APRALO Policy Forum Discussions Archive

COMPLETED [15] ICANN75 At-Large Policy: ICANN’s Goal for a Multilingual Internet through IDNs

Background: As ICANN75 is being held in the APAC city of Kuala Lumpur, the APRALO Policy Forum is taking the lead in organising an At-Large policy session around IDNs. This session will see several ICANN community leaders discussing the direction to be taken by ICANN in attempting to improve the uptake of IDNs, while remaining cognizant of technical and operational challenges, the need to adhere to relevant international standards and protocols (such as the IDNA2008 standard), community-developed rules to determine the validity of IDN from a language/script perspective (i.e the Root Zone - Label Generation Rules), as well as individual end user perceptions on the availability and usability of IDNs.

AGENDA: 

Status:  Completed

Event Wiki:  At-Large Meetings - Monday, 19 September 2022

Recording of Session at ICANN75: Zoom Webinar Archive

COMPLETED [11] Regional Hot Topics Survey 2021-2022

Background: In 2017 and 2019, similar Hot Topics surveys were conducted for RALO members to determine topics which were considered important for the region and for the RALO's attention. See: APRALO Hot Topics 2017 | APRALO Hot Topics 2019.  For 2021, the APRALO Policy Forum's leadership proposed to align the Regional Hot Topic Survey 2021 (HTS Project) with the APRALO Register of Skills & Interests Project (Project RoSI) in order to take advantage of the following factors and existing activities:

1.  The HTS 2021 should not be conducted in a vacuum and should take into consideration existing topics covered by the At-Large and ALAC. See: Infographic 
2.  As part of its work scope, the Project RoSI small team is conducting a review of the said topics covered by the At-Large and ALAC, examining them for currency and/or updating
3.  The At-Large OFB-WG are also closely examining ICANN's FY22-26 Operating Initiatives, work which is expected to produce recommendations on what areas and topics the At-Large and ALAC should be prioritizing
4.  All the above information are expected to be distilled within Project RoSI and will be useful input on which to then base a RALO consultation
5.  The above steps will prevent unnecessary duplication of efforts while preserving key information for RALO members' consideration 

        See: Infographic report

Status:  Survey conducted. Outcomes were presented at the APRALO Monthly Meeting during ICANN75 on Tuesday, 20 September 2022.  View the Regional Priorities Report 

Recording of Regional Priorities Report at ICANN75: Zoom Webinar Archive | English audio archive | 中文音频存档

Dedicated Workspace:  APRALO Hot Topics 2021-2022 Workspace

 COMPLETED [14] APRALO Policy Forum Fireside Chat #3: Let's Talk About Transfer Policy

Background: The third APRALO Fireside chat: "Let’s Talk About Transfer Policy" on Wednesday 29 June 2022 at 07:00 UTC featured ALAC Vice Chair and At-Large CPWG Co-Chair Jonathan Zuck in conversation with Guest Speaker, Steinar Grøtterød, Member of the GNSO Transfer Policy Review Policy Development Process Working Group (TPR PDP WG) selected by the ALAC. This conversation sheds light on the impact that GDPR has had on existing ICANN Transfer Policy around transfers of domain name registrations from one registrar to another registrar; the risks for registrants and/or individual end-users and associated issues arising thereafter; and the proposed remedies coming out the TPR PDP WG's recommendations in phase 1a. 

Status: Completed

Dedicated Event Wiki: https://community.icann.org/x/hQQVD (Agenda & Recordings)

More about: APRALO Policy Forum Fireside Chats 2022

 COMPLETED [13] APRALO Policy Forum Fireside Chat #2: Let's Talk About Closed Generics

Background: The second APRALO Fireside chat: "Let’s Talk About Closed Generic" on Wednesday 8 June 2022 at 07:00 UTC featured At-Large CPWG Co-Chair Olivier Crépin-Leblond in conversation with Guest Speaker, Holly Raiche, ALAC Member for APRALO, on new Generic Top-Level Domains (new gTLDs), what a closed generic is, and how the issue of closed generics might impact Internet end-users, leading to a discussion of factors in support of and against closed generics.

Status: Completed.

Dedicated Event Wiki: https://community.icann.org/x/LgH5Cw (Agenda & Recordings)

More about: APRALO Policy Forum Fireside Chats 2022

COMPLETED [12] APRALO Policy Forum Fireside Chat #1: Let's Talk About GNSO PDP 3.0

Background: The inaugural APRALO Fireside chat: "Let’s Talk About GNSO PDP 3.0" took place on Thursday 26 May 2022 at 06:00 UTC, where APRALO Policy Forum Co-Chair Justine Chew conversed with her Guest Speaker, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, the immediate past ALAC Liaison to the GNSO Council, on a few key aspects of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)'s operating procedure for consensus policy development for Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) as well as where and how At-Large plays a role in consensus policy development for gTLDs within ICANN.

Status: Completed.

Dedicated Event Wiki: https://community.icann.org/x/8g7CCw  (Agenda & Recordings)

More about: APRALO Policy Forum Fireside Chats 2022

 ACTIVE APRALO Register of Skills & Interests Project (2021-20221)

Background: Tentatively code-named "Project RoSI", this project is intended to produce a dynamic Register of Skills & Interests for APRALO.

Status: Ongoing. Project RoSI Small Team completed preliminary work on data to be presented to the RALO for consultation vide the Hot Topics Survey 2021/2022. See: Infographic report Infographic report

Dedicated Workspace:  Project RoSI Workspace

COMPLETED Regional Hot Topics Survey 2021-2022

Background: In 2017 and 2019, similar Hot Topics surveys were conducted for RALO members to determine topics which were considered important for the region and for the RALO's attention. See: APRALO Hot Topics 2017 | APRALO Hot Topics 2019.  For 2021, the APRALO Policy Forum's leadership proposed to align the Regional Hot Topic Survey 2021 (HTS Project) with the APRALO Register of Skills & Interests Project (Project RoSI) in order to take advantage of the following factors and existing activities:

1.  The HTS 2021 should not be conducted in a vacuum and should take into consideration existing topics covered by the At-Large and ALAC. See: Infographic 
2.  As part of its work scope, the Project RoSI small team is conducting a review of the said topics covered by the At-Large and ALAC, examining them for currency and/or updating
3.  The At-Large OFB-WG are also closely examining ICANN's FY22-26 Operating Initiatives, work which is expected to produce recommendations on what areas and topics the At-Large and ALAC should be prioritizing
4.  All the above information are expected to be distilled within Project RoSI and will be useful input on which to then base a RALO consultation
5.  The above steps will prevent unnecessary duplication of efforts while preserving key information for RALO members' consideration  

Status:  HTS Project Small Team working on design elements and timeline for Hot Topics Survey. Will continue into 2022. See: Infographic report

Dedicated Workspace:  APRALO Hot Topics 2021-2022

 ACTIVE APRALO Register of Skills & Interests Project (2021)

Background: Tentatively code-named "Project RoSI", this project is intended to produce a dynamic Register of Skills & Interests for APRALO.

Status: Ongoing. Project RoSI Small Team completed preliminary work on data to be presented to the RALO for consultation vide the Hot Topics Survey 2021/2022. See: Infographic report Infographic report

Dedicated Workspace:  Project RoSI Workspace

 COMPLETED APRALO Webinar on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) (2021)

Background: At its May 2021 meeting, the GNSO Council resolved to initiate the Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs) and to approve the EPDP Team Charter. The Council agreed that an EPDP was appropriate and needed to address the topic of IDNs because policy in IDNs has been "substantially scoped previously such that extensive, pertinent background information already exists", which includes the IDN-related Outputs from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP that the Council had approved on at its February 2021 meeting. The EPDP on IDNs has been structured as a "Representative + Open" model and a call for members, participants and observers was made by the GNSO Secretariat on 3 June 2021.  At-Large Staff then issued a call for At-Large member expressions of interest for the ALAC Appointee Selection Committee to consider and to select 3 members to represent the ALAC on this EPDP.

To encourage APRALO Members (both ALS Members and Individual Members) with an interest in IDNs to respond to both the At-Large call for members and the GNSO's call for participants and observers volunteers to this EPDP on IDNs, the APRALO Policy Forum Co-Chairs Satish Babu and Justine Chew are spearheading the organization of an introductory APRALO Webinar on IDNs to help build the capacity of our RALO members to engage meaningfully in the work of this EPDP.

In service of this goal, the webinar will be held on Tuesday, 27 July 2021 at 08:00 UTC for 90 minutes and will, among other things, broadly address the following: 

• When IDNs were introduced to the Root Zone
• The landscape of IDNs in the APAC region
• Existing policies and procedures on IDNs including the Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGRs) in addressing security/confusability in IDNs
• An overview on IDN Variant TLD management (in context of the ICANN Board's 2010 resolution on need for variant management solution to be in place prior to next round of New gTLDs)
• An overview on the GNSO Subsequent Procedures policy recommendations for the next round of IDN New gTLD applications 
• Background to the EPDP on IDNs 

Status: Completed. A recording of the webinar, along with speaker presentations are available at https://community.icann.org/x/x4n8CQ 

 CLOSED APRALO Statement to the Call for Public Comments to the GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Outputs for ICANN Board Consideration (22 Apr - 1 Jun 2021)

Status: SUBMITTED APRALO Statement on Subsequent Procedures Final Outputs, 1 Jun 2021  See: Submission link

Background: A Public Comment Process has been initiated to invite comments to the GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Outputs for ICANN Board Consideration. This Public Comment Process, which closes on 1 June 2021, is intended to focus on all Outputs approved by the GNSO Council, rather than the Outputs that were not approved. Those not approved are Topic 23 Closed Generics in its entirety and recommendations 35.2 and 35.4 from Topic 35 Auctions: Mechanisms of Last Resort / Private Resolution of Contention Sets.

At the Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG) call on 28 April 2021, CPWG Co-Chair Olivier Crepin-Leblond suggested that each RALO may wish to consider submitting its own statement to this Public Comment Process. It was also suggested that such a RALO statement, if any, might be based on the ALAC Advice on Subsequent Procedures, which had been developed through the CPWG deliberation process and subsequently ratified unanimously by the ALAC prior to its submission to the ICANN Board on 16 April 2021. For reference, this particular ALAC Advice is published along with translation in the other 5 UN languages as well at the CPWG work space.

At the APRALO Monthly Call of 20 May 2021, the following recommendation was adopted for APRALO to participate in and submit a statement to the referenced Public Comment Process.

The Recommendation

• That APRALO ought to submit a statement to this Public Comment Process
• That a small team of drafters be conscripted to prepare such a statement
• That the statement should:-
  
  • Endorse the ratified ALAC Advice on Subsequent Procedures of 16 April 2021 (see: ALAC Advice at https://atlarge.icann.org/advice_statements/13823)
  • Emphasize in particular the importance of the following:
    
    1. To facilitate increased adoption of Universal Acceptance (UA) & Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)
    2. To facilitate increased & equitable access by “Global South”, community / niche TLD applicants through the Applicant Support Program (ASP) & Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) and a ban on private auctions
    3. To advocate for ALAC to have automatic standing to file Community Objections (where it deems necessary)
• That the prepared statement be circulated through the APAC-Discuss mailing list by Wed 26 May 2021 for comments
• That the APRALO Leadership Team be empowered to finalize and submit the statement prior to the 1 June 2021 submission deadline

To review the drafted statement, go to: < this googledoc link > 

 COMPLETED APRALO Policy Forum 2021 Jamboard 

• APRALO PF Survey 1.2021 Report & Recommendations

PLANNING The At-Large Community and DNS Abuse: An Individual User Education Campaign 

Background: During ICANN 67, the ALAC committed to a two-pronged strategy with regards to DNS Abuse. First, we would play a leadership role in promoting the necessary dialog, within the ICANN community, needed for reforms to ICANN policy, additional tools for ICANN Contract Compliance and best practices of all parties. The second prong, to which we have committed, is an education campaign, designed to alert our constituency, individual end users, to the dangers of DNS abuse and strategies to protect themselves.

It was proposed that representatives from each of the RALOs will discuss:

• Existing regional efforts already underway including available resources and lessons learned
• Additional resources (videos, flyers, etc.) that are necessary to enhance outreach on this topic
• Creative ways to get these resources in front of as many individual ends users around the world as possible
• Potential metrics to evaluate each of these efforts to allow for program assessment and refinement

Current Status: This is the follow on action, marking the first of many onward discussions, necessary to launch a large scale education campaign on DNS Abuse.

Next Steps: Each RALO to identify a representative to this discussion during ICANN69. That representative should come prepared with an understanding of what resources of which they are aware, which ones are being developed already by local organizations (ISOC, RALOs and other regional organizations) and what additional materials they believe are needed in their region. They should be prepared to brainstorm on how best to organize this effort at the regional level, once materials are identified; in other words:

• Should we identify a standard set of resources and then have the RALOs supplement them with regional flavor?
• Should this effort be parked as Capacity Building or Outreach?

The goal is to establish a group to work on this topic going forward, 

Particular Focus for APRALO: To identify one or more representatives to act as our regional liaisons to this campaign and to help collate relevant information currently available with our region as our input.

To Comment or Add to the At-Large Resource Collection, go to: APRALO Participation in At-Large DNS Abuse Education Campaign

CLOSED Call for Comments to Preliminary Issue Report on a Policy Development Process to Review the Transfer Policy (12 Oct - 30 Nov 2020)

Purpose: This Public Comment proceeding seeks to obtain community input on the Preliminary Issue Report on a Policy Development Process to Review the Transfer Policy.

Status: It was resolved by CPWG that NO STATEMENT be forwarded to the ALAC for this call.

In accordance with the GNSO Policy Development Process (PDP) rules, ICANN org published the Preliminary Issue Report for Public Comment to allow for community input on additional information, or the correction or updating of any information provided so far. ICANN org was seeking in particular input on the draft policy questions proposed in Section 3.2.2 of this Preliminary Issue Report, as well as the text provided in the draft Preliminary Charter in Annex A.

Excerpt: Description and Explanation
At its meeting on 24 June 2020, the GNSO Council voted to request the preparation of a Preliminary Issue Report on the issues identified in the Transfer Policy Initial Scoping Paper, to assist in determining whether a PDP or series of PDPs should be initiated regarding changes to the Transfer Policy.

This Preliminary Issue Report on a Policy Development Process to Review the Transfer Policy examines, et.al, the issues identified in the Transfer Policy Initial Scoping Paper and includes:

1. Gaining & Losing Registrar Form of Authorization ("FOA")
2. Auth Code Management
3. Change of Registrant
4. Transfer Emergency Action Contact ("TEAC")
5. Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy ("TDRP")
6. Reversing/NACKing Transfers

7. ICANN-Approved Transfers

8. EPDP Rec. 27

Section 3 of this Report explores the above-referenced issues individually and provides references to documents and processes that could inform future policy work.

Next Steps: Following review of the Public Comments received, ICANN org will update the Preliminary Issue Report and submit a summary of the comments received together with the Final Issue Report to the GNSO Council for its consideration and potential action.

To Comment:  Use the apralo-policy@icann.org mail list and/or this designated Googledoc 

Outcome: Discussion outputs could be forwarded to CPWG and/or transposed to an APRALO standalone submission to the public comment process.

CLOSEDCall for Comments to the ICANN69 ALAC/At-Large Talking Points

Status: The draft ICANN69 ALAC/At-Large Talking Points has been finalized and is presented at ICANN69.

CLOSEDCall for Public Comments to the Reference Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) for the Second Level (24 Aug - 15 Oct 2020) 

Purpose: To improve the transparency and consistency of the Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) table review process to facilitate the registry operations of new gTLDs, ICANN has developed additional reference IDN tables in machine-readable format, called reference Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) for the second level. The reference IDN tables are based on the Guidelines for Developing Reference Label Generation Rules (LGRs), which were finalized after community review. These reference LGRs will be used in reviewing IDN tables submitted by the gTLD registries, e.g. through the Registry Service Evaluation Policy (RSEP) process.

Status: ALAC Statement SUBMITTED in response to this call where ICANN org had published reference second-level LGRs for multiple languages. Additional reference LGRs have been developed based on the detailed analysis and finalized solutions by the script community for the Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGRs). Seventeen (17) LGRs are being released for Public Comment including Bangla, Devanagari, Ethiopic, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Khmer, Lao, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu script-based LGRs, and Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, and Thai language-based LGRs.

Next Steps: Based on the community input, these reference LGRs will be finalized and published for the use of gTLD registry operators to consult while they design their IDN tables.  These reference LGRs will also be used in reviewing the IDN tables submitted by the gTLD registries.

Particular Focus for APRALO: Possible risk of confusion to individual end-users through use of visually similar multi-lingual scripts in domain names at the second level

At-Large Resources: Presentation by Bill Jouris

For Comments, go to:   CPWG Workspace

CLOSEDCall for Public Comments to the GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Draft Final Report (20 Aug - 30 Sep 2020) 

Purpose: The objective of this Public Comment period is to share the GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group's draft Final Report and present draft final recommendations and implementation guidance on topics within the Working Group's charter. The draft recommendations and implementation guidance included in this report are the culmination of years of Working Group deliberations and community input that take into account input received through a number of Public Comment periods, including a survey of existing Stakeholder Group / Constituency / Advisory Committee statements from the 2012 round of new gTLDs, a set of dozens of initial questions aimed at getting input on the processes and results of the 2012 new gTLD round, as well as comments on the Working Group's Initial Report and Supplemental Initial Reports. Given that some of the recommendations have been substantively updated since these earlier reports, this draft Final Report is being published for an additional Public Comment period. While the full report is open for comment, the Working Group would like input to focus on areas that have substantively changed since publication of the Initial Report and Supplemental Initial Report and in limited instances, questions that the Working Group has posed to the community for feedback.

Status: ALAC Statement SUBMITTED to this draft Final Report that was posted for Public Comment as supported by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Operating Procedures. 

Next Steps: Upon the receipt of this Public Comment period, all comments will be considered by the Working Group, which will adjust the draft Final Report as applicable.

Particular Focus for APRALO: The GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group's Draft Final Report and Working Group charter cover a very large number of topics, and the At-Large Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG) has been reviewing the development of the Draft Final Report and in that process, a fair few (21 and counting!) Scorecards to capture/present key At-Large feedback/comments/responses. Given that the public comment period closes on 30 Sep 2020, it is suggested that APRALO focus on reviewing and commenting on just a few topics of interest/relevance to our region, in particular, these 3 Scorecards:

1. Universal Acceptance, v4 settled 27 May 2020
2. Internationalized Domain Names, v4 settled 28 May 2020
3. Applicant Support Program, v8 settled 13 Sep 2020 (revised from v7 settled 5 May 2020)   

Other At-Large Resources:

• At-Large Capacity Building Webinar: New gTLD Rounds and Subsequent Procedures, 3 Aug 2020
• CPWG Subsequent Procedures Small Team Updates Workspace

For Comments, go to: At-Large SubPro scorecards for final comment on the workspace and Google Doc for comment

Mail Archive / Inputs: Sep 2020