This workspace has been made available for community members to post their GAC related questions. The deadline for posting questions/comments to this workspace will be 22 October 2013 23:59 UTC.
PLEASE NOTE: THE ALAC MEETING WITH THE GAC HAS BEEN RE-SCHEDULED FOR THE 49TH ICANN MEEITNG IN SINGAPORE.
1 Comment
Evan Leibovitch
ICANN produced the Public Interest Commitment (PIC) system to address concerns the GAC held about ensuring the envisioned gTLD expansion provided public service. Now that the PICs are in place, the ALAC has found that the mechanisms for asserting and enforcing PICs to be unacceptably problematic. ICANN seeks to enforce PICs using a Dispute Resolution Provider regime – the PICDRP – that is in many ways actively hostile to the intervention of consumers and end users. There are many obstacles to participation, especially to end users who are impacted in non-monetary ways.
Is it possible for the GAC and ALAC to work together to ensure that ICANN meets its own commitment to the public interest through the necessary major change in the PIC protocols?
The ALAC and GAC actually have much in common. It may be mutually beneficial to have liaisons in both directions. An ALAC liaision to the GAC can be carefully vetted, selected and trusted to confidentiality the way our liaison to the SSAC already is done. And we understand the limitations that no single representative can "speak for the GAC". Still, the potential for shared views and opportunities for collaboration would appear to significfantly outweigh the challenges.