Blog

Hello All, 

Please find below the list of At-Large and GNSO WG meetings in which At-Large members are participants for the week of 27 March - 31 March 2017.

 

Update 1: 

Wednesday Cancelled:

19:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Guidelines to good faith  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

 

Thursday Added:

15:00 UTC: ALAC Subcommittee on Outreach and Engagement Call https://community.icann.org/x/ScLRAw

 

Friday Added:

19:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Diversity  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

 

Updates will follow as Doodles close.

  

Monday 27 March 2017

13:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Ombudsman  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

19:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Human Rights  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

23:00 UTC: LACRALO Monthly Call https://community.icann.org/x/1b3RAw

 

Tuesday 28 March 2017

03:00 UTC:  (GNSO) New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group https://community.icann.org/x/RgV1Aw

13:00 UTC: At-Large Capacity Building Webinar: "At-Large Policy Advice Development Process” https://community.icann.org/x/Cb3RAw

15:00 UTC: (GNSO) New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Sub Team – Track 1 – Overall Process/Support/Outreach https://community.icann.org/x/7AObAw

16:00 UTC: (GNSO) Next-Gen RDS PDP Working Group https://community.icann.org/x/rjJ-Ag

17:00 UTC: NARALO Webinar #3 - Community Discussion on NARALO Rules of Procedures https://community.icann.org/x/I8HRAw

19:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Jurisdiction  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

21:00 UTC: ALAC Monthly Call https://community.icann.org/x/8L3RAw

 

Wednesday 29 March 2017

13:00 UTC: (MSSI) CCWGAccountability

 Plenary Meetinghttps://community.icann.org/x/0LbRAw

16:00 UTC: (GNSO) Review of all Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in all gTLDs PDP Working Group https://community.icann.org/x/wCWAAw

 

Thursday 30 March 2017

05:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Staff Accountability  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

13:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 SO/AC Accountability https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

14:00 UTC: (GNSO) CCWG New gTLD Auction Proceeds https://community.icann.org/x/yJXDAw

15:00 UTC: ALAC Subcommittee on Outreach and Engagement Call https://community.icann.org/x/ScLRAw

21:00 UTC: (GNSO) New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Sub Team – Track 2 – Legal/Regulatory https://community.icann.org/x/FwSbAw

 

Friday 31 March 2017

19:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Diversity  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

 

Please confirm your dial-out requests or apology notice to:

For GNSO calls: GNSO Secretariats: gnso-secs@icann.org

For At-Large calls or ALAC: staff@atlarge.icann.org

For CWG IANA Stewardship:  Brenda.Brewer@icann.org  

For CCWG on Enhancing ICANN Accountability: acct-staff@icann.org

For CCWG-IG:  desiree.cabrera@icann.org

For WS2 Subgroup Topics or IOT calls : mssi-secretariat@icann.org

 

Thank you. 

Kind Regards, 

ICANN Policy Staff in support of the At-Large Community

E-mail: staff@atlarge.icann.org

Website: atlarge.icann.org

Facebook: facebook.com/icannatlarge

Twitter: @ICANNAtLarge

ICANN Weekly Newsletter

News from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

http://www.icann.org/[icann.org]

Week ending 24 March 2017

 


 

 

Announcements This Week

Successful Candidates Announced for ICANN59 Fellowship[icann.org]

24 March 2017

Proposal for Ethiopic Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules (LGR)[icann.org]

23 March 2017

GNSO Community Comment 2 (CC2) on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process[icann.org]

22 March 2017



 

Upcoming Events

 

26-29 June 2017: 59th International Public ICANN Meeting – Johannesburg

About ICANN

ICANN Bylaws[icann.org]

Our bylaws are very important to us. They capture our mission of security, stability and accessibility, and compel the organization to be open and transparent. Learn more at www.ICANN.org[icann.org].

Strategic Plan, 2016 - 2020[icann.org]

ICANN FY17 Operating Plan and Budget[icann.org]

https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-03-24-en

24 March 2017

ICANN announces 55 individuals from 43 countries selected to participate in ICANN's Fellowship program at the 59th Public Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26-29 June 2017. As ICANN59 is a Policy Forum, only alumni of the Fellowship Program were eligible to apply. These successful candidates represent all sectors of society including; civil, government, ccTLD operations, academia, facets of the business community, technical, security and end user groups.

The Fellowship program seeks to create a broader and more diverse base of knowledgeable constituents with priority given to candidates currently living in underserved and underrepresented communities around the world, those who represent diversity of gender, sector, region, experience, expertise and/or have established financial need. An independent selection committee assessed the 72 Fellowship applications received for this meeting.

Click the following link to see the list of selected candidates and learn more about the Fellowship program: http://www.icann.org/en/about/participate/fellowships[icann.org]


Hello All,

Please find below the list of At-Large and GNSO WG meetings in which At-Large members are participants for the week of 27 March - 31 March 2017.

 

Monday 27 March 2017

13:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Ombudsman  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

19:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Human Rights  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

23:00 UTC: LACRALO Monthly Call https://community.icann.org/x/1b3RAw

 

Tuesday 28 March 2017

03:00 UTC:  (GNSO) New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group https://community.icann.org/x/RgV1Aw

13:00 UTC: At-Large Capacity Building Webinar: "At-Large Policy Advice Development Process” https://community.icann.org/x/Cb3RAw

15:00 UTC: (GNSO) New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Sub Team – Track 1 – Overall Process/Support/Outreach https://community.icann.org/x/7AObAw

16:00 UTC: (GNSO) Next-Gen RDS PDP Working Group https://community.icann.org/x/rjJ-Ag

17:00 UTC: NARALO Webinar #3 - Community Discussion on NARALO Rules of Procedures https://community.icann.org/x/I8HRAw

19:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Jurisdiction  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

21:00 UTC: ALAC Monthly Call https://community.icann.org/x/8L3RAw

 

Wednesday 29 March 2017

13:00 UTC: (MSSI) CCWG Accountability Plenary Meeting https://community.icann.org/x/0LbRAw

16:00 UTC: (GNSO) Review of all Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in all gTLDs PDP Working Group https://community.icann.org/x/wCWAAw

19:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Guidelines to good faith  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

 

Thursday 30 March 2017

05:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 Staff Accountability  https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

13:00 UTC: (MSSI) WS2 SO/AC Accountability https://community.icann.org/x/ihWOAw

14:00 UTC: (GNSO) CCWG New gTLD Auction Proceeds https://community.icann.org/x/yJXDAw

21:00 UTC: (GNSO) New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Sub Team – Track 2 – Legal/Regulatory https://community.icann.org/x/FwSbAw

 

Friday 31 March 2017

None

 

Please confirm your dial-out requests or apology notice to:

For GNSO calls: GNSO Secretariats: gnso-secs@icann.org

For At-Large calls or ALAC: staff@atlarge.icann.org

For CWG IANA Stewardship:  Brenda.Brewer@icann.org  

For CCWG on Enhancing ICANN Accountability: acct-staff@icann.org

For CCWG-IG:  desiree.cabrera@icann.org

For WS2 Subgroup Topics or IOT calls : mssi-secretariat@icann.org

 

Thank you.  

ICANN Policy Staff in support of the At-Large Community

E-mail: staff@atlarge.icann.org

Website: atlarge.icann.org

Facebook: facebook.com/icannatlarge

Twitter: @ICANNAtLarge

ICANN Weekly Newsletter

News from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

http://www.icann.org/[icann.org]

Week ending 17 March 2017

 


 

 

Announcements This Week

ICANN58 Copenhagen GAC Communiqué[icann.org]

16 March 2017

Denmark's Minister of Culture Remarks on the Success of ICANN's Multistakeholder Model[icann.org]

13 March 2017

ICANN Launches Testing Platform for the KSK Rollover[icann.org]

13 March 2017

Call for Public Comment on the Draft 2016 African Domain Name System Market Study[icann.org]

11 March 2017



Upcoming Events

 

26-29 June 2017: 59th International Public ICANN Meeting – Johannesburg

About ICANN

ICANN Bylaws[icann.org]

Our bylaws are very important to us. They capture our mission of security, stability and accessibility, and compel the organization to be open and transparent. Learn more at www.ICANN.org[icann.org].

Strategic Plan, 2016 - 2020[icann.org]

ICANN FY17 Operating Plan and Budget[icann.org]

https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-03-16-en

16 March 2017

The Governmental Advisory Committee meeting at ICANN58 in Copenhagen has issued its Copenhagen Communiqué. It is available for review at GAC Copenhagen Communiqué


https://www.icann.org/resources/press-material/release-2017-03-13-en

13 March 2017

Copenhagen, Denmark…

ICANN's 58th public meeting, taking place from 11 to 16 March in Copenhagen, Denmark, has attracted more than 2500 registered participants. The meeting, hosted by the Danish Business Authority and the Danish Internet Forum, is being held six months after the IANA Stewardship Transition[icann.org], a milestone in the history of ICANN's multistakeholder community. Stakeholders from around the world, including people from businesses, governments, academia, and civil society, have convened in Denmark to discuss various topics such as the next steps after the IANA Stewardship Transition, enhancements to ICANN's accountability and the new generic top level domain (gTLD) program.

At the opening ceremony, Denmark's Minister of Culture, Mette Bock, commented on the IANA Stewardship Transition and ICANN's multistakeholder model, stating "The IANA Stewardship Transition only happened because the whole ICANN community, and that is you, was able to work together and to develop proposals that received a very broad support. It was, indeed, a masterpiece and showcase for how the multistakeholder model can function and deliver sustainable results."

Chairman of DIFO and DK-Hostmaster, Professor Henrik Udsen, also commented on the importance of this model. "Like ICANN, DIFO is based on a multistakeholder model, ensuring that all interest of the Danish Internet society is represented in the continuing efforts to make the .dk zone attractive and security," said Udsen. "We believe that this multistakeholder model both at a national and international level is a vital component in creating robust solutions to the many challenges we face."

ICANN's President and CEO, Göran Marby, stressed the importance of diversity with respect to the future Internet users, saying "To be able to support the next generation of Internet users, we need to be diverse enough to understand the nodes going forward."

ICANN Board Chair, Dr. Stephen Crocker, remarked on the importance of working together globally to maintain the Internet. "We're all different parts of one entity united by a common purpose to help maintain an amazing global network of networks," said Crocker. "If we do our mission well, we will facilitate communication and the flow of information around the globe, but the only way that we can do that is if we work together and the work that we do together is framed by compassion and respect."

At the ceremony, ICANN's Chief Technology Officer David Conrad announced the launch of a test bed for the upcoming Key Signing Key (KSK) Rollover. "On 11 October 2017, relatively soon, we are going to be changing the root key signing key. Before that time, DNS operators, who have enabled DNSSEC validation, must update their configurations. So what we're announcing today is a test bed for DNS operators to determine the readiness to support automatic updates.."

ICANN is in the process of performing a Root Zone DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) Key Signing Key (KSK) rollover[icann.org]. The KSK is used to cryptographically sign the Zone Signing Key (ZSK), which is used by the Root Zone Maintainer to DNSSEC-sign the root zone of the Internet's DNS. Maintaining an up-to-date KSK is essential to ensuring DNSSEC-signed domain names continue to validate following the rollover. Internet service providers, enterprise network operators and others who operate DNSSEC validation must update their systems with the public part of the new key signing key.

Those unable to attend ICANN58 in person are highly encouraged to participate remotely. Details for remote participation in any of the sessions can be found here[schedule.icann.org].

Photos of the meeting can be found here[flickr.com].

BACKGROUND: Held three times a year, ICANN's public meetings convene members of the global, multistakeholder Internet community, made up of individual users, businesses, civil society, governments, research institutions and non-government organizations, to discuss issues impacting the Domain Name System (DNS) and develop relevant policies.

Media Contacts

Luna Madi

Communications Director, EMEA

London, U.K.

Tel: +44 7780947574

Email: luna.madi@icann.org

Buket Coskuner

Global Communications Coordinator

Istanbul, Turkey

Tel: +90 533 487 6254

Email: buket.coskuner@icann.org

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world. ICANN and its community help keep the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It also promotes competition and develops policy for the top-level of the Internet's naming system and facilitates the use of other unique Internet identifiers. For more information please visit: www.icann.org[icann.org].


https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-03-13-en

13 March 2017

13 March 2017 – ICANN is offering a testing platform for network operators and other interested parties to confirm that their systems can handle the automated update process for the upcoming Root Zone Domain Name Systems Security Extensions (DNSSEC) Key Signing Key (KSK) rollover. The KSK rollover is currently scheduled for 11 October 2017.

"Currently, seven hundred and fifty million people are using DNSSEC-validating resolvers that could be affected by the KSK rollover," said ICANN's Vice President of Research, Matt Larson. "The testing platform is an easy way for operators to confirm that their infrastructure supports the ability to handle the rollover without manual intervention."

Internet service providers, network operators and others who have enabled DNSSEC validation must update their systems with the new KSK. This can be done in one of two ways:

  • An operator can configure a new trust anchor manually by obtaining the new root zone KSK from the iana.org website at https://www.iana.org/dnssec/files[iana.org].
  • An operator can enable a feature available in many validating resolvers that automatically detects and configures a new root zone KSK as a trust anchor, in which case they need take no action.

Check to see if your systems are ready by visiting go.icann.org/KSKtest[go.icann.org].

The KSK has been widely distributed and configured by every operator performing DNSSEC validation. If the validating resolvers using DNSSEC do not have the new key when the KSK is rolled, end users relying on those resolvers will encounter errors and be unable to access the Internet. A careful and coordinated effort is required to ensure that the update does not interfere with normal operations.

More information is available at www.icann.org/kskroll[icann.org].

https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-03-11-en

11 March 2017

Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced a call for public comment[icann.org] on the draft 2016 African Domain Name System Market Study, which was commissioned in March 2016 and managed by the South African Communications Forum (SACF) for ICANN.

The goal of the study is to identify and define the strengths and weaknesses in the African DNS industry ecosystem, and develop recommendations on how to advance the industry by bringing it closer to available opportunities.

This study aims to document relevant data points and provide further analytical findings, in order to enable ICANN and players in the African names space to develop a roadmap on the scope of needs and priorities for the development and growth of both "ccTLDs and gTLDs" (the DNS market) in Africa. Its outcomes will feed into plans to establish up an observatory that will continuously monitor the growth, development and emerging needs of the DNS market in Africa.

This initiative is a direct outcome of the ICANN Africa Engagement Strategy.

The draft 2016 African Domain Name System Market Study report, which is now open for comments, can be found here[icann.org] [PDF, 5.86 MB]. Comments are due by Friday May 5, 2017 at 23.59 UTC. Please send all comments by email to africadnsstudy@icann.org.

The initial report will be discussed during ICANN58 in Copenhagen, on Monday March 13, 2017 at 12:45pm - 2:00pm UTC at Hall C1.3 (ALAC). More information can be found here[schedule.icann.org].

Background

Over 4 years ago, the African community met in Prague (ICANN44) for a historic meeting chaired by Dr. Steve Crocker and then-incoming President and CEO Fadi Chehadé. The outcome was a new approach[icann.org] to Africa, focused on:

  • Developing a framework for ICANN's Africa strategy;
  • Supporting stronger ICANN presence in Africa;
  • Increasing Africa's participation within ICANN.

The meeting also resulted in the formation of a volunteer, nine-member Africa Strategy Working Group (ASWG), whose mission was to develop an ICANN strategy for the region. The group was motivated by the realization that Africa lacked commensurate participation in the ICANN ecosystem. This group developed the first 2012 – 2015 Africa Strategic Plan[afrinic.net].

An updated version of the strategy was released in November 2014, at the end of a meeting attended by representatives from AFNOG, AFRINIC, AFTLD, GAC, AFRALO, AFICTA, NEPAD and the African Registrars Association.

One of the key projects identified in the revised 2016-2020 ICANN Africa Strategic Plan was to conduct a study on the business feasibility of the growing DNS industry in Africa (Page 16, Strategic Objective 15), and to commission the creation of an observatory to develop new indices for DNS industry growth within Africa (page 17, strategic Objective 16). This draft study is part of the ongoing efforts to implement these objectives and further the domain name market is Africa, in partnership with you, our community.

https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-03-10-en


10 March 2017

10 March 2017 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced that Krista Papac, Director of Registry Services and Engagement for ICANN's Global Domains Division, has been named as ICANN's Complaints Officer.

"The Complaints Officer is an important new function within ICANN to help improve the ICANN organization," said CEO Göran Marby. "Krista is a long-time contributor to the ICANN organization and multistakeholder community. She is widely respected by her colleagues across the organization and has built extensive relationships with members of the community. I could not be happier with a candidate to fill this important role."

The Complaints Office will provide a centralized mechanism to track complaints received about the ICANN organization and is an additional way for the ICANN organization to be accountable for and transparent about its performance. The Complaints Officer will work with ICANN's various internal complaints processes to assist improvements and collect data about complaints received across the organization. The Complaints Officer will help ensure that any complaints about systemic issues or concerns about the organization are heard, reviewed, analyzed and resolved as openly as appropriate.

ICANN receives complaints through the Ombudsman, Reconsideration Requests and Independent Review Process filings and through various ICANN functions such as Contractual Compliance. All of these mechanisms and functions will remain the same and are not affected by this additional accountability process.

"I am honored to take on this new role for ICANN," said Krista. "My goal is to help build this new avenue for the community to have their voices heard. As the Complaints Officer, I can help give the organization better visibility into any possible systemic issues that may exist now or in the future, so we can proactively consider improvements."

The Complaints Officer will report directly to John Jeffrey, ICANN's General Counsel and Secretary. Krista will be transitioning away from her Global Domains Division role in the coming weeks, and will begin to build out the Complaints office.

Krista Papac is a seasoned executive with over 15 years of experience in the domain name industry holding a variety of roles including executive leadership and management, strategic planning, business process development, and business development. Krista joined ICANN in May 2013 as the Director of Registry Services & Engagement. During this time, she built a global team of relationship and service development experts by putting people, process and infrastructure in place to support the growth of the gTLD marketplace.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world. ICANN and its community help keep the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It also promotes competition and develops policy for the top-level of the Internet's naming system and facilitates the use of other unique Internet identifiers.


https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-03-08-en


8 March 2017

LOS ANGELES – 8 March 2017 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today published the final report regarding the Continuous Data-Driven Analysis of Root Server System Stability (CDAR). The study examines the New gTLD Program's technical impact of the delegation of new gTLDs on the security and stability of the root Domain Name System (DNS) and is informed by publicly available, historical measurement data.

Read the report[icann.org] [PDF, 3.49 MB].

The CDAR study[cdar.nl] was conducted by independent research organization TNO[tno.nl] and its consortium partners, SIDN[sidnlabs.nl] and NLnet Labs[nlnetlabs.nl]. The findings will help the ICANN community going forward to determine if any additional steps are necessary if more TLDs are to be added the root zone system.

A draft report was published[icann.org] for comment on 27 October 2016. The revised, final version available today incorporates suggestions received during the public comment period. The revisions include additional discussion regarding the data used and recommendations presented in the original report. Additionally, some of the presented analysis results in the draft report are updated based on data that became available after the publication of the draft report. The report of public comments[icann.org] [PDF, 520 KB], which includes summary and analysis of the comments received regarding the study's findings, was published on 9 February 2017.

ICANN commissioned this study in response to a recommendation from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to examine the technical impact of the delegation of new gTLDs on the security or stability of the root DNS system. The final report is expected to serve as input for community discussions regarding the future expansion of the root zone. The findings and recommendations will also be presented to the ICANN Board for consideration.

New gTLD Program Reviews

ICANN's New gTLD Program has enabled hundreds of new top-level domains to enter into the Internet's root zone since the first delegations occurred in October 2013. The CDAR study is part of a series of comprehensive reviews[newgtlds.icann.org] of the program that are currently underway in a number of areas, including competition, consumer trust and choice, security and stability, rights protection and other areas.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world. ICANN and its community help keep the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It also promotes competition and develops policy for the top-level of the Internet's naming system and facilitates the use of other unique Internet identifiers. For more information please visit: www.icann.org[icann.org].


https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2017-03-07-en


7 March 2017

LOS ANGELES – 7 March 2017 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced the publication of the Draft Report from the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice (CCT) Review Team with its recommendations for the New gTLD Program.

Executive summary[icann.org]. [PDF, 71 KB]

Summary of Recommendations[icann.org]. [PDF, 1.34 MB]

Read the report[icann.org]. [PDF, 3.91 MB]

The report examines the extent to which the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) has promoted competition, consumer trust and consumer choice in the domain name system. It also assesses the effectiveness of the safeguards ICANN has implemented to mitigate issues related to the introduction of new gTLDs. The report is available for public comment through 27 April 2017. Feedback will be incorporated into a Final Report.

Comment on the report[icann.org].

The review team findings include the following:

  • New gTLDs currently account for about 9 percent of registrations in all gTLDs, which suggests that registrants are making use of a broader range of gTLDs.
  • More than half of new registrations of gTLDs have been in new gTLD strings. If ccTLDs are included, registrations are divided roughly into thirds among new gTLDs, legacy gTLDs and ccTLDs.
  • ICANN contractual compliance has reported that 96 percent of registries are performing the analysis that is required to determine if they are being used to perpetrate security threats.
  • At present, there is no mechanism in place to ensure that voluntary public interest commitments do not negatively impact the public interest prior to going into effect. Therefore, it is important for voluntary PICs to be made available to the community during the public comment period of the application process.
  • Outreach programs that were put in place to facilitate and encourage applications from the Global South were thought to be both poorly monitored and largely ineffective.

To learn more about the report findings and recommendations, read the blog[icann.org].

More Information

The CCT Review Team will meet at ICANN58 and brief the community on its findings and recommendations at their consultation session on 12 March – 9 AM CET in Hall A3. The CCT Review Team work and detailed ICANN58 Program can also be followed via their dedicated wikipage[community.icann.org].

Background

The Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review Team was convened in 2015 under the Affirmation of Commitments. Under ICANN's new Bylaws, the review is now referred to as a "Specific Review".

Specific Reviews[icann.org] are mandated by ICANN Bylaws and are crucial to the legitimacy and accountability of ICANN. Specific Reviews serve as ICANN's progress report to the world. The reviews demonstrate how ICANN delivers on its commitments and identify areas where ICANN can improve. Specific Reviews are conducted by members of the stakeholder community who look at past processes, actions and outcomes in order to make recommendations to improve future performance.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world. ICANN and its community help keep the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It also promotes competition and develops policy for the top-level of the Internet's naming system and facilitates the use of other unique Internet identifiers. For more information please visit: www.icann.org[icann.org].


Establishment of instance in Marshall Islands helps further decentralize the top level of the DNS, mitigate certain network outages, and reduce DNS-related delays

https://www.icann.org/resources/press-material/release-2017-03-06-en

6 March 2017

Majuro, Marshall Islands… The L-Root instance in the Marshall Islands has been successfully installed in Majuro, increasing the Domain Name System's (DNS) overall fault tolerance and its resilience against certain types of cyber threats, such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

The launch of the L-Root server node is a joint operation between ICANN and Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority (NTA), who supplied the equipment necessary for the installation of the new L-Root node. NTA also provided the colocation in their datacenter and the bandwidth needed for the node's operation.

"We are very happy to host the L-root node in the Marshall Islands. This will help to contribute to the security and stability of the Internet network, and improve the quality of the Internet for our Internet users. By creating greater redundancy in the DNS, we can improve the reliability of a fast and secure network for all users," said Thomas Kijiner, Jr., President & CEO of NTA.

"I am very pleased with our partnership with NTA. We have a very close working relationship with the Marshall Islands' key Internet stakeholders and I am happy to facilitate the deployment of the root server instance into the region," said Savé Vocea, ICANN's Vice President of Global Stakeholder Engagement for Australasia.

This cooperation signifies an effort between ICANN and NTA to enhance the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS for Marshall Islands' Internet users and reduce the response time experienced when making some DNS queries.

"ICANN operates L-Root as a public benefit service for the global Internet and is pleased to expand L-Root with an instance in the Marshall Islands. We appreciate the tremendous efforts from NTA in hosting the L-Root as this commitment both improves root zone DNS service and augments the technical stability and resilience of DNS in the region," said Terry Manderson, Director of DNS Engineering at ICANN.

There are 13 "root" DNS servers, identified by the letters A through M — the "L" root server operated by ICANN being one. Computers typically communicate with each other using numeric addresses, while humans find it easier to use and remember names (for instance, users typically remember the domain name "ICANN.ORG" more easily than the Internet Protocol address, 2620:0:2d0:200::7). The DNS translates domain names into addresses and the root servers provide the pointers to the servers for top-level domains (the last part of domain names, for example, "ORG" in "ICANN.ORG").

Spreading the service that provides these pointers out geographically by duplicating the root servers leads to a more resilient, dispersed system that reduces the risk of users being taken offline by a problem or attack and reduces the time it takes to look up names on the Internet.

For more information about L-root, please visit www.dns.icann.org/[dns.icann.org].

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Media Contacts

ICANN

Liana Teo

Head of Communications, APAC

Tel: +65 6816 1259

Mobile: +65 9796 5500

Email: liana.teo@icann.org

Fiona Aw

Global Communications Coordinator

Tel: +65 6816 1264

Mobile: +65 9113 6621

Email: fiona.aw@icann.org

Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority

Thomas Kijiner, Jr.

President & CEO

Tel: +692 625 3862

Email: tkijiner@minta.mh

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address into your computer or other device – a name or a number. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world.

For more information, please visit: www.icann.org[icann.org]

About Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority (NTA)

Marshall Islands' National Telecommunications Authority is a private corporation with significant ownership by the National Government. It is the authorized sole provider of telecommunications services and is responsible for providing domestic and international voice, fax, data, and Internet services to and from the Marshall Islands.

For more information, please visit www.minta.mh[minta.mh]