From: Alissa Cooper
Subject: Re: CWG to develop an IANA Stewardship Transition proposal on naming related functions and the work of the ICG
Date: September 25, 2014 at 10:17:35 AM PDT
Jonathan, Byron,
Thank you for the update. I realize that there have been extensive efforts put into developing a somewhat novel process on short order for the purposes of developing a transition proposal, and I very much appreciate the effort that you and your colleagues in the other constituencies have put into this.
Regarding the timeline, we did designate January 15 (and all of the other milestones) as a “target” so as to acknowledge the potential need for some wiggle room on either side to accommodate unforeseen circumstances that may arise in the various communities. With that said, the January 15 target was deliberately chosen with the rest of the consultation and coordination steps in mind, and with a very strong emphasis on completion of the transition by September 30, 2015. As I noted at the first ICG meeting, I think the political likelihood of getting a second chance to transition after that date are extremely slim, and the ICG as a whole seems quite motivated to have the transition completed next year.
As such, while small delays can probably accommodated, delays on the order of one month or more (e.g., from mid-January to mid-February) will present difficulties for the rest of the coordination process that the ICG has committed to, and could put a timely completion of the full transition at risk. I realize that face-to-face meetings have been a key mode of doing business in the past, but I would urge you to consider alternative methods for completing a transition proposal for names that would not require postponement until ICANN 52 if at all possible. If the processes in the operational communities get too far out of sync, the ICG may need to proceed with its coordination with only a subset of proposals to assemble and finalize. That would be far from an ideal situation.
In any event, I’m very glad to hear that the CWG is getting started. Feel free to send RFP questions if you have them.
Thanks,
Alissa
