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GNSO Council Meeting #1 of 2024 held on 18 Jan 2024

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

GNSO Council Meeting #1 of 2024 held on 18 Jan 2024 

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Recommendations Report for GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support
  • Recommendations Report for EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Communications Small Team Follow-up Conversation
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Council Engagement with PDP Working Group Chairs 
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Registration Data Accuracy
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 

  • 8.1 Update on ICANN79 planning and GNSO Draft schedule

  • 8.2 Update from SO/AC Roundtable

  • 8.3 Update on Diacritic Study Request

  • 8.4 Update on PPSAI Implementation (GDS will provide update)

  • 8.5 Expected Standards of Behavior

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 16 November 2023 were posted on 01 December 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 21 December 2023 were posted on 02 January 2024
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Recommendations Report for GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support
  • Recommendations Report for EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations
  • Since ICANN76 this Council small team has worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve 38 pending recommendations from the Subsequent Procedures PDP WG. While the majority of these pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, 10 recommendations across six Topics were not adopted by the ICANN Board.
  • Having addressed most of the pending recommendations, Council then tasked an expanded small team, called the Small Team Plus, with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus has committed to a work plan to address the 10 recommendations not adopted by the Board. Following that plan, the Small Team initiated first steps (i.e., developed background materials, preliminary Supplemental Recommendation language, and issued a call for volunteers for the Small Team Plus). The Small Team Plus has begun developing Supplemental Recommendation language, beginning with Recommendation 17.2, Applicant Support, according to the above-mentioned work plan and has continued to make further progress.  
  • Council will receive an update on the Small Team Plus's work.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Registration Data Accuracy
  • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. These considerations are to help inform the team’s deliberations and development of recommendations to Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 
  • The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3).
  • ICANN org provided an update to Council during the 20 April meeting. During its meeting on 20 June 2023, Council voted to extend the deferral of the consideration of recommendations #1 and #2, pending resolution of recommendation #3 (pausing the work on proposals that require access to registration data until there is clarity from ICANN org on if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data to be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy). 
  • On 19 October 2023, ICANN org provided an update on Registration Data Accuracy efforts, and Council discussed the update during its 16 November 2023 meeting. During that meeting, some Councilors noted that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement, (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to reconvene the Accuracy Scoping Team. Now that six months have passed since Council’s deferral of the accuracy scoping work, Council will need to consider next steps. 
  • Council will consider whether a further deferral is appropriate or if other next steps are timely e.g., the consideration of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2.
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 
  • 8.3 Update on Diacritic Study Request

GNSO Council Meeting #1 of 2024 held on 18 Jan 2024 at 05:00 UTC: http://tinyurl.com/y3a7xhu3 

 21:00 Los Angeles (Wednesday); 00:00 Washington DC; 05:00 London; 06:00 Paris; 08:00 Moscow; 16:00 Melbourne

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: https://icann.zoom.us/j/92283565389?pwd=QnlHK1JSbzdiSFFZSjRjamxMTkNGdz09 

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

Records of 18 Jan 2024 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 18 Jan 2024 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Jan 2024 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Jan 2024 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Council resolved to approve both the Recommendations Report for the GGP on Applicant Support and the Recommendations Report for the EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) for transmission to the ICANN Board. Correspondence to the Board completed on 18 Jan.

2. SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations

• Supplemental Recommendations on (a) confusingly similar singular-plural strings (Recs 23.3 and 23.5) are being refined/finalized; and (b) Waiver of RA Spec 11 3(a) & 3(b) for single registrant TLDs (Rec 9.2) is stable.
• Work of the Small Team Plus continues on (c) covenant not to sue (Recs 18.1 and 18.3) tied with (d) challenge/appeal mechanisms (Recs 32.1, 32.2 and 32.10)
• Work of the Small Team Plus expected to conclude - in terms of Supplemental Recommendations - before ICANN79, in time for the planned community consultation session at ICANN79. Thereafter, depending on any substantial community input received, Council plans to vote on the entire package of Supplementation Recommendations covering 10 pending recommendations (i.e. 17.2, 22.7, 23.3, 23.5, 9.2, 18.1, 18.3, 32.1, 32.2, 32.10)  at its April meeting. (For info on the 10 pending recommendations, see: slide no. 3 of my SubPro Update #5 to CPWG on 8 Nov 2023)

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  Justine Chew To update ALAC/CPWG on the package of Supplemental Recommendations to be discussed at ICANN79 (on the Wed).
  •  Justine Chew To alert ALAC/CPWG on any GNSO session planned for ICANN78 Prep Week to discuss these Supplemental Recommendations (if any)

3. Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) & RDA Scoping Team

• By way of recap, the RDA Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions, andtasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. These considerations are to help inform the team’s deliberations and development of recommendations to Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 
• The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team had suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3).
• However, a number of factors which remain pending to-date have led Council to defer further work in this area. 
  • At Council's Jun 2023 meeting, Council voted to defer for 6 months, consideration of a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) pending resolution of recommendation #3 (pausing the work on proposals that require access to registration data until there is clarity from ICANN org on if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data to be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy). 
  • At Council's Nov 2023 meeting, Council revisited this area of work and noted that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement (DPA), (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to reconvene the Accuracy Scoping Team.  
  • Given that (i) the DPA is not yet ready (confirmed by ICANN org staff) (ii) the NIS2 directive has not yet been implemented, and (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study is still pending (targeted for Sep 2024), Council declined to take further action at this point.  

4. Diacritic Study Request

• GNSO Council Leadership is still reviewing a draft request prepared by Councilor Mark Datysgeld on the Diacritic Study and will report back to Council in due course.
• As a reminder, this request for a Diacritic Study is concerned with how to deal with existing ASCII TLDs which have a version with diacritics which are NOT considered as variants of each other accordingly to established Label Generation Rules (for eg. quebec and québec).   

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  Justine Chew To alert ALAC/CPWG when the draft Diacritic Study Request is ready for Council's comment.

5. Privacy-Proxy Services Accreditation Issues (PPSAI) Implementation

• There are Board-approved PPSAI recommendations which have yet to be implemented as focus has been prioritized towards the implementation of the EPDP on Temp Spec Phase 1 recommendations instead thus far. However ICANN Org's GDS (Global Domains & Strategy) is now developing a work plan to actively work on implementing these PPSAI recommendations with input from the previous GNSO PDP on PPSAI members (by email).
• Next update will be available at ICANN79; but the work plan will only be ready at the end of Q1, 2024.

GNSO Council Meeting #10 of 2023 held on 25 Oct 2023 during ICANN 78, over 2 parts, and including a Council Wrap-up Session on 26 Oct 2023:

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

GNSO Council Meeting #10 of 2023 held on 25 Oct 2023 during ICANN 78, over 2 parts, and including a Council Wrap-up Session on 26 Oct 2023:

Under Part 1 Agenda

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Optional Topics for Potential Council Response
  • (i) Pilot Holistic Review Revised Draft Terms of Reference 
  • (ii) Proposed Process for the Retirement of Non-Policy Recommendations 
  • (iii) Continuous Improvement Program Community Coordination Group (CIP-CCG)
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Liaison to the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Annual Report
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Diacritics Issue in Latin Script
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 8.1 – Farewell to outgoing Councilors

  • 8.2 – Update - Open Contracted Party House DNS Abuse Calls

  • 8.3 – GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot Review

  • 8.4 – Open microphone (Continuation of anniversary session discussion / input)

Under Part 2 Agenda

Full Agenda

• Item 1: Seating of the 2023-2024 Council
  INCOMING COUNCILORS:
  • Jennifer Chung: SOI Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG)
  • Lawrence Olawale-Roberts: SOI Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG - BC)
  • Damon Ashcroft: SOI Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG - IPC)
  • Taiwo Peter Akinremi: SOI Non-commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG)
• Item 2. Election of the Chair
  • One nomination was received for this position from Gregory DiBiase of the Contracted Party House. Gregory circulated his candidate statement to the GNSO Council on 5 October 2023.
• Item 3. Election of GNSO Council Vice Chair 2022-2023

  • Non-Contracted Party House - Tomslin Samme-Nlar

  • Contracted Party House - Nacho Amadoz

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 24 August 2023 were posted on 09 September 2023.

  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 21 September 2023 were posted on 08 October 2023.

• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Confirmation of Appointment of Ashley Heineman as GNSO-appointed Co-Chair of the IANA Naming Function Review Team
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 

  • The GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot was initiated in June 2021 to determine whether the framework, as outlined here, could serve as an approach for dealing with the various projects that are focused on improvements to GNSO processes and procedures.

  • The CCOICI tasked the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Task Force to address the following questions:

    1. Is the original objective of the SOI, as stated in the BGC WG Report, still valid? If not, why not and what should the current objective be?
    2. Based on the response to question 1), is the requested information to be provided as part of the SOI still fit for purpose? If not, why not, and what would need to be changed to make it fit for purpose?
    3. Are there any further measures that should be considered from an enforcement / escalation perspective, in addition or instead of those already included in the requirements?
  • During the meeting in August 2023, CCOICI Chair Manju Chen presented an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements, but the vote on the recommendations was ultimately deferred in last month's Council meeting due to some last minute concerns from the CPH.
  • As it turned out, no changes are being proposed to the CCOICI Recommendations and Council will proceed with the vote on these recommendations as they are written - which maintains the ability to exempt participants from declaring in their GNSO SOI who they represented whenever they participated in a PDP in case of professional ethical obligations preventing complications. The motiononly requires a simple majority for it to be carried.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Optional Topics for Potential Council Response

(i) Pilot Holistic Review Revised Draft Terms of Reference 

• • The ICANN Board is currently seeking the community's input on the proposed Pilot Holistic Review Revised Draft Terms of Reference. This is an update to the first version posted for Public Comment in August 2022 and has been modified to reflect community input. The primary focus of the Pilot Holistic Review Draft Terms of Reference (ToR) is to address the four primary issues raised during the first Public Comment proceeding:
    • The scope of Holistic Review is unclear
    • There is a lack of independent examination in the Holistic Review
    • There is a lack of identified dependencies
    • The community might not have the ability to support the Pilot Holistic Review work
  • The ToR Development Team also shortened and revised the ToR document to include more direct language and clearer deliverables.
  • Considering the potential implications on the ICANN structures and work, the Board is seeking input on whether the revised Draft ToR seems fit for purpose, and whether it sufficiently addresses the issues identified in the first Public Comment proceeding.
  • The following questions are designed to aid responders in formulating their views:

1. 1. 1. Do you support the Pilot Holistic Review Revised Terms of Reference as drafted?
      2. Does the Pilot Holistic Review Revised Terms of Reference sufficiently address the four primary issues identified in the first Public Comment proceeding?
      3. Does the Pilot Holistic Review Revised Terms of Reference sufficiently clarify the deliverables for the Pilot Holistic Review?
      4. Do you support the next steps for the Pilot Holistic Review (as noted below)?

• • For more background information, Councilors are invited to listen to the webinar on this topic. 
  • Deadline for feedback is 27 November 2023.

(ii) Proposed Process for the Retirement of Non-Policy Recommendations 

• • To implement the Board-approved Third Accountability and Transparency Review (ATRT3) Recommendation 5, and considering the numerous times the ATRT3 Final Report stresses the procedural gap of not having a process to retire approved recommendations, ICANN org is proposing a process for the retirement of community-developed Board-approved non-policy recommendations in exceptional cases and according to specific criteria. 
  • Non-policy recommendations refer to community recommendations developed outside of a policy development process, such as Specific Reviews or Cross-Community Working Groups. The process will be publicly documented in the planning prioritization framework, and referenced in relevant documentation, such as the revised version of the Operating Standards for Specific Reviews. 
  • Council will discuss the Proposed Process and determine whether input on the proposed process is needed. 
  • The deadline for input is 30 November 2023

(iii) Continuous Improvement Program Community Coordination Group (CIP-CCG)

• • The Third Accountability and Transparency Review (ATRT3) Recommendation 3.6 calls for Organizational Reviews to be evolved into a Continuous Improvement Program (CIP). The recommendation to create a Continuous Improvement Program states that ICANN org shall work with each Supporting Organization (SO), Advisory Committee (AC) and their stakeholder groups, and the Nominating Committee (NomCom) to establish a Continuous Improvement Program. It will include an annual satisfaction survey of members/participants, and a regular assessment, including a summary of continuous improvements published at least every three years. 
  • As the ICANN Community considers the implementation of ATRT3 Recommendation 3.6 as it relates to each community structure and for the ICANN Community overall, the CIP Community Coordination Group is intended to serve as a forum to exchange best practices, lessons learned, as well as for sharing information and progress related to already existing community continuous improvement activities. The representatives in the CIP-CCG will share best practices and collaborate on community-wide implementation of ATRT3 Recommendation 3.6, while relaying information back to their constituencies to inform the process and voice decisions. 
  • ICANN org plans to proceed with the approach outlined in its letter by the end of November; however, if there are objections, concerns, or further feedback/questions, input is due by 30 November 2023.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Diacritics Issue in Latin Script
  • PointQuébec, CORE Association, and the At-Large Advisory Committee raised an issue to the GNSO Council attention with regard to the challenge affecting future applied-for strings in the Latin script containing diacritics that may be confusingly similar to ASCII strings and are non-variants. 
  • For background, an applied-for IDN gTLD string in the Latin script containing diacritics, which is NOT an allocatable variant label of the base ASCII string (existing or applied-for) according to RZ-LGR, is widely recognized by users as its “equivalence” and may be determined to be confusingly similar (i.e., in which case, it would not pass the String Similarity Review).
  • One notable example of this problem known to the ICANN community is the string “québec”. PointQuébec Inc, the Registry of .quebec, has long held an interest in applying for this string, but it may face challenges obtaining it. PointQuébec regards the string “.québec” a necessity for serving the French speaking community in Quebec, Canada. Quebec is the only province in Canada whose sole official language is French; 71.2% of Quebecers are first language francophones. In the 2012 round, PointQuébec was advised not to apply for “.québec” due to considerations for technical readiness and financial predictability for an IDN gTLD. Hence it applied for the ASCII string without diacritics “.quebec” first, but has been waiting to submit an application for the IDN string in the next round.

  • A similar problem could happen to other existing Registries that currently manage ASCII gTLDs but may wish to apply for their IDN equivalence that are not deemed as allocatable variant labels according to the RZ-LGR. Future applicants may also be affected by this challenge.

  • To consider the development of an exception procedure for handling the consequence of String Similarity Review and create a potential path for future applications such as the “.québec” string, a GNSO Policy Development Process is likely the necessary avenue to do so. Understanding the seriousness of the issue and the potential harm to the interests or needs of the intended language committees, the GNSO Council agrees that requesting an Issue Report to thoroughly research and scope the problem is the appropriate step forward. The Issue Report will serve as the basis for launching a dedicated PDP on this topic, should the GNSO Council consider this path in the future. 

• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 8.1 – Farewell to outgoing Councilors

  • 8.2 – Update - Open Contracted Party House DNS Abuse Calls

  • 8.3 – GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot Review

  • 8.4 – Open microphone (Continuation of anniversary session discussion / input

Records of 25 and 26 Oct 2023 Meetings at ICANN78

Special Summary Report of 25 Oct 2023 Meeting & 26 Oct 2023 Wrap-Up to ALAC

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

1. GNSO Council Leadership 2023/2024

• Greg DiBiase, Tomslin Samme-Nlar and Nacho Amadoz, were elected by acclamation as GNSO Chair, GNSO Council Vice-Chair (NCPH), and GNSO Council Vice-Chair (CPH), respectively.

2. Diacritics Issue in Latin Script

• Following a staff presentation and after much discussion, Council settled on asking for a Study (and not an Issues Report as Councilors did not want to potentially trigger a subsequent PDP) in order to be able to make a better informed decision on subsequent next step.

3.  DNS Abuse Mitigation by Contracted Party House (CPH)

• The CPH (i.e. the Registry SG and Registrar SG) has opened their meetings, and plan to invite SOACs to share information with them, to inform on projects and develop possible inputs to such meeting.

    Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  As the ALAC's designated contact point, Justine Chew to liaise with CPH on such outreach opportunities.

4. GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 

• In August, Council received an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements which concluded that no consensus was reached on the ability to exempt participants from declaring in their GNSO SOI who they represented whenever they participated in a PDP in case of professional ethical obligations preventing complications. Although it was recommended that the GNSO SOI format be updated to form two parts (see below), the existing SOI language which allows for the exemption was to remain as is. Further, it is proposed that the SOI be organised into 2 parts:
  
  • a) General Statement of Interest which contains general information about a participant (parent).
    
  • b) Activity Specific Statement of Interest which contains information that is provided specific to the activity, for example, motivation for participation (child)
• The vote to adopt these CCOICI recommendations was withdrawn at Council's Sep 2023 meeting as CPH were not prepared to vote on the one recommendation, as written, to retain the exemption. Hence this matter went back to the CCOICI for further consideration. CCOICI could not come to agreement to change the relevant recommendation.
• Following this, the vote to adopt these CCOICI recommendations was put without any amendment at this Council meeting, requiring only a simple majority to pass.
• The vote failed, with the CPH voting nay and the NCPH voting yay. As a result, none of the CCOICI recommendations were adopted. No change to the GNSO SOI is effected.

5. Topics for Potential Council Response

• Pilot Holistic Review Revised Draft Terms of Reference - Council is considering drafting a comment to this.
• Proposed Process for Retirement of Non-Policy Recommendations - Council is also considering drafting a comment to this.
• Letter regarding Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) Community Coordination Group - it appears that Council does not have any reaction to this.

ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting on 21 Oct 2023 

• Agenda 
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Summary Report

ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting held on 21 Oct 2023

Agenda:

1. Welcome and Introduction - Justine Chew, ALAC Liaison to the GNSO, Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair and Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair (10 mins)
2. GNSO Council Guidance Statement on ".québec", 14 Sep 2023 [gnso.icann.org] (20 mins)
   1. What is the GNSO Council's view on the issue(s) arising from the public comments to the IDNs EPDP Phase 1 Initial Report on ".québec"?
   2. How does the GNSO Council plan to address the issue(s)?
      Speakers: Sebastien Ducos (GNSO), Olivier Crepin-Leblond (ALAC)
      Followed by discussion / Q&A
3. New gTLD Program Next Round (formerly Subsequent Procedures) (20 mins)
   1. How is the GNSO Council addressing the community-developed SubPro Outputs which either remain marked as "pending" or have not been adopted by the Board?
   2. How will the GNSO Council draw community participation and/or input in any efforts in "revising" those SubPro Outputs to address the Board's concerns?
      Speakers: Paul McGrady (GNSO), Tijani Ben Jemaa / Justine Chew (ALAC)
      Followed by discussion with GNSO Council SubPro Small Team / Q&A
4. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) (20 mins)
   
   1. What are the GNSO or GNSO Council's plans in moving the RDRS forward, in respect of registrar on-boarding and post launch of the RDRS? 
      Speakers: Sebastien Ducos / Greg DiBiase (GNSO), Alan Greenberg (ALAC)
      Followed by discussion / Q&A
5. Next Steps - Justine Chew (5 mins)

Records of ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting held on 21 Oct 2023

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

Notes on the 21 Oct 2023 ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting

Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair, provided an update on incoming and outgoing ALAC leadership and Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair, provided an update on incoming and outgoing GNSO councilors and the change in GNSO Council leadership.

ALAC and At-Large community members and Council leadership and councilors discussed 3 issues per the agenda:

1. Diacritics in New gTLDs (eg .Quebec and .Québec)

• The GNSO Council recognised that the ALAC, among others, have brought to Council's attention, the potential unsettling impact of certain existing gTLDs (in ASCII or not) running into string similarity issues if the existing registry operators of those certain gTLDs or other applicants were to apply for delegation of what are perceived as confusingly similar strings to those gTLDs but with diacritics. This situation could also impact applications for strings with or without diacritics in the next round.
• Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair, reported that Council has not yet determined how they would like to proceed with the issue (whether eventually running a PDP , ie. a policy path, if required or an implementation for edge cases), and will be discussing this further at the Council meeting on Wed, 25 Oct. 
• Justine Chew, ALAC Liaison to the GNSO, would be able to provide an update in due course.

2. Next Round of New gTLD Program - Progress on pending or not adopted Subsequent Procedures recommendations

• There are a number of recommendations from the Subsequent Procedures PDP WG that have been marked (as still) pending and some which have been not adopted (rejected) by the ICANN Board on account of the Board holding that they are not in the best interest of ICANN.
• GNSO Council had established a Council Small Team to address these pending/rejected recommendations to see if they can be clarified (for those pending) or revised in some way (for those rejected) that would address the Board's concern and rationale, respectively.
• Paul McGrady, GNSO Councilor and the Council's Small Team Lead, reported that the GNSO Council is expanding the existing Council Small Team to a "Small Team Plus" to address such recommendations, which includes Recommendation 17.2 on Applicant Support, which he acknowledged as something the At-Large community have a major interest in. Paul encouraged the ALAC to send their very best representatives (a subject matter expert (SME) and an alternate) to join this Small Team Plus to work on those recommendations.
• A workplan is being finalised and the invitation for an SME and alternate from every SOAC, C, and SG, will follow soon.
• Tijani Ben Jemaa, AFRALO, expressed a hope that the major increased of interest in this topic is one that supports the success of an improved Applicant Support Program as compared to the 2012 Round.

3. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) 

• Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice Chair, explained a bit of the background of the RDRS, from the GNSO recommendations to the Board on the System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (for registration data) (SSAD) and how those recommendations were viewed as prohibitively expensive to implement as-is, and that the Board wanted more data before considering committing a large fund to implement the same. This led to the idea to create a more lightweight system, i.e. a pilot, now called the RDRS, which is to serve as a central place for requestors of registration data that have been redacted to request such data. These requests would be routed to the appropriate registrar for evaluation (and disclosure where appropriate).
• Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice Chair, also reported that work has been done to define what the RDRS would look like and the sort of metrics that would be gathered and shared with the community. Also, that Registrar pre-onboarding has begun (around 10% of domains under management, with up to 35% pledged for on-boarding by launch) and that the RDRS should launch by the end of the calendar year. Onboarding by registrars to the RDRS is voluntary and will inform the paths forward for pending System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (SSAD) policy recommendations. The RDRS will run for 2 years and pending policy recommendations will then be revisited.
• Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice Chair, also reported that the GNSO Council Small Team that had worked on the RDRS design input will be transitioning to a Standing Committee which is tasked to look into issues with the RDRS as they arise, including metrics and reporting.
• Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair, expressed a hope that the data being captured/stored will offer the community the ability to do some real analysis as opposed to just relying on reports generated by ICANN org. Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair and GNSO Council EPDP Small Team Lead, replied that the data is being stored for as long as the pilot runs but the data that will be shared will only be aggregate data.
• Thomas Rickert, GNSO Councilor and GNSO Council EPDP Small Team member, reminded that the RDRS is in effect just of a basic design which excludes many better features per the SSAD recommendations. However, he reminded participants that it is important for us all to advocate for the use of the RDRS to help ensure that the system will work well to meet the needs both requestors and disclosers, in terms of better quality of requests and better quality disclosures.
• Greg Shatan, NARALO Chair, inquired whether there has been discussions to handle privacy/proxy service providers who "hide" real registrant data and even registrar data.  Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair and GNSO Council EPDP Small Team Lead, replied that there have been discussions but since the RDRS is not based on policy but is voluntary for registrars and related service providers, we can only encourage privacy/proxy service providers to also participate in the RDRS. Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice Chair confirmed that there is only existing policy to handle redacted data but no policy to handle data under privacy/proxy services, and there could be future work on that.
• Marie Patullo, GNSO Councilor, asked about what happens to requests are "ignored" by "unresponsive registrars".  Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair and GNSO Council EPDP Small Team Lead, clarified that data related to requests that are unattended to will be stored and followed up in some way that would not disincentivize "responsive registrars".  

      Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  Justine Chew To look into periodic intersessional updates from GNSO and discussions with At-Large on the above topics.

GNSO Council Meeting #8 of 2023 held on 24 Aug 2023  

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

GNSO Council Meeting #8 of 2023 held on 24 Aug 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
  • Approval of the 2023 Customer Standing Committee (CSC) Slate
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Chartering the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”)
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Pending Recommendations - Expected Non-Adoption 
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Closed Generics
• Item 9: AOB
  • 9.1 Update from NIS2 Outreach Team 
  • 9.2 ICANN78 Planning
  • 9.3 Discussion Paper on .Quebec
  • 9.4 Grant Program Implementation update to Chartering Organizations

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 14 June were posted on 01 July 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 20 July were posted on 06 August 2023.
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Approval of the 2023 Customer Standing Committee (CSC) Slate - In accordance with Section 17.2 (d) of the ICANN Bylaw and per the CSC Charter, the full membership of the CSC must be approved by the GNSO Council. The Council approves the full slate of members and liaisons, noting that the SSAC has declined to appoint a liaison. 
  • The ALAC's Liaison for term 2023-2025 is Holly Raiche, with the alternate being Ejikeme Egbuogu
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement
  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, Council discussed and agreed to task a small team of interested councilors to review the recommendations that the Board placed in a pending status and suggest to the full Council how the underlying concerns that caused the pending status can be best addressed (i.e., a limited triage exercise).
  • Since ICANN76, the Council SubPro Small Team has met several times and has completed a comprehensive review of the issues chart, 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. During that meeting, Council agreed to further task the small team with taking interim steps (e.g., provision of clarifying information, developing speaking points) in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May. Council debriefed after the dialogue with the ICANN Board and discussed next steps. 
  • During ICANN77 Day 0 Session, Council heard from members of the Board regarding the Board’s views on potential “landing spots” on the pending recommendations. Following this discussion, the Small Team has drafted clarifying statements for items in landing spot one (“Provision of Clarifying Statement to the Board”). During its meeting in July, Council received an update from the Small Team on the proposed clarifying statement.
  • 24 Aug update: I have just been informed that the Board has requested more time because "[t]he Board would like to propose a small tweak to the language [in the clarifying statements for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 30.1, 31.16 and 31.17 (all regarding the enforceability of PICs and RVCs) to ensure that it is crystal clear". Hence the recommendations where there is an expectation that the GNSO Council can resolve the ICANN Board concerns via a Clarifying Statement are now:
    • Topic 3: Applications Assessed in Rounds - Recommendations 3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
      • The SubPro Final Report recommendation envisions that “the next application procedure should be processed in the form of a round” and “Application procedures must take place at predictable, regularly occurring intervals without indeterminable periods of review”. However, the GNSO Council confirms its willingness to engage with the ICANN Board to explore a shared vision for the long-term evolution of the program, which could be materially different than what is envisioned for the next round of the New gTLD Program in the Topic 3 recommendations.
    • Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation - Recommendation 6.8
      • The GNSO Council confirms its understanding of the Implementation Review Team (IRT) Principles & Guidelines that state that, “the IRT is convened to assist staff in developing the implementation details for the policy to ensure that the implementation conforms to the intent of the policy recommendations.” The Council therefore recognizes that ICANN org will be responsible for establishing the fees charged for the RSP pre-evaluation program, in consultation with the IRT, as is consistent with the roles and responsibilities captured in the IRT Principles & Guidelines. The language used in Recommendation 6.8 is not intended to alter the respective roles and responsibilities of staff and the IRT.
    • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments - Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15
      • Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13 - The GNSO Council confirms that in respect to any new Public Interest Commitments (PICs) and Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs), PICs/RVCs entered into must be contractually enforceable, and in respect of RVCs, enforceability is determined by both ICANN org and the applicant. And further, the Council observes that among the purposes of PICs / RVCs is to address public comments, in addressing strings deemed highly sensitive or related to regulated industries, objections, whether formal or informal, GAC Early Warnings, GAC Consensus Advice, and/or other comments from the GAC.
      • Recommendation 9.15: The GNSO Council confirms that this recommendation does not require any implementation nor creates any dependencies for the Next Round of the New gTLD Program.
    • Topic 26: Security and Stability - Recommendation 26.9
      • The GNSO Council confirms that the “any level” language referenced in the recommendation should be interpreted to only be in respect of domain names that are allocated by the registry operator.
    • Topic 29: Name Collision - Recommendation 29.1
      • The GNSO Council believes that Recommendation 29.1 can be adopted by the Board on the understanding that it does not need to be acted on until such time any next steps for mitigating name collision risks are better understood out of the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Study 2.
    • Topic 30: GAC Consensus Advice and GAC Early Warning - Recommendation 30.7
      • Please see the Council’s clarifying statement for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13.
    • Topic 31: Objections - Recommendations 31.16, 31.17
      • Please see the Council’s clarifying statement for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13.
    • Topic 34: Community Applications - Recommendation 34.12
      • The GNSO Council confirms its recommendation that terms included in the contract between ICANN org and the CPE Provider regarding the CPE process must be subject to public comment. This recommendation however is not intended to require ICANN org to disclose any confidential terms of the agreement between ICANN org and the CPE Provider.
    • Topic 35: Auctions - Recommendations 35.3, 35.5
      • The GNSO Council confirms that the references to private auctions in Recommendations 35.3 and 35.5 merely acknowledge the existence of private auctions in 2012 and should NOT be seen as an endorsement or prohibition of their continued practice in future rounds of the New gTLD Program. The Council notes that there were extensive discussions on the use of private auctions in the SubPro working group. To the extent that draft recommendations were developed as to private auctions, these did not receive consensus support in the working group but did receive strong support with significant opposition.
  • Council will vote on the clarifying statement to be submitted to the ICANN Board.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 
  • The GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot was initiated in June 2021 to determine whether the framework, as outlined here, could serve as an approach for dealing with the various projects that are focused on improvements to GNSO processes and procedures.

  • The CCOICI tasked the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Task Force to address the following questions:

    1. Is the original objective of the SOI, as stated in the BGC WG Report, still valid? If not, why not and what should the current objective be?
    2. Based on the response to question 1), is the requested information to be provided as part of the SOI still fit for purpose? If not, why not, and what would need to be changed to make it fit for purpose?
    3. Are there any further measures that should be considered from an enforcement / escalation perspective, in addition or instead of those already included in the requirements?
  • The CCOICI submitted to  Council for consideration its Recommendations Report following its review of the Recommendations Report submitted to the CCOICI by the GNSO Statement of Interest Task Force based on their review of the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements as well as their review of the input received in response to the public comment forum.
  • Council will receive an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Chartering the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”)
  • In its Final Report, the Subsequent Procedures Working Group recommended “the formation of a Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (‘SPIRT’) (Pronounced ‘spirit’) to serve as the body responsible for reviewing potential issues related to the Program, to conduct analysis utilizing the framework, and to recommend the process/mechanism that should be followed to address the issue (i.e., utilize the Predictability Framework). The GNSO Council shall be responsible for oversight of the SPIRT and may review all recommendations of the SPIRT in accordance with the procedures outlined in the GNSO Operating Procedures and Annexes thereto.”
  • Council will hear on the issue of SPIRT chartering.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Pending Recommendations - Expected Non-Adoption 
  • Further to Item 4: SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement which addressed 22 of 38 SubPro recommendations marked as "pending", the Council SubPro Small Team has also looked at proposing paths for the remaining 16 recommendations the Board is not expected to adopt.
  • Council will hear an update on the proposed path. In addition, the small team is requesting Council for further instructions now that it has reached the solution building stage; as well as input on whether or not it is time to invite the GAC to participate more formally in the small team's work and how that would work practically.
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Closed Generics

  • In March 2022, 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 GNSO 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.

  • Following an initial, informal meeting at ICANN75 in Kuala Lumpur, the dialogue participants have since been meeting regularly via Zoom and held a substantive two-day face-to-face meeting in Washington, D.C. in late January 2023. The dialogue is hoping to deliver a draft framework around the end of April 2023 to the ALAC, GAC, GNSO and other SOACs for community input. At this stage, groups are expected to have approximately four weeks to review the document.

  • During its meeting at ICANN76, the ICANN Board passed a resolution adopting a substantial portion of the outputs from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP, setting in motion the start of the implementation process for the next round of new gTLDs. As part of the resolution, the Board established deadlines for key deliverables that will impact the development of the implementation plan.

  • The GNSO Chair, GAC Chair, and ALAC Chair plan to send a separate communication to the ICANN Board that reflects the decision they took and, as stated in the letter, expressing the collective view that:
    • (1) closed generic gTLDs should not be viewed as a dependency for the next round;
    • (2) until there is community-developed policy, the Board should maintain the position from the 2012 round (i.e., any applications seeking to impose exclusive registry access for "generic strings" to a single person or entity and/or that person's or entity's Affiliates (as defined in Section 2.9(c) of the Registry Agreement) should not proceed; and
    • (3) should the community decide in the future to resume the policy discussions, this should be based on the good work that has been done to date in the facilitated dialogue.
  • Council will discuss the current state of work and the proposed communication to the Board.
• Item 9: AOB
  • 9.1 Update from NIS2 Outreach Team 
  • 9.2 ICANN78 Planning
  • 9.3 Discussion Paper on .Quebec 
    • Discussion Paper about “.québec” Challenges
    • ALAC correspondence on DotQuebec
  • 9.4 Grant Program Implementation update to Chartering Organizations
    • Update on the progress of ICANN org’s implementation of the CCWG-AP Final Report and preview upcoming work
    • Letter to SOAC Chairs from ICANN org
    • Email exchange from Tripti Sinha, Chair, ICANN Board of Directors, Anne Aikman-Scalese, GNSO Councilor, and Xavier Calvez, ICANN Org, SVP Planning and CFO

Records of 24 Aug 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 24 Aug 2023 Meeting to ALAC

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

1. Consent Agenda Item - 2023 Customer Standing Committee (CSC)

• Council approved the slate of 2023 CSC Members and Liaison, which include the liaison and alternate appointed by ALAC, Holly Raiche and Ejikeme Egbuogu, respectively, for the 2023 - 2025 term.

2. Next Round of New gTLD Program / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & "Other Dependencies"

• To recap, the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution had requested the GNSO Council to submit 3 of 4 deliverables. 
• For convenience, the 3 of 4 deliverables are replicated as follows:
  • a. 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 (the 38 Pending Recommendations);
  • b. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;c. 
  • c. 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; and
  • d. 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.
• Immediately after ICANN77, Council submitted to the Board on 15 Jun 2023 the SubPro ICANN77 Deliverables: Workplan and Timeline which addresses the 3 requested deliverables.
• As of now, the situation with a. and c. are as follows. The status with d. is as reported in my Jul 2023 report.

a. The 38 Pending Recommendations 

• Since after ICANN77, the GNSO Council Small Team on SubPro has continued to work with the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads, Avri Doria and Becky Burr, in developing the Council's 2 next sub-deliverables in respect of the 38 Pending Recommendations. This involves bifurcating the 38 recommendations into 2 broad groups: 

• • Group (1) covers Recommendations on the following SubPro Topics which were assessed and are understood to merely require clarifying statements by Council for the Board's consideration in context of the Board's concerns, in order to facilitate adoption by the Board.  
  • Due to a late request by the ICANN Board for more time as "[t]he Board would like to propose a small tweak to the language [in the clarifying statements for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 30.1, 31.16 and 31.17 (all regarding the enforceability of PICs and RVCs) to ensure that it is crystal clear", the recommendations where there is an expectation that the GNSO Council can resolve the ICANN Board concerns via a Clarifying Statement was amended to cover:
    • Topic 3: Applications Assessed in Rounds - Recommendations 3.1,3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
    • Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation - Recommendation 6.8
    • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments - Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15
    • Topic 26: Security and Stability - Recommendation 26.9
    • Topic 29: Name Collision - Recommendation 29.1
    • Topic 30: GAC Consensus Advice and GAC Early Warning - Recommendation 30.7
    • Topic 31: Objections - Recommendations 31.16, 31.17
    • Topic 34: Community Applications - Recommendation 34.12
    • Topic 35: Auctions - Recommendations 35.3, 35.5
  • The resulting Clarifying Statement as at 23 Aug which was adopted by Council  for Group (1) recommendations is found at this link.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • •  To continue participating in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed.

• • Group (2) covers the remaining pending recommendations for which the Council Small Team will continue to work on in light of the clear signal by the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads that the Board will very likely decline to adopt as they currently read. The Small Team's scope of work here includes considering whether such recommendations should be revised, and if so, how - either through the 'GNSO Operating Procedures section 16' path (which would involve reconvening the SubPro PDP WG), or through a 'Supplemental Recommendation' path for which Council will need to determine the mechanism to produce such supplemental recommendation.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • •  To continue participating in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed, or to advocate for the inclusion of input outside of GNSO where Council opts for the 'Supplemental Recommendation' path.

c. Closed Generics Framework

• • Council received a substantive update on the status of the Closed Generics Framework produced by the GAC-GNSO-ALAC Dialogue small team, post a review of community comments received in response to the request for comments on the Draft Closed Generics Framework which closed on 15 Jul 2023. 
  • The Chairs of the GAC, GNSO and ALAC convened to discuss what should happen with this Closed Generics Framework, namely whether there was sufficient community consensus for it to move to a GNSO policy development process. They concluded there was not and that there was not sufficient demand to take it further through a policy process. As a result, the GNSO Chair, GAC Chair, and ALAC Chair plan to send a separate communication to the ICANN Board that reflects the decision they took and, as stated in the letter, expressing the collective view that:

    • (1) closed generic gTLDs should not be viewed as a dependency for the next round; 

    • (2) until there is community-developed policy, the Board should maintain the position from the 2012 round (i.e., any applications seeking to impose exclusive registry access for "generic strings" to a single person or entity and/or that person's or entity's Affiliates (as defined in Section 2.9(c) of the Registry Agreement) should not proceed; and

    • (3) should the community decide in the future to resume the policy discussions, this should be based on the good work that has been done to date in the facilitated dialogue. 

3. Next Round of New gTLDs - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (SPIRT) (pronounced as "spirit")

• In its Final Report, the Subsequent Procedures Working Group recommended “the formation of a Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (‘SPIRT’) (Pronounced ‘spirit’) to serve as the body responsible for reviewing potential issues related to the Program, to conduct analysis utilizing the framework, and to recommend the process/mechanism that should be followed to address the issue (i.e., utilize the Predictability Framework). The GNSO Council shall be responsible for oversight of the SPIRT and may review all recommendations of the SPIRT in accordance with the procedures outlined in the GNSO Operating Procedures and Annexes thereto.”
• Council discussed the task of chartering (not constituting) the SPIRT and concluded that it would be useful to set up a chartering team to include participation from the At-Large/ALAC, GAC and other parts of the community.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  Justine Chew To alert the ALAC/CPWG on timing of the call to form the SPIRT chartering team, in due course.

4. Discussion Paper on .Quebec 

• The GNSO Chair led the commentary on this issue which essentially concluded that the issue of .quebec (TLD) not being a variant of “.québec” did not require an immediate resolution and one that did not squarely sit in the remit of the Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs).

5. GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 

• Council received an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements which concluded that no consensus was reached on the ability to exempt participants from declaring in their GNSO SOI who they represented whenever they participated in a PDP in case of professional ethical obligations preventing complications
• Although it was recommended that the GNSO SOI format be updated to form two parts (see below), the existing SOI language in relation to exemption is to remain as is.
  
  • a) General Statement of Interest which contains general information about a participant (parent).
    
  • b) Activity Specific Statement of Interest which contains information that is provided specific to the activity, for example, motivation for participation (child)

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

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• 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
  • Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team Recommendations #1 and #2 – extending deferral of consideration by six months
  • GNSO Review of GAC Communiqué 
  • GNSO Non-Registry Liaison to the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) - Milton Mueller; [GNSO Non-Registry Liaison Alternate to the CSC - [candidate under review]]
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy 
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Operational Design Phase and Operational Design Assessment Liaison & Small Team Survey Feedback
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Pending Recommendations - Clarifying Statement
• Item 7: Follow up on IGO Curative Rights IRT and Other Work Necessary to Achieve Release of the IGO Acronyms  Under Interim Reservation
• Item 8: IDNs EPDP Timeline
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.1 ccNSO Liaison update
  • 9.2 Closed Generics Update

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 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 01 July 2023
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team Recommendations #1 and #2 – extending deferral of consideration by six months
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy 
  • During Council’s extraordinary meeting on 5 June 2023, Thomas Rickert introduced an area for potential discussion at a future GNSO Council meeting.
  • Specifically, the European Union's Second Network and Information Systems Directive (“NIS2”) entered into force on 16 January 2023. Article 28, subsection 3 provides, "Member States shall require TLD name registries and the entities providing domain name registration services, those are registrars, resellers and privacy and proxy services, to have policies and procedures, including verification procedures in place to ensure that the databases referred to in paragraph 1 include accurate and complete information. Member States shall require such policies and procedures to be publicly available." Additionally, the corresponding recital number 111, provides, in part, “Those policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder governance structures at the international level." 
  • There was a suggestion to consider informal options of responding to the recital text to highlight the standards that are currently applicable.
  • Council will discuss if further work is needed on this topic, and if the GNSO is the appropriate venue for further work at this time.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Operational Design Phase and Operational Design Assessment Liaison & Small Team Survey Feedback
  • Council will receive an overview of the feedback provided in the surveys issued to two GNSO Liaisons to the ODP (Janis Karklins and Jeff Neuman) and the members of both ODA review teams, and consider potential next steps such as sharing this feedback to ICANN org to help inform the upcoming community consultation.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Pending Recommendations - Clarifying Statement
  • Since ICANN76, the Council SubPro Small Team has met several times and has completed a comprehensive review of the issues chart, with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. The Council discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May, in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May. 
  • During the ICANN77 Day 0 Session, Council heard from the members of the Board regarding the Board’s views on potential “landing spots” on the pending recommendations. Following this discussion, the Small Team has drafted clarifying statements for items in landing spot one (“Provision of Clarifying Statement to the Board”). Immediately after ICANN77, Council submitted its ICANN77 Deliverable Work plan & Timeline SubPro Related Activities as requested by the ICANN Board in its 16 Mar resolution.
  • Council will receive an update from the Small Team on the proposed clarifying statement to the Board as well as the work that is ongoing in relation to the recommendations for which the Board has indicated likely non-adoption.
• Item 7: Follow up on IGO Curative Rights IRT and Other Work Necessary to Achieve Release of the IGO Acronyms  Under Interim Reservation
  • On 14 April 2013, the Board passed a resolution placing certain IGO acronyms under temporary reservation. In recent correspondence, the Board confirmed that its intention in passing this resolution was to “withhold these IGO acronyms from registration at the second level on an interim basis, pending resolution by the community of the inconsistencies between GAC advice and GNSO policy recommendations from the GNSO’s 2012-2013 Policy Development Process (PDP) on IGO-INGO Protections in All gTLDs.” 
  • Since the April 2013 Board resolution, the GNSO has completed two PDPs specific to curative rights protections for IGOs: (1) the PDP on IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms that was completed in 2019 and (2) the Expedited PDP (EPDP) on Specific Curative Rights Protections for IGOs that was completed in 2022.
  • On 30 April 2023, the Board voted to adopt all four recommendations that the GNSO Council approved from the 2019 PDP and all five Full Consensus recommendations from the 2022 EPDP. The Board also directed ICANN org to proceed with implementation “as soon as feasible; and to develop and submit to the Board an implementation plan … to inform the Board as to how the implementation of these recommendations fit into ICANN org’s operational planning and prioritization of its ongoing work to implement other community-developed recommendations that the Board has adopted.” 
  • Council will discuss whether it wishes to take any steps to request that ICANN org implementation of these Consensus Policy recommendations remains a high priority, understanding the need to resource this work appropriately in the context of other ongoing implementation work.
• Item 8: IDNs EPDP Timeline
  • In accordance with ICANN Board request (16 Mar resolution), the EPDP Team delivered an updated project plan by the last day of ICANN77.  It identifies that almost all of its charter questions will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, and determines that its timeline for the EPDP Team’s delivery of relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council remains unchanged, which is November 2025. 

  • Nevertheless, the EPDP Team made a commitment to reconsider its delivery date shortly after ICANN77 by taking into consideration: 

    • Closure of the Phase 1 Initial Report Public Comment period and gaining a better understanding of the breadth and quantity of comments received; 
    • A better sense of progress made on Phase 2 charter questions in advance of the schedule; and
    • More certainty of approval for the EPDP Team’s request for its dedicated face-to-face workshop, etc.  
  •  Council will hear an update on the EPDP Team’s revised schedule.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.2 Closed Generics Update 

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 ALAC

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.

1. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & "Other Dependencies"

• To recap, the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution had requested the GNSO Council to submit 3 of 4 deliverables. 
• For convenience, the 3 of 4 deliverables are replicated as follows:
  • a. 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 (the 38 Pending Recommendations);
  • b. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;c. 
  • c. 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; and
  • d. 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.
• Immediately after ICANN77, Council submitted to the Board on 15 Jun 2023 the SubPro ICANN77 Deliverables: Workplan and Timeline which addresses the 3 requested deliverables.

a. The 38 Pending Recommendations

• Since after ICANN77, the GNSO Council Small Team on SubPro has continued to work with the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads, Avri Doria and Becky Burr, in developing the Council's 2 next sub-deliverables in respect of the 38 Pending Recommendations. This involves bifurcating the 38 recommendations into 2 broad groups: 

• • Group (1) covers Recommendations on the following SubPro Topics which were assessed and are understood to merely require clarifying statements by Council for the Board's consideration in context of the Board's concerns, in order to facilitate adoption by the Board. *  
    • Topic 3: Applications Assessed in Rounds - Recommendations 3.1,3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
    • Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation - Recommendation 6.8
    • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments - Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15
    • Topic 26: Security and Stability - Recommendation 26.9
    • Topic 29: Name Collision - Recommendation 29.1
    • Topic 30: GAC Consensus Advice and GAC Early Warning - Recommendation 30.7
    • Topic 31: Objections - Recommendations 31.16, 31.17
    • Topic 34: Community Applications - Recommendation 34.12
    • Topic 35: Auctions - Recommendations 35.3, 35.5
  • The complete Clarifying Statement produced for Group (1) recommendations can be viewed via this link.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • •  To participate in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed.

• • Group (2) covers the remaining pending recommendations for which the Council Small Team will continue to work on in light of the clear signal by the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads that the Board will very likely decline to adopt as they currently read. The Small Team's scope of work here includes considering whether such recommendations should be revised, and if so, how - either through the 'GNSO Operating Procedures section 16' path (which would involve reconvening the SubPro PDP WG), or through a 'Supplemental Recommendation' path for which Council will need to determine the mechanism to produce such supplemental recommendation.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • •  To continue to participate in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed, or to advocate for the inclusion of input outside of GNSO where Council opts for the 'Supplemental Recommendation' path.

• • *To note that I have previously reported, that the list of recommendations in group (1) versus group (2) continues to evolve over time; compare with as at ICANN77

c. Draft Closed Generics Framework

• • Council received a cursory update on where the Draft Closed Generics Framework stands and informed that the GAC-GNSO-ALAC Dialogue small team will reconvene to review the community comments received in response to the request for comments on the Draft Closed Generics Framework which closed on 15 Jul 2023. 

d.  Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP)

• • As reported in Jun 2023, the IDNs EPDP WG was already taking steps to improve its timeline to expedite completion of its work well ahead of its original Nov 2025 target.
  • The WG Chair presented a revised project plan which shaves 13 months off the earlier timeline. The key milestones for this EPDP are now as follows:
    • Phase 1 Final Report remains expected to be delivered to Council in Nov 2023
    • Council then considers this Phase 1 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
    • Phase 2 Initial Report is expected to be published for public comment in Apr 2024 (vs May 2025 earlier)
    • Phase 2 Final Report is expected to be delivered to Council in Oct 2024 (vs Nov 2025 earlier)
    • Council then considers this Phase 2 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • Assumptions for this revised project plan must hold for the EPDP to meet the new milestone dates:
    • Progress to be achieved via multiple sessions during ICANN78 (similar to ICANN77)
    • A planned F2F workshop scheduled for early Dec 2023
    • No change to the EPDP Charter / scope of quarter questions

• Update: Following this 20 Jul meeting, Council submitted an updated ICANN77 Deliverable Workplan & Timeline SubPro Related Activities to provide further clarity to its 15 Jun submission.

2. Data Accuracy in the context of NIS2 & Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team

      Accuracy

• Council continued to discuss what should or could be done in light of the European Union's Second Network and Information Systems Directive (“NIS2”) entered into force on 16 January 2023, particularly regarding Article 28, subsection 3 referencing the need for Member States to require that "(accuracy) policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder governance structures at the international level." 
• There was no clear agreement on matters of protocol - ie. whether it would be more appropriate for ICANN org or ICANN Board to address the EU or for GNSO Council to address the GAC, and the EC representative specifically, to inform of the work already or being undertaken by ICANN in this area. This was to be referred to Council's communication small team for consideration.

     Data Accuracy Scoping Team

• Council continues to await an update on the status of negotiations Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations between ICANN org and Contracted Parties and resolved to extend deferral of consideration of recommendations #1 and #2 of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team write up for another six months or at an earlier date if the DPA negotiations have been completed before six months have passed and/or there is feedback from ICANN org if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data will be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy.

3. Operational Design Phase (ODP) and Operational Design Assessment (ODA)

• Council was given a presentation on the results of a survey conducted with the 2 GNSO liaisons to 2 completed ODP (SSAD and SubPro) as well as members of the 2 small teams (SSAD and SubPro) and was informed that ICANN org will be conducting an upcoming community consultation to obtain feedback on the ODP process.
• To note that ICANN org intends to incorporate (possibly formalize) the ODP process into the CPIF - Consensus Policy Implementation Framework. 

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  Justine Chew To alert the ALAC/At-Large on details of ICANN org's upcoming community consultation when they become available.

GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2023 held on 14 Jun 2023 during ICANN 77 

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

GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2023 held on 14 Jun 2023 during ICANN 77

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

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

• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Non-Objection of SubPro Timelines

• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - DNS ABUSE
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consideration of Accuracy Scoping Team recommendations in light of 6 month timeline originally established (factoring in April meeting discussion and input received from ICANN org)
• Item 7: GNSO TOWN HALL 
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 8.1 ccNSO & GAC Liaisons updates

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 20 April 2023 were posted on 07 May 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 25 May 2025 were posted on 09 June 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Extraordinary Council meeting on 05 June will be posted on 19 June 2023.

• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Non-Objection of SubPro Timelines

  • At ICANN76, the Board resolved to adopt the majority of the recommendations from the Final Report of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP. The Board also resolved that the Outputs in Section B of the Scorecard be designated as pending.

  • Further, the Board resolved that several deliverables be completed by the last day of the ICANN77 Public Meeting (15 June 2023):

    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 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; and
    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.
  • For item 2, the GNSO Council agreed upon a methodology (Open + Representative) at ICANN76 which effectively completed that item from a Council perspective. However, for items 1, 3, and 4, Council has diligently worked on the each of the items, in conjunction with the respective teams as necessary (e.g., the IDNs EPDP leadership team). 
  • During the Council’s Extraordinary Meeting on 5 June, Council had an initial discussion on all of the work plans and timelines. The work plans and timelines will have been further discussed during Council’s pre-ICANN77 sessions on 11 June, which will likely have been supplemented by Board input on how to resolve the pending recommendations.
  • Council will acknowledge the three work plans and timelines (i.e., for the pending recommendations, IDNs EPDP Phase 2, and closed generics EPDP) and agree to their submission to the ICANN Board.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - DNS ABUSE
  • In February 2022, the GNSO 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 the GNSO Council. Recommendation #2 from the Report recommended the GNSO 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, the GNSO 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
  • Upon reviewing the feedback, the DNS Abuse Small Team preliminarily concluded that there is not enough information available for bulk registrations to be the subject of further policy work at this time.
  • Council will receive an update from the DNS Abuse small team.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consideration of Accuracy Scoping Team recommendations in light of 6 month timeline originally established (factoring in April meeting discussion and input received from ICANN org)
  • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors including the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. 
  • The Scoping Team completed:
    • Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to the Council on 5 September 2022.
    • In the write up, the group suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). 
  • In November 2021, Council adopted recommendation #3 of the Scoping Team’s write up, which recommended;
    • (i) pausing the work in relation to proposals that require access to registration data,
    • (ii) encouraging ICANN org to proceed with their outreach to the EDPB as well as the Data Protection Impact Assessment in connection with the scenario(s) in which the request and processing of registration data takes place as a matter of urgency, and
    • (iii) requesting that ICANN org and Contracted Parties finalize the negotiations on the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) as soon as practicable as the absence of a completed DPA may act as a roadblock for policy work before Council.
    • In response to the Council’s requests, ICANN org provided the following written update to the GNSO Council on 14 March 2023.
  • ICANN org provided a verbal update to Council during the 20 April meeting. Six months has now passed from the Council’s initial deferral of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2. 
  • Council will consider whether a further six month deferral is appropriate or if other next steps are timely e.g., the consideration of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2.
• Item 7: GNSO TOWN HALL 
  • To encourage GNSO community engagement with Council, Council is inviting the community to engage directly with it during the ICANN77 meeting. The objective is to have an open and frank discussion with the GNSO Community during which any topics or questions can be raised.
  • One particular topic that Council would like to draw your attention to is the recent trend of attrition in GNSO Working Group participation - a topic discussed during the recent GNSO Policy Webinar. Council is interested to hear from the community on how it can best address this trend.
  • Additional topic prompts will be included closer to the session.

Records of 14 Jun 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 14 Jun 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 Jun 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Jun 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & Other Dependencies

• To recap, GNSO Council considered a draft combined project plan, which attempts to address the 3 of the 4 deliverables requested of Council by the ICANN Board. For convenience, the 3 of 4 deliverables are replicated as follows, as drawn from the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution:

1. 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 (the 38 Pending Recommendations);
   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; and
   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.

• Anchor
  A-23-06-38 A-23-06-38

  Ongoing conversations with the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads, Avri Doria and Becky Burr, have led to an update of the approach for the 38 Pending Recommendations. Based on this development, Council did not object to 3 deliverables as contained in the SubPro ICANN77 Deliverables: Workplan and Timeline that has since been submitted to the Board on 15 Jun 2023:

a. The 38 Pending Recommendations have been re-organised into 3 categories of "a", "b" and "c":

c. Project plan and timeline for Closed Generics policy recommendations

• • Currently, following the comment period for the draft Framework for Closed Generics gTLDs (ending 15 July), the draft Framework is expected to then be finalized pursuant to a plan to initiate an EPDP to confirm policy recommendations for Closed Generics
  • The planned EPDP is expected to take the normal course of an EPDP, running for not more than 96 weeks in total from 14 June.
  • Team deliberations and publication of an Initial Report is projected to take 36 weeks.

d. Project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG)

• • Phase 1 Final Report is expected to be delivered to Council in Nov 2023
  • Council then considers this Phase 1 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • Phase 2 Initial Report is expected to be published for public comment in May 2025
  • Phase 2 Final Report is expected to be delivered to Council in Nov 2025
  • Council then considers this Phase 2 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • The IDNs EPDP WG is already taking steps to improve its timeline to expedite completion of its work well ahead of the Nov 2025 target 

2. DNS Abuse (from the perspective of the GNSO Council / Small Team on DNS Abuse)

Two aspects were discussed (as per the ALAC-GNSO Bilateral of 6 Jun 2023)

• 1. Contractual Amendment Negotiations
  • CPH and ICANN have reached an agreement on the Registrar Accreditation Agreement and the Registry Agreement in strengthening the DNS Abuse provisions. 
  • The DNS Abuse Small Team had been tasked with finding out which areas of DNS Abuse were suitable for policy development, through which Contractual Compliance provided information no how they view the contracts and clauses that are ambiguous. 
  • The amendments developed are out for public comment until 13 Jul.
  • Council to keep Small Team in abeyance until public comment outputs are determined to have addressed gaps highlighted by Contractual Compliance, and as such would not require any further work to be done from a policy development point of view.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To encourage ALAC/At-Large to examine those proposed amendments and the Contractual Compliance Advisory

• 2. Bulk Registrations
  • Small Team does not have evidence to start policy work on bulk registrations.  Discussion was useful nevertheless. ICANN has now commissioned the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) study which touches on bulk registrations. DNS Abuse Institute is said to be looking into this area as well.
  • Small Team consensus was to wait for results to restart next steps.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  Justine Chew To monitor and follow up on any outstanding intersessional conversation on bulk registrations

3. Registration Data Accuracy

• Council had agreed to put the Accuracy Scoping Team on pause for 6 months, pending a number of inputs required before reopening the issue. These include the data protection agreements (DPAs) that had been due since the EPDP Phase 1 recommendations were adopted by the ICANN Board, otherwise there can be no progress on GDPR compliance.
• The registries had a number of queries on the DPAs and have received responses from ICANN org (no details spoken); so the DPAs are expected to be made available in due course.
• Council is to consider extending the pausing of the Accuracy Scoping Team further in its July meeting.

4. GNSO Town Hall

Several issues of concern / remarks were raised;

• Volunteer attrition and how to encourage participation of newcomers
• Transparency of GNSO Council Small Team work / calls
• Discouraging use of Chatham House Rule in future
• Support for PDPs to ask for F2F workshops to expedite work

5. Motion to commemorate Pam Little, esteemed colleague, mentor, and previous GNSO Council leader who passed away earlier in 2023. This portion of the meeting begins at one hour and thirty minutes into the recording.