Alan Greenberg is the GNSO Liaison for 2011-2012.
GNSO Council Meeting - 12 April 2012
Agenda: http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/agenda-council-12apr12-en.htm
Motions: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsocouncilmeetings/Motions+12+April+2012
MP3: http://audio.icann.org/gnso/gnso-council-20120412-en.mp3
Transcript: http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/transcript-council-12apr12-en.pdf
Minutes: http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-council-12apr12-en.pdf (not yet posted)
Overview: Substantive issues on interest to At-Large included the Thick Whois PDP, a request for an Issue Report on the protection of names and acronyms of International Governmental Organizations, the .com contract renewal, a report from ICANN Compliance, and an update on the RAA Final Issue Report and the status of RAA Negotiations.
Thick Whois PDP: At its March 14th meeting, the GNSO Council voted to initiate a PDP on the issue of requiring all registries to implement a Thick Whois (currently all registries and planned registries do use thick Whois with the exception of those operated by Verisign). The intent of the motion was to defer any further work (ie taking a drafting team with developing a PDP charter) until after the .com contract is revised. The rationales included the possibility that Thick Whois might be included in the contact, Council and Staff workload, and the concept that there should not be a PDP to address an issue with one registry operator. On the last item, I pointed out that the Domain Tasting PDP was essentially that, and the Registries had no problem at that time. Staff indicated that resources were available at this time to undertake the PDP. Of particular interest was the comment that although the Registry SG was in favour of the deferral, Verisign was not and would prefer to have the PDP start immediately. After significant revision, the motion defers any further work on the PDP until the first Council meeting after Nov. 30th. The .com contract negotiation was no longer referenced in the motion, although it was implied by the deferral date. The motion passed unanimously. Conceivably, the Council could defer again in December, but I do not think that is too likely (but certainly possible, all the more so if staff resources are tight at that time).
Request for an Issue Report on the protection of names and acronyms of International Governmental Organizations: There were two competing motions on this issue, one from A NomCom appointee and once from the NCSG. Ultimately they were came to an agreement and a single motion was voted on requesting an Issue Report on:
- Definition of the type of organizations that should receive special protection at the top and second level, if any; and
- Policies required to protect such organizations at the top and second level.
I had two comments on this. First, I felt that the word "definition" was too prescriptive, since one of the likely outcomes would be to put that responsibility on the GAC. My other concern was that starting this initiative in parallel with the current one to look at Red Cross/IOC protections at the second level for the first round would be duplicating work, and putting an unreasonable load on the people, many of which would be involved in both groups. There was agreement with changing the word Definition by the motion presenter, but intimately it fell through the cracks (the problem with a Liaison not having the right to move such a change. The motion passed.
Report from ICANN Compliance: This was a report from Maguy Serad on existing systems, improvements and changes made since the reporting group report, improvements and changes foreseen in the near future and gaps. The report can be found at http://gnso.icann.org/issues/rap/contractual-compliance-report-reporting-uniformity-16mar12-en.pdf. The presentation can be heard on the MP3, starting at 1 hour and 12 minutes and running for about 14 minutes.
.com Contract Renewal: This was a short discussion raised by Jeff Neuman who felt that the inclusion of the reference to the Thick Whois PDP in the preamble to the .com agreement Public Comment was taken out of context. I tended to agree with him, but there was no general wish in the GNSO Council to make a comment on it.
Update on the RAA Final Issue Report and the status of RAA Negotiations: This was a presentation scheduled for Costa Rica but the Council had run out of time. It starts at 1 hour and 42 minutes into the MP3 and goes for about 16 minutes (somewhat garbled at the end). The report documents are RAA Drafting Team Negotiation Summary-GNSO Final.pdf and raa negotiations progress report 01Mar2012
GNSO Council Meeting - 19 January 2012
Agenda: http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/agenda-council-19jan12-en.htm
Motions: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsocouncilmeetings/Motions+19+January+2012RAA Drafting Team Negotiation Summary-GNSO Final.pdf
MP3: http://audio.icann.org/gnso/gnso-council-20120119-en.mp3
Transcript: http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/transcript-council-19jan12-en.pdf
Minutes: http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-council-19jan12-en.pdf
Overview: Once again, a very heavy agenda, and although some items significantly exceeding their alloted time, the meeting overall completed a few minutes early. Substantive issues on interest to At-Large included the Whois Review Team Report, two UDRP motions, Cross Constituency Working Groups, a discussion of outreach and time allocation in Costa Rica. Note that Transcripts are now available for GNSO Council meetings in addition to MP3 recordings.
Whois Review Team Report: An interesting presentation. Although Review Team members could not present due to limited access, the Chair, Emily Taylor was present. The presentation is at http://gnso.icann.org/correspondence/presentation-whois-policy-draft-report-19jan12-en.pdf. I would strongly suggest that the ALAC get such a briefing at its February meeting (prior to Costa Rica). As a measure of the level of detail and interest, the agenda item had 10 minutes allocated and 34 used.
IRTP-B PDP - Rec 8: The recommendation related to standardizing and clarifying WHOIS status messages. Staff have provided a proposed implementation. The IPC submitted a comment on it and staff have agreed that it was sufficiently substantive as to warrant a review of the proposed implementation. Accordingly the motion to approve was deferred.
IRTP-B PDP - Rec 9, part 2: This recommendation requested a new provision on when and how domains may be locked or unlocked. Staff prepared a proposed implementation plan and it was unanimously approved.
Cross Constituency Working Group Principles: As has been discussed on At-Large and ALAC lists, many GNSO Council members believe that future Cross Constituency Working Groups (CCWGs) should operate under set rules. In preparation for entering into discussions with other SOs and ACs, the GNSO charged a Drafting Team with developing a set of principles that the GNSO believed were important. The DT (in which I participated at the express wish of the GNSO) fulfilled its mandate and the principles were brought to the Council for discussion and possible approval. Note that if approved, they would simply be a starting point for discussion with other groups and not an end point. One point in particular, wheher multiples charters should be allowed at the start of a WG, has generated significant discussion. Due to the Chair of the DT not being present, and the NCSG being in the midst of a discussion of the issue, the issue was not voted on at this meeting. It will be brought back to the GNSO for face-to-face discussion during the weekend preceding the Costa Rica meeting, and voted on at the Wednesday GNSO Council meeting.
Outreach: The GNSO Improvements Report as approved by the Board Governance Committee required additional outreach to get more people involved in the GNSO. The GNSO charged a working group with coming up with a plan, and after long discussions, it did so. The recommendations were voted on by the GNSO Council on 17 November 2011 and the motion was defeated. This meeting discussion is the follow-on. There was a very lively discussion, regarding what should be done next (if anything). Opinions were very mixed. It was suggested that at the very least, the GNSO needed to formally decide to not do any further outreach as a Council, as it was a SG/Constituency responsibility. The discussion was deferred until a face-to-face discussion in Costa Rica.
AOB: The outline of the agenda for Costa Rica was presented. There was a strong comment made that the weekend had become far to heavily loaded with reports, and insufficient time was devoted to policy discussion and preparation for meetings later in the week. In Dakar that had resulted (to some extent) in the GNSO Council going into several meetings with other groups without sufficient preparation. A personal comment (not made at the meeting (this meeting's deferral of two issues until Costa Rica shows the value of face-to-face discussion and that time needs to be used wisely - a message that At-Large also needs to take to heart).
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Test change
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Little of great public merit has happened since San Juan meeting.
There is an ongoing discussion of roles of the Chair and vice chair which may be of interest to the ALAC once completed. The Domain Tasting working group is just starting.
