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In January 2021, Joanna Kulesza was appointed as the shadow ALAC Liaison to the GAC. 

GAC Liaison's Report on  the ALAC-GAC Meeting at Virtual ICANN71

As at every ICANN public meeting since 2016, a joint meeting of the ALAC/At-Large and the GAC took place at the virtual ICANN71 on Thursday, June 17, 2021.

 During the five years since ICANN55, cooperation between the two advisory committees has developed from general comparing of notes to concrete cooperation on policy details of issues important to both. As I noted in my report from the joint meeting at ICANN70, substantive discussion on EPDP and SubPro, the most important of those issues, had increasingly moved to intersessional meetings (with leadership teams and topic leads participating) which then were just reviewed at the full joint sessions at ICANN meetings.  For those actively involved from both sides, this meant repetition; others had to be on the listening side at an increasingly detailed discussion between topic leads of the two PDP’s.

At the joint meeting at ICANN71, an effort was made, at the initiative of the Chairs of both AC’s and with active participation of senior GAC staff, to make the joint full sessions more interesting and engaging for a wider group of participants from both sides.  Most of the time was still devoted to the discussion of the EPDP and SubPro, but from a wider and more principled angle. Other subjects were briefly introduced with the aim of possible having them on the agenda at future joint meetings.

However, in my view, to have more active participation from a wider group of people from both AC’s, the topics need to be decided and prepared earlier before the meeting.  In particular, it cannot be expected that GAC members would be comfortable commenting “on the fly” on unfamiliar issues, and the virtual format certainly does not help fostering spontaneous discussion.  The meeting showed that we are on the right track in developing a new model for our joint meetings, but it still needs fine-tuning and, most obviously, their agenda planning must start much earlier.

Sub-Pro

Justine Chew reviewed the latest developments and expected next steps, including the initiation of an Operational Design Phase and convening an Implementation Review Team, and suggested there would be ample room for the GAC and the ALAC to cooperate on them and monitor the issues that both are interested in. She also pointed out the need to better “connect the dots” on various PDP’s which, although they are separate processes, nevertheless have mutual prerequisites and dependencies.

Jorge Cancio noted that the GAC had reminded the Board, both in its written comments and at a bilateral meeting, of preconditions or steps to take before a new round is launched. He said that in the GAC comments, support for ALAC advice was expressed on many issues, and the cooperation with ALAC with continue also in the operational design phase.

Moving to a more general discussion on the goals of both committees on the SubPro, Hadia El-Miniawi mentioned the end-user proritities of safety and security, which bring DNS Abuse mitigation into the picture, and the need to protect the identity of local communities online. From the GAC side, Manal Ismail noted the need to expand the DNS market to underserved regions and to include more IDN’s. Jonathan Zuck pointed out that to begin with, end-users predominantly are not looking for new TLD’s. There is no consumer demand for them. But if they are introduced, at least mistakes of the past should be avoided, and new players should be given a chance. Finally, Alan Greenberg came back to the ALAC-GAC cooperation, noting that SubPro is a complicated set of issues, some of which we disagree on, but we have to keep focusing on those we agree on and work together on them.

EPDP

Alan Greenberg reviewed the gradual intensification of cooperation on EPDP not only between the ALAC and the GAC, but also with the business community, IPC and SSAC. Hadia El-Miniawi gave examples of how seemingly small things (such as distinguishing between natural and legal persons) can have a big impact on the daily activities of end-users.

Chris Lewis-Evans agreed with Alan Greenberg’s assessment of the intensive cooperation on EPDP, which he was as a great benefit of the multi-stakeholder model.

Discussing the basic goals of both committees in the EPDP, Chris and Alan agreed that it is a question of maintaining balance between two goals, both in themselves important: data protection and enabling services to work efficiently and correctly.

Internet governance

Olivier Crepin-Leblond noted that the COVID-19 has proven the resilience of the ICANN’s multistakeholder model, as the Internet was relied on to keep the world running. He suggested ICANN should be more involved in the international space and showcase its model to the outside world, including those who would like to replace it with a different one.

Nigel Hickson took note of the threats on the horizon, including New IP project and the preparations for the 20-year review of the outcomes of the World Summit on Information Society.  For ICANN, the question is, “how close do you get to the sun”, ie. how close to political issues it can get in the internet eco-space.

ATRT3

From the GAC side, there were no substantial developments yet in answer to Sébastien Bachollet’s presentation on ATRT3 at the joint ALAC-GAC meeting at ICANN70, but Manal Ismail promised to come back to it as soon as possible

Sébastien Bachollet volunteered to come, with colleagues from the ATRT3 shepherd team, to any GAC meeting if that would be helpful.

DNS Abuse

Jonathan Zuck noted the joint ALAC-GAC educational initiatives for countering DNS Abuse. He also expressed satisfaction about the signs for more cooperation on this issues with contracted parties, as evidenced at an earlier session organized by them.

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GAC Liaison's Report on ALAC-GAC Meeting at Virtual ICANN70

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