July 2017 – SSAC Liaison Report
(as at 25 July 17)
1. SSAC MEETINGS. Since my May Monthly report, in addition to the SSAC Meetings at ICANN59 in Johannesburg, the SSAC has held two meetings on 8 June and 19 July which I attended.
2. SSAC WORK PARTIES. I am currently serving on four 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 four meetings of this Committee on 25 May, 1 and 8 June, and 20 July.
- IDN Harmonization WP – I joined this Work Party belatedly after better understanding the scope of its work during ICANN58 in Copenhagen. This Work Party has already released SACs 084, 088, 089 and 095. Additional aspects of IDNs are still being considered for further SSAC Reports. I attended one meeting of this Work Party on 20 June but apologized for the 11 July meeting.
- SSAC 2017 Workshop Planning WP – This work party is yet to meet.
- SSAC Review WP – This Work Party has been recently established to manage the 5-yearly SSAC Organizational Review as mandated in the ICANN Bylaws. It has met on 12 and 19 June and 10 July. Input was provided to the ICANN Request for Proposal which was released on 7 July.
3. SSAC REPORTS. There have been three SSAC Reports issued since the May SSAC Liaison Report:
SAC095: SSAC Advisory on the Use of Emoji in Domain Names dated 25 May 2017
In summary, this report states:
- Because the risks identified in the Advisory cannot be adequately mitigated without significant changes to Unicode or IDNA (or both), the SSAC recommends that the ICANN Board reject any TLD (root zone label) that includes emoji.
- Because the risks identified in the Advisory cannot be adequately mitigated without significant changes to Unicode or IDNA (or both), the SSAC strongly discourages the registration of any domain name that includes emoji in any of its labels. The SSAC also advises registrants of domain names with emoji that such domains may not
The Centralized Zone Data Service (CZDS) was introduced about 3 years ago to provide standardization and easy, reliable operations for participants who have a requirement to access top level domain (TLD) zone files to perform Domain Name System (DNS) research, security research, and anti-abuse operations. The CZDS has often succeeded in these goals. However, some community members have documented problems where the CZDS does not deliver on these objectives. Policy and process difficulties have prevented subscribers from gaining and then maintaining reliable access to zone files.This Report highlights access problems which have been experienced and recommends to the ICANN Board actions which ICANN Staff could take to remediate the difficulties.
SAC096: SSAC Comment on the CCWG-Accountability-WS2 Draft Framework of Interpretation for Human Rights dated 30 May 2017
In summary, since there are no associated security and stability aspects, the SSAC is pleased to offer its support for the draft Framework of Interpretation for Human Rights.
SAC097: SSAC Advisory Regarding the Centralized Zone Data Service (CZDS) and Registry Operator Monthly Activity Reports dated 12 June 2017
The Centralized Zone Data Service (CZDS) was introduced about 3 years ago to provide standardization and easy, reliable operations for participants who have a requirement to access top level domain (TLD) zone files to perform Domain Name System (DNS) research, security research, and anti-abuse operations. The CZDS has often succeeded in these goals. However, some community members have documented problems where the CZDS does not deliver on these objectives. Policy and process difficulties have prevented subscribers from gaining and then maintaining reliable access to zone files.This Report highlights access problems which have been experienced and recommends to the ICANN Board actions which ICANN Staff could take to remediate the difficulties.
All three reports can be found on the SSAC Reports webpage.
4. SSAC REPRESENTATION ON CCWG ACCOUNTABILITY. I attended one CCWG Meeting on 24 May (as well as the Face to Face Plenary at ICANN59 in Johannesburg). I was only able to attend 1 meeting of the Diversity Sub-Group (on which I am a Participant) on 15 June, but needed to apologise for meetings on 1 and 8 June, and 13 and 21 July. I have also drafted the SSAC response to the Draft Framework of Interpretation for Human Rights (SAC096).
