January 2018 – SSAC Liaison Report
(as at 23 January 18)
1. SSAC LEADERSHIP CHANGEOVER. With effect 1 January, Rod Rasmussen has assumed the role of SSAC Chair from Patrik Faltstrom, and I have assumed the role of SSAC Vice-Chair from Jim Galvin. Along with SSAC Support Staff and the SSAC Liaison to the ICANN Board, Ram Mohan, we met in Washington from 7-9 December to effect the handover.
2. SSAC MEETINGS. Since the end of November, the SSAC has held two meetings on 14 December and 11 January.
3. SSAC WORK PARTIES. I am currently serving on five SSAC Work Parties:
- 2017 SSAC Membership Committee – This Committee reviews SSAC members who are approaching the end of their 3-year appointments and assesses potential new members. There have been two meeting of this Committee during this period on 4 and 11 December to finalize the work for 2017.
- 2018 SSAC Membership Committee – This Committee has been formed and held one meeting on 15 January. As SSAC Vice-Chair, I also chair the Membership Committee but am not a voting member of it.
- IDN Harmonization WP – This Work Party has already released SACs 084, 088, 089, 095 and 099. Following the meeting of this Work Party on 28 November, it was concluded that at this time, there were no pressing topics for the WP to study and it has been closed.
- SSAC Review WP – This Work Party has been established to manage the 5-yearly SSAC Organizational Review as mandated in the ICANN Bylaws. ICANN staff have assessed responses to the Request for Proposal which was released on 7 July and provided their recommendations to the Board Organizational Effectiveness Committee. The WP is hoping for a decision to be made on the Independent Examiner in the next few weeks. In the meantime, the WP has continued considering the results of SSAC’s own self-review and any changes that may result from that. The WP met four times during this period on 30 November, 7 and 14 December, and 4 January.
- IoT WP - This Work Party was established to consider challenges to preserving the security, stability, and resilience of the DNS in the emerging “Internet of Things” (IoT). There have been no meetings of this WP during this period.
- Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) WP - This Work Party was established to progress the tasking by the ICANN Board at its meeting on 2 November 2017 to study and advise the Board on a number of questions related to name collisions. The WP has met twice on 11 and 18 January.
4. SSAC DOCUMENTS. There have been three SSAC Documents published in this period: one SSAC Report and two documents in the new SSAC Correspondence Series:
- SSAC2018-01 New SSAC Document Numbering System dated 3 Jan18. The SSAC has introduced a new document numbering system which distinguishes between SSAC Reports on SSR issues and SSAC Correspondence on more administrative topics. The description of this new system is contained in this document, SSAC2018-01, the first to be issued in the new SSAC Correspondence Series.
- SSAC2018-02 SSAC Comments on the CCWG-Accountability-WS2 Draft Recommendations to Improve Diversity 3 Jan 18. The SSAC is generally supportive of the recommendations and notes the observation that the elements of diversity identified in the report may have varying importance in different contexts, situations or groups within ICANN. The SSAC also notes the specific request to provide further input and comment on the concept of establishing an Office of Diversity. The SSAC is not convinced of the necessity for a dedicated and independent Office of Diversity and is concerned about the cost of resourcing such an office. A preferred approach is to review the support provided by ICANN staff after an initial 12 month period and assess whether issues have arisen that would justify the implementation of an Office of Diversity.
- SAC100: SSAC Response to the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process Working Group Request Regarding Root Scaling dated 22 Dec 17. This Report provides answers to specific questions posed by the Co-Chairs of the PDP WG on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures.
5. SSAC REPRESENTATION ON CCWG ACCOUNTABILITY. There have been no meetings since ICANN60 in Abu Dhabi of the CCWG-A Plenary and only one meeting of the Diversity Sub-group on 18 January. Four reports the from Sub-Groups have been out for Public Comment and closed on 14 January (Diversity, Ombudsman, Staff Accountability, and Jurisdiction). I have provided email summaries of these reports to the full SSAC. The SSAC chose not to comment on Ombudsman, Staff Accountability, and Jurisdiction but did provide input on the Diversity Report (SSAC2018-02).
