The second APAC Space Web Conference took place on 16 June 2016. The below captures the key points of discussion:
Background
The New gTLD Program was launched in June 2011; applications were open in January 2012; and the first new gTLDs were delegated on 23 October 2013. On 25 May, 1,000 new gTLDs have been delegated into the root zone.
The New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP process began in June 2015, with the GNSO Discussion Group’s report to the GNSO Council, which led to the publishing of a Final Issue Report (http://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/new-gtlds/subsequent-procedures-final-issue-04dec15-en.pdf). In December 2015, the GNSO Council initiated the PDP, and in January 2016, the Council approved the Charter for the Working Group (WG), which started its weekly meetings on 22 February 2016. To join the WG as an individual member or mailing list observer, please fill in the sign up form or send the PDP document filled in to the GNSO Secretariat.
The WG is expected to hold a face-to-face meeting at ICANN56 in Helsinki, which is open to all participants (on-site and remote). The WG will meet on 29 June 2016 in two sessions. The details of the meetings can be found at the following links: (Part 1) https://icann562016.sched.org/event/7JMo and (Part 2) https://icann562016.sched.org/event/7Tvz. There will also be a Cross-Community Session on 28 June 2016: https://icann562016.sched.org/event/7NCe
The WG is expected to reach preliminary outcomes by late-2017, and to reach final recommendations by end-2017, although this timeline could shift depending on the WG’s progress.
Current Status
The WG Charter highlights 38 subjects that need to be addressed. Of these, the WG has identified 6 overarching questions and is seeking community comment. The Historical Record of Statements and Advice to the 2012 round of the New gTLD Program can be found here: https://community.icann.org/display/NGSPP/Historical+Record+of+Statements+and+Advice+to+the+2012+round+of+the+New+gTLD+Program .
The remaining 32 subjects have been categorized according to similar topics and grouped under 5 Work Tracks (indicated as ‘Proposed Work Stream’ in the presentation slides).
The WG will meet at ICANN56 in Helsinki to sequence the order of subjects within each Work Track. After ICANN56 Helsinki, the WG is expected to split into smaller sub-groups to tackle each of the 5 Work Tracks.
The 5 proposed Work Tracks are as follows:
1) Process/ Support/ Outreach
2) Legal/ Regulatory
3) String Contention/ Objections & Disputes
4) Internationalized Domain Names
5) Technical & Operations
The meeting noted that the timeline of the WG Work Plan depends on the progress of the WG, especially where there are inter-dependencies on concurrent efforts such as the completion of the work by the Competition, Consumer Trust & Consumer Choice Review Team (which is due likely early-2017).
Discussion
How many new gTLD applications are from the APAC region?
About 15.7% of the new gTLD applications (approximately 300 applications out of 1,900 applications) come from the APAC region. Of note, more than half of the registrations of domain names under new gTLDs come from APAC region. Websites such as https://ntldstats.com provide statistics information. The APAC community was encouraged to reach out to ICANN Policy staff and/or APAC Hub staff for more information.
Which Work Track will identify String Similarity Evaluations (e.g. for single and plural gTLD strings)?
As the current gTLD round did not identify single and plural gTLD strings as related and instead depended on string contention and objection processes, Work Track 3 on String Contention / Objections & Disputes will cover String Similarity Evaluations.
Will a .BRAND track be established?
Establishing a .BRAND track could be something that the PDP WG could decide to recommend. This would probably be discussed in the context of different TLD types, as well as the base registry agreement.
Are there ICANN Policy team staff based in APAC?
The ICANN policy team is global, i.e., most policy staff members are not based in particular locations but work remotely because most of the policy development meetings are remotely held.
Does ICANN have a plan regarding providing resources considering a large number of new gTLD registrations are from the APAC region?
It was noted from the growth of the ICANN APAC Hub team, that ICANN has devoted resources to build a support team for registry and registrar services, compliance, legal, and others. Additionally, more effort has been made to accommodate WG meeting times to the APAC timezones.
