Diacritics in Latin Script

2024

• 16 May: Council resolved to adopt the request for an an Issues Report, directs staff to create the Report. 
• 18 Apr: Council discussed ICANN org's proposal which was that a solution could be incorporated through Council's deliberation of the Subsequent Procedures Supplemental Recommendations on Topic 24 String Similarity, and accordingly suggested that Council withhold those supplemental recommendations 24A, 24B and 24C for further work, instead of considering their approval and onward submission to the ICANN Board. Council determined that this was not feasible and instead agreed to request an Issue Report on diacritics in Latin script.

2023

• Since Nov, discussion was deferred to facilitate ICANN org exploring on a possible "light-weight" solution to allow an exceptional process by which the existing registry operators of ASCII TLDs to apply for and obtain the respective diacritic versions of their TLDs in the Next Round.
• 25 Oct: Council received a detailed briefing on this issue and agreed to request a study from ICANN org to help inform the GNSO Council on the issue of diacritics in Latin Script. Prior to the request being made to ICANN org, the org volunteered to investigate what mechanism or mechanisms might be appropriate to address this issue.
• 23 Sep: Council Chair addressed the issue of accents and diacritics in Latin languages that could be deemed confusingly similar to existing strings or other applications, and suggested chartering something with a narrow scope to ensure that this topic does not slide elsewhere into the string similarity discussion and ensure that solutions are found that match requirements imposed on variants.  ICANN org staff clarified that next steps from the staff perspective would be for Council to request an Issues Report.
• 24 Aug: The GNSO Chair led the commentary on this issue which essentially concluded that the issue of .quebec (TLD) not being a variant of “.québec” did not require an immediate resolution and one that did not squarely sit in the remit of the IDNs-EPDP.
• 17 Aug: GNSO Leadership circulated the 22 Jun 2023 letter from ALAC Chair to the GNSO Chair regarding the Latin script LGR and .québec issue
• 14 Jul: GNSO Leadership received a communication from the IDNs-EPDP Chair regarding 4 public comments related to creating an exceptional process by which the existing registry operator for .quebec could apply “.québec” in a future gTLD round ("the .québec issue") being out of scope of the IDNs-EPDP and its Charter, and referred the comments to the GNSO Council for consideration and action as determined appropriate.

Next Steps for a New gTLD Round 2023-2024 (post Subsequent Procedures Operational Design Assessment (SubPro ODA))  

2024

      *8 Jun: ICANN Board resolves during its regular Board Meeting to adopt a number of decisions related to the Next Round:

• • IDN EPDP Ph1 Recommendations
    • Resolved (2024.06.08.04), the ICANN Board adopts the Scorecard: IDN EPDP Phase 1 Recommendations in full. Section A of the Scorecard identifies the Outputs that the Board adopts. Section B identifies the Outputs that the Board designates as pending.

• • Approach for Handling Content-Restrictive Commitments in Next Round Registry Agreements

• • • Resolved (2024.06.08.08), the ICANN Board determines that ICANN should exclude from the Next Round RAs any RVCs and other comparable registry commitments that restrict content in gTLDs.
      

• • Supplemental Recommendations on the new gTLD SubPro PDP

• • • Resolved, (2024.06.08.11), the Board adopts the June 2024 Scorecard: Subsequent Procedures Supplemental Recommendations, dated 8 June 2024 (Supplemental Recommendations Scorecard), consisting of:
      • Section A, which details the Supplemental Recommendations that the Board adopts.
        • Topic 17: Applicant Support (17.2) 
        • Topic 32: Limited Challenges and Appeals (32.1, 32.2 and 32.10)
      • Section B, which details the Supplemental Recommendations that the Board does not adopt, including a rationale.
        • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments (9.2)
        • Topic 18: Terms and Conditions (18.1 and 18.3)

• • GAC Advice in ICANN77 Communique Regarding Avoiding Auctions Between Commercial/Non-Commercial Applications

• • • Whereas, the Board has identified concerns with GAC Consensus Advice item 4.a.i (i.e. Washington, D.C. Communiqué includes advice concerning Topic 35, and, specifically, the use of auctions between commercial and noncommercial applications) including concerns regarding the feasibility of implementation from both a practical and legal standpoint.
    • Whereas, the Board has noted that GAC Consensus Advice item 4.a.i does not align with the relevant SubPro recommendations related to Topic 35, which call for the continued use of ICANN Auctions of Last Resort as a contention resolution mechanism.

• • GGP for Applicant Support Recommendations

• • • Resolved (2024.06.08.17), the ICANN Board adopts all nine guidance recommendations as documented in the GGP for Applicant Support Final Report.

• • Next Round Funding
    • Whereas, the BFC has recommended that the Board approve funding from the New gTLD Program: 2012 Round Application Fees of up to US$23 million to cover further implementation costs for the New gTLD Program: Next Round through 31 March 2025.
    • Resolved (2024.06.08.19), the Board authorizes the ICANN Interim President and CEO, or her designee(s), to spend up to US$23 million from the New gTLD Program: 2012 Round Application Fees to fund the implementation work of the New gTLD Program: Next Round through 31 March 2025.

• Circa 30 Apr: Council will send new work re: Topic 24 on String Similarity Review in respect of Singular/Plurals only to the GNSO Council Small Team Plus to consider a strawman proposal developed by Staff.  After evaluation of the proposal, the Small Team Plus will return to Council with its conclusions on whether this proposal is viable, and if so, provide draft (amendment) language on Topic 24 Supplemental Recommendation for Council to consider.
• 18 Apr: Council resolved to approve Supplemental Recommendations for the Non-Adopted New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP Recommendations on Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 18: Terms & Conditions, and Topic 32: Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanism. Council also elected to pursue further amendments to the Supplemental Recommendations related to Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations, and accordingly, removed the relevant Supplemental Recommendations from consideration during its April meeting.

    *26 Mar: ICANN org initiates public comment proceeding for input on proposed Registry System Testing 2.0 Test Specifications and API.

    *13 Mar: ICANN org initiates public comment proceeding for input on proposed Draft Registry Service Provider (RSP) Handbook for the New gTLD Program: Next Round.

• 6 Mar: GNSO SubPro Small Team held a community consultation session during ICANN79, on the SubPro Supplemental Recommendations.
• 22 Feb: ICANN79 Prep Week session on the SubPro supplemental recommendations developed by the GNSO SubPro Small Team Plus.

     *7 Feb: ICANN org initiates public comment proceeding for input on proposed String Similarity Review Guidelines for the New gTLD Program: Next Round.

     *1 Feb: ICANN org initiates public comment proceeding for input on proposed language for 7 sections of the Applicant Guidebook (AGB) for the New gTLD Program: Next Round.

2023 - Post ODA

    *7 Dec: ICANN Board initiates Public Interest Commitments/Registry Voluntary Commitments Consultation, issuing their Draft Implementation Framework for Content-Related Registry Commitments.

    *21 Nov: ICANN Board previews Public Interest Commitments/Registry Voluntary Commitments Consultation

    *26 Oct: ICANN Board resolves during its regular Board Meeting to adopt the Scorecard: Subsequent Procedures dated 26 October 2023 (the "October 2023 Scorecard"), comprising:

• • Section A, which details the recommendations that the Board adopts with the second Clarifying Statement.
  • Section B, which details the recommendations that the Board does not adopt (Recommendations 32.1, 32.2 and 32.10) because they are not in the best interests of the ICANN community or ICANN, including a Board statement and rationale for each of the Outputs, per Bylaws Annex A, Section 9.

and directed ICANN org, to commence the implementation work related to the recommendations adopted by the Board in Section A of the October 2023 Scorecard, and to consider the recommendations and the second Clarifying Statement jointly for the purpose of implementation and operation of the New gTLD Program: Next Round.

• 21 Oct: GNSO Council transmitted to the ICANN Board its "New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Pending Recommendations - GNSO Council Second Clarifying Statement" (Second Clarifying Statement) developed by the SubPro Small Team to address the Board's concerns on 10 pending Outputs around the enforceability of Public Interest Commitments (PICs) and Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs).

   *10 Sep: ICANN Board resolves during its regular Board Meeting to adopt the Scorecard: Subsequent Procedures dated 10 September 2023 (the "September 2023 Scorecard"), comprising:

• • Section A which details the Outputs that the Board adopts: Recommendations 16.1, 18.4, 19.1, and 19.3; also input on implementation of Recommendations 30.4, 30.5 and 30.6 post discussion with GAC. 
  • Section B, which details the Outputs that the Board adopts with the "New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Pending Recommendations - GNSO Council Clarifying Statement" transmitted to the Board on 5 September 2023 that provide relevant context to these Outputs; Affirmation with Modification 3.1, Recommendations 3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 6.8, 9.15, 26.9, 29.1, 34.12, 35.3 and 35.5.
  • Section C, which details the Outputs that the Board does not adopt, including a Board statement and rationale for each of the Outputs, per Bylaws Annex A, Section 9a, because they are not in the best interests of the ICANN community or ICANN: Recommendations 9.2, 17.2, 18.1, 18.3, 22.7, 24.3, and 24.5.
  • Section D, which details the recommendations that remain pending following this Board action, i.e. Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 30.7, 31.16, and 31.17 (all relating to the enforceability of PICs and RVCs), and  32.1, 32.2, and 32.10 (all relating to the proposed Challenge & Appeal mechanisms).

and directed ICANN org to commence the implementation work related to the Outputs adopted by the Board in Section A of the September 2023 Scorecard, taking into account the noted Board considerations regarding recommendations 18.4, 30.4 and 30.6.

See my 14 Jun 2023 Council Meeting summary report for a distillation of (selected) SubPro Output context and Board concerns

• 5 Sep: GNSO Council transmitted to the ICANN Board its "New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Pending Recommendations - GNSO Council Clarifying Statement" (Clarifying Statement) developed by the SubPro Small Team to address the Board's concerns on the pending Outputs.

   *31 Jul: ICANN Board Chair announces the New gTLD Program: Next Round Implementation Plan which (re-)establishes a target for the the next Applicant Guidebook to be finalized in May 2025, and which then enables the application round to open in Q2 2026 (with the goal of April 2026), noting that any delays to the timeline of the Policy Implementation work stream will cause delays to the opening of the round.

  *27 Jul: ICANN Board resolves at a special meeting to acknowledges receipt of a draft New gTLD Program: Next Round Implementation Plan from ICANN org and plans to publish the plan on or before 31 July 2023.

• 25 Jul: GNSO Council submitted to the ICANN Board an updated ICANN77 Deliverable Workplan & Timeline SubPro Related Activities to provide further clarity to its 15 Jun submission
• 15 Jun: GNSO Council submitted to the ICANN Board its ICANN77 Deliverable Work plan & Timeline SubPro Related Activities as requested by the ICANN Board in its 16 Mar resolution
• 5 Jun: GNSO Council holds extraordinary meeting to discuss completion of outstanding SubPro-related work.
• 22 May: GNSO Council meets with the ICANN Board on pending SubPro recommendations.
• 4 May: GNSO Council holds extraordinary meeting to discuss the Proposal of SubPro Small Team Triage Exercise and determine next steps on the 38 pending recommendations.
• 23 Mar: GNSO Council received letter from GAC in respect of GAC input on GAC Priority Topics relative to SubPro Recommendations marked as "pending" 
• 22 Mar: GNSO Chair sends letter to ICANN Board and Sally Costerton noting Council's appreciation on progress made during recent weeks and at ICANN76 towards "getting things done".
• 21 Mar: GNSO Council constitutes a Council Small Team to conduct Council triage for the 38 Pending SubPro Outputs, comprising Anne Aikman-Scalese (NCA), Bruna Martins dos Santos (NCSG), Jeff Neuman (GNSO Liaison to SubPro ODP), Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to GNSO), Nacho Amados (RySG), Paul McGrady (NCA-NCPH), Sebastien Ducos (RySG), Stephanie Perrin (NCSG), Susan Payne (IPC) and Tomslin Samme-Nlar (NCSG).
• 16 Mar: GNSO Council receives letter from ICANN Board in respect of Board's action on SubPro Final Report

   *16 Mar: ICANN Board resolves during its Board Meeting at ICANN76 to adopt the SubPro Outputs in Section A of its "Scorecard on Subsequent Procedures PDP" (Scorecard); marking 38 Outputs in Section B of the Scorecard as "pending" and noting ongoing community discussions relating to Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 23: Closed Generics, and Topic 25: Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), as well as additional dependencies concerning specific Review Team Recommendations, the Name Collision Analysis Project Study 2 Report (NCAP2), and other items noted in Section C of the Scorecard; and directed ICANN org to commence implementation work related to Section A.

ICANN Org Discussion paper on Modifying gTLD Consensus Policies –  TO MONITOR THIS and assess for ALAC input opportunities.

2022

• 4 May: ICANN Org (GDS) met with Council and SG/C Chairs to progress ongoing discussions on the Oct 2021 Discussion Paper on Modifying gTLD Consensus Policies (Zoom Recording). Discussions to continue.
• 25 Apr: Council received a GNSO-sec-developed Discussion Paper on suggested Tracking & Coordination of PDP Improvements
• 6 Apr: Exchanges between Council and GDS ongoing.
• 20 Jan: Council to approach ICANN Org on efficient way to address concerns raised in Discussion Paper.
• NB. Council small team has expanded (now comprises John McElwaine, Maxim Alzoba, Stephanie Perrin, Antonia Chu, Thomas Rickert, Steve DelBianco, Chris Disspain, Susan Mohr, Sebastien Ducos, and Owen Smigelski)

2021

• 28 Oct: A Council small team (comprising John McElwaine, Maxim Alzoba, Stephanie Perrin, Antonia Chu, Thomas Rickert and possibly others) to review the Discussion Paper on Modifying gTLD Consensus Policies and develop a draft response. 

Transfer Policy Review Policy Development Process (TPR-PDP)

2023

• 11 Jan: In the course of Phase 1 work conducted to date, the WG discovered that certain Phase 2 topics must be addressed before Phase 1 recommendations can be fully developed. As a result, the PDP leadership team alerts Council to Project Change Request (PCR) to update its work plan to consolidate all work into a single phase and change the order in which topics are considered. This will impact the timeline for key deliverables.

2022

• 21 Jun - 16 Aug: WG conducts public comment for its Phase 1A Initial Report 

2021

• 16 Dec: Council approved a Project Change Request (PCR) to update charter topics considered in Phase 1 of the TPR-PDP by moving the topic of NACK (rejection of transfer request) of an unauthorized transfer to Phase 1a scope from Phase 2.
• May: WG begins meeting
• Feb: Council initiated the two-phased Transfer Policy Review PDP

Internationalized Domain Names Expedited Policy Development Process (IDNs-EPDP)

2024

• 11 Apr: GNSO initiates call for public comments to the Phase 2 Initial Report of the IDNs EPDP

  * 26 Mar: The ICANN Board calls for public comments to the IDNs EPDP Phase 1 Final Report.

• 18 Jan: GNSO Council resolved to submit the IDNs EPDP Phase 1 Final Report to the ICANN Board for approval.

2023

• 21 Dec: GNSO Council adopts the IDNs EPDP Phase 1 Final Report containing 69 policy recommendations on topics related to top-level IDN gTLD definition and variant management.
• 6-8 Dec: IDNs EPDP had their F2F workshop in Kuala Lumpur.
• 8 Nov: GNSO Council receives the IDNs EPDP Phase 1 Final Report with a full consensus designation on all 69 recommendations on topics related to top-level IDN gTLD definition and variant management.
• 14 Sep: GNSO Leadership relays GNSO Council Guidance Statement on ".québec” to the EPDP Team.
• 24 Aug: At the GNSO Council meeting, the GNSO Chair led the commentary on this issue which essentially concluded that the issue of .quebec (TLD) not being a variant of “.québec” did not require an immediate resolution and one that did not squarely sit in the remit of the Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs). The letter from the ALAC Chair to the GNSO Chair on this issue was referred to also.
• 17 Aug: GNSO Leadership circulated the 22 Jun 2023 letter from ALAC Chair to the GNSO Chair regarding the Latin script LGR and .québec issue
• 20 Jul: GNSO Council received a revised project plan  from the IDNs EPDP Working Group which shaves 13 months off the earlier timeline. The key milestones for this EPDP are now as follows:
  • Phase 1 Final Report remains expected to be delivered to Council in Nov 2023
  • Council then considers this Phase 1 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • Phase 2 Initial Report is expected to be published for public comment in Apr 2024 (vs May 2025 earlier)
  • Phase 2 Final Report is expected to be delivered to Council in Oct 2024 (vs Nov 2025 earlier)
  • Council then considers this Phase 2 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • Assumptions for this revised project plan must hold for the EPDP to meet the new milestone dates:
    • Progress to be achieved via multiple sessions during ICANN78 (similar to ICANN77)
    • A planned F2F workshop scheduled for early Dec 2023
    • No change to the EPDP Charter / scope of quarter questions
• 14 Jul: GNSO Leadership received a communication from the EPDP Chair regarding 4 public comments related to creating an exceptional process by which the existing registry operator for .quebec could apply “.québec” in a future gTLD round ("the .québec issue") being out of scope of the IDNs EPDP and its Charter, and referred the comments to the GNSO Council for consideration and action as determined appropriate.
• 14 Jun: GNSO Council received the latest project plan from the IDNs EPDP Working Group, which provides that:
  • Phase 1 Final Report is expected to be delivered to Council in Nov 2023
  • Council then considers this Phase 1 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • Phase 2 Initial Report is expected to be published for public comment in May 2025
  • Phase 2 Final Report is expected to be delivered to Council in Nov 2025
  • Council then considers this Phase 2 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • The IDNs EPDP WG is already taking steps to improve its timeline to expedite completion of its work well ahead of the Nov 2025 target 
• 25 May: GNSO Council received a presentation from the EPDP Chair in response to the ICANN Board's request to Council noted in the Board's 16 Mar letter to Council.
• 24 Apr: GNSO initiates call for public comments to the Phase 1 Initial Report of the IDNs-EPDP.
• 16 Mar: GNSO Council receives letter from ICANN Board in respect of Board's action on SubPro Final Report; item 4 pertains to the work of the IDNs EPDP.

2022

• 17 Nov: Council approved the EPDP's Project Change Request (PCR). With this PCR, the EPDP seeks to facilitate the implementation planning of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures by bifurcating its work into two phases, with Phase 1 covering topics related to top-level IDN gTLD definition and variant management, and Phase 2 covering issues pertaining to second-level IDN variant management, which also requires a timeline extension due to the diversity and complexity of IDN issues, additional data collection needs, review of ICANN org input for draft recommendations, and public comment-related processes. The timeline now contemplated is:
  • Publish Phase 1 Initial Report for Public Comment by April 2023
  • Submit Phase 1 Final Report to the GNSO Council by November 2023
  • Publish Phase 2 Initial Report for Public Comment by April 2025
  • Submit Phase 2 Final Report to the GNSO Council by November 2025
• 10 Oct: Council is alerted to an impending Project Change Request (PCR) which seeks significant changes to the EPDP's project plan. 

  * 22 Sep: ICANN Board has approved the IDN Guidelines version 4.1 except the deferred guidelines 6a, 11, 12, 13, 18 and associated Additional Notes, and directed these to be published as IDN Guidelines version 4.1 and to supersede version 3.0.

• 20 Jan: Council to send letter to ICANN Board responding to the Board’s 20 Oct letter regarding the IDN Implementation Guidelines v4.0.

2021

• 16 Dec: Council Leadership to draft a response to the ICANN Board’s 20 Oct letter regarding the IDN Implementation Guidelines v4.0.
• 18 Nov: Council has yet to discuss its approach for the response to the ICANN Board’s 20 Oct letter regarding the IDN Implementation Guidelines v4.0.
• Aug: The Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs) commenced work on its Charter Questions.

Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team

2023

• 20 Jul: Council resolved to extend deferral of consideration of recommendations #1 and #2 of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team write up for another six months or at an earlier date if the DPA negotiations have been completed before six months have passed and/or there is feedback from ICANN org if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data will be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy. 
• 20 Apr: Council considered the RDA Scoping Team Survey Summary Results and ICANN org's 14 Mar input.
• 14 Mar: ICANN org replies to Council's 1 Dec 2022 letter for an update on outstanding issues related to registration data accuracy and the pending work of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team.

2022

• 1 Dec: Council sent letter to ICANN org requesting an update on outstanding issues related to registration data accuracy and the pending work of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team.
• 17 Nov: Council adopted recommendation #3 and deferred consideration of recommendations #1 and #2 as contained in the Scoping Team's write up to the Council of 5 September 2022. For more specific details on the recommendations and action, refer to the 17 Nov Special Summary Report.
• 10 Oct: The Scoping Team has completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to the Council on 5 September 2022. In the write up, the group is suggesting moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). Council is seeking a new Chair for the Scoping Team.
• 10 May: The RDA Scoping Team submitted a Project Change Request (PCR) to Council. 

18 Nov 2021

• Council received notice that the ICANN Board has selected two Board members to serve as liaisons to this Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team. They are Becky Burr and Harald Alvestrand (alternate).
• Council has acknowledged the Registration Data Accuracy - Scoping Team (RDA_ST) Project Plan

Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data / System for Standardized Access/Disclosure Operational Design Phase (SSAD ODP);  See: https://www.icann.org/ssadodp for more official info / Registration Data Request Service (RDRS)

2024

  * 24/25 Jan:  ICANN runs webinars to provide usage data on the RDRS and answer any questions about the service which handles requests for access to nonpublic registration data related to generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

2023

  * 28 Nov: ICANN launches the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS)

• 21 Sep: Council adopted the EPDP Phase 2 small team's proposed charter for a Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee, which is expected to replace the EPDP Phase 2 small team shortly.
• 8 Sep: Council received the small team's proposed charter for a Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee to help inform the next steps on the SSAD policy recommendations.
• 22 Mar: GNSO Chair sends letter to ICANN Board and Sally Costerton noting Council's appreciation on progress made during recent weeks and at ICANN76 towards "getting things done".
• 15 Mar: GNSO Council instructed the small team to continue working with ICANN org on the implementation of the System as well as “provide the Council with a recommendation on the approach and format through which, following implementation of the system, data should be reviewed and analyzed to help inform subsequent decisions on how to proceed with the SSAD recommendations”.
• 11 Mar: GNSO EPDP Phase 2 (SSAD) - Implementation of Whois Disclosure System at ICANN76 - Whois Disclosure System (WDS) now known as Registration Data Request Service (RDRS).
• 6 Mar: Council receives ICANN Board's reply to Council's 17 Nov 2022 letter on Council’s recommendations for how to proceed with the WHOIS Disclosure System (WDS).
• 27 Feb: ICANN Board adopted a resolution directing ICANN org to proceed to develop and launch the WDS as soon as possible. The Board also authorized the use of the Supplemental Fund for the Implementation of Community Recommendations to support this work. In addition, the Board has directed ICANN org to continue to engage with the Phase 2 Small Team throughout the development and operation of the System, and ensure periodic publication of the collected usage data, once operational.

2022

• 17 Nov: Council sent letter to ICANN Board alerting on Council’s recommendations for how to proceed with the WHOIS Disclosure System (WDS).
• 17 Nov: Council accepted the EPDP Phase 2 small team findings and recommendations as outlined in the small team's addendum and confirmed that pending the implementation and subsequent running of the Whois Disclosure System (WDS) for a period of up to two (2) years, the SSAD recommendations should remain paused for consideration by the ICANN Board.
• Oct: Council is to further discuss next steps on the Whois Disclosure System (WDS) in November.
• Sep-ICANN75: Attention on SSAD has now been redirected to ICANN Org's proposal for the Whois Disclosure System (WDS). Design for this WDS was published prior to ICANN75 and ICANN org provided a presentation of the system design to the EPDP Phase 2 small team during ICANN75. Subsequently, the small team and Council held initial discussions amongst themselves, as well as with the Board during their joint session on Tuesday. The Council discussed during its meeting on Wednesday and the small team met informally on Thursday of ICANN75.
• 13 Sep: ICANN org published a WHOIS Disclosure System (System) Design Paper based on the "proof of concept" approach outlined by the Small Team.
• Mar: Council Small Team seated (comprising Members: Paul McGrady, Sebastien Ducos, Marc Anderson, Stephanie Perrin, John McElwaine, Olga Cavalli, Thomas Rickert, Laureen Kapin (GAC- shared membership), Chris Lewis-Evans (GAC- shared membership), Alan Greenberg, Sarah Wyld, Steve DelBianco, Becky Burr, Steve Crocker, Philippe Fouquart (GNSO Council Observing) , Tomslin Samme Nlar  (GNSO Council Observing); and Alternates: Gregory DiBiase).
• 1 Feb: GNSO Chair invited GNSO SG/Cs, ALAC, GAC to nominate their EPDP Phase 2 representatives for a Council Small Team led by Sebastien Ducos to analyse the SSAD ODA to develop recommendations on next steps.  On 4 Feb, the ALAC Chair nominated Alan Greenberg (being one of the 2 ALAC EPDP Phase 2 representatives) for this Council Small Team.
• 27 Jan: Council and ICANN Board Consultation on SSAD ODP
• 18 Jan: SSAD ODP Project Update Webinar #5
• 12 Jan: A follow up discussion is held for Council and and GNSO-appointed EPDP Phase 2 members to discuss next steps ahead of Council's meeting with the ICANN Board on 27 January on concerns around financial sustainability of the SSAD (wiki)
• 5 Jan: A 4 Jan 2022 summary paper was circulated to Council members ahead of a 12 Jan call

2021

• 20 Dec: A closed session is held for Council and GNSO-appointed EPDP Phase 2 members only with the SSAD ODP Project Team focusing on the SSAD Cost Model information (presentation)
• 16 Dec: Council did not discuss GAC's letter of 15 Dec 2021 to Council regarding SSAD ODP
• 3 Dec:  ICANN's SSAD and Governmental Accreditation Authorities Webinar
• 18 Nov: ICANN Webinar: SSAD ODP Project Update Webinar #4 on the Business Process Design
• 2 Nov: ICANN Update: Contractual Compliance and Identity Verification Methodology
• 28 Oct: ICANN72 Webinar: SSAD ODP Project Update #3
• 24 Sep: ICANN Webinar: SSAD ODP Project Update #2  
• 13 Jul: ICANN Webinar: SSAD ODP Project Update

Additional Work on Subsequent Procedures  

2024

• 18 Jan: GNSO Council resolves to submit the GGP Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Final Report  to the ICANN Board for approval.

2023

• 21 Dec: GNSO Council adopts the GGP Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Final Report .
• 25 Sep: ICANN org publishes the Public Comment Summary Report on the GGP Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Initial Report.
• 31 Jul - 11 Sep: GGP Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Initial Report out for public comment

2022

• 21 Nov: GGP on Applicant Support kicks off.
• 20 Oct: Mike Silber was confirmed by Council as the Chair for the GGP.
• 25 Aug: Council resolved unanimously to initiate the GGP using a "Representative + Observers" WG model with each SG/C/AC to be invited to nominate a representative. The GGP will start with Applicant Support first, with the possibility of adding further topics down the line.
• 12 Aug: Council is expected to consider and vote on a new version of the GGP on Application Support. In brief, this version of the GPP on Application Support proposes as follows: 
  • A (smaller) Working Group employing a “Representative + Observers” model, to conduct and conclude its work, and oversight activities, in an efficient/effective manner while allowing for inclusive community participation. GNSO Council retains oversight, as with any GNSO WG.
  • Each AC/SG, ASO and ccNSO may appoint 1 Member to the WG, who are expected to represent the view of their appointing organization and may be called on to provide the official position of their appointing
    organization and will be responsible for participating in GGP consensus calls. Appointing organizations may replace their Member(s) at their discretion.
  • Members must either possess a level of expertise in previous deliberations and/or knowledge that may have been lacking during those initial deliberations.
  • The WG has the flexibility/discretion to rely on Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in specific fields to aid in deliberations for certain tasks, but these SMEs will not be considered as Members of the WG.
  • The GNSO Liaison to the ODP may serve as an non-voting member of the WG to advise on issues discussed within the SubPro PDP.
• 21 Jul: Council considered a late proposed amendment to the substantive motion to establish a GGP to work just on Applicant Support. The amendment received some support and it was decided to defer this issue to Council's August 2022 meeting to allow opportunity to incorporate supported element(s) into the substantive motion for Council's consideration.
• 15 Jun: Council to proceed with a motion in its Jul meeting to establish a GGP to work just on Applicant Support through a Steering Committee (of a representative+observer model) with ultimate oversight by Council. This GGP is the proposed mechanism to address SubPro Implementation Guidance 17.5, which suggests the creation of a dedicated IRT and it be charged “with developing implementation elements of the Applicant Support Program. In conducting its work, the Implementation Review Team should revisit the 2011 Final Report of the Joint Applicant Support Working Group as well as the 2012 implementation of the Applicant Support program.” This dedicated IRT was to be charged with making substantive decisions on outreach activities and allocation of scarce resources (e.g., when there are more qualified applicants than available funds), among other activities.
• 19 May: Council to explore (intersessionally) the Draft New gTLD Subsequent Procedures GNSO Guidance Process (GPP) Initiation Request.
• 5 May: Council received a Draft New gTLD Subsequent Procedures GNSO Guidance Process (GPP) Initiation Request for its consideration. This will likely be discussed at Council's May 2022 meeting.
• 9 Mar: Based on GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update - Question set #2, Council discussed options for the way forward to deal with a number of areas possibly considered as incomplete in terms policy-development: including on Applicant Support, SPIRT, challenges and appeals. But Council has yet to determine the mechanism to adopt. 

Closed Generics

2024

   *22 Jan: ICANN Board communicates decision on Closed Generic to ALAC and GNSO Council, "the Board has considered the GAC Advice and has determined that closed generic gTLD applications will not be permitted until such time as there is an approved methodology and criteria to evaluate whether or not a proposed closed domain is in the public interest.” 

2023

• 16 Nov: ALAC submits Advice on Closed Generics to the ICANN Board.
• After attempts by the GNSO, GAC and ALAC Chairs to prepare a joint letter to the Board regarding the output of the Dialogue on Closed Generics and next steps did not succeed:
  • GAC and ALAC sent a joint letter of 13 October to the Board;
  • GNSO Council sent its own letter of 21 October to the Board.
• 24 Aug: Council update on status of Closed Generics
• 15 Jul: Comments on Draft framework for Closed Generics due
• End May: Draft framework for Closed Generics expected to be delivered to the ALAC, GAC, GNSO and other SOACs for community input.
• 11 Mar: (CG) GNSO-GAC-ALAC Dialogue face-to-face meeting
• 31 Jan: (CG): GNSO-GAC-ALAC Dialogue face-to-face meeting.

2022

• 2 Sep: (CG): Council leadership initiates selection by SGs for their representatives for the dialogue.
• 9 Aug: (CG): ALAC receives invitation to formally join GNSO and GAC as parties to the Dialogue on Closed Generics.
• 21 Jul: (CG): Still awaiting convening of the Dialogue, which is inter alia subject to the identification/nomination of representatives from the GNSO and GAC.
• 29 Jun: (CG): Council has sent a letter to the Board and the GAC relaying its recommendations on the GAC-GNSO Dialogue; cc-ed to ALAC Chair, appending the Jun 2022 report of the Council Small Team on Closed Generics.
• 15 Jun: (CG): Council has agreed to relay its recommendations to the Board and GAC as the next step leading to the start of the GAC-GNSO Dialogue, with ALAC participation.  
• 19 May (CG): Council Chair Philippe Fouquart received a reply from Maarten Botterman to Council's 27 Apr letter; inter alia encourages GAC and Council to confer on the question of ALAC's participation in the consultative process.
• 5 May (CG): Council's reconstituted Small Team now comprises Paul McGrady (NCA-Non CPH), Kurt Pritz (RySG), Manju Chen (NCSG), Jeff Neuman (GNSO Liaison to GAC), Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to GNSO), Greg Dibiase (RrSG), Desiree Miloshevic (NCA-CPH), and Marie Pattulo (CSG); also Council leadership comprising Philippe Fouquart, Sebastien Ducos, and Tomslin Samme-Nlar.
• 27 Apr (CG): Council replied to the ICANN Board, accepting the invitation for a facilitated dialogue with the GAC on Closed Generics.
  • In its reply, Council noted there being no SubPro recommendation to change current policy on Closed Generics, the approach for the immediate next round of New gTLD applications would be out of harmony with GAC Advice on Closed Generics (namely that closed generics ought to serve a public interest goal).
  • Council stated that Council will pursue next steps for the dialogue (a) on the basis of the Board having asked that its facilitated dialogue be limited to making Closed Generics available with restrictions, including for eg. that they serve a public interest goal; (b) subject to mutual agreement with the GAC on conditions for that dialogue.
  • Council also noted to the Board, NCSG's opposition to the limited dialogue party approach. 
  • (NB. The earlier convened Council small team will now be reconstituted with a larger/more representative membership of Councillors to develop conditions for the dialogue)
• 22 Apr (GC): GAC responded to the Board's 6 Mar and 10 Mar letters, raising points on the ICANN Org's Framing Paper.
• 6 Apr (CG): Council CGs Framing Paper Small Team convened with narrow remit of "proposing to Council next steps in responding to the Board proposal (i.e., whether or not the Council is open to working with the GAC on developing a framework for closed generics)" – Council to decide.
• 30 Mar (CG): Board replied to GAC's 10 Mar letter, acknowledging GAC’s willingness to have ALAC participate in the consultation process; encourages GAC and GNSO Council to consider this matter as part of the discussions regarding the proposed dialogue.
• 15 Mar (CG): Council to convene small team to review the ICANN Org's framework paper regarding the Board-facilitated dialogue between GNSO-GAC, and to suggest next steps.
• 10 Mar (CG):  Further to the 7 Mar correspondence, the Board forwarded ICANN Org's Framing Paper for the dialogue on Closed Generics.
• 10 Mar (CG): GAC replied to the Board's 6 Mar letter, agreeing to participate in dialogue and welcomed participation from the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) in this consultation process.
• 6 Mar (CG): ICANN Board wrote to the GAC and Council requesting for facilitated dialogue on way forward with Closed Generics (CG).

Potential Council next steps regarding DNS abuse  – TO MONITOR THIS FOR RE-ACTIVATION.

2023

• 29 Jun: Council replies to RrSG, RySG, Contractual Compliance and DNSAI on Bulk registrations.
• 15 May: Council's small team shared its initial feedback regarding the input received on the issue of bulk registrations.

 * 25 Apr: ICANN announced its funding of a new project called Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) to explore drivers of malicious domain name registrations.

• 20 Apr: Council has determined that this small team should continue its work reviewing the replies received from RySG, RrSG, ICANN Contractual Compliance and DNS Abuse Institute to the two 6 Jan letters. This Council small team now has a refreshed membership of Thomas Rickert, Mark Datysgeld, Wisdom Donkor, Theo Geurts, Sebastien Ducos, Greg DiBiase, Tomslin Samme-Nlar, Paul McGrady, Nacho Amadoz and Justine Chew.

 * 19 Apr: Justine's 4th presentation on a summary of the replies below

• 13 Mar: RrSG reply re: Bulk Registrations
• 7 Mar: CPH (RySG & RrSG) reply re: Targeted contractual amendments
• 3 Mar: RySG reply re: Bulk Registrations
• 27 Feb: DNSAI reply re: Bulk Registrations
• 23 Feb: ICANN Contractual Compliance reply re: Bulk Registrations
• 6 Jan: GNSO Council letters (borne out of the work of the GNSO Council Small Team on DNS Abuse) have been distributed and posted:
  • The DNS Abuse - Targeted contractual amendments letter to RrSG & RySG
  • The DNS Abuse – Bulk Registrations letter to RrSG, RySG, DNSAI, ICANN Contractual Compliance

2022

• 15 Dec: Leadership of Council's small team on DNS abuse has prepared the draft letter to the Contracted Parties for Council's approval, per the small team's Recommendation #4
• 17 Nov: Council has accepted the small team's report, containing 4 recommendations, delivered on 10 October. For more specific details on the recommendations and action, refer to the 17 Nov Special Summary Report.
• 20 Oct: Council acknowledged the Small Team's report and recommendations; acquiesced to the Small Team regrouping to work on Recommendation #4 (drafting of letter to Contracted Parties).
• 10 Oct:  Small Team's final report and recommendations were submitted to GNSO Council for consideration.
• 21 Sep:  Small Team's draft report and recommendations were presented and discussed at ALAC-GNSO meeting at ICANN75.

  *17 Aug: Justine's 3rd Presentation to CPWG on Small Team deliberations on comments received from SGs/Cs/DNSAI; + discussion on draft report

• 4 Aug: Small Team completes deliberation on comments received from outreach exercise and moves onto producing their report

  *20 Jul: Justine's 2nd Presentation to CPWG on Small Team deliberations on comments received from ALAC, GAC, SSAC

• 16 Jun: Small Team conducts meeting at ICANN 74
• 2 Jun: Small Team begins review of responses from Contractual Compliance. 

  *25 May: Justine's 1st Presentation to CPWG on responses from Contractual Compliance

• 19 May: Small Team completes review of comments received from outreach to ALAC, GAC, SSAC and DNSAI, as well as SGs (RySG) and Cs (BC).
• 20 Apr: ALAC input to 7 Mar letter considered by Small Team and well received, in general.
• 6 Apr: Input received from BC. Small Team met, to proceed with info gathering from Contractual Compliance in respect of action to do with DNS Abuse vis a vis Contracted Parties. Still awaiting input from other SG/Cs.
• 4 Apr: Small Team received responses from ALAC, GAC, SSAC and DNSAI to 7 Mar letters. Small Team to meet 6 Apr.
• 18 Mar: Reply date for 7 Mar letter to ALAC extended to 4 Apr.
• 7 Mar: Council issued letters to ALAC, GAC, SSAC and the DNS Abuse Institute (DNSAI) to seek input on what DNS abuse issues are best mitigated via policy development specifically, if any, as a mechanism to help determine the Council’s next steps on DNS abuse; to reply by 21 Mar. Input to be sought from each SG also. More respondents may be approached at a later date. 
• 9 Feb: Small Team initial meeting. Updates to be provided at Council Meeting #2 of 2022.
• 4 Feb: Council small team (comprising Thomas Rickert, Mark Datysgeld, Wisdom Donkor, Maxim Alzoba, Sebastien Ducos, Greg DiBiase, and Justine Chew, also Philippe Fouquart, Tomslin Samme-Nlar, and Paul McGrady) set to begin work on 9 Feb.

2021

• 28 Oct: A Council small team (comprising Thomas Rickert, Mark Datysgeld, Wisdom Donkor, Kristian Ormen, Maxim Alzoba, Sebastien Ducos) to draft potential GNSO Council next steps regarding DNS abuse. 

Subsequent Procedures Operational Design Phase (SubPro ODP) and Subsequent Procedures Operational Design Assessment (SubPro ODA);  See: https://www.icann.org/subpro-odp for more official info.

2023 - Post ODA

   *16 Mar: ICANN Board resolves during its Board Meeting at ICANN76 to adopt the SubPro Outputs in Section A of its "Scorecard on Subsequent Procedures PDP" (Scorecard); marking 38 Outputs in Section B of the Scorecard as "pending" and noting ongoing community discussions relating to Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 23: Closed Generics, and Topic 25: Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), as well as additional dependencies concerning specific Review Team Recommendations, the Name Collision Analysis Project Study 2 Report (NCAP2), and other items noted in Section C of the Scorecard.

   *12 Mar: Subsequent Procedures: Issues and Next Steps at ICANN76

   *1 Mar: SubPro ODP Status Update at ICANN76 Prep Week

2023 - ODA

• 28 Feb: ICANN Board Chair replies to GNSO Chair's letter of 20 Jan on GNSO Council review and input for the SubPro ODA
• 28 Feb: ICANN Board and GNSO Joint Meeting on SubPro discussion.
• 16 Feb: GNSO Council to prepare for a joint meeting with the Board. 
• 20 Jan: GNSO Chair letter on the SubPro ODA input sent to ICANN Board Chair
• 19 Jan: Council Small Team on SubPro ODA prepares input concentrating on identifying areas of ICANN org analysis that may not be true to the intent of the SubPro Final Report, as well as developing impressions of Option 2 contained in the ODA. Given the tight timelines, there will not be adequate time for the small team to provide draft input to Council by it January meeting. Accordingly, the expectation is that the input, delivered on [date], shall be sent to the Board, but include the caveat that it was not formally adopted by Council.

2022

• 15 Dec: Council constitutes a Small Team comprising Anne Aikman-Scalese (NCA), Jeff Neuman (GNSO Liaison to SubPro ODP), Thomas Rickert (ISCP), Sebastien Ducos (RySG), Susan Payne (IPC) and Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to GNSO) to establish if there were questions or clarifications needed to be relayed to the ICANN Org SubPro Team; and likely comments to be relayed to the ICANN Board.

   *14 Dec: ICANN org (SubPro ODP Team) to host a community webinar on the SubPro ODA on Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 13:00–15:00 and 20:00–22:00 UTC

   *12 Dec: SubPro ODP Team delivers SubPro ODA to ICANN Board

• 8 Dec: SubPro ODP Team blogs on Work Track 9: Overarching Considerations 
• 7 Dec: SubPro ODP Team to conduct a SubPro ODA GNSO Council Specific Webinar (prior to release of the ODA)
• 7 Dec: SubPro ODP Team blogs on Work Track 8: Finance 
• 2 Dec: SubPro ODP Team blogs on Work Track 7: Resource Staffing, Logistics 
• 12 Nov: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update - Relay of Question set #6

   *8 Nov: SubPro ODP Team releases Assumptions Subsequent Procedures ODP v.6

• 2 Nov: SubPro ODP Team blogs on Work Track 6: Communications and Outreach

   *14 Oct: SubPro ODP Team releases SubPro ODP Community Status Update #4 (last of four planned updates). The output of this ODP (i.e. the ODA - Operational Design Assessment)  is now expected to be completed on 9 Nov and delivered to the ICANN Board on 12 Dec.

• 6 Sep: SubPro ODP Team blogs on Work Track 5: Vendor Procurement

   *15 Aug: SubPro ODP Team releases SubPro ODP Community Status Update #3 (the 3rd of four planned updates) which refers to Assumptions Subsequent Procedures ODP v.5. The last update is scheduled for 15 Oct.

• 25 Aug: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison submits Question set #5 REPLY
• 2 Aug: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update - Reminder on Question set #5
• 29 Jul: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison submits Question set #4 REPLY
• 20 Jul: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update - Question set #4 finalization and Relay of Question set #5
  • Question set #5 sought clarity on the Predictability  Framework
• 12 Jul: SubPro ODP Team blogs on Work Track 4: Systems & Tools
• 8 Jul: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison submits Question set #3 REPLY
• 30 Jun - 15 Jul: Council Small Team comprising Jeff Neuman (GNSO Liaison to SubPro ODP), Paul McGrady (NCA-Non CPH), Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to GNSO), Desiree Miloshevic (NCA-CPH), and Flip Petillion (IPC) worked on replies to Question set #4.
• 30 Jun: Question set #3 REPLY finalized
• 26 May: SubPro ODP Team blogs on Work Track 3: Operational Readiness
• 26 May: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison submits Question set #2 REPLY

   *25 May: SubPro ODP Team releases Assumptions Subsequent Procedures ODP v.4

• 19 May: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update - Relay of Question set #4 and SubPro Topic Assumptions
  • Question set #4 sought clarity on 10 topics

   *16 May: SubPro ODP Team releases SubPro ODP Community Status Update #2, the 2nd of four planned updates. The next update is scheduled for 15 Aug.

• 12 Apr: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update - Relay of Question set #3
  • Question set #3 sought clarity on String Similarity

   *29 Apr: SubPro ODP Team releases Assumptions Subsequent Procedures ODP v.3  

   *28 Mar: SubPro ODP Team releases SubPro ODP Community Status Update #1, the 1st of four planned updates. The next update is scheduled for 16 May.

   *23 Mar: SubPro ODP Team releases Initial & Overarching Assumptions Subsequent Procedures ODP v.2

   *28 Feb: SubPro ODP Team releases Initial Assumption Subsequent Procedures ODP v.1

• 14 Feb: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update - Relay of Question set #2
  • Question set #2 sought clarity on the Dedicated IRT for Application Support Program
• 25 Jan: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update #5 - Third call with ICANN's SubPro ODP Team
• 21 Jan: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison submits Question set #1 REPLY
• 18 Jan: SubPro ODP Team blogs on SubPro ODP Work Tracks 
• 9 Jan: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update #4 - Second call with ICANN's SubPro ODP Team
• 3 Jan: Actual SubPro ODP Launch date

2021

• 20 Dec:  ICANN org announces that ICANN GDS has informed ICANN Board that it is beginning this ODP in January 2022.
• 16 Dec:  Council mainly considered the process for SubPro ODP interactions between the GNSO ODP Liaison and the ICANN Org's SubPro ODP Team - Councillors are meant to take suggested responses of the GSNO ODP Liaison to SubPro ODP Team's preliminary questions (Question Set #1) back to their respective SG/C for feedback to enable finalization and timeous relay of agreed responses to the SubPro ODP Team. ICANN Org has a public archive of engagement on the topic. 
• 1 Dec: SubPro ODP Team blogs on answers to questions regarding the SubPro ODP
• 1 Dec: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update #3 - First call with GDS (ICANN's SubPro ODP Team)
• 22 Nov: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update #2. ICANN Org is still in internal project organization mode although GDD has posed a first set of questions to the GNSO ODP Liaison, Jeff Neuman. Formal kick-off of the ODP only expected at end of Nov 2021, thereafter proceeds for an approximate 10 months.
• 18 Nov: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update - Relay of Question set #1
  • Question set #1 sought clarity on (i) Applications Assessed in Rounds, (ii) RVCs & PICs, specifically on DNS Abuse Mitigation (iii) Applicant Reviews, and (iv) Auctions.
• 16 Nov: GNSO SubPro ODP Liaison update #1

Specific Curative Rights Protection for IGOs EPDP

2023

    * 30 Apr: The ICANN Board resolves to adopt the four recommendations that the GNSO Council approved from the IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms PDP and the five recommendations that the GNSO Council approved from the EPDP on Specific Curative Rights Protections for IGOs; and directed ICANN org to proceed with the implementation of these recommendations as soon as feasible.

• 11 Jan: ICANN Board & GNSO Council joint meeting took place.

2022

   * 28 Nov 2022 - 16 Jan 2023: The ICANN Board seeks community input on the GNSO Council’s June 2022, supermajority adoption of the EPDP Team’s Final Report on Specific Curative Rights Protections for International Governmental Organizations (IGOs). The inputs received will help inform the ICANN Board’s deliberations as they consider the GNSO’s adopted recommendations.

• 15 June: Council resolved unanimously to approve all 5 recommendations in the Final Report.
• 19 May: Council was meant to consider and vote on a motion to approve the recommendations in the Final Report but eventually resolved to defer the vote to Council's June 2022 meeting to allow the RrSG time for further consideration prior to the vote.
• 14 Apr: Council was informed that this EPDP Team reached full consensus on its five recommendations and delivered its Final Report on 4 April 2022. Council also received an overview of the five recommendations of the EPDP. Council will be voting on those five recommendations in May 2022.

2021

• 16 Dec: Council approved a Project Change Request (PCR) to extend this EPDP WG's project timeline to 4 Apr 2022 to deliver its final report, while noting RrSG concerns around the EPDP moving out of the scope of its charter
• 18 Nov: EPDP WG currently reviewing comments received on its 6 recommendations, for purposes of producing its Final Report. Project plan is expected to be extended from end 2021 to some time in Q1 of 2022
• 24 Oct: Public Comment on the EPDP WG's Initial Report closed 

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2024 held on 18 July 2024 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2024 held on 18 Jul 2024

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • GNSO PR Officer - Roles & Responsibilities
  • Confirmation of GNSO nominees to the Pilot Holistic Review
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy Check-in
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Review of GAC Communiqué
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update from Small Team Plus on Singulars/Plurals
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Supplemental Recommendations - Non-Adopted Recommendations
• Item 9: COUNCIL UPDATE - Intellectual Property Constituency Request for Reconsideration
• Item 10: Any Other Business

  • 10.1 - Aspirational Statement

  • 10.2 - SPS Actions Follow-up

    • Recommendations Report
    • Public Comment Review
    • Board Readiness

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large 

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 16 May 2024 were posted on 01 June  2024.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 12 June 2024 were posted on 01 July 2024.
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests
  
  • On 18 May 2019, the ICANN Board adopted the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data to enable contracted parties to continue to comply with existing ICANN contractual requirements and community-developed policies as they relate to registration directory services. GNSO Council initiated a one-year policy development process to confirm whether or not the Temporary Specification should become a consensus policy, and whether it provided an enduring framework for complying with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 
  • The EPDP Team sent its Phase 1 Final Report to Council on 20 February 2019, and Council voted to approve the Final Report on 4 March 2019. The Board subsequently adopted the Phase 1 Final Report on 15 May 2019, with the exception of Recommendation 1, Purpose 2, and Recommendation 12, which the Board did not adopt in full. The Board directed the ICANN President and CEO or their designee(s) to implement the policy recommendations. 
  • ICANN org convened an Implementation Review Team, which began meeting in May 2019. ICANN org published the draft Registration Data Policy for public comment on 24 August 2022. Several commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of Recommendation 18, specifically around the issue of the response timeline for urgent requests. The relevant portion of Recommendation 18 reads, “A separate timeline of [less than X business days] will considered [sic] for the response to ‘Urgent’ Reasonable Disclosure Requests, those Requests for which evidence is supplied to show an immediate need for disclosure [time frame to be finalized and criteria set for Urgent requests during implementation].”
  • Following the public comment period and subsequent discussion by the Implementation Review Team, the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) wrote to the Board about the topic of urgent requests on 23 August 2023. The Registrar Stakeholder Group wrote to the Board on 8 September 2023 in response to the GAC’s letter.
  • Following the receipt of these letters and further communication amongst Board members, the Board sent a letter to the GNSO Council on 3 June 2024, expressing its concerns with the text of Recommendation 18 related to urgent requests. 
  • Council will discuss the concerns raised in the Board’s letter and discuss next steps in light of the concerns.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy Check-in
  • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts before making a recommendation to Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 
  • The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). 
  • On 19 October 2023, ICANN org provided an update on Registration Data Accuracy efforts, and Council discussed the update during its 16 November 2023 meeting. During that meeting, some Councilors noted that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement, (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to reconvene the Accuracy Scoping Team.  Council voted to extend the deferral of the Accuracy Scoping Team’s recommendations by another six months during its meeting on 15 February 2024. During this meeting, Council agreed to check in on the progress of these items during its June 2024 meeting.

  • Following the ICANN80 GNSO Council Wrap-Up, the GNSO Council Chair asked Councilors to consider the following questions: 

    1. Evaluation of Proposed Alternatives: In its write-up, ICANN noted limitations in processing data for the purpose of assessing accuracy and proposed two alternatives (analyzing historical audit data and engagement with Contracted Parties on ccTLD practices – see detail below). Is pursuing these alternatives worthwhile? If not, are there other alternatives for obtaining data Council should consider?
    2. Consideration of Scoping Team Restart: Given the limitations with respect to access to data, would there be value in restarting the Scoping Team at this time?
    3. Advancing the Topic: If restarting the Scoping Team at this time is not deemed advisable, what other ideas do you have to advance this topic given its importance to the ICANN community?
  • Council will discuss the above questions and determine next steps.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update from Small Team Plus on Singulars/Plurals
  
  • In March 2023, the ICANN Board approved the majority of the recommendations contained in the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP, but also placed some recommendations into a pending status. Council convened a small team that worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve all pending recommendations. While the majority of the pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, recommendations across six Topics were non adopted by the ICANN Board. 

  • Council tasked the Small Team Plus with developing Supplemental Recommendations on five of the six Topics, i.e., Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Applicant Support, Terms and Conditions, String Similarity Evaluations, and Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanisms. Based on the expected implementation as it relates to the Continued Operations Instrument (COI), the Small Team Plus determined it was unnecessary to develop a Supplemental Recommendation for Topic 22: Registrant Protections. The Small Team Plus developed Supplemental Recommendations for all five topics and shared them with the Council.

  • Because of information received just prior to Council consideration in April 2024, Council elected to defer consideration of the Supplemental Recommendation related to String Similarity Evaluations, or more specifically, singular/plurals. The new information received was a strawperson developed by ICANN org, which provided a potential path forward for singular/plurals. The Council asked to consider whether it felt that the strawperson was promising enough to task the Small Team Plus considering whether strawperson, or and amended version, could be agreed upon.

  • Council will receive an update from the  Small Team Plus on Singulars/Plurals
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Supplemental Recommendations - Non-Adopted Recommendations
  • As mentioned above, the ICANN Board had not adopted recommendations across six topics from the new gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP (i.e., Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Applicant Support, Terms and Conditions, String Similarity Evaluations, and Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanisms. Based on the expected implementation as it relates to the Continued Operations Instrument (COI)).
  • At Council's direction, the Small Team Plus developed Supplemental Recommendations for five topics and shared them with Council and on 18 April 2024, Council voted to approve these Supplemental Recommendations for the non-adopted SubPro recommendations. The Small Team Plus determined it was unnecessary to develop a Supplemental Recommendation for Topic 22: Registrant Protections.  
  • On 8 June 2024, the ICANN Board adopted the following scorecard, wherein it approved the Supplemental Recommendations related to Topic 17: Applicant Support and Topic 32: Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanism. The Board did not adopt the Supplemental Recommendations related to Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments and Topic 18: Terms & Conditions. 
  • Council will discuss whether any further actions should be pursued for any of the non-adopted Supplemental Recommendations.
• Item 9: COUNCIL UPDATE - Intellectual Property Constituency Request for Reconsideration

  • On 22 November 2023, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) filed a Request for Reconsideration  of the ICANN Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.122, regarding (i) the actions and inactions that led to (a) the ICANN Board’s public comment of 6 December 2018 on the Initial Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP), (b) the organization of the public comment phase on the Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group, (c) the ICANN Board Resolutions 2022.06.12.13 to 2022.06.12.16 , and (ii) the actions and inactions involving the implementation of the ICANN Grant Giving Program.

  • During its meeting at ICANN80, a few GNSO Councilors volunteered to draft a letter to the Board regarding the Request for Reconsideration.

  • Council will hear an update on the draft letter and discuss potential next steps for the Council, if any.

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2024 held on 18 Jul 2024 at 13:00 UTC: https://tinyurl.com/mud7kn9k

06:00 Los Angeles; 09:00 Washington DC; 14:00 London; 15:00 Paris; 16:00 Moscow; 23:00 Melbourne

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: https://icann.zoom.us/j/92283565389?pwd=QnlHK1JSbzdiSFFZSjRjamxMTkNGdz09

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the meeting or call as listen-only observers.

GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2024 held on 12 June 2024 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2024 held on 12 Jun 2024

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • GNSO Council Aspirational Statement (WITHDRAWN)
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Request for Policy Status Report - Expiration Policies
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy Check-in
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Draft Charter
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN org Implementation Update - Second-Level International Governmental Organizations (IGO) Protections
• Item 8: COUNCIL UPDATE - Update on the Internet Governance Forum Support Association (“IGFSA”)
• Item 9: COUNCIL DISCUSSION: Updated Work from Council Strategic Planning Session (“SPS”)
• Item 10: Any Other Business
  • 10.1 - ccNSO Liaison update (tentative)
    • Joint Meeting: ccNSO & GNSO Councils on 11 July 2024
  • 10.2 - PPSAI Call for Volunteers
  • 10.3 - Open Mic

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large (updated on 14 May)

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 18 April 2024 were posted on 03 May 2024.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 16 May 2024 were posted on 01 June  2024.
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Request for Policy Status Report - Expiration Policies
  • Council previously considered when to request a Policy Status Report (“PSR”) for the purpose of conducting a review of the two Expiration Policies, the Expired Domain Name Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”). In November 2020, given concerns about its capacity and no known issues with the policies, the Council agreed to delay the request for the Policy Status Report (PSR) for a period of 24 months. After 24 months had passed, the Council reconsidered whether it was an appropriate time to request a PSR. 
  • Before voting whether to further defer the request, Council agreed that it would be helpful to consult with both registrars and ICANN org to assist in determining whether there are any known issues or concerns with either of the two Expiration Policies which could warrant requesting a PSR. 
  • During its 16 May 2024 meeting, Council discussed the option of adding the PSR request to ICANN org’s queue of work instead of deferring the request for two years, noting the PSR analysis should be completed but not as an urgent priority.
  • Council will vote to request ICANN org to deliver a PSR in one (1) year or to confirm that work on the PSR has begun and deliver an updated estimate on when the PSR should be delivered, in one (1) year. (voting threshold: simple majority)
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy Check-in
  • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts before making a recommendation to Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 
  • The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). 
  • On 19 October 2023, ICANN org provided an update on Registration Data Accuracy efforts, and Council discussed the update during its 16 November 2023 meeting. During that meeting, some Councilors noted that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement, (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to reconvene the Accuracy Scoping Team.  Council voted to extend the deferral of the Accuracy Scoping Team’s recommendations by another six months during its meeting on 15 February 2024. During this meeting, Council agreed to check in on the progress of these items during its June 2024 meeting.
  • Council will discuss the status of accuracy discussions and consider ICANN org’s proposed next steps for addressing the charter topics and informing further community discussions, factoring in the legal as well as resource limitations that exist. Specifically, ICANN org suggested (1) providing historical data via ICANN’s existing audit program and (2) engaging with contracted parties on current European ccTLD identity verification practices.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Draft Charter
  • Council enlisted a Drafting Team to develop a draft charter for the SPIRT, which is a standing implementation review team recommended in the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Report. 

  • When relevant issues arise during the course of the New gTLD Program that may need to be addressed, the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) will utilize the Predictability Framework. The GNSO Council shall be responsible for oversight of the SPIRT.

  • In developing the draft charter, the Drafting Team considered elements such as the composition of the SPIRT, how issues are raised to the SPIRT procedurally, the operating principles and decision-making of the SPIRT, et.al. The New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Report included an annex that provides detailed guidance on how the SPIRT should operate. 
  • Council will receive a presentation on the draft charter from its liaison to the Charter Drafting Team.
• Item 8: COUNCIL UPDATE - Update on the Internet Governance Forum Support Association (“IGFSA”)
  • The Internet Governance Forum Support Association is an independent membership association established in September 2014 to support the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and to provide financial and other support for National and Regional IGFs (NRIs) around the world. 
  • The IGFSA will provide an overview of its mission and recent work to Council.

GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2024 held on 12 Jun 2024 at 11:45 UTC: https://tinyurl.com/yeykc7fm 

04:45 Los Angeles; 07:45 Washington DC; 12:45 London; 13:45 Paris; 14:45 Moscow; 21:45 Melbourne

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: refer to ICANN80 Schedule - Zoom link to be shared 24 hours in advance

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the meeting or call as listen-only observers.

Records of 12 Jun 2024 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 12 Jun 2024 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Jun 2024 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Jun 2024 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• The agenda item (along with a vote) on the GNSO Council Aspirational Statement was withdrawn.

2. Registration Data Accuracy

• The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts before making a recommendation to Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 
• The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). 
• On 19 October 2023, ICANN org provided an update on Registration Data Accuracy efforts, and Council discussed the update during its 16 November 2023 meeting. During that meeting, some Councilors noted that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement, (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to reconvene the Accuracy Scoping Team.  Council voted to extend the deferral of the Accuracy Scoping Team’s recommendations by another six months during its meeting on 15 February 2024. During this meeting, Council agreed to check in on the progress of these items during its June 2024 meeting.
• Council considered the status of accuracy discussions and the need to better inform the ICANN community, especially the GAC, on the factors around the legal as well as resource limitations that are holding Council from future action. 
• Councill will revisit action needed in the short term.

3. Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Draft Charter 

• The formation of the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (SPIRT, pronounced as 'SPIRIT') is the result of Recommendation 2.1 of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Report, a recommendation that the Board has since adopted.
• The role of the SPIRT is to serve as the body responsible for reviewing potential issues which may arise during the course of the New gTLD Program (Next Round and beyond) application and evaluation processes AFTER the next Applicant Guidebook (AGB) has been approved by the Board, by conducting analysis utilizing the Predictability Framework, and to recommend the process/mechanism that should be followed to address those issues. The Predictability Framework is found in Annex E of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Report and it provides detailed guidance on how the SPIRT should operate.
• Council received a presentation on the draft charter from its liaison to the Charter Drafting Team which touched on several key aspects being discussed by the Drafting Team working group: composition of the SPIRT, how issues are raised to the SPIRT procedurally, the operating principles and decision-making of the SPIRT, etc, while considering the Predictability Framework.
• Work continues at the Drafting Team working group level.

4. Deferral of Policy Status Report Request - Expiration Policies

• Council had previously considered when to request a Policy Status Report (“PSR”) for the purpose of conducting a review of the two Expiration Policies, the Expired Domain Name Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”). In November 2020, given concerns about its capacity and no known issues with the policies, the Council agreed to delay the request for the Policy Status Report (PSR) for a period of 24 months. After 24 months had passed, Council reconsidered whether it was an appropriate time to request a PSR.
• In July 2022, Council agreed that it would be helpful to consult with both registrars and ICANN org to help determine if there are any known issues or concerns with either of the two Expiration Policies which could warrant requesting a PSR. 

• In making its decision whether to request to a PSR at this time, Council consulted: 

  1. Registrars, who were asked to flag substantial issues with the policies that would warrant a near-term request for PSR and did not note any issues
  2. ICANN Compliance, who provided a write-up, noting confusion with key terms in the policy and persistent registrant confusion with the auto-renew grace period and aftermarket activities, et al.
  3. ICANN org Registrant Program, which provided a catalog of the available educational resources on domain name expiration and renewal (Brian Gutterman’s update at Council)
• Council then determined that the EDDP and ERRP seem to have been implemented as intended and imminent policy work is not needed at this time, and so, considered to pursue a PSR on the Expiration Policies in two years' time, or earlier, if a need is determined and it is requested.
• Primarily at the request of IPC, this decision for a deferral of the PSR was deferred yet again, to Council's Jun 2024 meeting. IPC's belief that the request for a PSR should proceed now since it would take some time for it to be actioned by ICANN org staff, and IPC had wanted a bit more time to shore up its representation on this issue.
• After much deliberation, Council has now resolved to request ICANN org to deliver a PSR in one (1) year or to confirm that work on the PSR has begun and deliver an updated estimate on when the PSR should be delivered, in one (1) year. 

5. Internet Governance Forum Support Association (“IGFSA”)

• Council received a presentation on the mission and work of the Internet Governance Forum Support Association which is an independent membership association established in September 2014 to support the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and to provide financial and other support for National and Regional IGFs (NRIs) around the world. 
• This is an outreach by the IGFSA, asking for Councilors to help create awareness of IGFSA to garner support for its activities and to grow IGFSA's organisational and individual membership.
• Note: The At-Large will receive a similar outreach presentation at the ICANN80 At-Large Leadership Wrap Up Session.

GNSO Council Meeting #5 of 2024 held on 16 May 2024 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #5 of 2024 held on 16 May 2024 (updated on 15 May)

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • GNSO Liaison to the Governmental Advisory Committee
  • Council Response to Board Letter on CCWG Auction Proceeds Recommendation 7
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Request for Preliminary Issue Report for Diacritics in Latin Script
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Deferral of Policy Status Report Request - Expiration Policies
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (“CCOICI”) Pilot Survey Results
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Intellectual Property Constituency Request for Reconsideration
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Review of Action Decision Radar
• Item 9: GNSO Council Aspirational Statement 

• Item 10: Any Other Business

  • 10.1 - Update on ICANN80 planning and GNSO Draft schedule

  • 10.2 - ccNSO & GAC Liaison updates (every three months)

  • 10.3 - SPS Action Item Updates: Recommendation Reports and GNSO Liaisons to WGs

  • 10.4 - Call for Volunteers - Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation Review Team (PPSAI)

  • 10.5 - Transfer Policy Review Working Group participation (see letter)
  • 10.6 - Pre-ICANN80 GNSO Policy Webinar on Tuesday, 21 May at 21:00 UTC - Note: GNSO Councilor Attendance is mandatory
  • 10.7 - Informal meeting with ICANN Board on Monday, 20 May at 13:00 UTC

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large (updated on 15 May)

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 06 March 2024 were posted on 23 March 2024.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 18 April 2024 were posted on 03 May 2024.
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Request for Preliminary Issue Report for Diacritics in Latin Script
  • Council was made aware of a potential issue whereby future applied-for strings in the Latin script containing diacritics may be confusingly similar to ASCII strings, are non-variants, and the same entity wishes to operate both strings.
  • For background, an applied-for IDN gTLD string in the Latin script containing diacritics, which is NOT an allocatable variant label of the base ASCII string (existing or applied-for) according to RZ-LGR, are sometimes seen as equivalents. In some instances however, the base ASCII string is seen as a workaround and not necessarily “correct”. The base ASCII string and the Latin diacritic string may be determined to be confusingly similar (i.e., in which case, the strings would be placed in a contention set or if an existing gTLD is involved, the applied-for label would not pass the String Similarity Review).

  • During the GNSO Council Meeting at ICANN78 in Hamburg on 25 October 2023, Council received a detailed briefing on this issue and agreed to request a study from ICANN org to help inform Council on the issue of diacritics in Latin Script. Prior to the request being made to ICANN org, the org volunteered to investigate what mechanism or mechanisms might be appropriate to address this issue.

  • Following the discussion during its April 2024 meeting, Council discussed requesting a Preliminary Issue Report on diacritics in the Latin Script. On [date], the request for an Issue Report was circulated to the Council mailing list.

  • Council will vote to request ICANN org to deliver a Preliminary Issue Report on diacritics in the Latin Script.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Deferral of Policy Status Report Request - Expiration Policies
  • Council previously considered when to request a Policy Status Report (“PSR”) for the purpose of conducting a review of the two Expiration Policies, the Expired Domain Name Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”). In November 2020, given concerns about its capacity and no known issues with the policies, the Council agreed to delay the request for the Policy Status Report (PSR) for a period of 24 months. After 24 months had passed, the Council reconsidered whether it was an appropriate time to request a PSR.
  • In July 2022, Council agreed that it would be helpful to consult with both registrars and ICANN org to help determine if there are any known issues or concerns with either of the two Expiration Policies which could warrant requesting a PSR. 

  • In making its decision whether to request to a PSR at this time, Council consulted: 

    1. Registrars, who were asked to flag substantial issues with the policies that would warrant a near-term request for PSR and did not note any issues
    2. ICANN Compliance, who provided a write-up, noting confusion with key terms in the policy and persistent registrant confusion with the auto-renew grace period and aftermarket activities, et al.
    3. ICANN org Registrant Program, which provided a catalog of the available educational resources on domain name expiration and renewal (Brian Gutterman’s update at Council)
  • Council then determined that the EDDP and ERRP seem to have been implemented as intended and imminent policy work is not needed at this time. Accordingly, the GNSO Council will reconsider a PSR on the Expiration Policies in two years time, or earlier, if a need is determined and it is requested.
  • Council will discuss whether to consider a PSR on the Expiration Policies in two years.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Intellectual Property Constituency Request for Reconsideration
  • On 22 November 2023, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) filed a Request for Reconsideration  of the ICANN Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.122, regarding (i) the actions and inactions that led to:
    • (a) the ICANN Board’s public comment of 6 December 2018 on the Initial Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP),
    • (b) the organization of the public comment phase on the Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group,
    • (c) the ICANN Board Resolutions 2022.06.12.13 to 2022.06.12.16 , and (ii) the actions and inactions involving the implementation of the ICANN Grant Giving Program.
  • Council will hear an update on the Request for Consideration and discuss potential next steps for the Council, if any.
• Item 10: Any Other Business
  • 10.4 - Call for Volunteers - Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation Review Team (PPSAI)
  • 10.7 - Informal meeting with ICANN Board on Monday, 20 May at 13:00 UTC

GNSO Council Meeting #5 of 2024 held on 16 May 2024 at 05:00 UTC: https://tinyurl.com/4dthynkr  

22:00 Los Angeles (Wednesday); 01:00 Washington DC; 22:00 London; 06:00 Paris; 08:00 Moscow; 15:00 Melbourne 

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: Zoom link

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the meeting or call as listen-only observers.

Records of 16 May 2024 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 16 May 2024 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council May 2024 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council May 2024 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Council resolved to adopt the revised Description of the role of GNSO Liaison to the Governmental Advisory Committee.
• Council resolved to approved the ICANN Board’s Proposed Amendment to remove the phrase “from the Independent Project Applications Panel” from the Cross-Community Working Group on Auction Proceeds Recommendation 7.

2. Diacritics in Latin Script

• The issue of diacritics in Latin script is not a new one. It first originated, resulting from the 2012 Round, when the registry operator for .Quebec opted to apply for the non-diacritic .quebec label in favour of the label with diacritic “.québec”, but they did not pursue any "formal" remedy to the challenge of also obtaining the “.québec” TLD until more recently, when 4 public comments were submitted in response to the GNSO Call for Public Comments to the Phase 1 Initial Report of the IDNs EPDP in Apr 2023.
• In Jul 2023, GNSO Leadership received a communication from the IDNs-EPDP Chair regarding 4 public comments related to creating an exceptional process by which the existing registry operator for .quebec could apply “.québec” in a future gTLD round ("the .québec issue") being out of scope of the IDNs-EPDP and its Charter, and referred the comments to the GNSO Council for consideration and action as determined appropriate.
• On 17 Aug 2023, GNSO Leadership circulated the 22 Jun 2023 letter from ALAC Chair to the GNSO Chair regarding the Latin script LGR and .québec issue.
• On 24 Aug 2023, Council discussed this issue and, the then GNSO Chair essentially concluded that the issue of .quebec (TLD) not being a variant of “.québec” did not require an immediate resolution and one that did not squarely sit in the remit of the IDNs-EPDP.
• On 23 Sep 2023, the then Council Chair again addressed the issue of accents and diacritics in Latin languages that could be deemed confusingly similar to existing strings or other applications, and suggested chartering something with a narrow scope to ensure that this topic does not slide elsewhere into the string similarity discussion and ensure that solutions are found that match requirements imposed on variants.  ICANN org staff clarified that next steps from the staff perspective would be for Council to request an Issues Report.

• On 25 Oct 2023, Council received a detailed briefing on this issue and agreed to request a study from ICANN org to help inform the GNSO Council on the issue of diacritics in Latin Script. Prior to the request being made to ICANN org, the org volunteered to investigate what mechanism or mechanisms might be appropriate to address this issue. Since then, Council had for several months deferred discussing a way forward to address the issue as GNSO support staff had indicated that a proposal for a solution was being worked on which might alleviate the need for a study request which Council had been mooting earlier.

• The issue finally returned to Council's agenda in Apr 2024, where after much discussion, Council concluded that GNSO support staff's suggested way forward was neither feasible nor desirable (see my Apr 2024 report), and as a result, Council reinforced its agreement to request an Issue Report on diacritics in Latin script. Since this could only be actioned through a Council resolution, it was agreed that Council would vote on such a motion in its May 2024 meeting.
• Hence at this meeting, Council resolved to adopt the request for an an Issues Report, and directs staff to create the Report.

3. IPC's Request for Reconsideration (RfR) on the Board's Proposed Bylaws Updates to Limit Access to Accountability Mechanisms

• This is regarding the Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee's (BAMC) dismissal of IPC's RfR on the basis that IPC was not a party harmed by the Board's Proposed Bylaws Updates to Limit Access to Accountability Mechanisms.
• NOTE: While the GNSO Council did not support the Board's proposal but the ALAC did, the issue being contended here, is the principle that an ICANN community group can be found to have no standing (i.e. has been unable to show harm suffered) for something that has yet to be implemented.
• Council discussed possible next steps to counter the BAMC dismissal, noting that the gravity and implications of grounds for this dismissal, including the possibility of involving other members of the ICANN Community in next steps.

4. Deferral of Policy Status Report Request - Expiration Policies

• Council previously considered when to request a Policy Status Report (“PSR”) for the purpose of conducting a review of the two Expiration Policies, the Expired Domain Name Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”). In November 2020, given concerns about its capacity and no known issues with the policies, the Council agreed to delay the request for the Policy Status Report (PSR) for a period of 24 months. After 24 months had passed, the Council reconsidered whether it was an appropriate time to request a PSR.
• In July 2022, Council agreed that it would be helpful to consult with both registrars and ICANN org to help determine if there are any known issues or concerns with either of the two Expiration Policies which could warrant requesting a PSR. 

• In making its decision whether to request to a PSR at this time, Council consulted: 

  1. Registrars, who were asked to flag substantial issues with the policies that would warrant a near-term request for PSR and did not note any issues
  2. ICANN Compliance, who provided a write-up, noting confusion with key terms in the policy and persistent registrant confusion with the auto-renew grace period and aftermarket activities, et al.
  3. ICANN org Registrant Program, which provided a catalog of the available educational resources on domain name expiration and renewal (Brian Gutterman’s update at Council)
• Council then determined that the EDDP and ERRP seem to have been implemented as intended and imminent policy work is not needed at this time, and so, considered to pursue a PSR on the Expiration Policies in two years' time, or earlier, if a need is determined and it is requested.
• Primarily at an IPC Councilor's request, this decision for a deferral of the PSR was deferred yet again, to Council's Jun 2024 meeting. IPC's belief that the request for a PSR should proceed now since it would take some time for it to be actioned by ICANN org staff, and IPC wanted a bit more time to shore up its representation on this issue.  There was no objection to deferring the vote to Council's next meeting.

GNSO Council Meeting #4 of 2024 held on 18 Apr 2024 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #4 of 2024 held on 18 Apr 2024 

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • GNSO Council Review of the GAC Communiqué
  • GNSO Council Small Team Guidance Document
  • Confirmation of Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (SPIRT) Charter Drafting Team Leadership (Chair - Nitan Walia; Vice-chair - Alan Greenberg; GNSO Council liaison - Anne Aikman-Scalese)
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Deferral of Policy Status Report Request - Expiration Policies
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Diacritics in Latin Script and Singular/Plurals
• Item 6: COUNCIL VOTE - SubPro Supplemental Recommendations
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group - Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) - Proposed Update to Recommendation 7
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Review of Action Decision Radar
• Item 9: Update on Status of Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation
• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 10.1 - IPC’s RFR decision and Council’s subsequent letter 

  • 10.2 - Update on ICANN80 planning and GNSO Draft schedule

  • 10.3 - Replacement of Council representative to the Continuous Improvement Program Community Coordination Group (CIP-CCG)

  • 10.4 - Upcoming Sessions/Updates on the Registration Data Request System (RDRS) 

    • Prep Week Session on RDRS: Wed, 29 May 2024 at 16:30 UTC
    • RDRS Standing Committee Meeting at ICANN80: Mon, 10 Jun 2024 at 10:45-12:25 (UTC +2)

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 15 February 2024 were posted on  02 March 2024
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 06 March 2024 were posted on 23 March 2024
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Deferral of Policy Status Report Request - Expiration Policies (DEFERRED TO MAY 2024)
  • In November 2020, given concerns about its capacity and no known issues with the policies, Council had agreed to delay the request for the Policy Status Report (PSR) for the Expiration Policies, the Expired Domain Name Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”) for a period of 24 months. After 24 months had passed, Council reconsidered whether it was an appropriate time to request a PSR. 
  • In July 2022, Council agreed that it would be helpful to consult with both registrars and ICANN org to help determine if there are any known issues or concerns with either of the two Expiration Policies which could warrant requesting a PSR.
  • Council subsequently consulted:
    • Registrars, who were asked to flag substantial issues with the policies that would warrant a near team request for policy status report and did not note any issues
    • ICANN Compliance, who provided a write-up, noting confusion with key terms in the policy and persistent registrant confusion with the auto-renew grace period and aftermarket activities, et.al.
    • ICANN org Registrant Program, which provided a catalog of the available educational resources on domain name expiration and renewal (Brian Gutterman’s update at Council)
  • In reviewing the materials, Council determined that the EDDP and ERRP seem to have been implemented as intended and imminent policy work is not needed at this time.
  • Accordingly, Council will vote to reconsider a PSR on the Expiration Policies in five years time, or earlier, if requested. (Simple majority to pass)
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Diacritics in Latin Script and Singular/Plurals

  • Several parties had raised an issue to Council’s attention with regard to the challenge affecting future applied-for strings in the Latin script containing diacritics that may be confusingly similar to ASCII strings, and are non-variants.

  • For background, an applied-for IDN gTLD string in the Latin script containing diacritics, which is NOT an allocatable variant label of the base ASCII string (existing or applied-for) according to RZ-LGR, are sometimes seen as equivalents. In some instances however, the base ASCII string is seen as a workaround and not necessarily “correct”. The base ASCII string and the Latin diacritic string  may be determined to be confusingly similar (i.e., in which case, the strings would be placed in a contention set or if an existing gTLD is involved, the applied-for label would not pass the String Similarity Review).

  • During the GNSO Council Meeting at ICANN78 in Hamburg on 25 October 2023, Council received a detailed briefing on this issue and agreed to request a study from ICANN org to help inform the GNSO Council on the issue of diacritics in Latin Script. Prior to the request being made to ICANN org, the org volunteered to investigate what mechanism or mechanisms might be appropriate to address this issue.

  • Separately, related to singular/plural strings, the Council was informed that the Board Caucus on SubPro has asked staff to explore possible alternative solutions that achieve the goal of the proposed Topic 24 Supplemental Recommendations. On 16 April 2024, the Council received an email that provided a high-level overview of the proposed approach that seeks to generally achieve the same outcomes that the Topic 24 Supplemental Recommendations are aiming for.
  • Council will receive an update from ICANN org on the status of the research and analysis, as well as discuss the high-level overview of the singular/plural compromise.
• Item 6: COUNCIL VOTE - SubPro Supplemental Recommendations
  • Having dealt with the pending Subsequent Procedures recommendation, Council tasked the SubPro Small Team Plus with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus has committed to a work plan to address the recommendations not adopted by the Board.
  • Following that plan, the Small Team agreed to Supplemental Recommendations on five of the six Topics, i.e. (i) Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, (ii) Applicant Support, (iii) Terms and Conditions, (iv) String Similarity Evaluations, and (v) Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanisms. Based on the expected implementation as it relates to the Continued Operations Instrument (COI), the Small Team Plus determined it was unnecessary to develop a Supplemental Recommendation for the 6th Topic 22: Registrant Protections.
  • On 1 April, an “Explainer” document was shared with the Council that consolidates all of the Supplemental Recommendations and provides a brief explanation for each of them.
  • Council will vote on the SubPro Supplemental Recommendations developed by the Small Team Plus.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group - Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) - Proposed Update to Recommendation 7
  • The CCWG-AP’s Recommendation 7 sets out limitations on the use of ICANN accountability mechanisms (namely, the Independent Review Process, IRP, and Reconsideration process) to challenge decisions made on individual applications within the Grant Program. The CCWG-AP offered this recommendation to minimize use of the proceeds for purposes other than grants, such as administrative costs or legal fees. The Board has noted it continues to support the CCWG-AP’s goal in making this recommendation. 
  • Recommendation 7 currently provides, “Existing ICANN accountability mechanisms such as IRP or other appeal mechanisms cannot be used to challenge a decision from the Independent Project Applications Evaluation Panel to approve or not approve an application. Applicants not selected should receive further details about where information can be found about the next round of applications as well as any educational materials that may be available to assist applicants. The CCWG recognizes that there will need to be an amendment to the Fundamental Bylaws to eliminate the opportunity to use the Request for Reconsideration and Independent Review Panel to challenge grant decisions.” (emphasis added)
  • In its 2 March 2024 letter, the Board notes it “has been considering whether there are further ways to meet the community’s broader intention with Recommendation 7. If the phrase ‘from the Independent Project Applications Panel’ is removed from Recommendation 7, many of the Board’s concerns that supported the October 2023 action would be addressed. The Board also notes that removal of that phrase would support what it has always understood to be the intention of the CCWG-AP in making Recommendation 7 - to preserve the auction proceeds for funding projects, not challenges. Therefore, the Board asks for the Chartering Organizations’ support in considering an update to the recommendation. Specifically, the Board asks for each Chartering Organization to the CCWG-AP to approve an update to Recommendation 7 that would remove the phrase ‘from the Independent Project Applications Evaluation Panel’ from the text of the recommendation. If the Chartering Organizations approve this update, the Board believes that there is a path to full implementation of the CCWG-AP’s Recommendation 7, including the ability to apply the restriction to third parties.”
  • The Board is asking for feedback by 17 May 2024. Council will consider this requested amendment to Recommendation 7 separately from the public comment on the Proposed Bylaws Updates to Limit Access to Accountability Mechanisms
• Item 9: Update on Status of Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation

  • The Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Issues PDP achieved full consensus on its recommendations and delivered its Final Report on 8 December 2015, with subsequent Council adoption of the Final Report on 21 January 2016. On 9 August 2016, the ICANN Board adopted all recommendations of the PPSAI PDP, directing ICANN org to begin implementation. After some initial preparatory work, the Implementation Review Team (IRT) first met on 18 October 2016.

  • Subsequently, as a result of potential conflicts and/or overlap of work between the PPSAI IRT and GDPR-related work, especially the EPDP on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data, ICANN org, in its letter to the GNSO Council, proposed to delay the implementation of PPSAI until the EPDP completes.
  • In its 4 March 2019 letter to GNSO Council leadership, ICANN org posed the following question to the GNSO Council, “whether ICANN org should continue to delay public comment and implementation of PPSAI or take additional steps pending completion of the EPDP in consultation with the PPSAI Implementation Review Team (IRT).” GNSO Council Leadership responded, “given the divergent views among Councilors and considering the respective roles of ICANN Org in leading implementation work of consensus policy recommendations and the PPSAI IRT in overseeing the implementation work, the GNSO Council considers it appropriate to defer the decision on this issue to ICANN org and the PPSAI IRT, taking into account the various views of the SOs and ACs.”
  • On 2 March 2021, ICANN org delivered the Wave 1.5 Report to the GNSO Council, which included a detailed analysis of the extent to which the EPDP Phase 1 recommendations may require modification to the PPSAI and Translation & Transliteration policies, which are in the policy implementation phase. Following review of the Wave 1.5 Report, the Council observed the following in its 1 July 2021 letter: 
    • The decision to pause the implementation of the PPSAI and Translation & Transliteration policy recommendations was a decision that was made by ICANN org, not the GNSO Council. As such, the Council is of the view that a decision to restart the implementation activities is not within the remit of the GNSO Council but for ICANN org to make. The Council would also like to point to its letter of February 2019 in which it also concluded that “considering the respective roles of ICANN Org in leading implementation work of consensus policy recommendations and the PPSAI IRT in overseeing the implementation work, the GNSO Council considers it appropriate to defer the decision on this issue to ICANN org and the PPSAI IRT, taking into account the various views of the SOs and ACs”. 
    • Should any policy issues arise during the implementation of these policy recommendations, there are processes and procedures that allow the Council to further consider these, but the Council is of the view that the respective Implementation Review Teams (IRTs) will be best placed to identify such possible issues.
    • The Council would also like to point to the letter that was sent to the Council in September 2019 in which it was noted that “following the completion of relevant EPDP work, ICANN org will reassess the existing draft PP materials in consultation with the PPSAI IRT and determine how to proceed with implementation of the Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Program”. From a Council’s perspective this still seems a relevant and timely next step.
  • Council will receive an update on the recent meeting of the PPSAI IRT.
• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 10.1 - IPC’s RFR decision and Council’s subsequent letter 

  • 10.4 - Upcoming Sessions/Updates on the Registration Data Request System (RDRS) 

    • Prep Week Session on RDRS: Wed, 29 May 2024 at 16:30 UTC
    • RDRS Standing Committee Meeting at ICANN80: Mon, 10 Jun 2024 at 10:45-12:25 (UTC +2)

GNSO Council Meeting #4 of 2024 held on 18 Apr 2024 at 21:00 UTC: https://tinyurl.com/2xcnuymd 

14:00 Los Angeles; 17:00 Washington DC; 22:00 London; 23:00 Paris; 00:00 Moscow (Friday); 07:00 Melbourne (Friday)

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: Zoom link

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the meeting or call as listen-only observers.

Records of 18 Apr 2024 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 18 Apr 2024 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Apr 2024 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Apr 2024 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Council resolved to adopt its Review of the GAC ICANN79 Communiqué
• Council resolved to adopt the updated Small Team Guidance Document
• Council confirmed the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (SPIRT) Charter Drafting Team Leadership (Chair - Nitan Walia; Vice-chair - Alan Greenberg; GNSO Council liaison - Anne Aikman-Scalese)

2. Diacritics in Latin Script

• Council had deferred for several months (since ICANN78 in Hamburg) on discussing a way forward to address the challenge affecting future applied-for strings in the Latin script containing diacritics that may be confusingly similar to ASCII strings and which are non-variants as GNSO support staff had indicated that a proposal for a solution was being worked on which might alleviate the need for a study request which Council had been mooting earlier.
• GNSO support staff suggested that a solution could be incorporated through Council's deliberation of the Subsequent Procedures Supplemental Recommendations on Topic 24 String Similarity, and accordingly suggested that Council withhold those supplemental recommendations 24A, 24B and 24C for further work, instead of considering their approval and onward submission to the ICANN Board.
• Council was also given a short briefing by Sarmad Hussain on the process and work of the (now disbanded) Latin Generation Panel (Latin GP) which resulted in the Latin Label General Rules (Latin LGR) that deemed strings in the Latin script containing diacritics and their ASCII "equivalents" as non-variants.
  • As an eg, due to the application of the Latin LGR in the Root Zone Label Generation Rule (RZ-LGR) as the authoritative source for determining the variants of a string, .québec (with diacritic) is not a variant of the already delegated .quebec (without diacritic), resulting in the likelihood that the existing registry operator of .quebec (or any other party) would not succeed in obtaining .québec due to the 2 strings being found confusingly similar.
  • The current New gTLD 'rules' dictate that an application for any string that are found to be confusingly similar to an existing gTLD would be disallowed, while an application for an applied-for string that is found to be confusingly similar with another one or more applied-for strings would result in the strings being placed in a contention set. 
• After much discussion, Council concluded that GNSO support staff's suggested way forward is neither feasible nor desirable, because:
  • The Topic 24 String Similarity recommendations only deal with singular/plurals and ought not be willfully expanded to resolve the diacritics challenge, i.e. Council should not shoehorn its Topic 24 Supplemental Recommendations to accommodate the diacritics challenge;
  • Resolving the diacritic challenge should undergo a proper policy development process per the GNSO's operating procedures; and
  • Resolving the diacritic challenge should not present as a condition to the implementation of the Next Round. 
• As a result, Council reverted to requesting GNSO support staff to circulate work done on a study request that could be utilised as a foundation to an Issues Report for initiating an EPDP should Council decide so at a later date.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew to update ALAC/CPWG after the GNSO Council's May 2024 meeting on any direction taken with regards to resolving the Diacritics issue.

3. Singular/Plural gTLDs & String Similarity

• ICANN Org's Lars Hoffman (who is the lead for the Subsequent Procedures Implementation Review Team (SubPro IRT)) informed Council that ICANN org had been requested by the ICANN Board to propose an effective way to implement what Supplemental Recommendations 24A, 24B, 24C are attempting to achieve with regards to singular/plurals while addressing the Board's subsisting concerns with the supplemental recommendation language, bearing in mind that the Board SubPro Caucus co-chairs had earlier indicated that the ICANN Board may still decline to adopt Supplemental Recommendations 24A, 24B, 24C because of already shared concerns.
  • ICANN Org's proposition is to essentially remove the singular/plurals assessment out of String Similarity Review altogether and rely on an 'objection-like' approach without it becoming a formal objection process, which would still place burdens on the community to take action to prevent the singular/plurals from being approved if there was a concern. 
• Council was amenable to consider Lars' proposition in-principle, subject to details being fleshed out further.
• On these bases, Council opted to withhold Supplemental Recommendations 24A, 24B, 24C from the slate of Supplemental Recommendations which its SubPro Small Team Plus had produced and which had gone through community consultations, most recently at ICANN79.   
• However, Council had yet to decide as to who would consider/discuss Lars' proposition in detail - whether it may be the SubPro Small Team (or Small Team Plus) or Council itself. There were differing views expressed by Councilors on this. Council will review this question in May 2024.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew to update ALAC/CPWG when GNSO Council has decided on whether and how the Supplemental Recommendations 24A, 24B and 24C on String Similarity might be reworked further based on the intervention of the Board and ICANN org.

4. Subsequent Procedures Supplemental Recommendations

• Having dealt with the pending Subsequent Procedures recommendation, Council tasked the SubPro Small Team Plus with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus has committed to a work plan to address the recommendations not adopted by the Board.
• Following that plan, the Small Team agreed to Supplemental Recommendations on five of the six Topics, i.e. (i) Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, (ii) Applicant Support, (iii) Terms and Conditions, (iv) String Similarity Evaluations, and (v) Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanisms. Based on the expected implementation as it relates to the Continued Operations Instrument (COI), the Small Team Plus determined it was unnecessary to develop a Supplemental Recommendation for the 6th Topic 22: Registrant Protections.
• On 1 April, an “Explainer” document was shared with Council that consolidates all of the Supplemental Recommendations and provides a brief explanation for each of them.
• Following Council's deliberation on the issues of Diacritics in Latin Script (item 2 above) and Singular/Plural gTLDs & String Similarity (item 3 above) which resulted in the withholding of Supplemental Recommendations 24A, 24B, 24C, Council proceeded to unanimously vote to approve the SubPro Supplemental Recommendations for (i) Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, (ii) Applicant Support, (iii) Terms and Conditions, and (iv) Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanisms. These will now be submitted to the ICANN Board for consideration/approval.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew to update ALAC/CPWG on GNSO Council's adoption of the SubPro Supplemental Recommendations for 4 topics.

5. Cross-Community Working Group on Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) Recommendation 7

• In its 2 March 2024 letter, the Board notes it “has been considering whether there are further ways to meet the community’s broader intention with Recommendation 7. If the phrase ‘from the Independent Project Applications Panel’ is removed from Recommendation 7, many of the Board’s concerns that supported the October 2023 action would be addressed. The Board also notes that removal of that phrase would support what it has always understood to be the intention of the CCWG-AP in making Recommendation 7 - to preserve the auction proceeds for funding projects, not challenges. Therefore, the Board asks for the Chartering Organizations’ support in considering an update to the recommendation. Specifically, the Board asks for each Chartering Organization to the CCWG-AP to approve an update to Recommendation 7 that would remove the phrase ‘from the Independent Project Applications Evaluation Panel’ from the text of the recommendation. If the Chartering Organizations approve this update, the Board believes that there is a path to full implementation of the CCWG-AP’s Recommendation 7, including the ability to apply the restriction to third parties.”
• Council agreed to reply to the 2 Mar letter expressing support for the Board's suggestion to remove the phrase ‘from the Independent Project Applications Evaluation Panel’ from the text of the recommendation.

6. Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation (PPSAI)

• The issue with PPSAI is it is in 'rather unique' situation in that there is a gap between when the policies were adopted but implementation was subsequently delayed, and when work is now planed to resume again, those policies may no longer be fit for purpose due to new legislation coming into effect and other factors.
• Council was informed that ICANN Org has been working on an implementation plan and planning to reengage with its Implementation Review Team (PPSAI IRT) at ICANN80. A fresh call for volunteers will be issued prior to ICANN80 to constitute a refreshed PPSAI IRT with an open + rep model. 
• There are currently 4 "threshold questions" for the refreshed IRT's consideration:-
  • Are there any policy questions or items the IRT already wants to bring to Council for guidance?
  • Can an implementation model without a formal accreditation program remain consistent with policy recommendations?
  • Are there specific areas to revisit under new law/policy (Org to share assessment, IRT to review)?
  • Can these frameworks be aligned with existing work on RDRS, Registration Data Policy, etc and remain consistent with policy recommendations?
• It was noted that this PPSAI IRT could be seen not as a conventional IRT but rather as a scoping team for issue identification based on the first question.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew to update ALAC/CPWG when the call for volunteers to refresh the PPSAI IRT is made.

7. IPC's Request for Reconsideration (RfR) on the Board's Proposed Bylaws Updates to Limit Access to Accountability Mechanisms

• IPC received a response from the Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee (BAMC) rejecting IPC's RfR on the basis that IPC was not a party harmed by the Board's Proposed Bylaws Updates to Limit Access to Accountability Mechanisms
• NOTE: While the GNSO Council did not support the Board's proposal and the ALAC did, the issue being contended here, as explained to Council by an IPC Councilor, is the principle that an ICANN community group can be found to have no standing (i.e. has been unable to show harm suffered) for something that has yet to be implemented.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew to liaise with IPC on next steps to the BAMC's rejection of IPC's RfR on the Board's Proposed Bylaws updates to limit access to Accountability Mechanisms, if so instructed by ALAC-LT/ALAC.

GNSO Council Meeting #3 of 2024 held on 6 Mar 2024 during ICANN 79, and including a Council Wrap-up Session on 7 Mar 2024

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #3 of 2024 held on 6 Mar 2024 

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Motion to Adopt the Communications Small Team Final Report
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Reaction to Program Management Tools Discussion
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Council Engagement with PDP Working Group Chairs
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on Contracted Party House Abuse Subgroup Meetings with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Response to Update from ICANN org Implementation Update and interaction with ICANN Board 
• Item 8: Selection and Timeline of Next GNSO Liaison to the Governmental Advisory Committee
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.1 - GNSO Chair Election Timeline Announcement
  • 9.2 - Updated Small Team Guidelines
  • 9.3 - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Charter Drafting Team Update
  • 9.4 - Open Mic

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 18 January 2024 were posted on 02 February 2024
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 15 February 2024 were posted on  02 March 2024
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Reaction to Program Management Tools Discussion
  
  • During Council’s recent Strategic Planning Session (SPS), Council Leadership and GNSO Support Staff provided an overview of the available program management tools to educate new councilors on what tools are available and how to best utilize them. Council agreed to do a comprehensive and detailed review of the program management tools on a tri-annual basis. The Council agreed the tri-annual cadence aligned with the current ICANN conference schedule, and the first of these reviews was conducted during the Council’s Working Session at ICANN79.
  • Having performed a comprehensive review of the program management suite of tools during its working session, Council will now discuss lessons learned and potential suggestions for the next review at the ICANN80 working session.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Council Engagement with PDP Working Group Chairs
  • During the Council’s 2023 Strategic Planning Session, the Council agreed that updates from PDP Working Group Chairs and Council liaisons should be more purpose-driven. 
  • In discussing this, GNSO Support Staff provided background information on the GNSO Policy Webinar. Specifically, the webinars began in 2018 and were designed to provide the Council with an opportunity to directly engage with PDP chairs regarding the progress of their working groups. This engagement previously took place at ICANN meetings during GNSO working sessions; however, when the ICANN meeting schedule was shortened, these interactions were moved to a webinar format in an effort to allow the engagement to continue.
  • After receiving this background information, some Councilors noted that if the purpose is for the Council to hear frank updates from Working Group Chairs, the webinar should be for Councilors rather than a larger community update. Additionally, Councilors reviewed the list of questions provided to Working Group Chairs in an effort to better understand Working Group progress and potential challenges (if any). 
  • Councilors attended the webinar, in its updated form, prior to ICANN79, and Council will discuss if the updates to the webinar format helped make the interactions more purpose driven or if further updates may be needed.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on Contracted Party House Abuse Subgroup Meetings with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group
  • In February 2022, Council formed a small team of interested Council members to consider what policy efforts, if any, Council should consider undertaking to support the efforts already underway in the different parts of the community to tackle DNS abuse. 
  • The DNS Abuse Small Team preliminarily concluded that there is not enough information available to warrant further policy work at this time. Following the update from the DNS Abuse Small Team, Council representatives from the Registrar Stakeholder Group commented on the productive dialogue between Contracted Parties and the ICANN Community with respect to DNS Abuse and committed to continuing the dialogue with interested groups.
  • To that end, on 23 January 2024, the Registrar Stakeholder Group and the Registries Stakeholder Group DNS Abuse Subgroups met with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder group as the first in a planned series of outreach sessions to the ICANN Community regarding pain points with respect to DNS Abuse. The discussion touched on potential recommendations for solutions and potential future work.
  • Council will receive an update on this meeting and subsequent discussions with other groups.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Response to Update from ICANN org Implementation Update and interaction with ICANN Board

  • During Council’s Working Session, ICANN org provided an overview of the implementation status of the projects that are currently in implementation. These include:

    • Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation (PPSAI)

    • Preventative and Curative Rights Protections for Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)/International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs)

    • New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP

  • In addition, during Prep Week, the ICANN Board held a community engagement session where a question was posed that is relevant to the GNSO Council: how do we handle situations where it becomes clear that community-developed gTLD policies adopted by the Board are superseded by subsequent events or are otherwise not able to, or can no longer, resolve the problems they were designed to address
  • Council will have an opportunity to discuss the update from ICANN org and ICANN Board engagement session to determine next steps, if any.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.1 - GNSO Chair Election Timeline Announcement
  • 9.2 - Updated Small Team Guidelines
  • 9.3 - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Charter Drafting Team Update

GNSO Council Meeting #3 of 2024 held on 6 Mar 2024 at 17:15 UTC http://tinyurl.com/yc8h56uu  

09:15 Los Angeles; 12:15 Washington DC; 17:15 London; 18:15 Paris; 20:15 Moscow; 04:15 Melbourne (Thursday)

Please check the ICANN79 Schedule for both in-person and remote participation details.

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the meeting or call as listen-only observers.

Records of 6 Mar 2024 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 6 Mar 2024 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Mar 2024 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Mar 2024 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Council resolved to adopt the Communications Small Team Final Report.

2. DNS Abuse

• GNSO - GAC Bilateral agenda, where GNSO was asked on the status of the GNSO Council Small Team on DNS Abuse. We were able to clarify that the Small Team is not wound up but merely kept in abeyance until such time that Council had access to useful data which could inform a decision on whether gaps exists and how might those gaps be addressed. 

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew to liaise with CPH on a DNS Abuse mitigation outreach opportunity with At-Large.

3. Next Round of New gTLD

• Council was informed that the Council Small Team Plus on Pending Subsequent Pending (SubPro) Recommendations (Small Team Plus) had conducted its Community Consultation during ICANN79 as planned, to socialize the Small Team Plus's work on the supplemental recommendations to address the rationale provided by the ICANN Board in declining to approve/adopt 10 (original) SubPro PDP recommendations covering 6 topics. 
• No comment or objection was received by the Small Team Plus during that ICANN79 session, so, the Small Team Plus is now able to refer the supplemental recommendations to the Council for approval in Council's April 2024 meeting. 

4. Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation (PPSAI)

• Council acknowledged that the Implementation Review Team tasked with implementation of PPSAI recommendations that were adopted by the ICANN Board back in 2016, has been reactivated. 
• Question was asked if any or all of those recommendations are still fit for purpose given the introduction of GDPR and other newer developments since 2016, and whether this IRT might be compelled to try and implement outdated recommendations.
• The conclusion reached was that the IRT should be given the opportunity to review those recommendations and state if any one which are no longer fit for purpose, so that the right party (eg GNSO Council to take remedial steps to perhaps re-conduct a policy development process to update those recommendations).
• This is an example of the need for Topic 2 in the recent Board Consultation during ICANN79 Prep Week with the Community.

5. General Operations of GNSO/GNSO Council

Council discussed and/or noted following:

• Council Engagement with PDP Working Group Chairs - to retain a prep week session for this and keep improving the format to meet purpose
• GNSO Program Management Tools - to review 2 times per year
• GNSO Chair Election Timeline Announcement
• Updated Small Team Guidelines
• GNSO Council Aspirational Statement

GNSO Council Meeting #2 of 2024 held on 15 Feb 2024

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #2 of 2024 held on 15 Feb 2024 

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Confirm Leadership of Standing Selection Committee (“SSC”)
  • Confirm GNSO-Nominated ICANN Fellowship Program Mentor
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Registration Data Accuracy
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on SubPro Small Team Progress
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps for Consideration of Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”) 
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN79 Preparation
• Item 8: COUNCIL UPDATE: Draft NCAP Study 2 Report 
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 
  • 9.1 - ccNSO & GAC Liaison updates (every three months)
  • 9.2 - Board letter on Closed Generics
  • 9.3 - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Charter Drafting Team Update
  • 9.4 - Status Update on Council Requests
  • 9.5 - Update from Contracted Party House Abuse Subgroup’s Meeting with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group
  • 9.6 - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) survey
  • 9.7 - Update on Diacritic Study Request

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 21 December 2023 were posted on 02 January 2024
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 18 January 2023 were posted on 02 February 2024
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Confirm Leadership of Standing Selection Committee (“SSC”)
  • Confirm GNSO-Nominated ICANN Fellowship Program Mentor
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Registration Data Accuracy
  • Following Council's discussion last month and seeing as (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is pending. (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, and  (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study is still pending (targeted for Sep 2024), Council will vote on deferring the consideration of the accuracy scoping work for an additional six months or potentially sooner if there is a passage of a significant event, e.g., completion of the Data Processing Agreement, implementation of the NIS2 directive, or publication of the INFERMAL study .  
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on SubPro Small Team Progress
  • In March 2023, the ICANN Board approved the majority of the recommendations contained in the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent PDP, but also placed some recommendations into a pending status. The Council convened a small team that worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve all pending recommendations. While the majority of the pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, recommendations across six Topics were not adopted by the ICANN Board.
  • With the primary task of addressing the pending recommendations now complete, the Council has tasked the Small Team Plus with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus has committed to a work plan to address the recommendations not adopted by the Board. Following that plan, the Small Team has completed initiation steps (i.e., developed background materials, preliminary Supplemental Recommendation language, and issued a call for volunteers for the Small Team Plus). The Small Team Plus has come to preliminary  Supplemental Recommendation language (i.e., stable text) for most of the six Topics.
  • Council will receive an update on the progress of the Small Team Plus.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps for Consideration of Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”) 
  • Council previously considered when to request a Policy Status Report (“PSR”) for the purpose of conducting a review of the two Expiration Policies, the EDDP and the ERRP. In November 2020, given concerns about its capacity and no known issues with the policies, the Council agreed to delay the request for the Policy Status Report (PSR) for a period of 24 months. After 24 months had passed, the Council reconsidered whether it was an appropriate time to request a Policy Status Report.
  • In considering a Nov 2022 ICANN org report, Council agreed that both the EDDP and ERRP may benefit from further work, though the timing for the work requires further consideration. In particular, as the Compliance report noted, the language of the policy is ambiguous in parts and has caused confusion for registrants. As the ERRP was implemented in part to ensure that “expiration-related provisions in typical registration agreements are clear and conspicuous enough” and to ensure that “adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming expirations,” the continuing registrant confusion warrants further consideration. Additionally, some of the existing language has become obsolete due to intervening data protection law requirements and will require updates.
  • To that end, Council requested further information from ICANN org on what expiration-related educational materials are currently published and whether additional information can be provided (whether as registrant educational material referenced in Section 4.3 or elsewhere on ICANN’s website). The Council noted receipt of this information would be helpful to the Council in determining if updates to these materials or additional material in other forms could be helpful to combat the ongoing registrant confusion.

  • Council will receive an update from ICANN org on the published materials. 

• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN79 Preparation
  • Pre-ICANN79 GNSO Policy Webinar: 
    • Monday, 26 February 2024 at 21:00 UTC

Note: Mandatory for GNSO Council members

• • During ICANN79, the GNSO Council has the following meetings and events scheduled (times listed in AST):

Saturday, 2 March

• • • 09:00-10:00 - IDNs EPDP Team Working Session 
    • 13:15-14:30 - Transfer Policy Review PDP Working Group Session 1 of 2
    • 15:00-16:00 - Transfer Policy Review PDP Working Group Session 2 of 2
    • Time TBD: GNSO Council dinner

Sunday, 3 March

• • • 09:00-10:00 - GNSO Working Session 1 of 2
    • 10:30-12:00 - GNSO Working Session 2 of 2
    • 13:15-14:30 - GNSO Working Session 3 of 3

Monday, 04 March

• • • 15:00-16:00 Joint ICANN Board and GNSO Council

Tuesday, 05 March

• • • 17:30-18:30 - GNSO Council Informal meeting [closed]

Wednesday, 6 March

• • • 09:00-10:00 - Joint GNSO Council & GAC
    • 10:30-12:00 - SubPro Supplemental Recommendations Community Consultation
    • 13:15-15:15- GNSO Council Meeting

Thursday, 7 March

• • • 09:00-10:00 - GNSO Council SubPro Small Team Plus Meeting
    • 15:00-16:00 - GNSO Council Wrap-Up
  • During its Strategic Planning Session, Council agreed to conduct a triannual detailed review of the Program Management Tool. The action item coming from the SPS provided, “During a session at ICANN79, Council to prepare for a careful review of work captured in the Program Management Tool (PMT) that will conclude or initiate prior to the next AGM, or continue beyond the next AGM. Paul McGrady to coordinate with staff to plan for this inaugural effort.”
  • Council will receive an overview of the current block schedule and plan for its in-person meetings.
• Item 8: COUNCIL UPDATE: Draft NCAP Study 2 Report 
  • The Name Collision Analysis Project Discussion Group (NCAP) is currently seeking input on its draft Study 2 report and responses to a series of questions from the ICANN Board regarding name collisions as outlined in resolution 2017.11.02.30 and reaffirmed in resolution 2021.03.25.13.
  • Council will receive an overview of the draft Study 2 report and have the opportunity to ask questions.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 
  • 9.3 - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) Charter Drafting Team Update
  • 9.7 - Update on Diacritic Study Request

GNSO Council Meeting #2 of 2024 held on 15 Feb 2024 at 21:00 UTC: http://tinyurl.com/42vy5duf 

13:00 Los Angeles; 16:00 Washington DC; 21:00 London; 22:00 Paris; 00:00 Moscow (Friday); 08:00 Melbourne (Friday)

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: https://icann.zoom.us/j/92283565389?pwd=QnlHK1JSbzdiSFFZSjRjamxMTkNGdz09 

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the meeting or call as listen-only observers.

Records of 15 Feb 2024 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 15 Feb 2024 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Feb 2024 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Feb 2024 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Council confirms Karen Day as Chair and Segunfunmi Olajide as Vice-Chair of the GNSO Standing Selection Committee (SSC) for 2024.
• Council confirms Mark Datysgeld as the GNSO-Nominated Mentor for the 2024 ICANN Fellowship Program.

2. Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team Recommendations #1 and #2

• Council resolved to extend the deferral of consideration of recommendations #1 and #2 of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team write up for an additional six months, and commits to considering the Scoping Team recommendations at an earlier date if DPA negotiations have been completed before six months have passed or another significant event, such as the implementation of the NIS2 directive or the publication Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, occurs before six months have passed.

3.  Board Non-Adopted Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) Recommendations & GNSO SubPro Small Team Plus

• In March 2023, the ICANN Board approved the majority of the recommendations contained in the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent PDP, but also placed some recommendations into a pending status. The Council convened a small team that worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve all pending recommendations. While the majority of the pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, recommendations across six Topics were not adopted by the ICANN Board.
• With the primary task of addressing the pending recommendations now complete, the Council has tasked the Small Team Plus with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus has committed to a work plan to address the recommendations not adopted by the Board. Following that plan, the Small Team has completed initiation steps (i.e., developed background materials, preliminary Supplemental Recommendation language, and issued a call for volunteers for the Small Team Plus). The Small Team Plus has come to preliminary  Supplemental Recommendation language (i.e., stable text) for most of the six Topics.
• The Small Team Plus (which includes the Board SubPro Caucus co-chairs and community subject matter experts/alternates) have now completed its immediate task of drafting supplemental recommendation language to address all the 10 recommendations not adopted by the Board. For details about the Small Team Plus and the draft supplemental recommendation language, please refer to this slide presentation.
• Next steps are for the Small Team Plus to present the draft supplemental recommendation language to the community for input vide;
  • (1) a session during ICANN79 Prep Week on 22 Feb;
  • (2) a community consultation session during ICANN79 on 6 Mar; and
  • (3) a follow up Small Team Plus meeting during ICANN79 on 7 Mar to consider community input received (if any).

4. Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Study 2 Report

• The NCAP Discussion Group (NCAP DG) is currently seeking input on its draft Study 2 report and responses to a series of questions from the ICANN Board regarding name collisions as outlined in resolution 2017.11.02.30 and reaffirmed in resolution 2021.03.25.13.
• Council received an overview of the draft Study 2 report, which is structured to guide the reader through the methodology and significant findings of three pivotal research studies, as well as the analysis of the NCAP Discussion Group's extensive work activities. This material is what informs the eleven strategic recommendations provided at the end of the report.
• One of the key recommendations is the establishment of a new workflow, the Name Collision Risk Assessment Workflow, designed to enhance the assessment process of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). This recommendation underscores the NCAP Discussion Group’s belief that name collisions should be approached not merely as a technical challenge but as a critical risk management issue.

5. Diacritics Study Request

• As a reminder, this request for a Diacritic Study is concerned with how to deal with existing ASCII TLDs which have a version with diacritics which are NOT considered as variants of each other accordingly to established Label Generation Rules (for eg. quebec and québec). 
• Council received an update from GNSO staff that a potential solution that may remove the need for a study request altogether is being developed and is likely to be ready for Council's consideration soon after ICANN79.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew To alert ALAC/CPWG when the GNSO staff's potential solution, which proposes to displace the need for Diacritic Study Request, is ready for Council's consideration.

GNSO Council Meeting #1 of 2024 held on 18 Jan 2024

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #1 of 2024 held on 18 Jan 2024 

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Recommendations Report for GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support
  • Recommendations Report for EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Communications Small Team Follow-up Conversation
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Council Engagement with PDP Working Group Chairs 
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Registration Data Accuracy
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 

  • 8.1 Update on ICANN79 planning and GNSO Draft schedule

  • 8.2 Update from SO/AC Roundtable

  • 8.3 Update on Diacritic Study Request

  • 8.4 Update on PPSAI Implementation (GDS will provide update)

  • 8.5 Expected Standards of Behavior

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 16 November 2023 were posted on 01 December 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 21 December 2023 were posted on 02 January 2024
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Recommendations Report for GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support
  • Recommendations Report for EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations
  • Since ICANN76 this Council small team has worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve 38 pending recommendations from the Subsequent Procedures PDP WG. While the majority of these pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, 10 recommendations across six Topics were not adopted by the ICANN Board.
  • Having addressed most of the pending recommendations, Council then tasked an expanded small team, called the Small Team Plus, with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus has committed to a work plan to address the 10 recommendations not adopted by the Board. Following that plan, the Small Team initiated first steps (i.e., developed background materials, preliminary Supplemental Recommendation language, and issued a call for volunteers for the Small Team Plus). The Small Team Plus has begun developing Supplemental Recommendation language, beginning with Recommendation 17.2, Applicant Support, according to the above-mentioned work plan and has continued to make further progress.  
  • Council will receive an update on the Small Team Plus's work.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Registration Data Accuracy
  • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. These considerations are to help inform the team’s deliberations and development of recommendations to Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 
  • The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3).
  • ICANN org provided an update to Council during the 20 April meeting. During its meeting on 20 June 2023, Council voted to extend the deferral of the consideration of recommendations #1 and #2, pending resolution of recommendation #3 (pausing the work on proposals that require access to registration data until there is clarity from ICANN org on if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data to be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy). 
  • On 19 October 2023, ICANN org provided an update on Registration Data Accuracy efforts, and Council discussed the update during its 16 November 2023 meeting. During that meeting, some Councilors noted that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement, (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to reconvene the Accuracy Scoping Team. Now that six months have passed since Council’s deferral of the accuracy scoping work, Council will need to consider next steps. 
  • Council will consider whether a further deferral is appropriate or if other next steps are timely e.g., the consideration of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2.
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 
  • 8.3 Update on Diacritic Study Request

GNSO Council Meeting #1 of 2024 held on 18 Jan 2024 at 05:00 UTC: http://tinyurl.com/y3a7xhu3 

 21:00 Los Angeles (Wednesday); 00:00 Washington DC; 05:00 London; 06:00 Paris; 08:00 Moscow; 16:00 Melbourne

GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: https://icann.zoom.us/j/92283565389?pwd=QnlHK1JSbzdiSFFZSjRjamxMTkNGdz09 

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the meeting or call as listen-only observers.

Records of 18 Jan 2024 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 18 Jan 2024 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Jan 2024 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Jan 2024 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Council resolved to approve both the Recommendations Report for the GGP on Applicant Support and the Recommendations Report for the EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) for transmission to the ICANN Board. Correspondence to the Board completed on 18 Jan.

2. SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations

• Supplemental Recommendations on (a) confusingly similar singular-plural strings (Recs 23.3 and 23.5) are being refined/finalized; and (b) Waiver of RA Spec 11 3(a) & 3(b) for single registrant TLDs (Rec 9.2) is stable.
• Work of the Small Team Plus continues on (c) covenant not to sue (Recs 18.1 and 18.3) tied with (d) challenge/appeal mechanisms (Recs 32.1, 32.2 and 32.10)
• Work of the Small Team Plus expected to conclude - in terms of Supplemental Recommendations - before ICANN79, in time for the planned community consultation session at ICANN79. Thereafter, depending on any substantial community input received, Council plans to vote on the entire package of Supplementation Recommendations covering 10 non-adopted recommendations (i.e. 17.2, 22.7, 23.3, 23.5, 9.2, 18.1, 18.3, 32.1, 32.2, 32.10)  at its April meeting. (For info on the 10 non-adopted recommendations, see: slide no. 3 of my SubPro Update #5 to CPWG on 8 Nov 2023)

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew To update ALAC/CPWG on the package of Supplemental Recommendations to be discussed at ICANN79 (on the Wed).
  • Justine Chew To alert ALAC/CPWG on any GNSO session planned for ICANN79 Prep Week to discuss the GNSO SubPro PDP Supplemental Recommendations

3. Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) & RDA Scoping Team

• By way of recap, the RDA Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions, and tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. These considerations are to help inform the team’s deliberations and development of recommendations to Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 
• The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team had suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3).
• However, a number of factors which remain pending to-date have led Council to defer further work in this area. 
  • At Council's Jun 2023 meeting, Council voted to defer for 6 months, consideration of a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) pending resolution of recommendation #3 (pausing the work on proposals that require access to registration data until there is clarity from ICANN org on if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data to be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy). 
  • At Council's Nov 2023 meeting, Council revisited this area of work and noted that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement (DPA), (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to reconvene the Accuracy Scoping Team.  
  • Given that (i) the DPA is not yet ready (confirmed by ICANN org staff) (ii) the NIS2 directive has not yet been implemented, and (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study is still pending (targeted for Sep 2024), Council declined to take further action at this point.  

4. Diacritic Study Request

• GNSO Council Leadership is still reviewing a draft request prepared by Councilor Mark Datysgeld on the Diacritic Study and will report back to Council in due course.
• As a reminder, this request for a Diacritic Study is concerned with how to deal with existing ASCII TLDs which have a version with diacritics which are NOT considered as variants of each other accordingly to established Label Generation Rules (for eg. quebec and québec).   

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew To alert ALAC/CPWG when the draft Diacritic Study Request is ready for Council's comment.

5. Privacy-Proxy Services Accreditation Issues (PPSAI) Implementation

• There are Board-approved PPSAI recommendations which have yet to be implemented as focus has been prioritized towards the implementation of the EPDP on Temp Spec Phase 1 recommendations instead thus far. However ICANN Org's GDS (Global Domains & Strategy) is now developing a work plan to actively work on implementing these PPSAI recommendations with input from the previous GNSO PDP on PPSAI members (by email).
• Next update will be available at ICANN79; but the work plan will only be ready at the end of Q1, 2024.

GNSO Council Meeting #12 of 2023 held on 21 Dec 2023

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #12 of 2023 held on 21 Dec 2023 

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
• Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Final Report
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations 
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency 
• Item 9: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on Key Outcomes and Action Items Coming out of GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session
• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 10.1 ccNSO & GAC Liaison updates

  • 10.2 Update on Diacritic Study Request

  • 10.3 Community Consultation on Public Interest Commitments/Registry Voluntary Commitments 
  • 10.4 Public comment period on the Draft ICANN FY25 Plans & Draft PTI FY25 Operating Plan and Budget

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting Part 1 and Part 2 on 25 October 2023 were posted on 10 November 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 16 November 2023 were posted on 01 December 2023.
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • To confirm Sebastien Ducos as Chair of the RDRS Standing Committee
  • GNSO Review of GAC ICANN78 Communique
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report 

  • On 24 April 2023, the EPDP Team published its Phase 1 Initial Report, which contains 68 recommendations for Public Comment. The Working Group reviewed the public comments, adjusted its report in light of the comments received, and the Final Report has received the full consensus of the Working Group.

  • During its 16 November meeting, the GNSO Council received a briefing on the Final Report from Donna Austin, the EPDP Chair.

  • Council will vote on the motion to adopt the EPDP on IDNs Phase 1 Final Report, for which a Supermajority is needed to pass the motion.

• Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Final Report
  • The GGP Working Group reviewed all public comments on its Guidance Recommendation Initial Report and deliberated as appropriate to properly evaluate and address comments received during the public comment period. This included the careful consideration and analysis of the public comments, explaining the rationale for agreeing and disagreeing with the different comments received, and, if appropriate, how these were addressed in the Guidance Recommendation Final Report. The working group updated its recommendations and sent its Final Report to the GNSO Council on 11 Dec.
  • Council will vote on the motion to adopt the GGP on ASP Final Report, for which a Supermajority is needed to pass the motion.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations
  • Council had adopted this Small Team’s updated assignment form with a work plan to address the 10 recommendations not adopted by the Board. Following that plan, the Small Team initiated first steps (i.e., developed background materials, preliminary Supplemental Recommendation language, and issued a call for volunteers for the Small Team Plus).
  • The Small Team Plus has begun developing Supplemental Recommendation language, beginning with Recommendation 17.2, Applicant Support, according to the above-mentioned work plan.
  • Council will receive an update on the Small Team Plus' work thus far. (Refer to my report to CPWG on 13 Dec)
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests
  • On 18 May 2019, the ICANN Board adopted the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data to enable contracted parties to continue to comply with existing ICANN contractual requirements and community-developed policies as they relate to registration directory services. The GNSO Council initiated a one-year policy development process to confirm whether or not the Temporary Specification should become a consensus policy, and whether it provided an enduring framework for complying with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • The EPDP Team sent its Phase 1 Final Report to Council on 20 Feb 2019, and Council voted to approve the Final Report on 4 Mar 2019. The Board subsequently adopted the Phase 1 Final Report on 15 May 2019, with the exception of Recommendation 1, Purpose 2, and Recommendation 12, which the Board did not adopt in full. The Board directed the ICANN President and CEO or their designee(s) to implement the adopted policy recommendations. 
  • ICANN org convened an Implementation Review Team (IRT) in May 2019. ICANN org published the draft Registration Data Policy for public comment on 24 August 2022. Several commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of Recommendation 18, specifically around the issue of the response timeline for urgent requests. The relevant portion of Recommendation 18 reads, “A separate timeline of [less than X business days] will considered for the response to ‘Urgent’ Reasonable Disclosure Requests, those Requests for which evidence is supplied to show an immediate need for disclosure [time frame to be finalized and criteria set for Urgent requests during implementation].”
  • Following the public comment period and subsequent discussion by the IRT, the GAC wrote to the Board about the topic of urgent requests on 23 Aug 2023. The Registrar Stakeholder Group wrote to the Board on 8 Sep 2023 in response to the GAC’s letter.
  • Following the receipt of these letters and further communication amongst Board members, the Board would like to discuss urgent requests and its related concerns with Council. Council is to discuss this matter.
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency 
  • On 22 Nov 2023, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) filed a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) of the ICANN Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.122, regarding (i) the actions and inactions that led to (a) the ICANN Board’s public comment of 6 December 2018 on the Initial Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP), (b) the organization of the public comment phase on the Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group, (c) the ICANN Board Resolutions 2022.06.12.13 to 2022.06.12.16 , and (ii) the actions and inactions involving the implementation of the ICANN Grant Giving Program.
  • Council will hear an update on the RfR and discuss the same.
• Item 9: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on Key Outcomes and Action Items Coming out of GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session

  • Council held its annual Strategic Planning Session (SPS) in Washington, D.C. from 29 Nov - 1 Dec 2023. Over the course of the three days, Council identified a number of key outcomes and associated action items. From the previous SPS, Council built in more review and checkpoint mechanisms to ensure that there was proper follow through in executing the identified action items. This was determined to be a good practice and, accordingly, is included as a Council discussion item shortly following the SPS to ensure continued progress. 

  • Council will review the key outcomes and action items identified during the SPS, as well as discuss a more detailed action plan to ensure progress.

• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 10.1 ccNSO Liaison update (presentation)  & GAC Liaison update

  • 10.2 Update on Diacritic Study Request

  • 10.3 Community Consultation on Public Interest Commitments/Registry Voluntary Commitments 
    
  • 10.4 Public comment period on the Draft ICANN FY25 Plans & Draft PTI FY25 Operating Plan and Budget

Records of 21 Dec 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 21 Dec 2023 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Dec 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Dec 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Sebastien Ducos is confirmed as Chair of the RDRS Standing Committee.

2. EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs)

• Council has adopted the Phase 1 Final Report of the EPDP on IDNs containing 69 policy recommendations related to variant management at the top-level.

3. GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support Guidance (GGP on Applicant Support)

• Council has adopted the Final Report of the GGP on Applicant Support containing 9 policy guidance recommendations related to certain aspects of the Applicant Support Program implementation for the next round of New gTLDs.

4. SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations

• Proposed Supplemental Recommendation to SubPro Recommendation 17.2 on Applicant Support resources is stable, accompanied by a number of implementation proposals for consideration.
• Councilors are to review the Supp Rec 17.2 by 2 Jan 2024 after which Council Leadership will determine how this would be taken forward in term of approval and transmission to the ICANN Board. 

5. EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests

• Council had been informed of the ICANN Board's concern over the EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Recommendation 18 after ICANN org convened an IRT to discuss this upon Public Comment, and several commentors had expressed dissatisfaction with how Recommendation 18 was implemented.
  • Rec 18 reads, “A separate timeline of [less than X business days] will considered for the response to ‘Urgent’ Reasonable Disclosure Requests, those Requests for which evidence is supplied to show an immediate need for disclosure [time frame to be finalized and criteria set for Urgent requests during implementation].” 
  • It should be noted that GAC had also written to the ICANN Board in the context of urgent requests for registration data as the Board was reviewing the final plans for the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Launch.
• Council heard that from a Board member that the Board thinks the RDRS was conceptually not fit for purpose in respect of urgent requests since there are no service levels associated with the RDRS, and therefore decided that functionality should be considered separately to the RDRS launch. Concerns were also indicated by registry and registrar groups especially since it is difficult to say with certainty the time needed to authenticate any requestor.
• Council concluded the discussion by requesting a formal communication from the Board with respect to its concerns with the EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests to enable Council to determine what Council can do to help resolve the concern.

6. ICANN Grant Program - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency

• On 22 Nov 2023, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) filed a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) of the ICANN Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.122, regarding (i) the actions and inactions that led to (a) the ICANN Board’s public comment of 6 December 2018 on the Initial Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP), (b) the organization of the public comment phase on the Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group, (c) the ICANN Board Resolutions 2022.06.12.13 to 2022.06.12.16 , and (ii) the actions and inactions involving the implementation of the ICANN Grant Giving Program.
• After some discussion, Council felt is was appropriate to issue a general letter stating that there are issues worthy of consideration and encouraging the Board to consider a dialogue rather than resolving this issue on a legal technicality. The letter is expected to support the principle of dialogue and transparency when a policy recommendation may need to be changed. The letter may recognize, as in the IPC’s Request for Reconsideration (RfR), that there are issues that should be addressed, including the question of a broader fundamental Bylaws change.

7. Update on Diacritic Study Request

• GNSO Council Leadership is reviewing a draft request prepared by Mark Datysgeld on the Diacritic Study and will report back to Council in due course.

GNSO Council Meeting #11 of 2023 held on 16 Nov 2023

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #11 of 2023 held on 16 Nov 2023 

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Approval Action Community Forum at ICANN78 - Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Articles 18 and 19 of the ICANN Bylaws
• Item 5: COUNCIL UPDATE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report 
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Updates on Status of Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations and Registration Data Accuracy
  • (i) DPA Negotiations
  • (ii) Registration Data Accuracy
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN Board Action on the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP)
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consider whether further work is needed after ICANN org outreach to European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA) 
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 

  • 9.1 SPS Planning

  • 9.2 Confirmation of RDRS Chair

  • 9.3 Update on Public Comment on Pilot Holistic Review - Terms of Reference

  • 9.4 Update on GAC Communique Update

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 21 September 2023 were posted on 08 October 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting Part 1 and Part 2 on 25 October 2023 were posted on 10 November 2023.
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • To confirm Tomslin Samme-Nlar as GNSO Representative as Decisional Participant to the Empowered Community
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Approval Action Community Forum at ICANN78 - Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Articles 18 and 19 of the ICANN Bylaws

  • The Board is convening the Second IANA Naming Function Review ("IFR") to satisfy the requirement under Section 18.2(b) of the ICANN Bylaws that "Periodic IFRs after the first Periodic IFR shall be convened no less frequently than every five years, measured from the date the previous IFRT for a Periodic IFR was convened." The Board convened the first IFR on 16 September 2018.

  • The Board's noted its resolution for the Approval of Amendments to IANA Naming Function Review Bylaws is “an essential step in furthering the implementation of the recommendations of the first IANA Naming Function Review (IFR) team, as Recommendation 3 of the IFR identified changes necessary to Article 18 of the ICANN Bylaws. As well as the additional proposed changes to Articles 18 and 19, which serve to: (1) addressing a 2019 request from the Registries Stakeholder Group on updating the geographic diversity selection requirements for future IFR teams; and (2) clarifying ambiguities on the IFR processes identified through the first running of an IFR after the IANA Stewardship Transition.” The Bylaws changes aim to clearly set out the expected process as designed during the IANA Stewardship Transition Process, and do not represent a change to any of these processes.

  • Council will vote on the fundamental Bylaws amendments, which requires a simple majority to pass.
• Item 5: COUNCIL UPDATE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
  • On 24 April 2023, the EPDP Team published its Phase 1 Initial Report, which contains 68 recommendations for Public Comment. The Working Group reviewed the public comments, adjusted its report in light of the comments received, and the Final Report has received the full consensus of the Working Group.
  • Council will receive a briefing on the EPDP - IDN Phase 1 Final Report (Slides) with the expectation that the report can be voted on during the subsequent Council meeting.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Updates on Status of Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations and Registration Data Accuracy

           (i) DPA Negotiations 

• • On 3 August 2023, the GNSO Council sent a letter to ICANN org and the chairs of the Registrar Stakeholder Group and Registries Stakeholder Group, notifying them of the Council’s decision to extend consideration of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team recommendations until certain dependencies are met. The dependencies referenced include both (i) the outcome of the work by ICANN org on the scenario(s) in which the request and processing of registration data takes place and (ii) the finalization of the Data Processing Agreement (DPA).
  • ICANN org together with the chairs of the Registrar Stakeholder Group and Registries Stakeholder Group provided a response on 16 October 2023, notifying the Council that the “parties agreed that these agreements would take the form of a specification that may be added to the Registry Agreement (RA) and Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), and as such we refer to them as the ‘Data Processing Specification’ or ‘DPS.’”
  • ICANN org noted that it has informed the Contracted Party House (CPH) Negotiating Team that its goal is to complete the negotiations, which include resolution of a few remaining items, by the end of the calendar year, with the eventual aim to have the DPS available for use by registrars and registries for the beginning of the Registration Data Policy implementation window.

          (ii) Registration Data Accuracy

• • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by the GNSO Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. These considerations are to help inform the team’s deliberations and development of recommendations to the GNSO Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 
  • The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to the Council on 5 September 2022. In the write up, the group is suggesting moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). 
  • As has been communicated previously, Michael Palage has confirmed his resignation as Chair of this group to the Council. The Council will need to consider the proper timing for identifying a new Chair for this effort.
  • ICANN org provided a verbal update to the Council during the 20 April meeting. During its meeting on 20 June 2023, the Council voted to extend the deferral of the consideration of recommendations #1 and #2, pending resolution of recommendation #3 (pausing the work on proposals that require access to registration data until there is clarity from ICANN org on if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data to be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy). 
  • On 19 October 2023, ICANN org provided an update on Registration Data Accuracy efforts. 
  • Council will discuss these updates and determine if further outreach is needed for either of the items at this time.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN Board Action on the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP)

  • On 12 June 2022, the ICANN Board accepted all recommendations in the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP).

  • The CCWG-AP's Recommendation 7 states in relevant part "Existing ICANN accountability mechanisms such as IRP or other appeal mechanisms cannot be used to challenge a decision from the Independent Project Applications Evaluation Panel to approve or not approve an application. Applicants not selected should receive further details about where information can be found about the next round of applications as well as any educational materials that may be available to assist applicants. The CCWG recognizes that there will need to be an amendment to the Fundamental Bylaws to eliminate the opportunity to use the Request for Reconsideration and Independent Review Panel to challenge grant decisions." The CCWG-AP also issued guidance to the Board that after reviewing how other entities dealt with appeals, that allowing appeals appeared to add too much complexity.

  • The Board's June 2022 decision reflected the Board's initial agreement with the CCWG-AP's conclusion that a Fundamental Bylaws change was necessary to implement Recommendation 7 and identified such a Bylaws change as a dependency on the launch of the ICANN Grant Program. Upon further consideration, the Board determined that the CCWG-AP's recommendation to preserve the auction proceeds from being used to defend against usages of ICANN's accountability mechanisms for decisions on individual grant decisions can be implemented in alternative ways, including ways that do not require modification to ICANN's core Bylaws on accountability. As a result, the Board proposed updating its action on Recommendation 7 to reflect that ICANN org should implement this Recommendation 7 directly through the use of applicant terms and conditions rather than through a change to ICANN's Fundamental Bylaws.
  • During its meeting on 26 October 2023,  the ICANN Board passed a resolution, revisiting its 12 June 2022 decision on Recommendation 7 of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) and issues the Revised Scorecard - CCWG on Auction Proceeds Final Report Recommendations – Board Action ("Revised Scorecard"), removing the requirement and dependency that a Fundamental Bylaws Amendment is required prior to the launch of the ICANN Grant Cycle, though the amendment would nevertheless be pursued. 
  • Council will discuss the Board action and determine if further action is needed.
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consider whether further work is needed after ICANN org outreach to European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA) 
  • During the Council’s extraordinary meeting on 5 June 2023, Thomas Rickert introduced an area for further Council discussion. Specifically, the European Union's Second Network and Information Systems Directive (“NIS2”) entered into force on 16 January 2023. Article 28, subsection 3 provides, "Member States shall require TLD name registries and the entities providing domain name registration services, those are registrars, resellers and privacy and proxy services, to have policies and procedures, including verification procedures in place to ensure that the databases referred to in paragraph 1 include accurate and complete information. Member States shall require such policies and procedures to be publicly available." Additionally, the corresponding recital number 111, provides, in part, “Those policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder governance structures at the international level." 
  • There was a suggestion by some Councilors to consider informal options of responding to the recital text to highlight the standards that are currently applicable. The Council formed a small team to further consider this effort; however, after hearing an update from ICANN org noting that ICANN org was already in the process of reaching out to the Network and Information Systems Cooperation Group Work Stream for art.28 NIS2, the Small Team agreed to await the draft from ICANN org instead of independently reaching out. The Small Team additionally noted that ICANN org was the appropriate entity to deliver this message, rather than the GNSO Council, but the Small Team requested ICANN org share the draft communication with the GNSO Council for an additional review prior to sending the communication. ICANN org shared its draft communication on 19 October 2023. 
  • Council will discuss any further work is needed.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 

  • 9.1 SPS Planning

  • 9.2 Confirmation of RDRS Chair

  • 9.3 Update on Public Comment on Pilot Holistic Review - Terms of Reference

  • 9.4 Update on GAC Communique Update

Records of 16 Nov 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 16 Nov 2023 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Nov 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Nov 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to Articles 18 and 19 of the ICANN Bylaws

• Council unanimously passed the motion to adopt the said Fundamental Bylaws Amendments.

2. EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs)

• Council received a presentation on the Phase 1 Final Report of the EPDP on IDNs and after having a series of question answered, will move to vote on whether to adopt all the report's policy recommendations related to variant management at the top-level, at its next meeting.

3. Status of Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations and Registration Data Accuracy

• Council was informed that ICANN org and Contracted Parties' negotiations on a DPA has reached an agreement that would take the form of a specification that may be added to the Registry Agreement (RA) and Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), and as such we refer to them as the ‘Data Processing Specification’ or ‘DPS'.
  • The DPA, or now the DPS, is meant to be the replacement for the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data which established temporary requirements to allow ICANN and gTLD registry operators and registrars to continue to comply with existing ICANN contractual requirements and community-developed policies in light of the GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation requiring the redaction of certain registration data. 
• Based on this, Council opted to wait for the draft DPS to be put out for public comment before considering the need for further action.

4.  ICANN Board Action on the Final Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP)

• Concerns remained among councilors over the ICANN Board's 26 Oct resolution, revisiting its 12 June 2022 decision on Recommendation 7 of the CCWG-AP and issuance of the Revised Scorecard - CCWG on Auction Proceeds Final Report Recommendations – Board Action ("Revised Scorecard"), which removes the requirement and dependency that a Fundamental Bylaws Amendment is required prior to the launch of the ICANN Grant Cycle. This is despite the Board indicating that the Bylaw amendment would nevertheless be pursued over time.
• Council discussed the possibility of filing a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) on this Board decision but acknowledged that the time limit for filing RfR would be too short for Council to act on. 
• Council was informed by IPC Councilor Damon Ashcraft that IPC is already working on filing such an RfR, to which Council indicated that it would consider supporting such an RfR after having reviewed the same.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Relayed the ALAC's position on the Board approach to CCWG-AP Rec 7 per its 26 Oct resolution.

"Greg (DiBiase, GNSO Chair) had during ICANN78 asked me if the ALAC had a position on the Board's action on CCWG-AP Rec 7. The answer is the ALAC has no objections to the Board's approach for that Rec per their 26 Oct resolution. The key reason is that the ALAC would like to see the ICANN Grant Program proceed to launch without the Bylaw amendment being a dependency, noting that the intention to limit access to Accountability Mechanism is addressed alternatively and the Board is looking at a potentially more complete/permanent solution for post-Cycle 1 grants."

5. ICANN org outreach to European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA)

• There was general consensus among councilors that it was not necessary for GNSO Council to, independently, intervene or further act on the communication from ICANN org to the ENISA Network and Information Systems Cooperation Group Work Stream for art.28 NIS2.
• IPC also relayed that they did not support ICANN org's letter on account of it carrying a perception that it is misleading and not wholly factual, therefore recommending that GNSO Council not support the letter.

6. Holistic Review Revised Terms of Reference

• Council is working on a comment to this Terms of Reference. 

7. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee

• Council was informed that Sebastien Ducos has indicated the willingness to continue as Chair of the Council SSAD Small Team which will transition to the RDRS Standing Committee. Barring any objections, this will be confirmed by was of consent agenda item in Council's Dec meeting. 

GNSO Council Meeting #10 of 2023 held on 25 Oct 2023 during ICANN 78, over 2 parts, and including a Council Wrap-up Session on 26 Oct 2023:

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #10 of 2023 held on 25 Oct 2023 during ICANN 78, over 2 parts, and including a Council Wrap-up Session on 26 Oct 2023:

Under Part 1 Agenda

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Optional Topics for Potential Council Response
  • (i) Pilot Holistic Review Revised Draft Terms of Reference 
  • (ii) Proposed Process for the Retirement of Non-Policy Recommendations 
  • (iii) Continuous Improvement Program Community Coordination Group (CIP-CCG)
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Liaison to the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Annual Report
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Diacritics Issue in Latin Script
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 8.1 – Farewell to outgoing Councilors

  • 8.2 – Update - Open Contracted Party House DNS Abuse Calls

  • 8.3 – GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot Review

  • 8.4 – Open microphone (Continuation of anniversary session discussion / input)

Under Part 2 Agenda

Full Agenda

• Item 1: Seating of the 2023-2024 Council
  INCOMING COUNCILORS:
  • Jennifer Chung: SOI Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG)
  • Lawrence Olawale-Roberts: SOI Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG - BC)
  • Damon Ashcroft: SOI Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG - IPC)
  • Taiwo Peter Akinremi: SOI Non-commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG)
• Item 2. Election of the Chair
  • One nomination was received for this position from Gregory DiBiase of the Contracted Party House. Gregory circulated his candidate statement to the GNSO Council on 5 October 2023.
• Item 3. Election of GNSO Council Vice Chair 2022-2023

  • Non-Contracted Party House - Tomslin Samme-Nlar

  • Contracted Party House - Nacho Amadoz

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters

  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 24 August 2023 were posted on 09 September 2023.

  • Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 21 September 2023 were posted on 08 October 2023.

• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Confirmation of Appointment of Ashley Heineman as GNSO-appointed Co-Chair of the IANA Naming Function Review Team
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 

  • The GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot was initiated in June 2021 to determine whether the framework, as outlined here, could serve as an approach for dealing with the various projects that are focused on improvements to GNSO processes and procedures.

  • The CCOICI tasked the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Task Force to address the following questions:

    1. Is the original objective of the SOI, as stated in the BGC WG Report, still valid? If not, why not and what should the current objective be?
    2. Based on the response to question 1), is the requested information to be provided as part of the SOI still fit for purpose? If not, why not, and what would need to be changed to make it fit for purpose?
    3. Are there any further measures that should be considered from an enforcement / escalation perspective, in addition or instead of those already included in the requirements?
  • During the meeting in August 2023, CCOICI Chair Manju Chen presented an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements, but the vote on the recommendations was ultimately deferred in last month's Council meeting due to some last minute concerns from the CPH.
  • As it turned out, no changes are being proposed to the CCOICI Recommendations and Council will proceed with the vote on these recommendations as they are written - which maintains the ability to exempt participants from declaring in their GNSO SOI who they represented whenever they participated in a PDP in case of professional ethical obligations preventing complications. The motion only requires a simple majority for it to be carried.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Optional Topics for Potential Council Response

(i) Pilot Holistic Review Revised Draft Terms of Reference 

• • The ICANN Board is currently seeking the community's input on the proposed Pilot Holistic Review Revised Draft Terms of Reference. This is an update to the first version posted for Public Comment in August 2022 and has been modified to reflect community input. The primary focus of the Pilot Holistic Review Draft Terms of Reference (ToR) is to address the four primary issues raised during the first Public Comment proceeding:
    • The scope of Holistic Review is unclear
    • There is a lack of independent examination in the Holistic Review
    • There is a lack of identified dependencies
    • The community might not have the ability to support the Pilot Holistic Review work
  • The ToR Development Team also shortened and revised the ToR document to include more direct language and clearer deliverables.
  • Considering the potential implications on the ICANN structures and work, the Board is seeking input on whether the revised Draft ToR seems fit for purpose, and whether it sufficiently addresses the issues identified in the first Public Comment proceeding.
  • The following questions are designed to aid responders in formulating their views:

1. 1. 1. Do you support the Pilot Holistic Review Revised Terms of Reference as drafted?
      2. Does the Pilot Holistic Review Revised Terms of Reference sufficiently address the four primary issues identified in the first Public Comment proceeding?
      3. Does the Pilot Holistic Review Revised Terms of Reference sufficiently clarify the deliverables for the Pilot Holistic Review?
      4. Do you support the next steps for the Pilot Holistic Review (as noted below)?

• • For more background information, Councilors are invited to listen to the webinar on this topic. 
  • Deadline for feedback is 27 November 2023.

(ii) Proposed Process for the Retirement of Non-Policy Recommendations 

• • To implement the Board-approved Third Accountability and Transparency Review (ATRT3) Recommendation 5, and considering the numerous times the ATRT3 Final Report stresses the procedural gap of not having a process to retire approved recommendations, ICANN org is proposing a process for the retirement of community-developed Board-approved non-policy recommendations in exceptional cases and according to specific criteria. 
  • Non-policy recommendations refer to community recommendations developed outside of a policy development process, such as Specific Reviews or Cross-Community Working Groups. The process will be publicly documented in the planning prioritization framework, and referenced in relevant documentation, such as the revised version of the Operating Standards for Specific Reviews. 
  • Council will discuss the Proposed Process and determine whether input on the proposed process is needed. 
  • The deadline for input is 30 November 2023

(iii) Continuous Improvement Program Community Coordination Group (CIP-CCG)

• • The Third Accountability and Transparency Review (ATRT3) Recommendation 3.6 calls for Organizational Reviews to be evolved into a Continuous Improvement Program (CIP). The recommendation to create a Continuous Improvement Program states that ICANN org shall work with each Supporting Organization (SO), Advisory Committee (AC) and their stakeholder groups, and the Nominating Committee (NomCom) to establish a Continuous Improvement Program. It will include an annual satisfaction survey of members/participants, and a regular assessment, including a summary of continuous improvements published at least every three years. 
  • As the ICANN Community considers the implementation of ATRT3 Recommendation 3.6 as it relates to each community structure and for the ICANN Community overall, the CIP Community Coordination Group is intended to serve as a forum to exchange best practices, lessons learned, as well as for sharing information and progress related to already existing community continuous improvement activities. The representatives in the CIP-CCG will share best practices and collaborate on community-wide implementation of ATRT3 Recommendation 3.6, while relaying information back to their constituencies to inform the process and voice decisions. 
  • ICANN org plans to proceed with the approach outlined in its letter by the end of November; however, if there are objections, concerns, or further feedback/questions, input is due by 30 November 2023.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Diacritics Issue in Latin Script
  • PointQuébec, CORE Association, and the At-Large Advisory Committee raised an issue to the GNSO Council attention with regard to the challenge affecting future applied-for strings in the Latin script containing diacritics that may be confusingly similar to ASCII strings and are non-variants. 
  • For background, an applied-for IDN gTLD string in the Latin script containing diacritics, which is NOT an allocatable variant label of the base ASCII string (existing or applied-for) according to RZ-LGR, is widely recognized by users as its “equivalence” and may be determined to be confusingly similar (i.e., in which case, it would not pass the String Similarity Review).
  • One notable example of this problem known to the ICANN community is the string “québec”. PointQuébec Inc, the Registry of .quebec, has long held an interest in applying for this string, but it may face challenges obtaining it. PointQuébec regards the string “.québec” a necessity for serving the French speaking community in Quebec, Canada. Quebec is the only province in Canada whose sole official language is French; 71.2% of Quebecers are first language francophones. In the 2012 round, PointQuébec was advised not to apply for “.québec” due to considerations for technical readiness and financial predictability for an IDN gTLD. Hence it applied for the ASCII string without diacritics “.quebec” first, but has been waiting to submit an application for the IDN string in the next round.

  • A similar problem could happen to other existing Registries that currently manage ASCII gTLDs but may wish to apply for their IDN equivalence that are not deemed as allocatable variant labels according to the RZ-LGR. Future applicants may also be affected by this challenge.

  • To consider the development of an exception procedure for handling the consequence of String Similarity Review and create a potential path for future applications such as the “.québec” string, a GNSO Policy Development Process is likely the necessary avenue to do so. Understanding the seriousness of the issue and the potential harm to the interests or needs of the intended language committees, the GNSO Council agrees that requesting an Issue Report to thoroughly research and scope the problem is the appropriate step forward. The Issue Report will serve as the basis for launching a dedicated PDP on this topic, should the GNSO Council consider this path in the future. 

• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

  • 8.1 – Farewell to outgoing Councilors

  • 8.2 – Update - Open Contracted Party House DNS Abuse Calls

  • 8.3 – GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot Review

  • 8.4 – Open microphone (Continuation of anniversary session discussion / input

Records of 25 and 26 Oct 2023 Meetings at ICANN78

Special Summary Report of 25 Oct 2023 Meeting & 26 Oct 2023 Wrap-Up to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Oct 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Oct 2023 Meeting Records.

1. GNSO Council Leadership 2023/2024

• Greg DiBiase, Tomslin Samme-Nlar and Nacho Amadoz, were elected by acclamation as GNSO Chair, GNSO Council Vice-Chair (NCPH), and GNSO Council Vice-Chair (CPH), respectively.

2. Diacritics Issue in Latin Script

• Following a staff presentation and after much discussion, Council settled on asking for a Study (and not an Issues Report as Councilors did not want to potentially trigger a subsequent PDP) in order to be able to make a better informed decision on subsequent next step.

3.  DNS Abuse Mitigation by Contracted Party House (CPH)

• The CPH (i.e. the Registry SG and Registrar SG) has opened their meetings, and plan to invite SOACs to share information with them, to inform on projects and develop possible inputs to such meeting.

    Action by ALAC Liaison

• • As the ALAC's designated contact point, Justine Chew to liaise with CPH on such DNS Abuse mitigation outreach opportunities.

4. GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 

• In August, Council received an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements which concluded that no consensus was reached on the ability to exempt participants from declaring in their GNSO SOI who they represented whenever they participated in a PDP in case of professional ethical obligations preventing complications. Although it was recommended that the GNSO SOI format be updated to form two parts (see below), the existing SOI language which allows for the exemption was to remain as is. Further, it is proposed that the SOI be organised into 2 parts:
  
  • a) General Statement of Interest which contains general information about a participant (parent).
    
  • b) Activity Specific Statement of Interest which contains information that is provided specific to the activity, for example, motivation for participation (child)
• The vote to adopt these CCOICI recommendations was withdrawn at Council's Sep 2023 meeting as CPH were not prepared to vote on the one recommendation, as written, to retain the exemption. Hence this matter went back to the CCOICI for further consideration. CCOICI could not come to agreement to change the relevant recommendation.
• Following this, the vote to adopt these CCOICI recommendations was put without any amendment at this Council meeting, requiring only a simple majority to pass.
• The vote failed, with the CPH voting nay and the NCPH voting yay. As a result, none of the CCOICI recommendations were adopted. No change to the GNSO SOI is effected.

5. Topics for Potential Council Response

• Pilot Holistic Review Revised Draft Terms of Reference - Council is considering drafting a comment to this.
• Proposed Process for Retirement of Non-Policy Recommendations - Council is also considering drafting a comment to this.
• Letter regarding Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) Community Coordination Group - it appears that Council does not have any reaction to this.

ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting on 21 Oct 2023 

• Agenda 
• Meeting Details
• Meeting Record
• Summary Report

ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting held on 21 Oct 2023

Agenda:

1. Welcome and Introduction - Justine Chew, ALAC Liaison to the GNSO, Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair and Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair (10 mins)
2. GNSO Council Guidance Statement on ".québec", 14 Sep 2023 [gnso.icann.org] (20 mins)
   1. What is the GNSO Council's view on the issue(s) arising from the public comments to the IDNs EPDP Phase 1 Initial Report on ".québec"?
   2. How does the GNSO Council plan to address the issue(s)?
      Speakers: Sebastien Ducos (GNSO), Olivier Crepin-Leblond (ALAC)
      Followed by discussion / Q&A
3. New gTLD Program Next Round (formerly Subsequent Procedures) (20 mins)
   1. How is the GNSO Council addressing the community-developed SubPro Outputs which either remain marked as "pending" or have not been adopted by the Board?
   2. How will the GNSO Council draw community participation and/or input in any efforts in "revising" those SubPro Outputs to address the Board's concerns?
      Speakers: Paul McGrady (GNSO), Tijani Ben Jemaa / Justine Chew (ALAC)
      Followed by discussion with GNSO Council SubPro Small Team / Q&A
4. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) (20 mins)
   
   1. What are the GNSO or GNSO Council's plans in moving the RDRS forward, in respect of registrar on-boarding and post launch of the RDRS? 
      Speakers: Sebastien Ducos / Greg DiBiase (GNSO), Alan Greenberg (ALAC)
      Followed by discussion / Q&A
5. Next Steps - Justine Chew (5 mins)

Records of ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting held on 21 Oct 2023

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript

Notes on the 21 Oct 2023 ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting

Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair, provided an update on incoming and outgoing ALAC leadership and Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair, provided an update on incoming and outgoing GNSO councilors and the change in GNSO Council leadership.

ALAC and At-Large community members and Council leadership and councilors discussed 3 issues per the agenda:

1. Diacritics in New gTLDs (eg .Quebec and .Québec)

• The GNSO Council recognised that the ALAC, among others, have brought to Council's attention, the potential unsettling impact of certain existing gTLDs (in ASCII or not) running into string similarity issues if the existing registry operators of those certain gTLDs or other applicants were to apply for delegation of what are perceived as confusingly similar strings to those gTLDs but with diacritics. This situation could also impact applications for strings with or without diacritics in the next round.
• Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair, reported that Council has not yet determined how they would like to proceed with the issue (whether eventually running a PDP , ie. a policy path, if required or an implementation for edge cases), and will be discussing this further at the Council meeting on Wed, 25 Oct. 
• Justine Chew, ALAC Liaison to the GNSO, would be able to provide an update in due course.

2. Next Round of New gTLD Program - Progress on pending or not adopted Subsequent Procedures recommendations

• There are a number of recommendations from the Subsequent Procedures PDP WG that have been marked (as still) pending and some which have been not adopted (rejected) by the ICANN Board on account of the Board holding that they are not in the best interest of ICANN.
• GNSO Council had established a Council Small Team to address these pending/rejected recommendations to see if they can be clarified (for those pending) or revised in some way (for those rejected) that would address the Board's concern and rationale, respectively.
• Paul McGrady, GNSO Councilor and the Council's Small Team Lead, reported that the GNSO Council is expanding the existing Council Small Team to a "Small Team Plus" to address such recommendations, which includes Recommendation 17.2 on Applicant Support, which he acknowledged as something the At-Large community have a major interest in. Paul encouraged the ALAC to send their very best representatives (a subject matter expert (SME) and an alternate) to join this Small Team Plus to work on those recommendations.
• A workplan is being finalised and the invitation for an SME and alternate from every SOAC, C, and SG, will follow soon.
• Tijani Ben Jemaa, AFRALO, expressed a hope that the major increased of interest in this topic is one that supports the success of an improved Applicant Support Program as compared to the 2012 Round.

3. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) 

• Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice Chair, explained a bit of the background of the RDRS, from the GNSO recommendations to the Board on the System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (for registration data) (SSAD) and how those recommendations were viewed as prohibitively expensive to implement as-is, and that the Board wanted more data before considering committing a large fund to implement the same. This led to the idea to create a more lightweight system, i.e. a pilot, now called the RDRS, which is to serve as a central place for requestors of registration data that have been redacted to request such data. These requests would be routed to the appropriate registrar for evaluation (and disclosure where appropriate).
• Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice Chair, also reported that work has been done to define what the RDRS would look like and the sort of metrics that would be gathered and shared with the community. Also, that Registrar pre-onboarding has begun (around 10% of domains under management, with up to 35% pledged for on-boarding by launch) and that the RDRS should launch by the end of the calendar year. Onboarding by registrars to the RDRS is voluntary and will inform the paths forward for pending System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (SSAD) policy recommendations. The RDRS will run for 2 years and pending policy recommendations will then be revisited.
• Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice Chair, also reported that the GNSO Council Small Team that had worked on the RDRS design input will be transitioning to a Standing Committee which is tasked to look into issues with the RDRS as they arise, including metrics and reporting.
• Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair, expressed a hope that the data being captured/stored will offer the community the ability to do some real analysis as opposed to just relying on reports generated by ICANN org. Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair and GNSO Council EPDP Small Team Lead, replied that the data is being stored for as long as the pilot runs but the data that will be shared will only be aggregate data.
• Thomas Rickert, GNSO Councilor and GNSO Council EPDP Small Team member, reminded that the RDRS is in effect just of a basic design which excludes many better features per the SSAD recommendations. However, he reminded participants that it is important for us all to advocate for the use of the RDRS to help ensure that the system will work well to meet the needs both requestors and disclosers, in terms of better quality of requests and better quality disclosures.
• Greg Shatan, NARALO Chair, inquired whether there has been discussions to handle privacy/proxy service providers who "hide" real registrant data and even registrar data.  Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair and GNSO Council EPDP Small Team Lead, replied that there have been discussions but since the RDRS is not based on policy but is voluntary for registrars and related service providers, we can only encourage privacy/proxy service providers to also participate in the RDRS. Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice Chair confirmed that there is only existing policy to handle redacted data but no policy to handle data under privacy/proxy services, and there could be future work on that.
• Marie Patullo, GNSO Councilor, asked about what happens to requests are "ignored" by "unresponsive registrars".  Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair and GNSO Council EPDP Small Team Lead, clarified that data related to requests that are unattended to will be stored and followed up in some way that would not disincentivize "responsive registrars".  

      Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew To look into periodic intersessional updates from GNSO and discussions with At-Large on the above topics.

GNSO Council Meeting #9 of 2023 held on 21 Sep 2023

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #9 of 2023 held on 21 Sep 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda (none)
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE (Withdrawn) - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements
• Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - Charter for Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee to help inform the next steps on the SSAD policy recommendations
• Item 6: COUNCIL VOTE (Deferred) -  SubPro Clarifying Statement on Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs) and Public Interest Commitments (PICs) 
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Updated Assignment Form
• Item 8: ICANN78 Planning 
  • Sat, 21 Oct, 13:15-14:30 CEST - Joint At-Large & GNSO meeting
• Item 9: Cross Community Working Group - Auction Proceeds Response
• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 10.1 GNSO Prep Week Webinar - Tue, 10 Oct at 13:00 UTC
  • 10.2 Planning for GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session
  • 10.3 ccNSO [& GAC] Liaison updates
  • 10.4 Review of CCOICI pilot
  • 10.5 IGO next steps
  • 10.6 WS2 Community Coordination Group (CCG) 
  • Ad hoc 10.7 Confusing Similarity / IDN in Latin Script

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 20 July were posted on 06 August 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 24 August were posted on 09 September 2023.
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE (Withdrawn) - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements
  • The GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot was initiated in June 2021 to determine whether the framework, as outlined here, could serve as an approach for dealing with the various projects that are focused on improvements to GNSO processes and procedures.

  • The CCOICI tasked the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Task Force to address the following questions:

    1. Is the original objective of the SOI, as stated in the BGC WG Report, still valid? If not, why not and what should the current objective be?
    2. Based on the response to question 1), is the requested information to be provided as part of the SOI still fit for purpose? If not, why not, and what would need to be changed to make it fit for purpose?
    3. Are there any further measures that should be considered from an enforcement / escalation perspective, in addition or instead of those already included in the requirements?
  • The CCOICI submitted to  Council for consideration its Recommendations Report following its review of the Recommendations Report submitted to the CCOICI by the GNSO Statement of Interest Task Force based on their review of the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements as well as their review of the input received in response to the public comment forum.
  • Council received an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements at their Aug meeting and will vote on this vide a motion that only requires a simple majority for it to be carried.
• Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - Charter for Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee to help inform the next steps on the SSAD policy recommendations

  • In Sep 2022, ICANN org published a WHOIS Disclosure System (System) Design Paper based on the "proof of concept" approach outlined by the Small Team.

  • Council then informed the ICANN Board on 17 November 2022 that Council unanimously accepted the Addendum to the Preliminary Report (Addendum) prepared by the Small Team and supported the implementation of the System, after which on 27 Feb 2023, the ICANN Board directed ICANN org to “proceed to develop and launch the System as soon as possible”. The ICANN Board also “directed ICANN org to continue to engage with the Phase 2 Small Team throughout the development and operation of the System, and ensure periodic publication of the collected usage data, once operational". 

  • In Mar 2023, Council instructed the small team to continue working with ICANN org on the implementation of the System as well as “provide the Council with a recommendation on the approach and format through which, following implementation of the system, data should be reviewed and analyzed to help inform subsequent decisions on how to proceed with the SSAD recommendations”.

  • Council has received the small team's proposed charter for a Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee (to help inform the next steps on the SSAD policy recommendations) and will vote on this charter that only requires a simple majority for it to be carried.

• Item 6: COUNCIL VOTE (Deferred) - SubPro Clarifying Statement on Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs) and Public Interest Commitments (PICs)
  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, Council discussed and agreed to task a small team of interested councilors to review the recommendations that the Board placed in a pending status and suggest to the full Council how the underlying concerns that caused the pending status can be best addressed (i.e., a limited triage exercise).
  • Since ICANN76, the Council SubPro Small Team has met several times and has completed a comprehensive review of the issues chart, with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. Council discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May. During that meeting, Council agreed to further task the small team with taking interim steps (e.g., provision of clarifying information, developing speaking points) in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May.  Council debriefed after the dialogue with the ICANN Board and discussed next steps. 
  • During ICANN77 Day 0 Session, Council heard from members of the Board regarding the Board’s views on potential “landing spots” on the pending recommendations. Following this discussion, the Small Team has drafted clarifying statements for items in landing spot one (“Provision of Clarifying Statement to the Board”).
  • During its meeting in July, Council received an update from the Small Team on the proposed clarifying statement and during its August meeting, Council approved a clarifying statement for a number of pending recommendations, though it removed text in the Clarifying Statement relating to the enforceability of PICs and RVCs and holding this over to a future Clarifying Statement, pending further feedback from the ICANN Board. Additional feedback was delivered to the small team and subsequently considered.
  • The Small Team worked on the second Clarifying Statement relating specifically to the enforceability of PICs and RVCs (but should be read as complementary to the relevant pending recommendation(s) and should be considered jointly with the recommendations for the purposes of implementation), which Council had expected to vote on (vide a motion that only requires a simple majority for it to be carried).
  • As it turned out, this second Clarifying Statement remains a work in progress and hence required that the Council vote be deferred.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Updated Assignment Form
  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, Council discussed and agreed to task a small team of interested councilors to review the recommendations that the Board placed in a pending status and suggest to the full Council how the underlying concerns that caused the pending status can be best addressed (i.e., a limited triage exercise).
  • Since ICANN76, this the Council SubPro Small Team has, as part of the limited triage exercise, worked on and drafted the first Clarifying Statement and second Clarifying Statement for Council's consideration.
    • The first Clarifying Statement had been approved by Council in its Aug meeting and subsequently submitted to the ICANN Board on 5 Sep. 
    • The ICANN Board has on 10 Sep resolved to, among other things, adopt 12 SubPro Outputs with the 5 Sep GNSO Council Clarifying Statement.
    • The second Clarifying Statement had been planned to be voted on by Council at this meeting but was withdrawn.
  • As the triage exercise is now complete, the Small Team’s assignment form has been updated to reflect the updated assignment regarding how the non-adopted recommendations should be handled, e.g., supplemental recommendation, Section 16, etc.  Council will hear an update on the proposed updated assignment form.
• Item 8: ICANN78 Planning 
  • A Joint At-Large & GNSO meeting is scheduled for Sat, 21 Oct, 13:15-14:30 CEST, the agenda for which is still in planning.
• Item 9: Cross Community Working Group - Auction Proceeds Response
  • On 17 Jul 2023, Xavier Calvez sent a written update on the progress of ICANN org’s implementation of the Cross Community Working Group’s - Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) Final Report.  The update noted the implementation work will result in the launch of the ICANN Grant Program at the end of the first quarter of 2024. The program will distribute the 2012 New gTLD Program Auction Proceeds in line with the recommendations, as adopted by the ICANN Board in June 2022.
  • As implementation progresses, ICANN org has considered organizing a meeting, with former members of the CCWG-AP, should any of the former members be interested and available to participate. This will help to ensure that implementation preserves the intent of the group’s recommendations.
  • Council will discuss a response to this message. Specifically, the Council is asked to consider if it is comfortable with former CCWG-AP members engaging in a conversation with ICANN org or whether the discussion should be conducted differently.

Records of 21 Sep 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 21 Sep 2023 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Sep 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Sep 2023 Meeting Records.

1. GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 

• Last month, Council received an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements which concluded that no consensus was reached on the ability to exempt participants from declaring in their GNSO SOI who they represented whenever they participated in a PDP in case of professional ethical obligations preventing complications. Although it was recommended that the GNSO SOI format be updated to form two parts (see below), the existing SOI language which allows for the exemption was to remain as is. Further, it is proposed that the SOI be organised into 2 parts:
  
  • a) General Statement of Interest which contains general information about a participant (parent).
    
  • b) Activity Specific Statement of Interest which contains information that is provided specific to the activity, for example, motivation for participation (child)
• Just prior to this Council meeting, the vote to adopt these CCOICI recommendations was withdrawn as CPH were not prepared to vote on the one recommendation, as written, to retain the exemption. Hence this matter now goes back to the CCOICI for further consideration and, hopefully, resolution.

2. Charter for Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee

• The GNSO Council EPDP Phase 2 Small Team's work has wrapped up - since their final task in guiding the design of the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) (formerly known as the SSAD - System for Standardized Access/Disclosure to Registration Data) has concluded - and ICANN org is slated to launch the RDRS in November. 
• Given this, the focus moves towards monitoring of ICANN org's implementation of the RDRS and how well it will function.  To facilitate this, Council is transitioning the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team into the RDRS Standing Committee, and Council has approved the Charter for this Standing Committee.
  • Impact for ALAC: ALAC retains a member seat by virtue of having had a member on the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team, along with an alternate.

3. New gTLD Program Next Round / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations 

• As reported at the At-Large CPWG 20 Sep call, the GNSO Council SubPro Small Team had been working towards recommending a Second Clarifying Statement for Council approval. This Second Clarifying Statement was aimed at clarifying and resolving the ICANN Board's concerns on the group of 10 SubPro Outputs associated with the use, and hence, enforceability, of PICs/RVCs (i.e. SubPro Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 30.1, 31.16 and 31.17).
• At the time Council met, this Second Clarifying Statement is subject to further work by the Small Team and hence required that a Council vote on it be deferred to Council's October meeting.
• In parallel, also as reported at the At-Large CPWG 20 Sep call, the ICANN Board held a recent workshop where the Board resolved to, per its Scorecard;
  • Section A, adopt 7 SubPro Outputs with no further concern;
  • Section B, adopt 12 SubPro Outputs with the 5 Sep GNSO Council Clarifying Statement (i.e the First Clarifying Statement);
  • Section C, NOT adopt 7 SubPro Outputs at this this time, with given rationales; and
  • Section D, consider adopting 10 SubPro Outputs with the provision of the pending GNSO Council Second Clarifying Statement, and to continue discussing a remaining 3 SubPro Outputs with the GNSO Council SubPro Small Team with a goal of resolving them via the clarification mechanism.
• Given the above development out of the Board workshop, the Small Team's assignment form (i.e. charter) required a revision to reflect the updated assignment regarding how the non-adopted recommendations should be handled. Council considered and approved this Small Team updated assignment form. 
• The updated assignment form expands participation in the Small Team to each GNSO Stakeholder Group and Constituency, and each Advisory Committees (mainly ALAC and GAC), to elect to put forward one subject matter expert (SME) plus alternate to help inform the Small Team's final assignment #7 (which is to develop proposed Supplemental Recommendations or develop proposed modifications through GNSO's section 16 process).
  • Impact for ALAC: ALAC will be invited to appoint a SME and an alternate to the Small Team. These appointments may be changed from time to time to facilitate the relevant SME's participation to the different the topics being addressed. For avoidance of doubt, these appointments do not affect my participation as an existing member of the Small Team.

4. ICANN78 Joint Meeting of the At-Large and GNSO

• A call for additions/changes to the proposed topics of SubPro Updates, RDRS and .quebec was made to Councilors.
• The plan is to revisit this list of proposed topics in a fortnight for finalization.

5.  Cross Community Working Group - Auction Proceeds Response

• Council is in favour of responding to Xavier Calvez's written update on the progress of ICANN org’s implementation of the Cross Community Working Group’s - Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) Final Report, noting that there is a bigger procedural issue going on regarding how changes to a working group’s recommendations should occur. The next step is to put together a draft response to Xavier Calvez with some of the Councilors' concerns and circulate it on the GNSO Council mailing list.

6. Confusing Similarity / IDN in Latin Script

• Council Chair addressed the issue of accents and diacritics in Latin languages that could be deemed confusingly similar to existing strings or other applications, and suggested chartering something with a narrow scope to ensure that this topic does not slide elsewhere into the string similarity discussion and ensure that solutions are found that match requirements imposed on variants.
• ICANN org staff clarified that next steps from the staff perspective would be for Council to request an Issues Report.

GNSO Council Meeting #8 of 2023 held on 24 Aug 2023  

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #8 of 2023 held on 24 Aug 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Approval of the 2023 Customer Standing Committee (CSC) Slate
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Chartering the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”)
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Pending Recommendations - Expected Non-Adoption 
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Closed Generics
• Item 9: AOB
  • 9.1 Update from NIS2 Outreach Team 
  • 9.2 ICANN78 Planning
  • 9.3 Discussion Paper on .Quebec
  • 9.4 Grant Program Implementation update to Chartering Organizations

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 14 June were posted on 01 July 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 20 July were posted on 06 August 2023.
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Approval of the 2023 Customer Standing Committee (CSC) Slate - In accordance with Section 17.2 (d) of the ICANN Bylaw and per the CSC Charter, the full membership of the CSC must be approved by the GNSO Council. The Council approves the full slate of members and liaisons, noting that the SSAC has declined to appoint a liaison. 
  • The ALAC's Liaison for term 2023-2025 is Holly Raiche, with the alternate being Ejikeme Egbuogu
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement
  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, Council discussed and agreed to task a small team of interested councilors to review the recommendations that the Board placed in a pending status and suggest to the full Council how the underlying concerns that caused the pending status can be best addressed (i.e., a limited triage exercise).
  • Since ICANN76, the Council SubPro Small Team has met several times and has completed a comprehensive review of the issues chart, with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. Council discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May. During that meeting, Council agreed to further task the small team with taking interim steps (e.g., provision of clarifying information, developing speaking points) in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May.  Council debriefed after the dialogue with the ICANN Board and discussed next steps. 
  • During ICANN77 Day 0 Session, Council heard from members of the Board regarding the Board’s views on potential “landing spots” on the pending recommendations. Following this discussion, the Small Team has drafted clarifying statements for items in landing spot one (“Provision of Clarifying Statement to the Board”). During its meeting in July, Council received an update from the Small Team on the proposed clarifying statement.
  • 24 Aug update: I have just been informed that the Board has requested more time because "[t]he Board would like to propose a small tweak to the language [in the clarifying statements for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 30.1, 31.16 and 31.17 (all regarding the enforceability of PICs and RVCs) to ensure that it is crystal clear". Hence the recommendations where there is an expectation that the GNSO Council can resolve the ICANN Board concerns via a Clarifying Statement are now:
    • Topic 3: Applications Assessed in Rounds - Recommendations 3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
      • The SubPro Final Report recommendation envisions that “the next application procedure should be processed in the form of a round” and “Application procedures must take place at predictable, regularly occurring intervals without indeterminable periods of review”. However, the GNSO Council confirms its willingness to engage with the ICANN Board to explore a shared vision for the long-term evolution of the program, which could be materially different than what is envisioned for the next round of the New gTLD Program in the Topic 3 recommendations.
    • Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation - Recommendation 6.8
      • The GNSO Council confirms its understanding of the Implementation Review Team (IRT) Principles & Guidelines that state that, “the IRT is convened to assist staff in developing the implementation details for the policy to ensure that the implementation conforms to the intent of the policy recommendations.” The Council therefore recognizes that ICANN org will be responsible for establishing the fees charged for the RSP pre-evaluation program, in consultation with the IRT, as is consistent with the roles and responsibilities captured in the IRT Principles & Guidelines. The language used in Recommendation 6.8 is not intended to alter the respective roles and responsibilities of staff and the IRT.
    • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments - Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15
      • Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13 - The GNSO Council confirms that in respect to any new Public Interest Commitments (PICs) and Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs), PICs/RVCs entered into must be contractually enforceable, and in respect of RVCs, enforceability is determined by both ICANN org and the applicant. And further, the Council observes that among the purposes of PICs / RVCs is to address public comments, in addressing strings deemed highly sensitive or related to regulated industries, objections, whether formal or informal, GAC Early Warnings, GAC Consensus Advice, and/or other comments from the GAC.
      • Recommendation 9.15: The GNSO Council confirms that this recommendation does not require any implementation nor creates any dependencies for the Next Round of the New gTLD Program.
    • Topic 26: Security and Stability - Recommendation 26.9
      • The GNSO Council confirms that the “any level” language referenced in the recommendation should be interpreted to only be in respect of domain names that are allocated by the registry operator.
    • Topic 29: Name Collision - Recommendation 29.1
      • The GNSO Council believes that Recommendation 29.1 can be adopted by the Board on the understanding that it does not need to be acted on until such time any next steps for mitigating name collision risks are better understood out of the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Study 2.
    • Topic 30: GAC Consensus Advice and GAC Early Warning - Recommendation 30.7
      • Please see the Council’s clarifying statement for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13.
    • Topic 31: Objections - Recommendations 31.16, 31.17
      • Please see the Council’s clarifying statement for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13.
    • Topic 34: Community Applications - Recommendation 34.12
      • The GNSO Council confirms its recommendation that terms included in the contract between ICANN org and the CPE Provider regarding the CPE process must be subject to public comment. This recommendation however is not intended to require ICANN org to disclose any confidential terms of the agreement between ICANN org and the CPE Provider.
    • Topic 35: Auctions - Recommendations 35.3, 35.5
      • The GNSO Council confirms that the references to private auctions in Recommendations 35.3 and 35.5 merely acknowledge the existence of private auctions in 2012 and should NOT be seen as an endorsement or prohibition of their continued practice in future rounds of the New gTLD Program. The Council notes that there were extensive discussions on the use of private auctions in the SubPro working group. To the extent that draft recommendations were developed as to private auctions, these did not receive consensus support in the working group but did receive strong support with significant opposition.
  • Council will vote on the clarifying statement to be submitted to the ICANN Board.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 
  • The GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot was initiated in June 2021 to determine whether the framework, as outlined here, could serve as an approach for dealing with the various projects that are focused on improvements to GNSO processes and procedures.

  • The CCOICI tasked the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Task Force to address the following questions:

    1. Is the original objective of the SOI, as stated in the BGC WG Report, still valid? If not, why not and what should the current objective be?
    2. Based on the response to question 1), is the requested information to be provided as part of the SOI still fit for purpose? If not, why not, and what would need to be changed to make it fit for purpose?
    3. Are there any further measures that should be considered from an enforcement / escalation perspective, in addition or instead of those already included in the requirements?
  • The CCOICI submitted to  Council for consideration its Recommendations Report following its review of the Recommendations Report submitted to the CCOICI by the GNSO Statement of Interest Task Force based on their review of the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements as well as their review of the input received in response to the public comment forum.
  • Council will receive an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Chartering the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”)
  • In its Final Report, the Subsequent Procedures Working Group recommended “the formation of a Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (‘SPIRT’) (Pronounced ‘spirit’) to serve as the body responsible for reviewing potential issues related to the Program, to conduct analysis utilizing the framework, and to recommend the process/mechanism that should be followed to address the issue (i.e., utilize the Predictability Framework). The GNSO Council shall be responsible for oversight of the SPIRT and may review all recommendations of the SPIRT in accordance with the procedures outlined in the GNSO Operating Procedures and Annexes thereto.”
  • Council will hear on the issue of SPIRT chartering.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Pending Recommendations - Expected Non-Adoption 
  • Further to Item 4: SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement which addressed 22 of 38 SubPro recommendations marked as "pending", the Council SubPro Small Team has also looked at proposing paths for the remaining 16 recommendations the Board is not expected to adopt.
  • Council will hear an update on the proposed path. In addition, the small team is requesting Council for further instructions now that it has reached the solution building stage; as well as input on whether or not it is time to invite the GAC to participate more formally in the small team's work and how that would work practically.
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Closed Generics

  • In March 2022, the ICANN Board requested that the GAC and GNSO Council consider engaging in a facilitated dialogue to develop a framework for further GNSO policy work on the issue of Closed Generics. The GAC and GNSO Council agreed to the Board’s suggestion and each appointed six participants for the dialogue. One participant and one alternate from the ALAC were also appointed. Should the GAC-GNSO facilitated dialogue result in an agreed framework, the agreements will be further developed through the appropriate GNSO policy process.

  • Following an initial, informal meeting at ICANN75 in Kuala Lumpur, the dialogue participants have since been meeting regularly via Zoom and held a substantive two-day face-to-face meeting in Washington, D.C. in late January 2023. The dialogue is hoping to deliver a draft framework around the end of April 2023 to the ALAC, GAC, GNSO and other SOACs for community input. At this stage, groups are expected to have approximately four weeks to review the document.

  • During its meeting at ICANN76, the ICANN Board passed a resolution adopting a substantial portion of the outputs from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP, setting in motion the start of the implementation process for the next round of new gTLDs. As part of the resolution, the Board established deadlines for key deliverables that will impact the development of the implementation plan.

  • The GNSO Chair, GAC Chair, and ALAC Chair plan to send a separate communication to the ICANN Board that reflects the decision they took and, as stated in the letter, expressing the collective view that:
    • (1) closed generic gTLDs should not be viewed as a dependency for the next round;
    • (2) until there is community-developed policy, the Board should maintain the position from the 2012 round (i.e., any applications seeking to impose exclusive registry access for "generic strings" to a single person or entity and/or that person's or entity's Affiliates (as defined in Section 2.9(c) of the Registry Agreement) should not proceed; and
    • (3) should the community decide in the future to resume the policy discussions, this should be based on the good work that has been done to date in the facilitated dialogue.
  • Council will discuss the current state of work and the proposed communication to the Board.
• Item 9: AOB
  • 9.1 Update from NIS2 Outreach Team 
  • 9.2 ICANN78 Planning
  • 9.3 Discussion Paper on .Quebec 
    • Discussion Paper about “.québec” Challenges
    • ALAC correspondence on DotQuebec
  • 9.4 Grant Program Implementation update to Chartering Organizations
    • Update on the progress of ICANN org’s implementation of the CCWG-AP Final Report and preview upcoming work
    • Letter to SOAC Chairs from ICANN org
    • Email exchange from Tripti Sinha, Chair, ICANN Board of Directors, Anne Aikman-Scalese, GNSO Councilor, and Xavier Calvez, ICANN Org, SVP Planning and CFO

Records of 24 Aug 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 24 Aug 2023 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Aug 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Aug 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda Item - 2023 Customer Standing Committee (CSC)

• Council approved the slate of 2023 CSC Members and Liaison, which include the liaison and alternate appointed by ALAC, Holly Raiche and Ejikeme Egbuogu, respectively, for the 2023 - 2025 term.

2. Next Round of New gTLD Program / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & "Other Dependencies"

• To recap, the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution had requested the GNSO Council to submit 3 of 4 deliverables. 
• For convenience, the 3 of 4 deliverables are replicated as follows:
  • a. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard (the 38 Pending Recommendations);
  • b. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;c. 
  • c. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs; and
  • d. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.
• Immediately after ICANN77, Council submitted to the Board on 15 Jun 2023 the SubPro ICANN77 Deliverables: Workplan and Timeline which addresses the 3 requested deliverables.
• As of now, the situation with a. and c. are as follows. The status with d. is as reported in my Jul 2023 report.

a. The 38 Pending Recommendations 

• Since after ICANN77, the GNSO Council Small Team on SubPro has continued to work with the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads, Avri Doria and Becky Burr, in developing the Council's 2 next sub-deliverables in respect of the 38 Pending Recommendations. This involves bifurcating the 38 recommendations into 2 broad groups: 

• • Group (1) covers Recommendations on the following SubPro Topics which were assessed and are understood to merely require clarifying statements by Council for the Board's consideration in context of the Board's concerns, in order to facilitate adoption by the Board.  
  • Due to a late request by the ICANN Board for more time as "[t]he Board would like to propose a small tweak to the language [in the clarifying statements for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 30.1, 31.16 and 31.17 (all regarding the enforceability of PICs and RVCs) to ensure that it is crystal clear", the recommendations where there is an expectation that the GNSO Council can resolve the ICANN Board concerns via a Clarifying Statement was amended to cover:
    • Topic 3: Applications Assessed in Rounds - Recommendations 3.1,3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
    • Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation - Recommendation 6.8
    • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments - Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15
    • Topic 26: Security and Stability - Recommendation 26.9
    • Topic 29: Name Collision - Recommendation 29.1
    • Topic 30: GAC Consensus Advice and GAC Early Warning - Recommendation 30.7
    • Topic 31: Objections - Recommendations 31.16, 31.17
    • Topic 34: Community Applications - Recommendation 34.12
    • Topic 35: Auctions - Recommendations 35.3, 35.5
  • The resulting Clarifying Statement as at 23 Aug which was adopted by Council  for Group (1) recommendations is found at this link.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • • To continue participating in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed.

• • Group (2) covers the remaining pending recommendations for which the Council Small Team will continue to work on in light of the clear signal by the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads that the Board will very likely decline to adopt as they currently read. The Small Team's scope of work here includes considering whether such recommendations should be revised, and if so, how - either through the 'GNSO Operating Procedures section 16' path (which would involve reconvening the SubPro PDP WG), or through a 'Supplemental Recommendation' path for which Council will need to determine the mechanism to produce such supplemental recommendation.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • • To continue participating in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed, or to advocate for the inclusion of input outside of GNSO where Council opts for the 'Supplemental Recommendation' path.

c. Closed Generics Framework

• • Council received a substantive update on the status of the Closed Generics Framework produced by the GAC-GNSO-ALAC Dialogue small team, post a review of community comments received in response to the request for comments on the Draft Closed Generics Framework which closed on 15 Jul 2023. 
  • The Chairs of the GAC, GNSO and ALAC convened to discuss what should happen with this Closed Generics Framework, namely whether there was sufficient community consensus for it to move to a GNSO policy development process. They concluded there was not and that there was not sufficient demand to take it further through a policy process. As a result, the GNSO Chair, GAC Chair, and ALAC Chair plan to send a separate communication to the ICANN Board that reflects the decision they took and, as stated in the letter, expressing the collective view that:

    • (1) closed generic gTLDs should not be viewed as a dependency for the next round; 

    • (2) until there is community-developed policy, the Board should maintain the position from the 2012 round (i.e., any applications seeking to impose exclusive registry access for "generic strings" to a single person or entity and/or that person's or entity's Affiliates (as defined in Section 2.9(c) of the Registry Agreement) should not proceed; and

    • (3) should the community decide in the future to resume the policy discussions, this should be based on the good work that has been done to date in the facilitated dialogue. 

3. Next Round of New gTLDs - Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (SPIRT) (pronounced as "spirit")

• In its Final Report, the Subsequent Procedures Working Group recommended “the formation of a Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (‘SPIRT’) (Pronounced ‘spirit’) to serve as the body responsible for reviewing potential issues related to the Program, to conduct analysis utilizing the framework, and to recommend the process/mechanism that should be followed to address the issue (i.e., utilize the Predictability Framework). The GNSO Council shall be responsible for oversight of the SPIRT and may review all recommendations of the SPIRT in accordance with the procedures outlined in the GNSO Operating Procedures and Annexes thereto.”
• Council discussed the task of chartering (not constituting) the SPIRT and concluded that it would be useful to set up a chartering team to include participation from the At-Large/ALAC, GAC and other parts of the community.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew To alert the ALAC/CPWG on timing of the call to form the SPIRT chartering team, in due course.

4. Discussion Paper on .Quebec 

• The GNSO Chair led the commentary on this issue which essentially concluded that the issue of .quebec (TLD) not being a variant of “.québec” did not require an immediate resolution and one that did not squarely sit in the remit of the Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs).

5. GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 

• Council received an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements which concluded that no consensus was reached on the ability to exempt participants from declaring in their GNSO SOI who they represented whenever they participated in a PDP in case of professional ethical obligations preventing complications
• Although it was recommended that the GNSO SOI format be updated to form two parts (see below), the existing SOI language in relation to exemption is to remain as is.
  
  • a) General Statement of Interest which contains general information about a participant (parent).
    
  • b) Activity Specific Statement of Interest which contains information that is provided specific to the activity, for example, motivation for participation (child)

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2023 held on 20 Jul 2023  

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2023 held on 20 Jul 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team Recommendations #1 and #2 – extending deferral of consideration by six months
  • GNSO Review of GAC Communiqué 
  • GNSO Non-Registry Liaison to the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) - Milton Mueller; [GNSO Non-Registry Liaison Alternate to the CSC - [candidate under review]]
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy 
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Operational Design Phase and Operational Design Assessment Liaison & Small Team Survey Feedback
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Pending Recommendations - Clarifying Statement
• Item 7: Follow up on IGO Curative Rights IRT and Other Work Necessary to Achieve Release of the IGO Acronyms  Under Interim Reservation
• Item 8: IDNs EPDP Timeline
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.1 ccNSO Liaison update
  • 9.2 Closed Generics Update

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Extraordinary Council meeting on 05 June 2023 were posted on 19 June 2023
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 14 June 2023 were posted on 01 July 2023
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team Recommendations #1 and #2 – extending deferral of consideration by six months
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy 
  • During Council’s extraordinary meeting on 5 June 2023, Thomas Rickert introduced an area for potential discussion at a future GNSO Council meeting.
  • Specifically, the European Union's Second Network and Information Systems Directive (“NIS2”) entered into force on 16 January 2023. Article 28, subsection 3 provides, "Member States shall require TLD name registries and the entities providing domain name registration services, those are registrars, resellers and privacy and proxy services, to have policies and procedures, including verification procedures in place to ensure that the databases referred to in paragraph 1 include accurate and complete information. Member States shall require such policies and procedures to be publicly available." Additionally, the corresponding recital number 111, provides, in part, “Those policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder governance structures at the international level." 
  • There was a suggestion to consider informal options of responding to the recital text to highlight the standards that are currently applicable.
  • Council will discuss if further work is needed on this topic, and if the GNSO is the appropriate venue for further work at this time.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Operational Design Phase and Operational Design Assessment Liaison & Small Team Survey Feedback
  • Council will receive an overview of the feedback provided in the surveys issued to two GNSO Liaisons to the ODP (Janis Karklins and Jeff Neuman) and the members of both ODA review teams, and consider potential next steps such as sharing this feedback to ICANN org to help inform the upcoming community consultation.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Pending Recommendations - Clarifying Statement
  • Since ICANN76, the Council SubPro Small Team has met several times and has completed a comprehensive review of the issues chart, with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. The Council discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May, in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May. 
  • During the ICANN77 Day 0 Session, Council heard from the members of the Board regarding the Board’s views on potential “landing spots” on the pending recommendations. Following this discussion, the Small Team has drafted clarifying statements for items in landing spot one (“Provision of Clarifying Statement to the Board”). Immediately after ICANN77, Council submitted its ICANN77 Deliverable Work plan & Timeline SubPro Related Activities as requested by the ICANN Board in its 16 Mar resolution.
  • Council will receive an update from the Small Team on the proposed clarifying statement to the Board as well as the work that is ongoing in relation to the recommendations for which the Board has indicated likely non-adoption.
• Item 7: Follow up on IGO Curative Rights IRT and Other Work Necessary to Achieve Release of the IGO Acronyms  Under Interim Reservation
  • On 14 April 2013, the Board passed a resolution placing certain IGO acronyms under temporary reservation. In recent correspondence, the Board confirmed that its intention in passing this resolution was to “withhold these IGO acronyms from registration at the second level on an interim basis, pending resolution by the community of the inconsistencies between GAC advice and GNSO policy recommendations from the GNSO’s 2012-2013 Policy Development Process (PDP) on IGO-INGO Protections in All gTLDs.” 
  • Since the April 2013 Board resolution, the GNSO has completed two PDPs specific to curative rights protections for IGOs: (1) the PDP on IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms that was completed in 2019 and (2) the Expedited PDP (EPDP) on Specific Curative Rights Protections for IGOs that was completed in 2022.
  • On 30 April 2023, the Board voted to adopt all four recommendations that the GNSO Council approved from the 2019 PDP and all five Full Consensus recommendations from the 2022 EPDP. The Board also directed ICANN org to proceed with implementation “as soon as feasible; and to develop and submit to the Board an implementation plan … to inform the Board as to how the implementation of these recommendations fit into ICANN org’s operational planning and prioritization of its ongoing work to implement other community-developed recommendations that the Board has adopted.” 
  • Council will discuss whether it wishes to take any steps to request that ICANN org implementation of these Consensus Policy recommendations remains a high priority, understanding the need to resource this work appropriately in the context of other ongoing implementation work.
• Item 8: IDNs EPDP Timeline
  • In accordance with ICANN Board request (16 Mar resolution), the EPDP Team delivered an updated project plan by the last day of ICANN77.  It identifies that almost all of its charter questions will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, and determines that its timeline for the EPDP Team’s delivery of relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council remains unchanged, which is November 2025. 

  • Nevertheless, the EPDP Team made a commitment to reconsider its delivery date shortly after ICANN77 by taking into consideration: 

    • Closure of the Phase 1 Initial Report Public Comment period and gaining a better understanding of the breadth and quantity of comments received; 
    • A better sense of progress made on Phase 2 charter questions in advance of the schedule; and
    • More certainty of approval for the EPDP Team’s request for its dedicated face-to-face workshop, etc.  
  •  Council will hear an update on the EPDP Team’s revised schedule.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.2 Closed Generics Update 

Records of 20 Jul 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 20 Jul 2023 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Jul 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Jul 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & "Other Dependencies"

• To recap, the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution had requested the GNSO Council to submit 3 of 4 deliverables. 
• For convenience, the 3 of 4 deliverables are replicated as follows:
  • a. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard (the 38 Pending Recommendations);
  • b. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;c. 
  • c. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs; and
  • d. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.
• Immediately after ICANN77, Council submitted to the Board on 15 Jun 2023 the SubPro ICANN77 Deliverables: Workplan and Timeline which addresses the 3 requested deliverables.

a. The 38 Pending Recommendations

• Since after ICANN77, the GNSO Council Small Team on SubPro has continued to work with the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads, Avri Doria and Becky Burr, in developing the Council's 2 next sub-deliverables in respect of the 38 Pending Recommendations. This involves bifurcating the 38 recommendations into 2 broad groups: 

• • Group (1) covers Recommendations on the following SubPro Topics which were assessed and are understood to merely require clarifying statements by Council for the Board's consideration in context of the Board's concerns, in order to facilitate adoption by the Board. *  
    • Topic 3: Applications Assessed in Rounds - Recommendations 3.1,3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
    • Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation - Recommendation 6.8
    • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments - Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15
    • Topic 26: Security and Stability - Recommendation 26.9
    • Topic 29: Name Collision - Recommendation 29.1
    • Topic 30: GAC Consensus Advice and GAC Early Warning - Recommendation 30.7
    • Topic 31: Objections - Recommendations 31.16, 31.17
    • Topic 34: Community Applications - Recommendation 34.12
    • Topic 35: Auctions - Recommendations 35.3, 35.5
  • The complete Clarifying Statement produced for Group (1) recommendations can be viewed via this link.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • • To participate in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed.

• • Group (2) covers the remaining pending recommendations for which the Council Small Team will continue to work on in light of the clear signal by the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads that the Board will very likely decline to adopt as they currently read. The Small Team's scope of work here includes considering whether such recommendations should be revised, and if so, how - either through the 'GNSO Operating Procedures section 16' path (which would involve reconvening the SubPro PDP WG), or through a 'Supplemental Recommendation' path for which Council will need to determine the mechanism to produce such supplemental recommendation.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • • To continue to participate in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed, or to advocate for the inclusion of input outside of GNSO where Council opts for the 'Supplemental Recommendation' path.

• • *To note that I have previously reported, that the list of recommendations in group (1) versus group (2) continues to evolve over time; compare with as at ICANN77

c. Draft Closed Generics Framework

• • Council received a cursory update on where the Draft Closed Generics Framework stands and informed that the GAC-GNSO-ALAC Dialogue small team will reconvene to review the community comments received in response to the request for comments on the Draft Closed Generics Framework which closed on 15 Jul 2023. 

d.  Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP)

• • As reported in Jun 2023, the IDNs EPDP WG was already taking steps to improve its timeline to expedite completion of its work well ahead of its original Nov 2025 target.
  • The WG Chair presented a revised project plan which shaves 13 months off the earlier timeline. The key milestones for this EPDP are now as follows:
    • Phase 1 Final Report remains expected to be delivered to Council in Nov 2023
    • Council then considers this Phase 1 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
    • Phase 2 Initial Report is expected to be published for public comment in Apr 2024 (vs May 2025 earlier)
    • Phase 2 Final Report is expected to be delivered to Council in Oct 2024 (vs Nov 2025 earlier)
    • Council then considers this Phase 2 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • Assumptions for this revised project plan must hold for the EPDP to meet the new milestone dates:
    • Progress to be achieved via multiple sessions during ICANN78 (similar to ICANN77)
    • A planned F2F workshop scheduled for early Dec 2023
    • No change to the EPDP Charter / scope of quarter questions

• Update: Following this 20 Jul meeting, Council submitted an updated ICANN77 Deliverable Workplan & Timeline SubPro Related Activities to provide further clarity to its 15 Jun submission.

2. Data Accuracy in the context of NIS2 & Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team

      Accuracy

• Council continued to discuss what should or could be done in light of the European Union's Second Network and Information Systems Directive (“NIS2”) entered into force on 16 January 2023, particularly regarding Article 28, subsection 3 referencing the need for Member States to require that "(accuracy) policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder governance structures at the international level." 
• There was no clear agreement on matters of protocol - ie. whether it would be more appropriate for ICANN org or ICANN Board to address the EU or for GNSO Council to address the GAC, and the EC representative specifically, to inform of the work already or being undertaken by ICANN in this area. This was to be referred to Council's communication small team for consideration.

     Data Accuracy Scoping Team

• Council continues to await an update on the status of negotiations Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations between ICANN org and Contracted Parties and resolved to extend deferral of consideration of recommendations #1 and #2 of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team write up for another six months or at an earlier date if the DPA negotiations have been completed before six months have passed and/or there is feedback from ICANN org if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data will be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy.

3. Operational Design Phase (ODP) and Operational Design Assessment (ODA)

• Council was given a presentation on the results of a survey conducted with the 2 GNSO liaisons to 2 completed ODP (SSAD and SubPro) as well as members of the 2 small teams (SSAD and SubPro) and was informed that ICANN org will be conducting an upcoming community consultation to obtain feedback on the ODP process.
• To note that ICANN org intends to incorporate (possibly formalize) the ODP process into the CPIF - Consensus Policy Implementation Framework. 

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • Justine Chew To alert the ALAC/At-Large on details of ICANN org's upcoming community consultation on ODPs when they become available.

GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2023 held on 14 Jun 2023 during ICANN 77 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2023 held on 14 Jun 2023 during ICANN 77

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Motion to Commemorate Pam Little

• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Non-Objection of SubPro Timelines

• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - DNS ABUSE
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consideration of Accuracy Scoping Team recommendations in light of 6 month timeline originally established (factoring in April meeting discussion and input received from ICANN org)
• Item 7: GNSO TOWN HALL 
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 8.1 ccNSO & GAC Liaisons updates

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 20 April 2023 were posted on 07 May 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 25 May 2025 were posted on 09 June 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Extraordinary Council meeting on 05 June will be posted on 19 June 2023.

• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Non-Objection of SubPro Timelines

  • At ICANN76, the Board resolved to adopt the majority of the recommendations from the Final Report of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP. The Board also resolved that the Outputs in Section B of the Scorecard be designated as pending.

  • Further, the Board resolved that several deliverables be completed by the last day of the ICANN77 Public Meeting (15 June 2023):

    1. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard;
    2. A working methodology and IRT work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;
    3. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs; and
    4. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.
  • For item 2, the GNSO Council agreed upon a methodology (Open + Representative) at ICANN76 which effectively completed that item from a Council perspective. However, for items 1, 3, and 4, Council has diligently worked on the each of the items, in conjunction with the respective teams as necessary (e.g., the IDNs EPDP leadership team). 
  • During the Council’s Extraordinary Meeting on 5 June, Council had an initial discussion on all of the work plans and timelines. The work plans and timelines will have been further discussed during Council’s pre-ICANN77 sessions on 11 June, which will likely have been supplemented by Board input on how to resolve the pending recommendations.
  • Council will acknowledge the three work plans and timelines (i.e., for the pending recommendations, IDNs EPDP Phase 2, and closed generics EPDP) and agree to their submission to the ICANN Board.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - DNS ABUSE
  • In February 2022, the GNSO Council formed a small team of interested Council members to consider what policy efforts, if any, the GNSO Council should consider undertaking to support the efforts already underway in the different parts of the community to tackle DNS abuse. 
  • On 7 October 2022, the DNS Abuse Small Team transmitted its Report to the GNSO Council. Recommendation #2 from the Report recommended the GNSO Council to request, et.al., the Registrar Stakeholder Group “to further the role that bulk registrations play in DNS Abuse as well as measures that Registrars may have already put in place to address this vector. Based on the feedback received, the GNSO Council will consider whether further action on bulk registrations is deemed necessary.”

  • The DNS Abuse Small Team received input from the following groups:

    • Contractual Compliance, ICANN Org
    • DNS Abuse Institute
    • gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group
    • Registrar Stakeholder Group
  • Upon reviewing the feedback, the DNS Abuse Small Team preliminarily concluded that there is not enough information available for bulk registrations to be the subject of further policy work at this time.
  • Council will receive an update from the DNS Abuse small team.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consideration of Accuracy Scoping Team recommendations in light of 6 month timeline originally established (factoring in April meeting discussion and input received from ICANN org)
  • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors including the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. 
  • The Scoping Team completed:
    • Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to the Council on 5 September 2022.
    • In the write up, the group suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). 
  • In November 2021, Council adopted recommendation #3 of the Scoping Team’s write up, which recommended;
    • (i) pausing the work in relation to proposals that require access to registration data,
    • (ii) encouraging ICANN org to proceed with their outreach to the EDPB as well as the Data Protection Impact Assessment in connection with the scenario(s) in which the request and processing of registration data takes place as a matter of urgency, and
    • (iii) requesting that ICANN org and Contracted Parties finalize the negotiations on the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) as soon as practicable as the absence of a completed DPA may act as a roadblock for policy work before Council.
    • In response to the Council’s requests, ICANN org provided the following written update to the GNSO Council on 14 March 2023.
  • ICANN org provided a verbal update to Council during the 20 April meeting. Six months has now passed from the Council’s initial deferral of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2. 
  • Council will consider whether a further six month deferral is appropriate or if other next steps are timely e.g., the consideration of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2.
• Item 7: GNSO TOWN HALL 
  • To encourage GNSO community engagement with Council, Council is inviting the community to engage directly with it during the ICANN77 meeting. The objective is to have an open and frank discussion with the GNSO Community during which any topics or questions can be raised.
  • One particular topic that Council would like to draw your attention to is the recent trend of attrition in GNSO Working Group participation - a topic discussed during the recent GNSO Policy Webinar. Council is interested to hear from the community on how it can best address this trend.
  • Additional topic prompts will be included closer to the session.

Records of 14 Jun 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 14 Jun 2023 Meeting to ALT-PLUS

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Jun 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Jun 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & Other Dependencies

• To recap, GNSO Council considered a draft combined project plan, which attempts to address the 3 of the 4 deliverables requested of Council by the ICANN Board. For convenience, the 3 of 4 deliverables are replicated as follows, as drawn from the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution:

1. 1. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard (the 38 Pending Recommendations);
   2. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;
   3. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs; and
   4. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.

• Ongoing conversations with the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads, Avri Doria and Becky Burr, have led to an update of the approach for the 38 Pending Recommendations. Based on this development, Council did not object to 3 deliverables as contained in the SubPro ICANN77 Deliverables: Workplan and Timeline that has since been submitted to the Board on 15 Jun 2023:

a. The 38 Pending Recommendations have been re-organised into 3 categories of "a", "b" and "c":