Notes on 16 March 2017 APAC Space at ICANN58, Copenhagen, Denmark

The APAC Space face-to-face meeting was well-attended by 64 participants (40 participants in Copenhagen and 24 remote participants). Participants ranged from regional Contracted Parties, Academia, Civil Society members, Business stakeholders, to ICANN Fellows.
During the meeting, community discussion focused on the following: 

• Meeting with Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG)
  • Interest Group(s)
  • Registry Operators APAC Region Survey
  • Vote for Global Amendment to the Base New gTLD Registry Agreement
  • Outreach on Universal Acceptance
• New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process (PDP) Community Comment

• Preliminary Results of APAC Space Survey 2017

• AOB

The meeting presentation slides can be found at https://go.icann.org/APACSpace-Wiki.

Introduction

Kelvin Wong, Head of Outreach & Public Responsibility, Asia Pacific, ICANN and Edmon Chung, CEO DotAsia, welcomed the participants. This was followed by a round of self-introduction by participants.

Meeting with Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG)

Chuck Gomes (Verisign) presented RySG’s structure and membership. RySG members comprise registries contracted with ICANN.

Interest Groups

Apart from joining RySG and its Working Groups, APAC Space members may also consider setting up Interest Group(s) in RySG to have representatives participate in the various Working Groups. Interest Groups do not have voting rights within RySG.
A community member raised a concern that given the diversity of the APAC community in terms of its geography and population, having an Interest Group represent one’s interests may defeat the purpose of encouraging direct participation within RySG. Chuck replied there could be many smaller Interest Groups set up to cover a variety of interests.

For more details on participating in RySG’s Interest Groups, please refer to the RySG Charter at http://www.rysg.info/rysg-charter.

Registry Operators APAC Region Survey

RySG conducted a survey to determine the needs and interests of registry operators in the APAC region. 

With regard to translation work, the RySG Charter has been translated in the 6 UN languages. An information sheet on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) has also been translated and will be published online soon. In addition, spoken translation services have been provided for face-to-face meetings. APAC community members who need meetings to be translated in other languages may consider submitting their requests to the RySG Secretariat.

Vote for Global Amendment to the Base New gTLD Registry Agreement

Jon Nevett (RySG Working Group Co-Chair) encouraged ICANN-contracted registries to cast their votes on the proposed Global Amendment to the Base New gTLD Registry Agreement. Voting ends on 10 April 2017.

In response to a community member’s question on the implementation of the Global Amendment, Jon replied that RySG targets implementation to start in June or July 2017 following a 60-day notice.

More details on the Global Amendment to the Base New gTLD Registry Agreement can be found at: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/global-amendment-base-new-gtld-registry-agreement-2017-01-23-en.

Outreach on Universal Acceptance

Jon Nevett agreed to Don Hollander’s (Universal Acceptance Steering Group Coordinator) request on outreach within RySG to ensure UA-readiness in registries.

A community member stated that one of the best ways to push for UA-readiness such as IDN-compatibility in email addresses was to involve software companies such as Apple, Google, etc. in the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG).

Furthermore, to bring attention to the issue of Universal Acceptance in the APAC region, ICANN should consider holding the GDD Summit in the APAC region, possibly in 2018.

New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP Community Comment

Steve Chan (ICANN) briefly updated on the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP. Avri Doria (PDP Working Group Co-Chair) covered the key areas of the PDP Working Group, and encouraged APAC participation in the PDP work tracks and the PDP Community Comment 2.

APAC community members should raise any issues encountered during the 2012 New gTLD round to the PDP Working Group.

Community Discussion

Community lead Edmon Chung, CEO, DotAsia, led the subsequent community discussion and Q&A. The salient points of discussion were:

• On whether there had been instances of contentions related to geographical names during the first gTLD round, 2 strings were withdrawn (.SHENZHEN and .GUANGZHOU), and 2 strings proceeded (.FOSHAN and .GUANGDONG). .OSAKA was resolved through the Community Priority Evaluation (CPE).

• The New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP aimed to complete its work by Q3 2018. To speed up the work progress, parallel discussions within the Working Group were taking place to cover as much ground as possible.

• To ensure that the PDP recommendations would be up to date, a final review of the policy for the next new gTLD round would be undertaken by the Independent Review Team (IRT) upon completion of the PDP. Furthermore, a new Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) modification process had been created to allow supplemental policy amendments to be made after the ICANN Board had commented on the PDP’s recommendations.

• Cheryl Langdon-Orr (PDP work track co-group lead) urged greater participation in PDP Work Track 4 as it discussed Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Universal Acceptance – topics relevant to the APAC region – amongst other issues.

Preliminary Results of APAC Space Survey 2017

Joyce Chen (ICANN) shared the preliminary results of the APAC Space Survey 2017 which can be found in the presentation slides here: https://go.icann.org/APACSpace-Wiki. Due to low response (30 participants only), the APAC Space Survey 2017 deadline was extended to 31 March 2017. APAC community members were encouraged to participate in the survey to provide their feedback on their discussion interests. The final results of the survey will be shared during the next APAC Space web conference.

Based on the preliminary results, APAC community members were most interested in discussing the following:

• Broad themes related to the Domain Name System (DNS) Industry and Market Developments; Enabling Users in an Inclusive and Open Internet Environment; and Enhancing Multistakeholder Cooperation

• ICANN PDPs for New gTLD Subsequent Procedures; and Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services (RDS)

• ICANN-related topics dealing with Domain Name Industry’s market and relevant policies; new ICANN Bylaws and Empowered Community; and policy work on ICANN Accountability

• Other topics such as capacity building, universal acceptance, ICANN’s role in AP* (Asia Pacific Internet Organizations) activities

Respondents flagged some challenges to participation such as time zone issues, discussions taking up too much of their time, and lack of knowledge in the subject matter.

Some suggestions on improving APAC Space were to increase the depth of materials provided; have regional or country-level discussions related to the Domain Names, IDNs, etc.; and explore a country host for each APAC Space, amongst others.

Community Feedback on Preliminary Results

• Community members suggested finding a more accurate way to show the proportion of experiences represented by survey respondents. Another suggestion was to rotate the topics for APAC Space web conferences, one which was more focused on DNS industry, and the other on other areas such as Empowered Community, Accountability, etc.

• Regarding interest on the DNS industry’s market developments, Save Vocea (ICANN) noted that the Working Group on Under-Served Regions suggested for the various regions (in addition to LAC and Middle East) to also conduct a Domain Names market study. A community member cautioned that the study should consider the diversity of the APAC region.

• Edmon also suggested involving the AP* organizations in future APAC Space sessions to share their experiences and work.

• Satish Babu (APRALO Chair) highlighted that there was great need for discussion on enabling users particularly in under-served regions, and multistakeholder cooperation. These were also issues covered during the ICANN APRALO-APAC Hub webinars.

AOB

• A community member suggested having a regional ICANN meeting incorporating all components of the global ICANN meeting. There was a precedent for such a meeting in 2008 that took place in Taiwan. Given that there was interest in the DNS industry by APAC Stakeholders, former-Board member Kuo-wei Wu highlighted that the GDD Summit should next take place in APAC rather than US and Europe.

• Edmon Chung urged community members to participate in the IDN Implementation Guidelines Public Comment. More details can be found here: https://www.icann.org/public-comments/idn-guidelines-2017-03-03-en

• Save Vocea said that a capacity building workshop for the Working Group on Under-Served Regions was being planned in Fiji (April 2017).

• The next APAC Space web conference is scheduled in May 2017. Please subscribe to discuss@tld.asia to give input on the meeting agenda.