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GNSO Council Meeting #2 of 2024 held on 15 Feb 2024

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

GNSO Council Meeting #2 of 2024 held on 15 Feb 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
  • Confirm Leadership of Standing Selection Committee (“SSC”)
  • Confirm GNSO-Nominated ICANN Fellowship Program Mentor
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Registration Data Accuracy
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on SubPro Small Team Progress
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps for Consideration of Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”) 
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN79 Preparation
• Item 8: COUNCIL UPDATE: Draft NCAP Study 2 Report 
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 
  • 9.1 - ccNSO & GAC Liaison updates (every three months)
  • 9.2 - Board letter on Closed Generics
  • 9.3 - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Charter Drafting Team Update
  • 9.4 - Status Update on Council Requests
  • 9.5 - Update from Contracted Party House Abuse Subgroup’s Meeting with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group
  • 9.6 - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) survey

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 21 December 2023 were posted on 02 January 2024
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 18 January 2023 were posted on 02 February 2024
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Confirm Leadership of Standing Selection Committee (“SSC”)
  • Confirm GNSO-Nominated ICANN Fellowship Program Mentor
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Registration Data Accuracy
  • Following Council's discussion last month and seeing as (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is pending. (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, and  (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study is still pending (targeted for Sep 2024), Council will vote on deferring the consideration of the accuracy scoping work for an additional six months or potentially sooner if there is a passage of a significant event, e.g., completion of the Data Processing Agreement, implementation of the NIS2 directive, or publication of the INFERMAL study .  
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on SubPro Small Team Progress
  • In March 2023, the ICANN Board approved the majority of the recommendations contained in the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent PDP, but also placed some recommendations into a pending status. The Council convened a small team that worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve all pending recommendations. While the majority of the pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, recommendations across six Topics were not adopted by the ICANN Board.
  • With the primary task of addressing the pending recommendations now complete, the Council has tasked the Small Team Plus with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus has committed to a work plan to address the recommendations not adopted by the Board. Following that plan, the Small Team has completed initiation 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 come to preliminary  Supplemental Recommendation language (i.e., stable text) for most of the six Topics.
  • Council will receive an update on the progress of the Small Team Plus.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps for Consideration of Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”) 
  • Council previously considered when to request a Policy Status Report (“PSR”) for the purpose of conducting a review of the two Expiration Policies, the EDDP and the ERRP. In November 2020, given concerns about its capacity and no known issues with the policies, the Council agreed to delay the request for the Policy Status Report (PSR) for a period of 24 months. After 24 months had passed, the Council reconsidered whether it was an appropriate time to request a Policy Status Report.
  • In considering a Nov 2022 ICANN org report, Council agreed that both the EDDP and ERRP may benefit from further work, though the timing for the work requires further consideration. In particular, as the Compliance report noted, the language of the policy is ambiguous in parts and has caused confusion for registrants. As the ERRP was implemented in part to ensure that “expiration-related provisions in typical registration agreements are clear and conspicuous enough” and to ensure that “adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming expirations,” the continuing registrant confusion warrants further consideration. Additionally, some of the existing language has become obsolete due to intervening data protection law requirements and will require updates.
  • To that end, Council requested further information from ICANN org on what expiration-related educational materials are currently published and whether additional information can be provided (whether as registrant educational material referenced in Section 4.3 or elsewhere on ICANN’s website). The Council noted receipt of this information would be helpful to the Council in determining if updates to these materials or additional material in other forms could be helpful to combat the ongoing registrant confusion.

  • Council will receive an update from ICANN org on the published materials. 

• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN79 Preparation
  • Pre-ICANN79 GNSO Policy Webinar: 
    • Monday, 26 February 2024 at 21:00 UTC

Note: Mandatory for GNSO Council members

• • During ICANN79, the GNSO Council has the following meetings and events scheduled (times listed in AST):

Saturday, 2 March

• • • 09:00-10:00 - IDNs EPDP Team Working Session 
    • 13:15-14:30 - Transfer Policy Review PDP Working Group Session 1 of 2
    • 15:00-16:00 - Transfer Policy Review PDP Working Group Session 2 of 2
    • Time TBD: GNSO Council dinner

Sunday, 3 March

• • • 09:00-10:00 - GNSO Working Session 1 of 2
    • 10:30-12:00 - GNSO Working Session 2 of 2
    • 13:15-14:30 - GNSO Working Session 3 of 3

Monday, 04 March

• • • 15:00-16:00 Joint ICANN Board and GNSO Council

Tuesday, 05 March

• • • 17:30-18:30 - GNSO Council Informal meeting [closed]

Wednesday, 6 March

• • • 09:00-10:00 - Joint GNSO Council & GAC
    • 10:30-12:00 - SubPro Supplemental Recommendations Community Consultation
    • 13:15-15:15- GNSO Council Meeting

Thursday, 7 March

• • • 09:00-10:00 - GNSO Council SubPro Small Team Plus Meeting
    • 15:00-16:00 - GNSO Council Wrap-Up
  • During its Strategic Planning Session, Council agreed to conduct a triannual detailed review of the Program Management Tool. The action item coming from the SPS provided, “During a session at ICANN79, Council to prepare for a careful review of work captured in the Program Management Tool (PMT) that will conclude or initiate prior to the next AGM, or continue beyond the next AGM. Paul McGrady to coordinate with staff to plan for this inaugural effort.”
  • Council will receive an overview of the current block schedule and plan for its in-person meetings.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 
  • 9.3 - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Charter Drafting Team Update

GNSO Council Meeting #2 of 2024 held on 15 Feb 2024 at 21:00 UTC: http://tinyurl.com/42vy5duf 

13:00 Los Angeles; 16:00 Washington DC; 21:00 London; 22:00 Paris; 00:00 Moscow (Friday); 08:00 Melbourne (Friday)

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 15 Feb 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 15 Feb 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.

GNSO Council Meeting #12 of 2023 held on 21 Dec 2023

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

GNSO Council Meeting #12 of 2023 held on 21 Dec 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
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
• Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Final Report
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations 
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency 
• Item 9: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on Key Outcomes and Action Items Coming out of GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session
• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 10.1 ccNSO & GAC Liaison updates

  • 10.2 Update on Diacritic Study Request

  • 10.3 Community Consultation on Public Interest Commitments/Registry Voluntary Commitments 
  • 10.4 Public comment period on the Draft ICANN FY25 Plans & Draft PTI FY25 Operating Plan and Budget

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 Part 1 and Part 2 on 25 October 2023 were posted on 10 November 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 16 November 2023 were posted on 01 December 2023.
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • To confirm Sebastien Ducos as Chair of the RDRS Standing Committee
  • GNSO Review of GAC ICANN78 Communique
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report 

  • On 24 April 2023, the EPDP Team published its Phase 1 Initial Report, which contains 68 recommendations for Public Comment. The Working Group reviewed the public comments, adjusted its report in light of the comments received, and the Final Report has received the full consensus of the Working Group.

  • During its 16 November meeting, the GNSO Council received a briefing on the Final Report from Donna Austin, the EPDP Chair.

  • Council will vote on the motion to adopt the EPDP on IDNs Phase 1 Final Report, for which a Supermajority is needed to pass the motion.

• Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Final Report
  • The GGP Working Group reviewed all public comments on its Guidance Recommendation Initial Report and deliberated as appropriate to properly evaluate and address comments received during the public comment period. This included the careful consideration and analysis of the public comments, explaining the rationale for agreeing and disagreeing with the different comments received, and, if appropriate, how these were addressed in the Guidance Recommendation Final Report. The working group updated its recommendations and sent its Final Report to the GNSO Council on11 Dec.
  • Council will vote on the motion to adopt the GGP on ASP Final Report, for which a Supermajority is needed to pass the motion.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations
  • Council had adopted this Small Team’s updated assignment form with 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.
  • Council will receive an update on the Small Team Plus' work thus far. (Refer to my report to CPWG on 13 Dec)
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests
  • On 18 May 2019, the ICANN Board adopted the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data to enable contracted parties to continue to comply with existing ICANN contractual requirements and community-developed policies as they relate to registration directory services. The GNSO Council initiated a one-year policy development process to confirm whether or not the Temporary Specification should become a consensus policy, and whether it provided an enduring framework for complying with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • The EPDP Team sent its Phase 1 Final Report to Council on 20 Feb 2019, and Council voted to approve the Final Report on 4 Mar 2019. The Board subsequently adopted the Phase 1 Final Report on 15 May 2019, with the exception of Recommendation 1, Purpose 2, and Recommendation 12, which the Board did not adopt in full. The Board directed the ICANN President and CEO or their designee(s) to implement the adopted policy recommendations. 
  • ICANN org convened an Implementation Review Team (IRT) in May 2019. ICANN org published the draft Registration Data Policy for public comment on 24 August 2022. Several commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of Recommendation 18, specifically around the issue of the response timeline for urgent requests. The relevant portion of Recommendation 18 reads, “A separate timeline of [less than X business days] will considered for the response to ‘Urgent’ Reasonable Disclosure Requests, those Requests for which evidence is supplied to show an immediate need for disclosure [time frame to be finalized and criteria set for Urgent requests during implementation].”
  • Following the public comment period and subsequent discussion by the IRT, the GAC wrote to the Board about the topic of urgent requests on 23 Aug 2023. The Registrar Stakeholder Group wrote to the Board on 8 Sep 2023 in response to the GAC’s letter.
  • Following the receipt of these letters and further communication amongst Board members, the Board would like to discuss urgent requests and its related concerns with Council. Council is to discuss this matter.
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency 
  • On 22 Nov 2023, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) filed a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) of the ICANN Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.122, regarding (i) the actions and inactions that led to (a) the ICANN Board’s public comment of 6 December 2018 on the Initial Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP), (b) the organization of the public comment phase on the Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group, (c) the ICANN Board Resolutions 2022.06.12.13 to 2022.06.12.16 , and (ii) the actions and inactions involving the implementation of the ICANN Grant Giving Program.
  • Council will hear an update on the RfR and discuss the same.
• Item 9: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on Key Outcomes and Action Items Coming out of GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session

  • Council held its annual Strategic Planning Session (SPS) in Washington, D.C. from 29 Nov - 1 Dec 2023. Over the course of the three days, Council identified a number of key outcomes and associated action items. From the previous SPS, Council built in more review and checkpoint mechanisms to ensure that there was proper follow through in executing the identified action items. This was determined to be a good practice and, accordingly, is included as a Council discussion item shortly following the SPS to ensure continued progress. 

  • Council will review the key outcomes and action items identified during the SPS, as well as discuss a more detailed action plan to ensure progress.

• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 10.1 ccNSO Liaison update (presentation)  & GAC Liaison update

  • 10.2 Update on Diacritic Study Request

  • 10.3 Community Consultation on Public Interest Commitments/Registry Voluntary Commitments 
    
  • 10.4 Public comment period on the Draft ICANN FY25 Plans & Draft PTI FY25 Operating Plan and Budget

Records of 21 Dec 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 21 Dec 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 Dec 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Dec 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Sebastien Ducos is confirmed as Chair of the RDRS Standing Committee.

2. EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs)

• Council has adopted the Phase 1 Final Report of the EPDP on IDNs containing 69 policy recommendations related to variant management at the top-level.

3. GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support Guidance (GGP on Applicant Support)

• Council has adopted the Final Report of the GGP on Applicant Support containing 9 policy guidance recommendations related to certain aspects of the Applicant Support Program implementation for the next round of New gTLDs.

4. SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations

• Proposed Supplemental Recommendation to SubPro Recommendation 17.2 on Applicant Support resources is stable, accompanied by a number of implementation proposals for consideration.
• Councilors are to review the Supp Rec 17.2 by 2 Jan 2024 after which Council Leadership will determine how this would be taken forward in term of approval and transmission to the ICANN Board. 

5. EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests

• Council had been informed of the ICANN Board's concern over the EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Recommendation 18 after ICANN org convened an IRT to discuss this upon Public Comment, and several commentors had expressed dissatisfaction with how Recommendation 18 was implemented.
  • Rec 18 reads, “A separate timeline of [less than X business days] will considered for the response to ‘Urgent’ Reasonable Disclosure Requests, those Requests for which evidence is supplied to show an immediate need for disclosure [time frame to be finalized and criteria set for Urgent requests during implementation].” 
  • It should be noted that GAC had also written to the ICANN Board in the context of urgent requests for registration data as the Board was reviewing the final plans for the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Launch.
• Council heard that from a Board member that the Board thinks the RDRS was conceptually not fit for purpose in respect of urgent requests since there are no service levels associated with the RDRS, and therefore decided that functionality should be considered separately to the RDRS launch. Concerns were also indicated by registry and registrar groups especially since it is difficult to say with certainty the time needed to authenticate any requestor.
• Council concluded the discussion by requesting a formal communication from the Board with respect to its concerns with the EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests to enable Council to determine what Council can do to help resolve the concern.

6. ICANN Grant Program - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency

• On 22 Nov 2023, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) filed a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) of the ICANN Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.122, regarding (i) the actions and inactions that led to (a) the ICANN Board’s public comment of 6 December 2018 on the Initial Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP), (b) the organization of the public comment phase on the Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group, (c) the ICANN Board Resolutions 2022.06.12.13 to 2022.06.12.16 , and (ii) the actions and inactions involving the implementation of the ICANN Grant Giving Program.
• After some discussion, Council felt is was appropriate to issue a general letter stating that there are issues worthy of consideration and encouraging the Board to consider a dialogue rather than resolving this issue on a legal technicality. The letter is expected to support the principle of dialogue and transparency when a policy recommendation may need to be changed. The letter may recognize, as in the IPC’s Request for Reconsideration (RfR), that there are issues that should be addressed, including the question of a broader fundamental Bylaws change.

7. Update on Diacritic Study Request

• GNSO Council Leadership is reviewing a draft request prepared by Mark Datysgeld on the Diacritic Study and will report back to Council in due course.

GNSO Council Meeting #11 of 2023 held on 16 Nov 2023

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

GNSO Council Meeting #11 of 2023 held on 16 Nov 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
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Approval Action Community Forum at ICANN78 - Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Articles 18 and 19 of the ICANN Bylaws
• Item 5: COUNCIL UPDATE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report 
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Updates on Status of Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations and Registration Data Accuracy
  • (i) DPA Negotiations
  • (ii) Registration Data Accuracy
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN Board Action on the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP)
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consider whether further work is needed after ICANN org outreach to European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA) 
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 

  • 9.1 SPS Planning

  • 9.2 Confirmation of RDRS Chair

  • 9.3 Update on Public Comment on Pilot Holistic Review - Terms of Reference

  • 9.4 Update on GAC Communique 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 Council Meeting on 21 September 2023 were posted on 08 October 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting Part 1 and Part 2 on 25 October 2023 were posted on 10 November 2023.
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • To confirm Tomslin Samme-Nlar as GNSO Representative as Decisional Participant to the Empowered Community
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Approval Action Community Forum at ICANN78 - Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Articles 18 and 19 of the ICANN Bylaws

  • The Board is convening the Second IANA Naming Function Review ("IFR") to satisfy the requirement under Section 18.2(b) of the ICANN Bylaws that "Periodic IFRs after the first Periodic IFR shall be convened no less frequently than every five years, measured from the date the previous IFRT for a Periodic IFR was convened." The Board convened the first IFR on 16 September 2018.

  • The Board's noted its resolution for the Approval of Amendments to IANA Naming Function Review Bylaws is “an essential step in furthering the implementation of the recommendations of the first IANA Naming Function Review (IFR) team, as Recommendation 3 of the IFR identified changes necessary to Article 18 of the ICANN Bylaws. As well as the additional proposed changes to Articles 18 and 19, which serve to: (1) addressing a 2019 request from the Registries Stakeholder Group on updating the geographic diversity selection requirements for future IFR teams; and (2) clarifying ambiguities on the IFR processes identified through the first running of an IFR after the IANA Stewardship Transition.” The Bylaws changes aim to clearly set out the expected process as designed during the IANA Stewardship Transition Process, and do not represent a change to any of these processes.

  • Council will vote on the fundamental Bylaws amendments, which requires a simple majority to pass.
• Item 5: COUNCIL UPDATE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
  • On 24 April 2023, the EPDP Team published its Phase 1 Initial Report, which contains 68 recommendations for Public Comment. The Working Group reviewed the public comments, adjusted its report in light of the comments received, and the Final Report has received the full consensus of the Working Group.
  • Council will receive a briefing on the EPDP - IDN Phase 1 Final Report (Slides) with the expectation that the report can be voted on during the subsequent Council meeting.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Updates on Status of Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations and Registration Data Accuracy

           (i) DPA Negotiations 

• • On 3 August 2023, the GNSO Council sent a letter to ICANN org and the chairs of the Registrar Stakeholder Group and Registries Stakeholder Group, notifying them of the Council’s decision to extend consideration of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team recommendations until certain dependencies are met. The dependencies referenced include both (i) the outcome of the work by ICANN org on the scenario(s) in which the request and processing of registration data takes place and (ii) the finalization of the Data Processing Agreement (DPA).
  • ICANN org together with the chairs of the Registrar Stakeholder Group and Registries Stakeholder Group provided a response on 16 October 2023, notifying the Council that the “parties agreed that these agreements would take the form of a specification that may be added to the Registry Agreement (RA) and Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), and as such we refer to them as the ‘Data Processing Specification’ or ‘DPS.’”
  • ICANN org noted that it has informed the Contracted Party House (CPH) Negotiating Team that its goal is to complete the negotiations, which include resolution of a few remaining items, by the end of the calendar year, with the eventual aim to have the DPS available for use by registrars and registries for the beginning of the Registration Data Policy implementation window.

          (ii) Registration Data Accuracy

• • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by the GNSO 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 the GNSO 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 the Council on 5 September 2022. In the write up, the group is suggesting 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). 
  • As has been communicated previously, Michael Palage has confirmed his resignation as Chair of this group to the Council. The Council will need to consider the proper timing for identifying a new Chair for this effort.
  • ICANN org provided a verbal update to the Council during the 20 April meeting. During its meeting on 20 June 2023, the 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. 
  • Council will discuss these updates and determine if further outreach is needed for either of the items at this time.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN Board Action on the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP)

  • On 12 June 2022, the ICANN Board accepted all recommendations in the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP).

  • The CCWG-AP's Recommendation 7 states in relevant part "Existing ICANN accountability mechanisms such as IRP or other appeal mechanisms cannot be used to challenge a decision from the Independent Project Applications Evaluation Panel to approve or not approve an application. Applicants not selected should receive further details about where information can be found about the next round of applications as well as any educational materials that may be available to assist applicants. The CCWG recognizes that there will need to be an amendment to the Fundamental Bylaws to eliminate the opportunity to use the Request for Reconsideration and Independent Review Panel to challenge grant decisions." The CCWG-AP also issued guidance to the Board that after reviewing how other entities dealt with appeals, that allowing appeals appeared to add too much complexity.

  • The Board's June 2022 decision reflected the Board's initial agreement with the CCWG-AP's conclusion that a Fundamental Bylaws change was necessary to implement Recommendation 7 and identified such a Bylaws change as a dependency on the launch of the ICANN Grant Program. Upon further consideration, the Board determined that the CCWG-AP's recommendation to preserve the auction proceeds from being used to defend against usages of ICANN's accountability mechanisms for decisions on individual grant decisions can be implemented in alternative ways, including ways that do not require modification to ICANN's core Bylaws on accountability. As a result, the Board proposed updating its action on Recommendation 7 to reflect that ICANN org should implement this Recommendation 7 directly through the use of applicant terms and conditions rather than through a change to ICANN's Fundamental Bylaws.
  • During its meeting on 26 October 2023,  the ICANN Board passed a resolution, revisiting its 12 June 2022 decision on Recommendation 7 of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) and issues the Revised Scorecard - CCWG on Auction Proceeds Final Report Recommendations – Board Action ("Revised Scorecard"), removing the requirement and dependency that a Fundamental Bylaws Amendment is required prior to the launch of the ICANN Grant Cycle, though the amendment would nevertheless be pursued. 
  • Council will discuss the Board action and determine if further action is needed.
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consider whether further work is needed after ICANN org outreach to European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA) 
  • During the Council’s extraordinary meeting on 5 June 2023, Thomas Rickert introduced an area for further Council discussion. 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 by some Councilors to consider informal options of responding to the recital text to highlight the standards that are currently applicable. The Council formed a small team to further consider this effort; however, after hearing an update from ICANN org noting that ICANN org was already in the process of reaching out to the Network and Information Systems Cooperation Group Work Stream for art.28 NIS2, the Small Team agreed to await the draft from ICANN org instead of independently reaching out. The Small Team additionally noted that ICANN org was the appropriate entity to deliver this message, rather than the GNSO Council, but the Small Team requested ICANN org share the draft communication with the GNSO Council for an additional review prior to sending the communication. ICANN org shared its draft communication on 19 October 2023. 
  • Council will discuss any further work is needed.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 

  • 9.1 SPS Planning

  • 9.2 Confirmation of RDRS Chair

  • 9.3 Update on Public Comment on Pilot Holistic Review - Terms of Reference

  • 9.4 Update on GAC Communique Update

Records of 16 Nov 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 16 Nov 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 Nov 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Nov 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Articles 18 and 19 of the ICANN Bylaws

• Council unanimously passed the motion to adopt the said Fundamental Bylaws Amendments.

2. EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs)

• Council received a presentation on the Phase 1 Final Report of the EPDP on IDNs and after having a series of question answered, will move to vote on whether to adopt all the report's policy recommendations related to variant management at the top-level, at its next meeting.

3. Status of Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations and Registration Data Accuracy

• Council was informed that ICANN org and Contracted Parties' negotiations on a DPA has reached an agreement that would take the form of a specification that may be added to the Registry Agreement (RA) and Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), and as such we refer to them as the ‘Data Processing Specification’ or ‘DPS'.
  • The DPA, or now the DPS, is meant to be the replacement for the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data which established temporary requirements to allow ICANN and gTLD registry operators and registrars to continue to comply with existing ICANN contractual requirements and community-developed policies in light of the GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation requiring the redaction of certain registration data. 
• Based on this, Council opted to wait for the draft DPS to be put out for public comment before considering the need for further action.

4.  ICANN Board Action on the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP)

• Concerns remained among councilors over the ICANN Board's 26 Oct resolution, revisiting its 12 June 2022 decision on Recommendation 7 of the CCWG-AP and issuance of the Revised Scorecard - CCWG on Auction Proceeds Final Report Recommendations – Board Action ("Revised Scorecard"), which removes the requirement and dependency that a Fundamental Bylaws Amendment is required prior to the launch of the ICANN Grant Cycle. This is despite the Board indicating that the Bylaw amendment would nevertheless be pursued over time.
• Council discussed the possibility of filing a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) on this Board decision but acknowledged that the time limit for filing RfR would be too short for Council to act on. 
• Council was informed by IPC Councilor Damon Ashcraft that IPC is already working on filing such an RfR, to which Council indicated that it would consider supporting such an RfR after having reviewed the same.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  Relayed the ALAC's position on the Board approach to CCWG-AP Rec 7 per its 26 Oct resolution.

"Greg (DiBiase, GNSO Chair) had during ICANN78 asked me if the ALAC had a position on the Board's action on CCWG-AP Rec 7. The answer is the ALAC has no objections to the Board's approach for that Rec per their 26 Oct resolution. The key reason is that the ALAC would like to see the ICANN Grant Program proceed to launch without the Bylaw amendment being a dependency, noting that the intention to limit access to Accountability Mechanism is addressed alternatively and the Board is looking at a potentially more complete/permanent solution for post-Cycle 1 grants."

5. ICANN org outreach to European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA)

• There was general consensus among councilors that it was not necessary for GNSO Council to, independently, intervene or further act on the communication from ICANN org to the ENISA Network and Information Systems Cooperation Group Work Stream for art.28 NIS2.
• IPC also relayed that they did not support ICANN org's letter on account of it carrying a perception that it is misleading and not wholly factual, therefore recommending that GNSO Council not support the letter.

6. Holistic Review Revised Terms of Reference

• Council is working on a comment to this Terms of Reference. 

7. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee

• Council was informed that Sebastien Ducos has indicated the willingness to continue as Chair of the Council SSAD Small Team which will transition to the RDRS Standing Committee. Barring any objections, this will be confirmed by was of consent agenda item in Council's Dec meeting. 

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 DNS Abuse mitigation 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 #9 of 2023 held on 21 Sep 2023

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

GNSO Council Meeting #9 of 2023 held on 21 Sep 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 (none)
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE (Withdrawn) - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements
• Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - Charter for Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee to help inform the next steps on the SSAD policy recommendations
• Item 6: COUNCIL VOTE (Deferred) -  SubPro Clarifying Statement on Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs) and Public Interest Commitments (PICs) 
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Updated Assignment Form
• Item 8: ICANN78 Planning 
  • Sat, 21 Oct, 13:15-14:30 CEST - Joint At-Large & GNSO meeting
• Item 9: Cross Community Working Group - Auction Proceeds Response
• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 10.1 GNSO Prep Week Webinar - Tue, 10 Oct at 13:00 UTC
  • 10.2 Planning for GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session
  • 10.3 ccNSO [& GAC] Liaison updates
  • 10.4 Review of CCOICI pilot
  • 10.5 IGO next steps
  • 10.6 WS2 Community Coordination Group (CCG) 
  • Ad hoc 10.7 Confusing Similarity / IDN in Latin Script

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 July were posted on 06 August 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 24 August were posted on 09 September 2023.
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE (Withdrawn) - 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 received an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements at their Aug meeting and will vote on this vide a motion that only requires a simple majority for it to be carried.
• Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - Charter for Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee to help inform the next steps on the SSAD policy recommendations

  • In Sep 2022, ICANN org published a WHOIS Disclosure System (System) Design Paper based on the "proof of concept" approach outlined by the Small Team.

  • Council then informed the ICANN Board on 17 November 2022 that Council unanimously accepted the Addendum to the Preliminary Report (Addendum) prepared by the Small Team and supported the implementation of the System, after which on 27 Feb 2023, the ICANN Board directed ICANN org to “proceed to develop and launch the System as soon as possible”. The ICANN Board also “directed ICANN org to continue to engage with the Phase 2 Small Team throughout the development and operation of the System, and ensure periodic publication of the collected usage data, once operational". 

  • In Mar 2023, Council instructed the small team to continue working with ICANN org on the implementation of the System as well as “provide the 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”.

  • Council has received the small team's proposed charter for a Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee (to help inform the next steps on the SSAD policy recommendations) and will vote on this charter that only requires a simple majority for it to be carried.

• Item 6: COUNCIL VOTE (Deferred) - SubPro Clarifying Statement on Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs) and Public Interest Commitments (PICs)
  • 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 and during its August meeting, Council approved a clarifying statement for a number of pending recommendations, though it removed text in the Clarifying Statement relating to the enforceability of PICs and RVCs and holding this over to a future Clarifying Statement, pending further feedback from the ICANN Board. Additional feedback was delivered to the small team and subsequently considered.
  • The Small Team worked on the second Clarifying Statement relating specifically to the enforceability of PICs and RVCs (but should be read as complementary to the relevant pending recommendation(s) and should be considered jointly with the recommendations for the purposes of implementation), which Council had expected to vote on (vide a motion that only requires a simple majority for it to be carried).
  • As it turned out, this second Clarifying Statement remains a work in progress and hence required that the Council vote be deferred.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Updated Assignment Form
  • 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, this the Council SubPro Small Team has, as part of the limited triage exercise, worked on and drafted the first Clarifying Statement and second Clarifying Statement for Council's consideration.
    • The first Clarifying Statement had been approved by Council in its Aug meeting and subsequently submitted to the ICANN Board on 5 Sep. 
    • The ICANN Board has on 10 Sep resolved to, among other things, adopt 12 SubPro Outputs with the 5 Sep GNSO Council Clarifying Statement.
    • The second Clarifying Statement had been planned to be voted on by Council at this meeting but was withdrawn.
  • As the triage exercise is now complete, the Small Team’s assignment form has been updated to reflect the updated assignment regarding how the non-adopted recommendations should be handled, e.g., supplemental recommendation, Section 16, etc.  Council will hear an update on the proposed updated assignment form.
• Item 8: ICANN78 Planning 
  • A Joint At-Large & GNSO meeting is scheduled for Sat, 21 Oct, 13:15-14:30 CEST, the agenda for which is still in planning.
• Item 9: Cross Community Working Group - Auction Proceeds Response
  • On 17 Jul 2023, Xavier Calvez sent a written update on the progress of ICANN org’s implementation of the Cross Community Working Group’s - Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) Final Report.  The update noted the implementation work will result in the launch of the ICANN Grant Program at the end of the first quarter of 2024. The program will distribute the 2012 New gTLD Program Auction Proceeds in line with the recommendations, as adopted by the ICANN Board in June 2022.
  • As implementation progresses, ICANN org has considered organizing a meeting, with former members of the CCWG-AP, should any of the former members be interested and available to participate. This will help to ensure that implementation preserves the intent of the group’s recommendations.
  • Council will discuss a response to this message. Specifically, the Council is asked to consider if it is comfortable with former CCWG-AP members engaging in a conversation with ICANN org or whether the discussion should be conducted differently.

Records of 21 Sep 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 21 Sep 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 Sep 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Sep 2023 Meeting Records.

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

• Last month, 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)
• Just prior to this Council meeting, the vote to adopt these CCOICI recommendations was withdrawn as CPH were not prepared to vote on the one recommendation, as written, to retain the exemption. Hence this matter now goes back to the CCOICI for further consideration and, hopefully, resolution.

2. Charter for Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee

• The GNSO Council EPDP Phase 2 Small Team's work has wrapped up - since their final task in guiding the design of the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) (formerly known as the SSAD - System for Standardized Access/Disclosure to Registration Data) has concluded - and ICANN org is slated to launch the RDRS in November. 
• Given this, the focus moves towards monitoring of ICANN org's implementation of the RDRS and how well it will function.  To facilitate this, Council is transitioning the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team into the RDRS Standing Committee, and Council has approved the Charter for this Standing Committee.
  • Impact for ALAC: ALAC retains a member seat by virtue of having had a member on the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team, along with an alternate.

3. New gTLD Program Next Round / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations 

• As reported at the At-Large CPWG 20 Sep call, the GNSO Council SubPro Small Team had been working towards recommending a Second Clarifying Statement for Council approval. This Second Clarifying Statement was aimed at clarifying and resolving the ICANN Board's concerns on the group of 10 SubPro Outputs associated with the use, and hence, enforceability, of PICs/RVCs (i.e. SubPro Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 30.1, 31.16 and 31.17).
• At the time Council met, this Second Clarifying Statement is subject to further work by the Small Team and hence required that a Council vote on it be deferred to Council's October meeting.
• In parallel, also as reported at the At-Large CPWG 20 Sep call, the ICANN Board held a recent workshop where the Board resolved to, per its Scorecard;
  • Section A, adopt 7 SubPro Outputs with no further concern;
  • Section B, adopt 12 SubPro Outputs with the 5 Sep GNSO Council Clarifying Statement (i.e the First Clarifying Statement);
  • Section C, NOT adopt 7 SubPro Outputs at this this time, with given rationales; and
  • Section D, consider adopting 10 SubPro Outputs with the provision of the pending GNSO Council Second Clarifying Statement, and to continue discussing a remaining 3 SubPro Outputs with the GNSO Council SubPro Small Team with a goal of resolving them via the clarification mechanism.
• Given the above development out of the Board workshop, the Small Team's assignment form (i.e. charter) required a revision to reflect the updated assignment regarding how the non-adopted recommendations should be handled. Council considered and approved this Small Team updated assignment form. 
• The updated assignment form expands participation in the Small Team to each GNSO Stakeholder Group and Constituency, and each Advisory Committees (mainly ALAC and GAC), to elect to put forward one subject matter expert (SME) plus alternate to help inform the Small Team's final assignment #7 (which is to develop proposed Supplemental Recommendations or develop proposed modifications through GNSO's section 16 process).
  • Impact for ALAC: ALAC will be invited to appoint a SME and an alternate to the Small Team. These appointments may be changed from time to time to facilitate the relevant SME's participation to the different the topics being addressed. For avoidance of doubt, these appointments do not affect my participation as an existing member of the Small Team.

4. ICANN78 Joint Meeting of the At-Large and GNSO

• A call for additions/changes to the proposed topics of SubPro Updates, RDRS and .quebec was made to Councilors.
• The plan is to revisit this list of proposed topics in a fortnight for finalization.

5.  Cross Community Working Group - Auction Proceeds Response

• Council is in favour of responding to Xavier Calvez's written update on the progress of ICANN org’s implementation of the Cross Community Working Group’s - Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) Final Report, noting that there is a bigger procedural issue going on regarding how changes to a working group’s recommendations should occur. The next step is to put together a draft response to Xavier Calvez with some of the Councilors' concerns and circulate it on the GNSO Council mailing list.

6. Confusing Similarity / IDN in Latin Script

• Council Chair addressed the issue of accents and diacritics in Latin languages that could be deemed confusingly similar to existing strings or other applications, and suggested chartering something with a narrow scope to ensure that this topic does not slide elsewhere into the string similarity discussion and ensure that solutions are found that match requirements imposed on variants.
• ICANN org staff clarified that next steps from the staff perspective would be for Council to request an Issues Report.

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 on ODPs 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.

ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting on 6 Jun 2023 

• Agenda 
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting held on 6 Jun 2023

1. Opening and Welcome (3 mins)

- Eduardo Diaz, Moderator
- Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair
- Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair 

2. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & Other Dependencies (45 mins) 

GNSO Speakers: Paul McGrady (GNSO Council Small Team lead)
ALAC Speaker: Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to the GNSO) 

(2a) The GNSO plan requested by the Board in respect of the 38 pending recommendations; 
(2b) ALAC's response to draft Closed Generics Framework and ensuing policy process.

3. DNS Abuse (with reference to GNSO Council Small Team on DNS Abuse) (20 mins)

ALAC Speaker: Jonathan Zuck (ALAC Chair)
GNSO Speaker: Greg DiBiase (GNSO Council Vice-Chair)

(3a) ICANN-CPH Contractual Amendment Negotiations Public Comment Proceedings, 29 May - 13 Jul
(3b) ALAC's response to the GNSO DNS Abuse Small Team's draft findings on bulk registrations.

4. Next Steps (5 mins)

- Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair 
- Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair

5. Adjourn

Records of ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting held on 6 Jun 2023

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

Special Summary Report of 6 Jun 2023 ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting to ALT-PLUS

For brevity, I will just highlight a few key outcomes on the 2 topics that were discussed at this bilateral call. 

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

(2a) The GNSO plan requested by the Board in respect of the 38 pending recommendations;

• As the GNSO Council Small Team lead on the Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations, Paul McGrady provided a high level update on where Council stood on these pending recommendations post its Extraordinary meeting yesterday on 5 Jun 2023 ( see report ). He noted that the dialogue between the small team/Council and the Board SubPro caucus / full Board was ongoing as both sides work towards either resolution with the Board, or in some cases, non-adoption, of the pending recommendations by the Board. At present, Council is still considering the positions suggested by its small team on how to approach each of the grouped recommendations. More details of the groupings and corresponding approaches can be found at the small team's wiki (see link the small team's work sheet )
• I responded to Paul's queries about where the ALAC/At-Large stood on these pending recommendations, based on the consultation that was conducted with CPWG on 31 Mar 2023, wherein the ALAC's priority - even from past statements to the SubPro PDP WG and advice to the ICANN Board - concentrated on a handful of topics among the 38 pending recommendations. Those priorities revolve around the enforceability of PICs/RVCs (including the Board-mooted limited Bylaw amendment to fully guard against potential legal challenges against ICANN on questions of mission creep), completion of the Applicant Support implementation guidance work, and possibly the issue brought up by the Board on a possible case-by-case waiver of DNS Abuse obligations on single-registrant TLD registry operators per the RA Spec 11 3(a) and 11 3(b).  
• I made it a point to note that the following in-principle remarks:
  • The ALAC remains respectful of the multi-stakeholder model of policy development, wherein we would respect recommendations derived out of clear community consensus unless new information arises (which were not considered during the PDP) such as the concerns raised by the Board on Rec. 9.2 (i.e. which calls for a blanket waiver on DNS Abuse obligations on single-registrant TLD registry operators per the RA Spec 11 3(a) and 11 3(b) as mentioned above.
  • For topics or issues where no recommendation exists (or where recommendations were not approved by Council, and therefore does not go to the Board of adoption), then the ALAC will continue to socialize its positions on the same. As an example, the issue of Auctions, which bears a composite of 2 parts: (1) the permissability of vs ban on private auctions, and (2) the Vickrey Auction model as a better alternative to the existing ICANN Auctions of Last Resort.  
  • The ALAC and the At-Large are prepared to consider the above-mentioned limited Bylaw amendment approach if that is what the Board deems as the best way to guard against potential legal challenges if ICANN were to enforce contractual PICs/RVCs which a registry or a third party mounts a case for the PIC/RVC being unenforceable for falling outside of ICANN's mission.
• While there wasn't significant divergence on how ALAC's position sat with GNSO's on these pending recommendation, I did touched on one area where both AC and SO might want to collaborate, during implementation perhaps, which is work on ensureing that the mechanism by which PICs/RVCs as submitted/considered and eventually framed and transformed into contractual obligations will enable the formulation of objective commitments with clear criteria for evaluation/enforcement purposes.

(2b) ALAC's response to draft Closed Generics Framework and ensuing policy process

• John McElwaine, GNSO Council Vice-Chair and the GNSO Council Liaison to the Closed Generics Dialogue, spoke on the latest development to the work of the small group for the Dialogue and indicated that a version of the draft Closed Generics Framework would be released very soon (targeting after the small group call on Wed, 6 June). He also reminded us that whatever the framework read, it would still need to undergo some policy development process to actually generate policy recommendations. An EPDP is being mooted by Council as the policy vehicle for this purpose, although it has yet to be decided by Council. John however confirmed - in response to my request - that the policy vehicle ought to be of a cross-community nature, involving the ALAC and the GAC and others. 

2. DNS Abuse (with reference to GNSO Council Small Team on DNS Abuse)

(3a) ICANN-CPH Contractual Amendment Negotiations Public Comment Proceedings, 29 May - 13 Jul

• Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair, expressed satisfaction that the question of clarity needed for DNS Abuse obligations on the part of Contracted Parties is finally being attempted to be addressed through the ICANN-CPH contractual amendment negotiations as this has been long requested by the community.
• Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice-Chair, echoed Jonathan's sentiment and reiterated that this was something that the Contracted Parties also felt was a necessary step, especially to help provide some clear minimum standards which ICANN Contractual Compliance can effectively enforce.
• We need to examine the proposed amendments and the ICANN Advisory which are are the subject of the public comment proceedings and provide inputs there.

(3b) ALAC's response to the GNSO DNS Abuse Small Team's draft findings on bulk registrations.

• Jonathan queried the GNSO DNS Abuse Small Team's draft findings on bulk registrations and asked after the rationale for the same. If it's a question of definition of bulk registrations being the stumbling block, GNSO or the community could designate one or even adopt one that has been used in past research (eg. in ). It seems that putting in abeyance the issue of investigating the relationship between bulk registrations and DNS Abuse is not desirable in the context of the continual fight to mitigate DNS Abuse.
• Both Greg and Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair assured us that the proposed investigation into bulk registrations has not been rejected, but merely that GNSO didn't have sufficient information at this point to pursue any attempt at policy development on it, and because  of this, it cannot be prioritized along with other streams of work already being undertaken by GNSO Council (eg. Closed Generics, the pending SubPro recommendations etc etc). 
• Both Greg and Sebastien would be happy to carry on this conversation with ALAC Leadership to gain an understanding and ideas on how GNSO might progress such an investigation.

GNSO Council Extraordinary Meeting on 5 Jun 2023 

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

GNSO Council Extraordinary Meeting held on 5 Jun 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List.
• Item 3: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro - Progress Update on Recommendations Marked as Pending
• Item 4: 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 3: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro - Progress Update on Recommendations Marked as Pending
  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, the 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 an initial run through of the issues chart, with an update from Board members on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status.
  • Council then 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 is 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. The small team has continued to consider what the “landing spots” are for each recommendation, though the Council and small team are still awaiting input from the Board on where they believe the “landing spots” are; ideally, there will be mutual agreement in as many places as possible, which among other things, helps facilitate the development of a more accurate work plan and timeline (i.e., the key deliverable for ICANN77 in respect of the pending recommendations).
• Item 4: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 4.1 Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) 
  • 4.2 Data accuracy in the context of NIS2

Records of 5 Jun 2023 Extraordinary Meeting

• Presentation
• 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 5 Jun 2023 Extraordinary Meeting to ALT-PLUS

1. Subsequent Procedures: Outstanding Work, in particular the 38 Pending Recommendations

• Since ICANN76 where the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution was adopted, Council's SubPro Small Team has completed a triage of the issues with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. The most recent Council discussions on moving the Small Team's work forward are captured during Council's Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May ( see report ), the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May, and Council's Meeting on 25 May ( see report ), which were summarily reported on during the At-Large CPWG call of 31 Mar 2023.
• Afterwards, some further tidying up led to 5 landing spots which more or less mirrors the 4 earlier groups of recommendations. These 5 landing spots are:
  1. Provision of clarifying statement
  2. Board non-adoption (meaning that the Board declines to approve recommendation in its current form and would trigger a process to generate a GNSO supplemental recommendation aimed at addressing the Board's concern while attempting the preserve the core intention of the original recommendation)
  3. Confirmation that issues can be address as part of implementation
  4. Exploring need for a limited Bylaw amendment
  5. Modification of recommendations (GNSO Section 16 PDP, which would involve consultation with a reconstituted SubPro PDP WG)
• Council was briefed on an indicative path for each of these 5 landing spots ( best to see presentation for details )
• Council also asked to consider a draft combined project plan, which attempts to address the 4 deliverables requested of Council by the ICANN Board. For convenience, the 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;
   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.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and keep sharing updates regarding progress of the Council Small Team work on the 38 Pending Outputs
  •  To maintain ALAC positions on the 38 Pending Outputs for purposes of the pre-ICANN77 ALAC-GNSO Bilateral.

2. Closed Generics Draft Framework for onward policy process

• There remains no firm indications at this point on when the draft framework will actually be released. It was mentioned that a close-to-complete version could be released after the Closed Generics Dialogue call on Wed, 7 June, prior to ICANN77 GNSO Day Zero.
• Staff generated a very conservative project plan of 96 weeks assuming an EPDP is used as the policy development mechanism to produce consensus policy out the framework. Several councilors against pushed back against either the 96-week time frame as being too long or the use of an EPDP as the optimal mechanism.
• Discussions will continue at the Day Zero session on 11 June.

3. Data accuracy in the context of NIS2

• NIS2 has a provision on registration data accuracy: Article 28 subsection 3, "Member States shall require the TLD registries and the entities providing domain registration services - those being registrars, resellers, and privacy proxy services - to have policies and procedures including verification procedures in place to ensure that the database as referred to in paragraph 1 include accurate and complete information. Member States shall require such policies and procedures to be publicly available." Then there's a corresponding recital, i.e. recital no. 111, "Those policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible, the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder or governance structures at the international level." (in other words, ICANN). There is something on accuracy in the RAA version 2013, but it is possible that that isn't good enough for the European lawmakers.
• The question then arose as to whether GNSO could take some onward action, given that European national lawmakers are already in the process of drafting laws to transpose this to international laws, and this applying equally to gTLDs / GNSO and ccTLDs / ccNSO, to: (a) avoid fragmentation in the DN marketplace; (b) address potential divergence in national laws, and (c) avoid friction or major differences in user experience between generic side and the country-code side when registering for DNs.
  
• Council is to take this discussion further in its June 2023 meeting.

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.

GNSO Council Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May 2023 

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

GNSO Council Extraordinary Meeting held on 4 May 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Proposal of SubPro Small Team Triage Exercise
• Item 3: AOB

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

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutesof the GNSO Council meeting on 15 March 2023 were posted on 30 March 2023
• Item 2: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Proposal of SubPro Small Team Triage Exercise

  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, the 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 an initial run through of the issues chart, with an update from Board members on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. Now that its review is complete, the Small Team discussed proposals on how to respond to these items.

  • Council will receive a comprehensive update from the Small Team regarding its proposed responses to the pending Board items, and discuss next steps.

Records of 4 May 2023 Extraordinary Meeting

• Presentation
• 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 4 May 2023 Extraordinary Meeting to ALT-PLUS

The GNSO Council May 2023 Extraordinary Meeting had been convened for a single purpose, which is to receive a comprehensive update from the GNSO SubPro Small Team regarding its proposed responses to the pending 38 Board items, and to discuss next steps.

Outcome: Council adopted the small teams proposed responses which can be summarized as follows:

• After having discussed with Avri Doria and Becky Burr at a string of small team calls, the small team came up with 7 categories of suggested responses to the Board's concerns.
• Of the 7 categories, responses to the 38 pending recommendations were found to be fall within 4 - which essentially avoids taking any immediate route that:
  • (1) would involve a need to modify or amend any approved recommendations (because Section 16 of the GNSO PDP Manual requires that SubPro PDP WG (or, possibly some form of the same) be reconstituted (category "c"); or
  • (2) having Council generate any "Supplemental Recommendation" in the event the Board "determines that such policy is not in the best interests of the ICANN community or ICANN" (category "d"); or
  • (3) call for a GNSO Guidance Process (GGP), GNSO Input Process (GIP), or GNSO Policy Development Process (PDP) (category "f").
• Instead, the 4 buckets selected and their corresponding SubPro Topics & recommendations are: 

To understand the specific nature  of the concerns and responses please read: proposed responses

This means that the GNSO SubPro Small Team still has work to complete for the purpose of the Council meeting with ICANN Board on 22 May at 1300-1500 UTC.

GNSO Council Meeting #4 of 2023 held on 20 Apr 2023 

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

GNSO Council Meeting #4 of 2023 held on 20 Apr 2023

Full Agenda  |  Motions  |  Documents

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action Item List
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy - Results of Scoping Team’s Self-Assessment Survey + Update from ICANN org
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update from Council SubPro Small Team
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update from EPDP Phase 2 Small Team
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps on Closed Generics
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps on DNS Abuse
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

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

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 16 February 2023 were posted on 03 March 2023.
  • Minutesof the GNSO Council meeting on 15 March 2023 were posted on 30 March 2023
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • GNSO Review of GAC Communiqué 
  • GNSO Council Agreement on next steps for Expired Domain Deletion Policy (EDDP)/Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) 
  • Deferral of Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) Phase 2 for 18 months (clock to begin in April 2023) 
  • GNSO Council Adoption of the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) Effectiveness Review Report 
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy - Results of Scoping Team’s Self-Assessment Survey + Update from ICANN org
  • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by the GNSO 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). 
  • During its November meeting, 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 update to the GNSO Council on 14 March 2023. 
  • Taking into account the delay with which the write up was delivered, as well as some of the challenges that were shared with the Scoping Team’s Chair during his briefing to the Council, Council leadership reached out informally to Scoping Team members to better understand the issues encountered to help inform the Council’s review of the formation and instructions.
  • Council will receive an update from ICANN org on its recent letter and discuss the Survey Summary Results of the Scoping Team’s Self-Assessment Survey.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update from Council SubPro Small Team
  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, the 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 an initial run through of the issues chart, with an update from Board members on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. Following this review, the Small Team will begin discussions of how the Council should respond to these items.
  • Council will receive an update on the Small Team's efforts.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update from EPDP Phase 2 Small Team

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

  • Following ICANN76, the Small Team has been meeting to discuss the additional suggestions made during the ICANN76 session and how to define the success criteria for the system.

  • Council will receive an update from the Small Team and will also discuss the outstanding action item from its last meeting, Council to consider response to the ICANN Board request to consider a PDP or other means to require, or strongly encourage, registrars to use the WDS (now known as RDRS - Registration Data Request Service), noting that the small team has already been assigned the task to how to best to promote and secure comprehensive use of the system, both by potential requestors as well as ICANN-accredited registrars.

• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps on Closed Generics
  • Following an initial, informal meeting at ICANN75, 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.
  • 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. By 15 June 2023, the Board expects to receive “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.”
  • Council will discuss its anticipated approach to reviewing the draft framework as well as consider next steps in preparing for subsequent policy work.
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps on DNS Abuse
  • Following Council's DNS Abuse Small Team's 7 Oct 2022 report to Council, where Recommendation #2 advised 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 has now received input from the following groups:

    • Contractual Compliance, ICANN Org
    • DNS Abuse Institute
    • gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group
    • Registrar Stakeholder Group
  • Council will discuss next steps for the DNS Abuse small team, including potentially reconstituting the Small Team to review the input received.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 9.1 ICANN77 Day 0 SubPro Session Planning

  • 9.2 ICANN77 Planning

  • 9.3 Appointment of Council Liaison to the SubPro Implementation Review Team

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

1. Consent Agenda Items

• Council agreed to defer consideration of a Policy Status Report (PSR) for the Expedited Domain Deletion Policy (EDDP) and Expedited Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) for 6 months from the date additional requested information from ICANN org is received.
• Council agreed to defer next steps on Phase Two of the RPMs PDP for an 18-month period beginning on 20 April 2023.
• Council approved the Final Report of the CSC Effectiveness Review Team. 

2. Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) & Next Round of New gTLDs

    Recap: ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution

• ICANN Board had resolved during its Board Meeting at ICANN76 to adopt the SubPro Outputs in Section A of its "Scorecard on Subsequent Procedures PDP" (Scorecard); marking 38 Outputs in Section B of the Scorecard as "pending" and noting ongoing community discussions relating to Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 23: Closed Generics, and Topic 25: Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), as well as additional dependencies concerning specific Review Team Recommendations, the Name Collision Analysis Project Study 2 Report (NCAP2), and other items noted in Section C of the Scorecard.

   Section A Outputs: Next Steps

• The SubPro Implementation Review Team (SubPro IRT) will be constituted: call for volunteers has gone out, criteria apply.
• This IRT will take on the Open + Representative model and is expected to start work in the week of 14/15 May.

   Section B Outputs: 38 "Pending" Outputs

• The Council's SubPro Pending Recommendations Small Team has been discussing with Avri Doria and Becky Burr (from the Board SubPro Caucus) to seek clarification on the Board's concerns on the 38 Pending SubPro Outputs, in order to conduct a triage of the outputs.
• The small team - comprising Anne Aikman-Scalese, Bruna Martins dos Santos, Jeff Neuman, Justine Chew, Nacho Amados, Paul McGrady, Sebastien Ducos, Stephanie Perrin, Susan Payne and Tomslin Samme-Nlar - is working towards discussing the outcomes of its triage exercise with the full Council at an GNSO Extraordinary Council meeting on 4 May. This is a step towards meeting Deliverable #1 in ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution for "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 4 May extraordinary meeting is also expected to determine whether the current small team will continue beyond the triage exercise or will be reconstituted for next steps.
• There is a high expectation that (a small team or) the full Council will, prior to ICANN77, meet with either the full Board or the full Board SubPro Caucus to iron out/resolve many, if not all, hindrance to the Board approving these 38 pending outputs.

Action by ALAC Liaison

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

• •  With the CPWG SubPro Prioritization Sub-Team; and
  •  To assist in formulating ALAC positions on the 38 Pending Outputs (if any) in time for the pre-ICANN77 ALAC-GNSO Bilateral.

3. Closed Generics : Next Steps 

• Closed Generics is a Board SubPro PDP Scorecard Section C Dependency.
• Council received an update from John McElwaine, its Liaison to the GNSO-GAC-ALAC Dialogue on Closed Generics who indicated that a draft framework is anticipated to be ready around 28 April for community comment, and that the work of the group will continue into Q3 of 2023 beyond ICANN77, but still meet Deliverable #3 in ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution for "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."
• Notwithstanding, John hinted that because the framework will require a policy process for it to become policy, the suitable path would be a tightly scoped EPDP.
• More and better details will be forthcoming through the draft framework expected next week. More and better details should also be sought from the ALAC representative and/or alternate to this Dialogue.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates on the proposed framework for Closed Generics
  •  To coordinate with ALAC's rep & alternate and At-Large staff on consultation for the proposed framework for Closed Generics.

4. DNS Abuse: Next Steps

• Following Council's DNS Abuse Small Team's 7 Oct 2022 report to Council, where Recommendation #2 advised 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.”
• Council has determined that this small team should continue its work reviewing the replies received from gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group, Registrar Stakeholder Group, ICANN Contractual Compliance and DNS Abuse Institute to its 6 Jan letter.
• This Council small team now has a refreshed membership of Thomas Rickert (ISCP), Mark Datysgeld (BC), Wisdom Donkor (NCSG), Theo Geurts (RrSG), Sebastien Ducos (RySG), Greg DiBiase (RrSG), Tomslin Samme-Nlar (NCSG), Paul McGrady (NCA-NCPH), Nacho Amadoz (RySG) and Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to the GNSO).
• NB. The deliberations of the issue of bulk registrations are running parallel to the ICANN org - Contracted Parties ongoing contractual amendment negotiations on RAA section 3.18 (and perhaps, less on RA Spec 11 3(a))

5. Registration Data Accuracy (RDA)

• Council considered the Survey Summary Results and Council Leadership alluded to inputs from these results being taken into consideration in relevant fora - in this case, the re-charter of the RDA Scoping Team, but also any relevant GNSO processes in future.
• Council also received an update from ICANN org on the 4 scenarios that have been identified to review the accuracy of registration data and the data protection questions that arise from these scenarios. I believe this input is for the RDA Scoping Team (or successor) to consider once it is reconstituted.

6. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS)

• ICANN org has informed that it is ready to start development of the RDRS. A demo could be expected in the ICANN77 June time frame. 
• This is while the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team continues work (1) to establish success factors for the RDRS - eg. on how to ensure wide participation/usage of the RDRS especially by non-RrSG registrars (if it were kept as voluntary); and (2) what can be extracted from the data collected via the RDRS. 

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

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

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

Full Agenda  |  Motions  |  Documents

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

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

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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