC Policy Special Interest Group.

The APNIC 40 Open Policy Meeting had the following outcomes:

Two proposals reached consensus at the Open Policy Meeting and then later at the APNIC Member Meeting (AMM) and were returned to the mailing list for the final comment period.

  • prop-113: Modification in the IPv4 eligibility criteria
  • prop-114: Modification in the ASN eligibility criteria

One proposal did not reach consensus and was returned to the author for further consideration.

  • prop-115: Registration of detailed assignment information in Whois database

ARIN | Proposal page

There was support and opposition in the discussion of Draft Policy ARIN-2015-7 "Simplified Requirements for Demonstrated Need for IPv4 Transfers" on ARIN's policy mailing list. The draft's problem statement states, "this proposal seeks to dramatically simplify the needs assessment process for 8.3 transfers, while still allowing organizations with corner-case requirements to apply under existing policy if necessary."

If this policy moves forward, organizations may affect a transfer by demonstrating "that they will use at least 50% of their aggregate IPv4 addresses (including the requested resources) on an operational network within 24 months." This proposal will be presented and discussed at ARIN36.

LACNIC | Proposal page

Two new number policy proposals were posted to the LACNIC policy list for discussion, LAC 2015-4 and 2015-5, and one new expedited type, LAC 2015-6.

LAC-2015-4: Resource Recovery Timeline

Reduce the current period of time needed to recover Internet number resources that are not being "properly utilized," as described in section 7.1 of the policy manual. Currently, these resources are published for a period of 6 months. This proposal seeks to reduce this period to 3 months. To read the proposal, go to: https://politicas.lacnic.net/politicas/detail/id/LAC-2015-4.

LAC-2015-5: Resource Recovery Timeline

Once in force, the provisions of section 2.3.2.18 will allow blocks that have been assigned for at least one year to be transferred, even in cases not involving the merger, acquisition or sale of any organizations. This proposal seeks to modify this term, extending it to at least five years. This will also affect paragraph 8 of section 11.1. To read the proposal, please go to: https://politicas.lacnic.net/politicas/detail/id/LAC-2015-5.

LAC-2015-6 (Expedited): Modify the Scope of IPv4 Exhaustion Phase 2 for the Region

The proposal seeks to modify sections 11.1 and 11.2 of LACNIC's Policy Manual, extending IPv4 Exhaustion Phase 2 in the LAC region, doubling the space assigned to Phase 2 from a / 11 to a / 10, to allow current members easier access to IPv4 addresses. According to current estimates based on an analysis of resource assignments in the LAC region, Phase 2 will end in mid-October 2015. The proposal recommends that this modification be processed using the expedited process. To read the proposal, please go to: https://politicas.lacnic.net/politicas/detail/id/LAC-2015-6.

RIPE NCC | Proposal page

A new policy proposal aims to simplify the various RIPE transfer policies by creating a single policy document covering all Internet number resources. "RIPE Resource Transfer Policies," 2015-04, also adds a clause where "scarce resources" (IPv4 and 16-bit ASNs) cannot be transferred for 24 months from the date they were received, which aims to discourage the speculation of Internet resources.

Next Steps

  • LACNIC24 will be held 28 September-2 October in Bogotá, Colombia.
  • ARIN36 will be held 8-9 October 2015 in Montreal, Canada.
  • RIPE71 will be held 16-20 November 2015 in Bucharest, Romania.
  • AFRINIC23 will be held 28 November-4 December 2015 in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo.

Subscribe to RIR Policy Development Mailing Lists

ICANN Staff Contact

Carlos Reyes, Policy Specialist


Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)

GNSO Chair Election Timeline

At a Glance

During its recent meeting, the GNSO Council adopted the election timetable and procedure to select the next the GNSO Chair during ICANN54. The timetable and procedure have been published here. [PDF, 210 KB]

Recent Developments

The GNSO Council adopted the following timeline for the GNSO Chair election:

  • 25 September – deadline for nominations
  • 2 October – candidate statements
  • 17-18 October – Q & A with candidates
  • 21 October – GNSO Chair Election

Each GNSO House, the Contracted Party House and the Non-Contracted Party House, will be allowed to nominate one candidate for GNSO Council Chair position. Each house is responsible for determining how to nominate its candidate. A candidate for GNSO Council Chair does not need to be a member of a house, but must be a member of the GNSO Council.

Next Steps

Following the close of the nomination period, each candidate will have the opportunity to meet with Council members during the GNSO working sessions the weekend of 17-18 October 2015. The election of the chair - by vote of Council members - will take place during the Council meeting on Wednesday, 21 October 2015.

More Information

For further information, please see section 2.2 of the GNSO Operating Procedures [PDF, 1.21 MB].

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Senior Policy Director and Team Leader for the GNSO


Preliminary Issue Report on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Published for Public Comment

At a Glance

During ICANN53 and on the recommendation of the GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Discussion Group, the GNSO Council approved a request for a Preliminary Issue Report on new gTLD subsequent procedures, which is the first step in a policy development process. ICANN Staff completed the Preliminary Issue Report, which was published for public comment on 31 August 2015 to allow for community input and feedback and to help identify areas where the report can be improved.

Recent Developments

The GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Discussion Group (DG) concluded its work, which was focused on reflecting upon the experiences gained from the 2012 round of the New gTLD Program and identifying a recommended set of subjects that should be further analyzed in an Issue Report. The DG's scoping exercise resulted in the delivery of a collection of final deliverables [PDF, 244 KB], intended to serve as the primary basis in preparing the Preliminary Issue Report. In June of 2015, the GNSO Council approved a request for a Preliminary Issue Report on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures.

ICANN staff performed research and drafted analysis for each of the subjects identified in the DG's final deliverables. There are a total of 38 subjects in the report, each providing background, analysis, reference materials, and preliminary guidance regarding whether the subject may require policy development.

Next Steps

With the Preliminary Issue Report published, ICANN staff welcomes and encourages community input to help improve the document. Once the public comment period closes (10 October 2015), staff will produce a public comment and analysis report, as well as integrate community input into the Final Issue Report. Subsequently, the GNSO Council will consider the Final Issue Report and deliberate whether a policy development process on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures should be initiated.

Background

With the application submission period for the New gTLD round closing in June 2012, the GNSO Council noted that it has a continuing interest and role to play in evaluating the experiences of the 2012 round and proposing policy recommendations, if necessary, for changes that may need to be made to the existing Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains policy recommendations from 8 August 2007. The original policy recommendations as adopted by the GNSO Council and ICANN Board of Directors have "been designed to produce a systemized and ongoing mechanism for applicants to propose new top-level domains." Those policy recommendations remain in place for subsequent rounds of the New gTLD Program unless the GNSO Council decides to modify those policy recommendations via a policy development process.

The GNSO Council chartered a Discussion Group to begin that evaluation process and identify possible areas for future GNSO policy development. The DG reviewed the 2012 round of the new gTLD program and discussed and reflected upon experiences gained. The DG then reported its findings to the GNSO Council where it recommended a set of subjects for further review in a single issue report, a required first step in a policy development process which can result in modification of existing policies or the creation of new policies.

More Information

Staff Contact

Steve Chan, Senior Policy Manager


At-Large / At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)

ALAC Comments on CCWG-Accountability 2nd Draft Report and Submits Three Additional Policy Advice Statements

At a Glance

The ALAC submitted four policy advice statements in response to ICANN public comment proceedings and the public comment proceeding initiated by the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG).

Notably, the ALAC has made extraordinary efforts to enhance At-Large members' understanding of and engagement in the public comment on the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) 2nd Draft Report. The At-Large Ad-Hoc Working Group on IANA Transition and ICANN Accountability met twice a week during this period to discuss the Draft Report in detail. ALAC members in the CCWG-Accountability presented during Regional At-Large Organizations' monthly meetings to solicit regional views as well. Two community-wide briefings were also held, with the second briefing focusing on the ALAC Statement on the Draft Report.

As a result of this extensive and in-depth consultation, the ALAC Statement went through a number of iterations, making sure that Internet end-users' voices and concerns are heard in the critical process of transiting the stewardship of the IANA functions and enhancing ICANN's accountability mechanism for the future of an independent, globalized ICANN.

Recent Developments

ALAC Statement on the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability 2nd Draft Report (Work Stream 1)

  • The ALAC is generally supportive of the overall proposal. Although the ALAC prefers to have less "enforceability" and a lighter-weight proposal than preferred by some other groups in ICANN, the ALAC believes that the overall direction now being taken is acceptable.
  • That being said, the ALAC supports the concerns expressed in Sébastien Bachollet's minority statement that the resultant complexity and multi-tiered control may make it overly difficult or impossible for ICANN to evolve if and when necessary. This complexity and the lack of detail in many parts of the proposal also raise the concern that we may not be able to complete the proposal in the time required.
  • It was for this reason that the ALAC suggested that the CCWG consider a Community Mechanism as a Single Designator model thereby decreasing the number of "moving parts" in the proposal and increasing the possibility that the proposal could be completed on time. Further, the high threshold set to ensure difficulty in overriding the Board may also allow certain parts of the community to have an effective veto over change that is in the public interest, a particularly worrisome issue.
  • For the reasons outlined above, the ALAC also looks very favourably on the new proposal made by the Board at the 02 September 2015 CCWG-Board meeting. This is addressed in more detail at the end of ALAC statement. In particular, the ALAC believes that by reverting to the written specification of Work Stream 1 in the CCWG Charter, focusing on the issues that are mandatory to effect the IANA transition, we may have a more manageable task to accomplish facilitating the IANA transition.
  • The ALAC noted that further details and an evaluation from the CCWG legal counsel is needed. Pending those, the ALAC believes that the new CCWG proposal must be fully evaluated and cautiously offers its support for the concept of a simplified and minimal set of changes prior to the IANA transition while improving ICANN's long-term accountability to the community
  • General support notwithstanding, the ALAC would like to express its concerns with the current proposal, both at a conceptual and at a detailed level. The ALAC also took the opportunity to comment on a number of options provided by the minority views and minority statements within the document. In many cases, the ALAC is of a single mind on issues. In other cases, the group is divided, and this statement will clearly identify those. Read the full statement for details.

ALAC Statement on the IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal

The ALAC supports the IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal at both a holistic and a detailed level. The ALAC is particularly concerned about maintaining the security, stability, and resiliency of the DNS and wishes to address this specific part the proposal:

  • At present, one IANA Functions Operator, ICANN, undertakes all three IANA functions. Any potential split resulting in IANA functions being undertaken by more than one IANA Functions Operator will likely introduce instability. Although the IANA Coordination Group has not introduced any measure to increase direct operational coordination between the operational communities, the ALAC recommends that such coordination should be promoted at the Implementation Phase, with the aim to reduce and/or prevent the likelihood of a split in the IANA Functions Operator. This direct operational coordination should take place as operational communities enhance communications and continue dialogues with each other.
  • In the event that an operational community reaches the decision to replace their IANA Functions Operator, they should discuss their decision with other operational communities prior to proceeding forward, seeking all means to keep all of the IANA functions undertaken by a single IANA Functions Operator.

ALAC Statement on the Initial Report on Data & Metrics for Policy Making

The ALAC agrees with the Initial Report and would like to highlight its support to:

  • The possible need to employ an independent third party in order to address any concerns relating to the collection, anonymization and aggregation of data;
  • The introduction of a "pilot" where working groups will be able to submit proposals or ideas whereby the collection and assessment of fact-based data and metrics can become the basis for the initial identification and analysis of issues and/or problems;
  • The view that any funding required to implement the pilot should be considered an investment in the improvement of the policy process rather than a cost against budget;
  • The revision of the templates for the Issue Report, Charter, and Final Report to update earlier WG guidelines and also the development of a decision tree.
  • Establishing a framework for distributing information through early outreach to other SOs, ACs, and related organizations will not only contribute to continuous improvement being fully integrated into the policy development process but also encourage the potential of an open data culture across ICANN.

ALAC Statement on the Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services to Replace WHOIS Preliminary Issue Report

  • The ALAC strongly supports the research and recommendations in the Preliminary Issue Report.
  • The ALAC hopes and trusts that sufficient measures will be put in place to ensure equitable and representative participation of all stakeholders in the policy development process (PDP), where members consider all views and are willing to forge consensus.
  • End user community engagement in this PDP is a major concern. While the Draft Charter indicates that the PDP WG will be "open to all interested [parties]," the long-term time commitment that this PDP demands can hinder equitable participation. Furthermore, the complex issues in this PDP will almost certainly require face-to-face meetings of the PDP WG and future sub-groups, and this will impose financial constraints to the participation of end user volunteers. As a consequence, the end user voice may very well be stifled by the voices of interested parties who participate in the PDP as part of their jobs in support of their business needs and receive assistance from their organizations.
  • The ALAC will be vigilant to ensure that measures to enable the broadest participation in the PDP WG and sub-groups are considered and implemented.

More Information

At-Large Policy Development page

Staff Contact

Ariel Xinyue Liang, Policy Analyst


At-Large Onboarding Program and ALS Criteria and Expectations Task Force Moving Forward

At a Glance

Currently 192 At-Large Structures make up the backbone of the At-Large community and more specifically of the Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs). In an effort to improve ALS participation within their RALOs and promote their activity at the At-Large level, staff has created the At-Large Onboarding Program. ALAC Chair Alan Greenberg has also been instrumental in leading the ALS Criteria and Expectations Task Force whose aim is to study and improve the current ALS accreditation procedure.

Recent Developments

During ICANN53, At-Large Staff presented the At-Large Onboarding Program formally to At-Large members, and it was well-received by the community.

  • Webinars: Two webinars were held with new ALS members. The first webinar held in July was an informal introduction to staff. Staff members introduced themselves and explained their roles and how they assist the ALSes, followed by a question and answer session. The second webinar, held in August, was a formal introduction with the At-Large Chair and RALO Chairs. Both webinars were well attended and offered the opportunity to ALSes to better understand how to engage their organizations within At-Large activities. RALO Chairs and staff gained important knowledge about the newest At-Large members, why they are interested in At-Large and ICANN overall, and crucially, how staff can assist them in the engagement process.
  • Additional assistance: After the first webinar, staff launched a Skype chat helpline aimed at providing assistance to new ALSs and new unaffiliated members for a period of three months. While not all new ALSes use this tool regularly, many of the more motivated ALSes have used the Skype chat helpline to ask questions and seek assistance. This has helped staff clarify wiki editing and work on connectivity issues during conference call tools, thereby ensuring better new ALS attendance and participation.
  • Update to ALS Onboarding documents: With community input, At-Large staff has been working on improving the ALS Onboarding documents. This is an ongoing process which will be completed with the new At-Large website.

Next Steps

Given the success of the onboarding webinars, and the immediate results triggered by new engagement efforts, staff will continue working closely with RALO Chairs and new ALSes to create a comprehensive and integrated on-boarding effort.

The newly created ALS Criteria and Expectations Task Force, which has already met, is currently working on the ALS accreditation procedure in order to: 1) synchronize At-Large expectations with an ever-evolving community, 2) understand what organizations can offer as potential ALSes and how to showcase it, and 3) work closely with the RALOs to have a clear vision of what engagement truly means within the At-Large community.

Background

One of the main focuses of the RALOs is, and always has been, outreach. RALO leaders and staff work together closely to ensure that end-user organizations or associations across the world with similar goals to those of the ICANN community know about At-Large and are motivated to be part of it. In order to manage this, they need to be certified as At-Large Structures (ALSes) and be supported during the engagement phase of their At-Large activities.

More Information

Why register as an At-Large Structure?

Staff Contact

Nathalie Peregrine, Specialist, SO/AC Support


RALO Round-Up

Cross-RALO Activities

  • All RALOs are carrying out Action Items from ICANN53.
  • All RALOs are engaged in extensive discussions on the second draft report from the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) and on the public comment proceeding initiated by the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG). The RALOs contributed significantly to the ALAC Statement on the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability 2nd Draft Report (Work Stream 1).
  • The RALOs are working on agenda items for their meetings at ICANN54. They are also preparing the agenda items for the RALO Secretariats meeting and other cross-RALO meetings that will take place in Dublin.
  • All RALOs have proposed candidates for this year's Leadership Training Program to take place in Dublin prior to ICANN54. The program is designed for current and incoming leaders, helping them to better understand the complexity of ICANN and strengthen their facilitation skills. The Leadership Training Program is an outcome of the At-Large-led ICANN Academy Working Group.

AFRALO

On 4 September, AFRALO submitted a statement [PDF, 62 KB] in response to the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability Second Draft Proposal. The statement was widely discussed and approved by all AFRALO members via the mailing list.

Some highlights of the AFRALO position include "concerns about the rejection of budget items concerning a particular SO or AC by the community." Additionally, AFRALO believes that the ICANN Board of Directors "has the responsibility to balance the needs and priorities among the various ICANN constituencies [and] should continue to do so."

AFRALO also appreciated the "extension of ICANN contract by a year, which we believe will further give adequate time for implementation and testing of the overall combined proposal of the ICG. We support the overall formation of the combined proposal of the ICG moving forward and we hope our concerns will be addressed accordingly. We look forward to an improved proposal that further ensures participation of all relevant communities."

APRALO

At-Large staff and Global Stakeholder Engagement staff at ICANN's hub office in Singapore are organizing the fourth joint capacity building webinar on the theme of the New gTLDs. The webinar is scheduled for 05:00 UTC on 29 September and will review the New gTLD program, GNSO activities about New gTLDs and selected case studies which include examples of how people are using new gTLDs. The speakers will be Yoshitaka Murakami, Senior Consultant, Brights Consulting Inc. and Steve Sheng, Director, SSAC & RSSAC Advisory Development Support, ICANN Policy Development. For more information see: APRALO-APAC Hub Webinars 2015.

EURALO

EURALO members continue preparations for the EURALO General Assembly to be held on Wednesday, 21 October during ICANN54. See 2015 EURALO General Assembly at ICANN 54 in Dublin, Ireland Workspace for updates.

On 5 September, the call for nominations for Regional Leadership selections ended. Olivier Crépin Leblond was selected as Chair of EURALO by acclamation. The position of secretary will be determined after an election between two candidates. The new chair and secretary will assume their roles at the end of the EURALO General Assembly. See EURALO Regional Election page for details.

EURALO has submitted, "EURALO Draft on the Strategy for Outreach and Engagement" to fulfill the requirements of the Outreach and Engagement Subcommittee. This document will be further revised and improved by the new EURALO leadership in the upcoming months, in coordination with At-Large and Global Stakeholder Engagement staff.

LACRALO

The process to elect the LACRALO ALAC Member continues.

NARALO

NARALO members are leading the organization of a captioning pilot project, including a survey to be distributed among participants of meetings with such facilities.

More Information

Regional At-Large Organizations

Staff Contact

Silvia Vivanco, Manager, At-Large Regional Affairs


Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)

The GAC Prepares for ICANN54

At a Glance

For its next meeting at ICANN54, the GAC will be prioritizing its discussion on ICANN Accountability and related IANA Stewardship Transition matters. The GAC will also address current and future aspects regarding New gTLDs, internal matters, and topics suggested by GAC Working Groups.

Recent Developments

The recent CCWG-Accountability meeting and the second draft proposal prompted ongoing GAC discussions about these developments and connections to the ICG proposal, with the objective to provide timely comments. During agenda setting calls early September, the GAC confirmed its intention to highly prioritize these matters at ICANN54, setting aside ample time for GAC discussions.

Next Steps

The GAC is currently finalizing details of the agenda for its meetings 17-22 October 2015 in Dublin.

In addition to addressing the prioritized ICANN Accountability and related ICG matters, the GAC will also be reviewing the activities of its working groups such as the Working Groups on Geographic Names, Public Safety and Human Rights, and International Law.

Internal matters on the foreseen agenda include a review of the GAC Operating Principles, preparations for the future ICANN meeting strategy, planning for the High-Level Governmental Meeting at ICANN55, and the election of GAC Vice-Chairs.

The GAC will also have sessions with the GNSO, the ccNSO, the ALAC and the ICANN Board of Directors to discuss matters of mutual interest.

More Information

Staff Contact

Olof Nordling, Senior Director, GAC Relations
Karine Perset, GAC Relations Advisor
Julia Charvolen, Coordinator, GAC Services


Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)

RSSAC Publishes "RSSAC003: Report on Root Zone TTLs"

At a Glance

In RSSAC003, the RSSAC Caucus studies the TTLs (DNS "Time-To-Live" values) for the root zone and the extent to which the current root zone TTLs are still appropriate for today's Internet environment. This is the third formal advisory produced by the RSSAC in its reorganized structure, which includes the Caucus.

Findings

Through a series of empirical data analyses, the Caucus finds that:

  • The root zone delegation TTLs are appropriate for today's environment.
  • Root zone TTL values could be reduced to 1 day without any significant impact on the amount of traffic to root servers.
  • Increasing root zone TTLs should only be done with careful consideration of DNSSEC-related implications.
  • Root zone TTLs appear to not matter to most clients.
  • Few reasons exist today to consider changes to root zone TTLs.
  • Two potential problems related to the interaction between the SOA Expire value and the root zone's signature validity periods exist. These need to be addressed by the DNS operations community.

Recommendations

In accordance with the findings and recommendations of the Caucus, the RSSAC makes the following recommendations:

  • To address the DNSSEC problems identified in the report, the RSSAC recommends the Root Zone Management partners to increase the signature validity periods for signatures generated by both the KSK and the ZSK. KSK signature validity should be increased to at least 21 days. ZSK signature validity should be increased to at least 13 days.
  • No changes to Root Zone TTLs should be made at this time.

Staff Contact

Carlos Reyes, Policy Specialist

policy-update-sep15-en.pdf  [188 KB]

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."