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GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2023 held on 20 Jul 2023  

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

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2023 held on 20 Jul 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • ....

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 25 May 2023 were posted on 09 June 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Extraordinary Council meeting on 05 June 2023 were posted on 19 June 2023
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 14 June 2023 were posted on TBD

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2023 held on 20 Jul 2023 at 21:00 UTC:   

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the call as listen-only observers.

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: https://icann.zoom.us/j/97891627902?pwd=RURCTitiNEVwd2UySEk1QkRESmlFZz09 

Records of 20 Jul 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 20 Jul 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 Jul 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Jul 2023 Meeting Records.

GNSO Council Meeting #5 of 2023 held on 25 May 2023

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

GNSO Council Meeting #5 of 2023 held on 25 May 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List & Action Item List
• Item 3: Consent Agenda: None
• Item 4: Board request for Council input on Nominating Committee (NomCom) rebalancing
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro - Progress Update on Recommendations Marked as Pending 
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) EPDP Timeline
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Work to Prepare Draft Timeline for Closed Generics Policy Process
• Item 8: EPDP Phase 2 Small Team Progress Update 
• Item 9: State of Progress from DNS Abuse Small Team

• Item 10: 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 15 March 2023 were posted on 30 March 2023.

  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 20 April 2023 were posted on 07 May 2023.

• Item 4: Board request for Council input on Nominating Committee (NomCom) rebalancing
  • On 26 April 2023, the ICANN Board requested the input of the GNSO Council on the issue of NomCom rebalancing. 
  • The NomCom is a committee tasked with selecting key ICANN leadership positions, including some members of the ICANN Board of Directors and the Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) Board, as well as other positions within the ICANN community. The NomCom functions independently from the Board, the Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs). NomCom delegates act on behalf of the interests of the global Internet community and within the scope of the ICANN mission and responsibilities assigned to the NomCom under the ICANN Bylaws – they do not act in furtherance of the group that appointed them to the NomCom. 

  • The ICANN community has been discussing the issue of rebalancing the NomCom for over 10 years, and the ICANN Board resolved to engage with the ICANN community to better understand community views on the rebalancing.

    Specifically, the Board is seeking input on the following questions:

    1. What does it mean to have a balanced NomCom at a point in time? For example, what criteria would you apply to measure or assess whether the NomCom is balanced? And further, how can one test whether or not the NomCom is balanced?
    2. Do you support the view that the current composition of the NomCom needs to be rebalanced? Please explain why or why not.
    3. How frequently does the balance need to be measured or assessed?
    4. How do you suggest that the NomCom’s composition be rebalanced?
    5. Who should conduct this work, and how should it be conducted?
    6. How would your community group prioritize consideration of this issue within your planning efforts? 
  • Council will discuss this issue and determine next steps.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro - Progress Update on Recommendations Marked as Pending 
  • Since ICANN76 where the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution was adopted, Council's SubPro Small Team has now completed a triage of the issues with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. Council discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May ( see report ). During that meeting, Council agreed to further task the small team with taking interim steps (e.g., provision is clarifying information, developing speaking points) in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May.
  •  Council will debrief after the dialogue with the ICANN Board and discuss next steps to ensure that the Council is able to deliver its plan and timeline to resolve the pending recommendations.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) EPDP Timeline
  • On 20 May 2021, the GNSO Council approved the initiation request for the EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and adopted its charter. 
  • On 24 April 2023, the EPDP Team published its Phase 1 Initial Report for Public Comment.
  • On 16 March 2023, the ICANN Board requested the EPDP Team to deliver an updated project plan by the last day of ICANN77 that identifies all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, as well as a timeline for the EPDP Team’s delivery of relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council. While the Public Comment proceeding is ongoing, the EPDP Team started discussion of its Phase 2 work, which focuses on issues pertaining to second-level IDN variant management, as well as the review of its project plan in accordance with the Board request.
  • Council will receive an update on the EPDP Team’s analysis of its Phase 2 charter questions in relation to the impact on the next Applicant Guidebook, as well as a draft project plan and timeline for the EPDP Team’s delivery of relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Work to Prepare Draft Timeline for Closed Generics Policy Process
  • In March 2023, the ICANN Board requested that the GAC and GNSO Council consider engaging in a facilitated dialogue to develop a framework for further GNSO policy work on the issue of Closed Generics. The GAC and Council agreed to the Board’s suggestion and each appointed six participants for the dialogue. One participant and one alternate from the ALAC were also appointed. Should the GAC-GNSO facilitated dialogue result in an agreed framework, the agreements will be further developed through the appropriate GNSO policy process.
  • This Dialogue has been progressing and is hoping to deliver a draft framework around the end of May 2023 to the ALAC, GAC, GNSO and other SOACs for community input. Groups are expected to have approximately four weeks to review that document. 
• Item 8: EPDP Phase 2 Small Team Progress Update 
  • In February 2023, the ICANN Board directed ICANN org to develop and launch the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) (formerly  WHOIS Disclosure System), as requested by Council. The Board requested the RDRS be launched within 11 months, and, prior to the launch, the Board recommended Org continue its engagement with Council on the implementation. The ICANN Board also requested Council to establish success criteria for the RDRS. In response, Council updated the assignment of the EPDP Phase 2 small team to reflect these new work items. 

  • The small team is expected to engage with ICANN org throughout the development and operation of the System, and in particular consider:

    • The other topics identified in the addendum that the small team did not consider gating factors but for which it would be interested to have further discussions with ICANN org during the implementation phase to consider if/how some of these aspects could be considered to be added in the current implementation of [the RDRS] or a future version;
    • Success criteria for this System, which should include analysis of relevant usage data;
    • How to best promote and secure comprehensive use of the system, both by potential requestors as well as ICANN accredited registrars.
  • The small team is also expected to provide Council with a recommendation on the approach and format through which, following implementation of the system, data should be reviewed and analyzed to help inform subsequent decisions on how to proceed with the SSAD recommendations. The small team is expected to provide regular updates to Council on the state of its progress.
• Item 9: State of Progress from DNS Abuse Small Team
  • In February 2022, Council formed a small team of interested Council members to consider what policy efforts, if any, the GNSO Council should consider undertaking to support the efforts already underway in the different parts of the community to tackle DNS abuse. 
  • On 7 October 2022, the DNS Abuse Small Team transmitted its Report to Council. Recommendation #2 from the Report recommended Council to request, et.al., the Registrar Stakeholder Group “to further the role that bulk registrations play in DNS Abuse as well as measures that Registrars may have already put in place to address this vector. Based on the feedback received, Council will consider whether further action on bulk registrations is deemed necessary.”

  • The DNS Abuse Small Team received input from the following groups:

    • Contractual Compliance, ICANN Org
    • DNS Abuse Institute
    • gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group
    • Registrar Stakeholder Group
  • The small team shared its initial feedback regarding the input received on 15 May.
  • Council will hear an update on the Small Team’s preliminary conclusions regarding the feedback it received on bulk registrations.

• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 10.1 ICANN77 Day 0 SubPro Session Planning 

  • 10.2 Accuracy

  • 10.3 WS2 Framework of Interpretation for Human Rights Proposed updates to GNSO Council templates 

  • 10.4 Next Round Policy Implementation - Council liaison to the IRT

  • 10.5 Launch of new Periodic Working Group Survey for IDN EPDP

  • 10.6 Non-Registry Liaison to the CSC and Alternate

Records of 25 May 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 25 May 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 May 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council May 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Next Round of New gTLDs - Subsequent Procedures

• Since ICANN76 where the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution was adopted, Council's SubPro Small Team has now completed a triage of the issues with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. Council discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May ( see report ). During that meeting, Council agreed to further task the small team with taking interim steps (e.g., provision is clarifying information, developing speaking points) in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May.
• The important thing to note here is that this Council dialogue with the ICANN Board SubPro caucus and/or ICANN Board is ongoing as the goal is to try and resolve as many of those 38 pending recommendations as possible without resulting in the ICANN Board rejecting them.  This inevitably necessitates rather regular updates because information may change quickly.

Action by ALAC Liaison

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

• •  To assist in formulating ALAC positions on the 38 Pending Outputs in time for the pre-ICANN77 ALAC-GNSO Bilateral.

2. Closed Generics

• The GNSO-GAC-ALAC Closed Generics Dialogue is expected to deliver a draft framework, if agreed, around or just after 31 May 2023. It should be noted that this draft framework is meant to draw some boundaries on how to introduce closed generics in the next round and it will have to go through a GNSO policy development process to produce actual consensus policy, which is expected to take 18 months.
• GNSO Council leadership has proposed that EPDP be the policy development mechanism to take the framework forward, and although not confirmed, will likely be cross-community in nature. The proposition of an EPDP drew some apprehension from several councilors.
• So far, the Dialogue has adopted Chatham House Rule so we will not know the actual contents of the framework until it is released circa end May.
• However, I understand that the framework will likely include some reference to application questions, evaluation, post delegation - registry agreement aspects, and can be easily morph into a charter for the policy development process. 

3. DNS Abuse

• Council ran out of time at its call, so the adoption of the Council's Small Team on DNS Abuse's next output i.e. feedback on bulk registrations will be done on Council's mail list by around 5 Jun.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To assist in establishing ALAC's positions the Council Small Team's output (if any) in time for the pre-ICANN77 ALAC-GNSO Bilateral.

4. EPDP Phase 2 - Registration Data Request Service (RDRS)

• The EPDP Phase 2 Small Team has formulated success criteria for RDRS but these are not set in stone. They need to remain flexible as and when the RDRS is implemented and tested so they can be adjusted to meet market needs.
• The small team has pushed back against the Board's suggestion to have a policy process to compel mandatory adoption of usage of the RDRS by registrars.  

5. Registration Data Accuracy

• Seeing no progress on this, Council will defer consideration of this till the June meeting. This is also in light of some work being attempted at the European Union level with a survey and a report but the meeting for that had just been cancelled.
• Some councilors expressed concern with indefinite delay / inaction on this area of work.

6. Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) EPDP

• This EPDP has submitted a project plan (see presentation) which identifies all its charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook (AGB), along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs, and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council (this was 1 of 4 requests made by the Board, as a result of the adopted ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution,
• In short, the EPDP has analysed their Phase 2 charter questions and found no significant efficiency if it were to further break down Phase 2 work in order to deliver some recommendations which would impact the AGB and Registry Agreement update.  Adding any  additional public comment process would prolong the project timeline unnecessarily. As such, the expected timeline is, conservatively:
  • Phase 1 Final Report: 10 Nov 2023
  • Phase 2 Initial Report:  18 Apr 2025
  • Phase 2 Final Report: 24 Oct 2025
• In the meantime, the EPDP will continue to find ways to achieve greater efficiencies through more preparatory work, considering foundational issues, and securing more sessions at ICANN F2F meetings and a dedicated F2F meeting in Nov-Dec 2023, while bearing in mind the need to minimize churn/burnout/drop in participation. As it is, this EPDP is already meeting 2 hours per week and already seeking ICANN org GDS input on draft recommendations and implementation guidance as deliberations go on instead of waiting until the ICANN Board approves them.

7. Nominating Committee rebalancing

• Council will set up a small team to consider Council's response to the issue of NomCom rebalancing.