A ccNSO ad hoc committee under auspices of the ccNSO Council seeks your feedback on the proposed Roadmap for the ccNSO and Universal Acceptance (UA). You are invited to review the enclosed materials, and to participate in the ccNSO Members Meeting Universal Acceptance Session at ICANN76 to discuss the roadmap and next steps. Ahead of the session, your feedback in response to this email is welcomed. During the session, we will use Zoom polling.
What is this about?
Universal Acceptance is cornerstone to a digitally inclusive and multilingual Internet, ensuring all domain names and email addresses – in any language, script, or using any new or long TLD – are accepted equally by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems.
The ccNSO previously explored its potential role in Universal Acceptance. To that end, it organized a session during ICANN75 where both ccTLDs and other stakeholders suggested activities the ccNSO could undertake to complement existing work by the Internet community. In December 2022 and January 2023, ccTLD representatives participated in two workshops to further explore their expectations regarding potential ccNSO action and how to organize next efforts. After the conclusion of the workshops, the ccNSO Council did an impact-effort analysis and developed a plan which will be presented during a ccNSO Members Meeting session at ICANN76. ccNSO Council discussed the draft roadmap during its February meeting and tasked the ad hoc committee to seek ccTLD community feedback at and around ICANN76.
Roadmap highlights
The proposed roadmap is aligned with the ccNSO role. The ad hoc committee proposes three actions. Highlights are listed below, and further details are enclosed, for your review and comments.
1. Activate the UASG liaison
The ccNSO has appointed a liaison to the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG). This liaison will regularly inform the ccNSO through its Council what is happening in the UASG and vice-versa.
2. Create a ccNSO UA committee
The ccNSO should create a dedicated committee. In its activities, the Committee focuses on the following core elements, to benefit ccTLDs:
- Assist in organizing sessions on UA readiness and practices, e.g. at Tech Day or during ccNSO Members Meetings.
- Liaise with other relevant ICANN groups (e.g. UASG, GAC IDN WG, Board IDN/UA WG), and incorporate the role of the ccNSO appointed UASG liaison.
- Coordinate with interested ccTLDs to share IDN/UA readiness case studies and working models, to highlight and share knowledge on current practices in IDN support and UA readiness
- Provide a report repository on Email Address Internationalistion (EAI) adoption in ccTLD zones
This initiative requires an active role of its volunteers. It provides an avenue for the community to interact across regions and with other groups under the ICANN umbrella.
3. Explore further actions
Once the committee was created and its activities are well-established, the next step would be to explore whether other proposed activities would add value to the community and – if so – how best to organise them. Such an assessment should include a community consultation. To further explore the suggested actions the committee should at a minimum address whether the benefits of the proposed activities outweigh the efforts needed to implement and maintain such an activity and whether the ccNSO is the best positioned group to do so, taking into account the strategic framework of the ccNSO (Annex 1 in: https://ccnso.icann.org/about/adopted-work-prioritisation-approach-07jul22-en.pdf)
What are the next steps?
During ICANN76, the ad hoc committee under auspices of the ccNSO Council will present the roadmap, consult with attending ccTLDs, and discuss next steps. Depending on community feedback, the ccNSO Council will discuss the adoption of the roadmap during their meeting on Thursday, 16 March 2022. Implementation would kick off after ICANN76, with the launch of a call for volunteers, to create the ccNSO UA Committee.
UA is a hot topic for many, and it cuts across various sessions and initiatives. Here are some of the sessions at ICANN76 where UA-related matters will be discussed:
- Tuesday, 28 February | Community Update on Universal Acceptance
- Monday, 13 March | Tech Day
- Tuesday, 14 March (14:00 UTC) | ICANN Fellows and NextGen: Focus on Universal Acceptance
- Tuesday, 14 March (20:00 UTC) | Promoting Universal Acceptance through Local Engagement
- Wednesday, 15 March (14:00 UTC) | ccNSO Members Meeting: ccNSO & UA Session
- Wednesday, 15 March (18:15 UTC) | Universal Acceptance: New Internationalized Email Self Certification Guide Overview
- Thursday, 16 March (18:15 UTC) | ccNSO Council Meeting
How to provide your feedback?
Join us on Wednesday, 15 March (18:15 UTC, 09:00 local time in Cancun) for a session on ccNSO & UA. During this session, the ad hoc committee will present the proposed roadmap and seek your input. To attend, please register for ICANN76. Please note that participation links will be available 24 hours prior to session start times. Session materials and recordings will be available on the ICANN76 website as well. During the session, we will use polling, to collect feedback from the ccNSO Members and broader ccTLD community.
Between now and ICANN76, the ad hoc committee also welcomes your feedback on the ccNSO members mailing list. Please make sure to submit your input latest on Wednesday, 15 March (23:59 UTC), ahead of the ccNSO Council meeting on 16 March.