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GNSO Council Meeting #3 of 2023 held on 15 Mar 2023 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #3 of 2023 held on 15 Mar 2023

Full Agenda  |  Motions  |  Documents

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List
• Item 3: Consent Agenda: None
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Adoption of the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Working Group Self-Assessment (WGSA) Recommendations Report
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps for Consideration of Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”)
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Review GNSO-owned projects that may impact SubPro timeline
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Continuation of Informal GNSO Council SubPro Discussion
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Whois Disclosure System Next Steps
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 19 January 2023 were posted on 02 February 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 16 February 2023 were posted on 03 March 2023.
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Adoption of the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Working Group Self-Assessment (WGSA) Recommendations Report
  • Council had resolved on 16 June 2021 to initiate the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvements (CCOICI) as a pilot, which included the review of the Working Group Self-Assessment as one of the two areas of focus.
  • The CCOICI started the Working Group Self-Assessment assignment in October 2021, concluding in February 2022. However, the CCOICI deferred conducting the public comment until it could be combined with recommendations related to the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI). The consolidated public comment proceeding on Proposed Updates to the GNSO Operating Procedures was conducted from 09 September - 14 November 2022.
  • The CCOICI integrated public comments received as appropriate and submitted its Recommendations Report to the Council on 5 January 2023; Council will vote on this Recommendations Report which is limited to just the WGSA. (The portion on the GNSO SOI is still pending)
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps for Consideration of Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”)
  • In July 2022, Council agreed that it would be helpful to check with the registrars and ICANN Compliance to help determine if there are any known issues or concerns with either of the two Expiration Policies which could warrant requesting a Policy Status Report (PSR).
  • A report from Contractual Compliance was shared with Council on 1 November 2022 and feedback from the GNSO Councilors from RrSG has been shared on previous Council calls. 
  • During Council's Nov 2022 meeting, ICANN Org Contractual Compliance Team provided a briefing of the report, and Council briefly considered potential next steps.
  • Following the meeting, Nacho Amodoz, Greg DiBiase, and Susan Payne volunteered to closely review the report from ICANN org and determine if any of the issues raised warrant a PSR request. Council will receive an update on this small team’s recommendation.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Review GNSO-owned projects that may impact SubPro timeline

  • During Council’s Strategic Planning Session (SPS), a recurring theme emerged. Taking into consideration the possible timelines surrounding the implementation of the SubPro recommendations, especially if Option 2 or similar were to be pursued, Council should take care to ensure that any SubPro related work within its control should be carefully managed for timely delivery. The Council does not want its work to serve as an impediment to the timely implementation and launch of the next round of new gTLDs.

  • In order to address this recurring theme,, Council agreed that it would like to receive frequent updates on the work that is connected to the next round of new gTLDs. Presumably, those projects include:

    • IDNs EPDP Phase 1 (top-level charter questions)
    • GNSO Guidance Process on Applicant Support
    • Closed Generics Facilitated Discussion
    • Small Team review of SubPro recommendations likely pending Board action
  • Council will receive a brief update on the above-referenced projects.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Continuation of Informal GNSO Council SubPro Discussion

  • On 12 September 2021 the ICANN Board directed the ICANN President and CEO to organize the resources required to begin work on the Operational Design Phase (ODP) for the GNSO’s New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Report and the Affirmations, Recommendations, and Implementation Guidance contained in that report. On 20 December 2021, ICANN org announced that the SubPro ODP had formally launched, starting at the beginning of January 2022. The ODP Team has shared numerous updates to the community and sent several sets of assumptions/questions to the GNSO Council via the Council’s liaison to the ODP.

  • ICANN org published the SubPro Operational Design Assessment (ODA) on 12 December, and Council received a briefing on it during a webinar on 7 December.

  • Council formed a small team to review the ODA in detail and provided its input to the ICANN Board on 20 January, in advance of the Board's workshop in January 2023. As discussed in the Chair's blog, the ICANN Board spent a full day reviewing the SubPro Outputs and ODA.

  • On 28 February 2023, the Council and ICANN Board had a joint meeting on SubPro, and Council plans a follow-up informal discussion on 7 March 2023.

  • Council will discuss the joint meeting with the Board and the informal discussion, and consider appropriate next steps

• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Whois Disclosure System Next Steps

  • ICANN org published the Whois Disclosure System design paper in September 2022, presenting it to Council and the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team during ICANN75.

  • The small team subsequently reviewed the design paper and continued its consultations with ICANN org, resulting in an addendum to its preliminary report. Council accepted the addendum and communicated to the ICANN Board its support for the request that the ICANN Board proceed with the implementation of the Whois Disclosure System, provided that the updates identified by the small team in the addendum are made.

  • On 27 February 2023, the Board directed ICANN org to develop and launch the Whois Disclosure System (System) as requested by Council within 11 months from 27 February 2023. The Board also directed ICANN org to operate the System for up to two years from the date of launch, and collect and report on usage data. Furthermore, the ICANN Board has urged “the GNSO Council to consider a Policy Development Process or other means to require registrars to use the System”.

  • During ICANN76, on 11 March 2023, the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team will meet with ICANN org to receive an update the status of implementation of the Whois Disclosure System and continue its consideration of some of the aspects identified as requiring further discussion in the addendum.

  • In addition to receiving an update from the Small Team on its meeting with ICANN org, Council will consider if/how the instructions to the Small Team should be updated to reflect Council’s expectations of the Small Team during the implementation phase as well as post-implementation, in addition to the ask from the Board to consider a Policy Development Process or other means to require registrars to use the System. 

• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.1 GNSO Chair Election Timeline Announcement
  • 9.2 Policy Status Report on Policy and Implementation Working Group Final Recommendations Report

Records of 15 Mar 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 15 Mar 2023 Meeting to ALT-PLUS

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Mar 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Mar 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Subsequent Procedures Operational Design Assessment (SubPro ODA), Implementation and other Next Steps, Dependencies 

   ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution

• ICANN Board resolved during its Board Meeting at ICANN76 to adopt the SubPro Outputs in Section A of its "Scorecard on Subsequent Procedures PDP" (Scorecard); marking 38 Outputs in Section B of the Scorecard as "pending" and noting ongoing community discussions relating to Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 23: Closed Generics, and Topic 25: Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), as well as additional dependencies concerning specific Review Team Recommendations, the Name Collision Analysis Project Study 2 Report (NCAP2), and other items noted in Section C of the Scorecard.
• ICANN Board has communicated this development to GNSO Council via their 16 Mar letter. In particular, the Board said:- 
  • The Board has adopted all Outputs contained in Section A of the Scorecard and designated the Outputs in Section B as pending. The Board has also committed to resolve the dependencies noted in Section C of the Scorecard in a timely manner. 
  • The ICANN Board has directed ICANN org to submit a comprehensive implementation plan no later than 1 August 2023, containing a work plan, relevant information for the Infrastructure Development stream, timelines, and anticipated resource requirements to announce the opening of the next round of new gTLDs (Implementation Plan).
  • The Board acknowledges that the delivery of the Implementation Plan requires the satisfactory completion of four deliverables by 15 June 2023, the last day of the ICANN77 Public Meeting. These deliverables are:

1. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard.
2. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council.
3. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs.
4. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.

• • The Board is prepared to work closely with the GNSO Council on the first deliverable. The Board appreciates that the GNSO Council has already begun a conversation with ICANN org on a working methodology for the Subsequent Procedures Implementation Review Team (SubPro IRT).

   Section A Outputs    

• Section A Outputs will now proceed to implementation; ICANN org is liaising with Council on constituting the SubPro IRT for this purpose.
• While the SubPro IRT is to be driven by ICANN org, its constitution and membership is determined by Council.
• Council is in the process of determining the membership model for this SubPro IRT; Council is currently leaning towards an Open model per the PDP 3.0 framework.
• While an Open model IRT will makes participation open to anyone and without limit on the number of participants, it is likely that the corresponding call for volunteers would express a preference for active former members of the SubPro PDP WG on account of the need for familiarity/expertise on the Section A Outputs in order to be able to adequately guide their implementation by ICANN org. Newcomers will be at a severe disadvantage if they do not get up to speed with the SubPro PDP Final Report.
• Timeline for the call for volunteers for the SubPro IRT, workplan etc are all pending.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding the SubPro IRT constitution

    Section B Outputs: 38 "Pending" Outputs

• Council has constituted a Council Small Team to conduct a triage for the 38 Pending SubPro Outputs. The Small Team comprises Anne Aikman-Scalese (NCA), Bruna Martins dos Santos (NCSG), Jeff Neuman (GNSO Liaison to SubPro ODP), Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to GNSO), Nacho Amados (RySG), Paul McGrady (NCA-NCPH), Sebastien Ducos (RySG), Stephanie Perrin (NCSG), Susan Payne (IPC) and Tomslin Samme-Nlar (NCSG).
• The purpose of the triage exercise to examine the Board's concerns on the 38 Pending Outputs, how they can be grouped for varying onward action.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding progress of the Council Small Team work on the 38 Pending Outputs

    Section C Outputs: Ongoing Community Work, Reviews & Dependencies

    These are listed as follows:

2. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) (formerly known as Whois Disclosure System (WDS)) 

• Following the ICANN Board's 27 Feb resolution directing ICANN org to proceed with development and launch of the WDS as soon as possible, a meeting of the GNSO EPDP Phase 2 (SSAD) took place at ICANN76 on 11 Mar, where the Whois Disclosure System (WDS) was proposed to be renamed to Registration Data Request Service (RDRS).
• Hereon, Council is to consider the use of a PDP or other means to require, or strongly encourage, registrars to use the RSRS, noting that the small team has already been assigned the task to how to best to promote and secure comprehensive use of the system, both by potential requestors as well as ICANN accredited registrars.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding Council's deliberations on the RDRS

3. Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”)

• Council was asked if it was timely to request a Policy Status Report (PSR) for the EDDP and the ERRP. There was tentative agreement within Council that whilst it was important, there were other ongoing and important topics, so the review of the policy was postponed. Following this, ICANN Compliance put together a report which showed registrants having issues with renewals, confusion with the terms of the policies.
• A small team of councilors (Nacho Amadoz, Greg DiBiase, and Susan Payne) reviewed the report as well as the recommendation to review the PSR. Incremental work could be done to improve on clarity of the policy language and in this respect, support staff is to reach out to ICANN org colleagues to request further information on the educational materials relating to the EDDP and ERRP.
• The PSR will be reviewed in 6 months.

4. Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvements (CCOICI)

• By way of background, the work of the CCOICI (a GNSO pilot) covers several areas of focus, including Updates to GNSO Operating Procedures; which covers (a) Working Group Self-Assessment (WGSA) and (b) GNSO Statement of Interest (GNSO SOI), which were part of the public comment proceeding on Proposed Updates to the GNSO Operating Procedures which ran from Sep-Nov 2022.
• With respect to (a), Council has adopted WGSA Recommendation Report (which incorporates the ALAC's input in respect of the existing WGSA survey)
• With respect to (b), the CCOICI is still grappling with public comments received on the GNSO SOI update. The key issue with the GNSO SOI update revolves around transparency of ICANN PDPs, in particular the proposed allowance for a PDP WG member to claim confidentiality as the ground for not revealing the entity that stands to benefit from that member's participation (client-solicitor privilege was cited as an example for claiming such confidentiality). Council discussed this issue briefly and will revisit this issue at a future meeting when the CCOICI is ready to present its recommendation(s) on the GNSO SOI update.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding the GNSO SOI with ALAC