[AfrICANN-discuss] ICANN - September Magazine
Anne-Rachel Inné
annerachel at gmail.com
Tue Sep 11 12:58:53 SAST 2007
[image: Magazine
logo]<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.sv9yjacab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Ficann.org%2F>
September 2007
In this issue:
- The multi-lingual Internet hits a major milestone
- Changing the rules of the domain name game
- What would you do with 16 million IP addresses?
- Why does the ALAC chair want to see more rules?
- News from around the world, the CEO and much more...
Welcome to the second issue of ICANN's monthly magazine. Each issue will
cover the latest news and events, plus outline how you can interact with the
organization.
PLUS this month we have set up an online poll asking what information you
want from ICANN, how you want it, and how you currently interact with us.
ICANN is making decisions that directly affect all those that use the
Internet, whether governments, businesses or individual Net users.
We help coordinate the names and numbers that are vital to producing one
globally interoperable Internet. Our decision-making processes are open to
all and we welcome all those equally passionate about how the Internet
evolves.
If you have any questions, comments or queries please feel free to contact
ICANN's general manager of public participation: kieren.mccarthy at icann.org.
Links *Policy
Matters<mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/Anne-Rachel.Inne/My%20Documents/ARI/Thunderbird_Firefox/THUNDERBIRD2/Profiles/6e3gbfv6.inne/Mail/m01.icann.org/Inbox?number=8052683#LETTER.BLOCK6>
* *ICANN Board<mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/Anne-Rachel.Inne/My%20Documents/ARI/Thunderbird_Firefox/THUNDERBIRD2/Profiles/6e3gbfv6.inne/Mail/m01.icann.org/Inbox?number=8052683#LETTER.BLOCK7>
* *Interview with the
CEO<mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/Anne-Rachel.Inne/My%20Documents/ARI/Thunderbird_Firefox/THUNDERBIRD2/Profiles/6e3gbfv6.inne/Mail/m01.icann.org/Inbox?number=8052683#LETTER.BLOCK8>
* *The Great Reclamation<mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/Anne-Rachel.Inne/My%20Documents/ARI/Thunderbird_Firefox/THUNDERBIRD2/Profiles/6e3gbfv6.inne/Mail/m01.icann.org/Inbox?number=8052683#LETTER.BLOCK9>
* *Participation<mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/Anne-Rachel.Inne/My%20Documents/ARI/Thunderbird_Firefox/THUNDERBIRD2/Profiles/6e3gbfv6.inne/Mail/m01.icann.org/Inbox?number=8052683#LETTER.BLOCK10>
* *Other news<mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/Anne-Rachel.Inne/My%20Documents/ARI/Thunderbird_Firefox/THUNDERBIRD2/Profiles/6e3gbfv6.inne/Mail/m01.icann.org/Inbox?number=8052683#LETTER.BLOCK11>
* Tell us what you think: online survey
[image: Online survey] One of ICANN's most important jobs is to provide
information on its processes. To that end, we have a series of publications,
systems and websites to elicit input and comment from the Internet
community.
But is it enough? Are we providing sufficient information? Is it in the
right format or on the right topics? Are you using the various means of
interacting with ICANN? If not, why not? What can we do to improve?
We have set up a quick and easy six-question online survey to find out from
you what you want. It will take less than five minutes, but we will use it
to help decide the future course of providing information about ICANN and
its processes.
So please do take a few minutes out from your day to complete the survey. We
will be very grateful for all help received.
[image: Take the
survey]<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.wc8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bigpulse.com%2F916i>
Take the survey<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.wc8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bigpulse.com%2F916i>
Policy
Matters
IDNs
Background info<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.xc8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.icann.org%2Fissues%2Fidns>
For years people have dreamed of the truly multi-lingual Internet, where the
names of websites as well as the content on them, can be represented in the
world's different languages.
After years of technical and policy development work, a fundamental
milestone<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.cjwdddcab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2Fannouncement-2-19jun07.htm>in
the creation of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) has been reached
with approval<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.yc8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fminutes%2Fprelim-report-14aug07.htm>by
the ICANN Board to introduce no less than 11 test top-level domains to
the root of the Internet.
Literally test TLDs - the term "test" will be translated into Arabic,
Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek,
Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil and put up on the Net. The top-level
domains will host a series of wikis and people from across the world will be
encouraged to run free in the new space so ICANN can see how the IDNs
function on the real Internet.
In terms of policy, the ccNSO, GAC, GNSO and ALAC will produce responses to
a ccNSO-GAC issues paper on the public policy issues of introducing IDNs.
The ccNSO is considering launching a Policy Development Process (PDP) on the
issue.
Key dates:
- Sep: The "test" IDNs will be put live into the root
- Oct: The ICANN meeting will see large amounts of policy work and
discussion
ICANN staff contact(s): Tina Dam <tina.dam at icann.org>
------------------------------
REGISTRY/ REGISTRAR AGREEMENTS
The review of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) - the contract
that defines the relationship between ICANN and companies that register
domain names (registrars) - has been under review since the collapse of
registrar RegisterFly.
Six suggested amendments<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.zc8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Ftopics%2Fraa%2Famendments.html>to
the RAA have been posted on the ICANN website and a public
comment period<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.9c8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fpublic_comment%2F%23raa-consultation>on
them, which is also open to other suggested changes, started on 30
July.
It will close on 10 September.
The feedback from that will be used to draw up draft amendments, which will
then be put out for a second public comment period. Other ICANN
constituencies will be invited to contribute their views.
Discussions surrounding amendments to the RAA will form part of public
discussion at the Los Angeles ICANN meeting in October, both at the public
fora, and possibly in another workshop on the matter.
Registries
In the meantime, a number of registry agreements are being reviewed. The
ICANN Board approved<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.yc8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fminutes%2Fprelim-report-14aug07.htm>renewal
of the .name registry contract to 2012 at its 14 August meeting. The
approval brings it in line with registry contracts covering .biz, .info and
.org.
There are also ongoing negotiations for the .aero and .museum agreements,
updates on which are on the Board agenda for its 11 September meeting. The
.museum renewal will be considered by the Board on 16 October.
Also, the .post new sTLD is in a new stage of negotiations, with a comment
period<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.8c8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fpublic_comment%2F%23stld-rfp-post>opened
on the most recent communication between the Universal Postal Union
(UPU) and ICANN. There is also a comment
period<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.7c8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fpublic_comment%2F%23museum-renewal-2007>open
on the .museum contract extension.
Key dates:
- 30 Sep: Comment period on .museum closes
- 6 Oct: Comment period on .post closes
- 16 Oct: ICANN Board will consider renewing .museum agreement
ICANN staff contact(s): Tim Cole <tim.cole at icann.org> (Services - RAA
changes) and Craig Schwartz <craig.schwartz at icann.org> (Services - Registry
agreements).
------------------------------
IPv6
Background info<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.5c8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.icann.org%2Fissues%2Fipv6>
Although ICANN plays a limited role in the much larger issue of the global
upgrade of the network to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) from the
current IPv4, IANA staff are among those most aware of the technical issues
surrounding IPv6.
IANA staff, in both official and personal capacities, continue to give
presentations on the issue at conferences across the world. So do a number
of ICANN Board members, including chairman Vint Cerf.
At the most recent ICANN meeting in San Juan, the Board passed a series of
resolutions<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.cd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fminutes%2Fresolutions-29jun07.htm%23n>concerning
IPv6 including that it would "participate in raising awareness of
this situation and promoting solutions".
IANA has recently allocated large pieces of IPv6 space to the Register
Internet Registries (RIRs). You can also read how IANA reclaimed a large
piece of the IPv4 Internet space last month below (see The Great Reclaimer).
Key dates:
- 12-15 Nov: The Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
- 2009: The earliest suggested date for when the free pool of IPv4
address will run out
ICANN staff contact(s): Leo Vegoda <leo.vegoda at icann.org> (IANA)
------------------------------
To be covered in the next newsletter:
- Independent review
- Accountability and Transparency
- Ombudsman
ICANN Board
[image: The ICANN Board]
Recent Board meetings
The Board met on 14 August
2007<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.yc8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fminutes%2Fprelim-report-14aug07.htm>to
discuss, among other things, the selection of a company to run ICANN's
data escrow programme (where domain name ownership details are stored by a
third party in case of registrar problems). The Board approved Iron Mountain
for the role.
Other items discussed included: renewal of the contract for the .name
registry, due to expire on 4 January 2008 (it was approved); a range of
redelegation requests for Dominica, North Korea, Montenegro, Serbia and the
former Yugoslavia. Dominica's request was approved and the remainder will go
forward to the next Board meeting on 11 September.
Importantly for the progression of Internationalized Domain Names, the Board
approved the addition of eleven test domains into the root that will be used
to evaluate the performance of IDNs in the real-life Internet environment
rather than in a lab setup.
The Board also: chose Paris as the location for the June 2008 meeting;
approved recent legal expenses; reformed the members of a number of Board
committees; and extended the lease of ICANN office space in Marina del Rey
for four years.
Preliminary minutes<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.yc8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fminutes%2Fprelim-report-14aug07.htm>for
the full meeting are up on the ICANN website. Full minutes should be
available soon.
------------------------------
Future meetings
The Board will hold a meeting on 11 September. The agenda is up on the ICANN
website and includes:
- Discussions on the new .post registry
- Discussions on renewal of the .aero and .museum registries
- Delegation requests from North Korea, Montenegro, Serbia and the
former Yugoslavia
- Recommendations from the Board Governance Committee on the
Nominating Committee
- An update on the Whois policy process
- Approval of Board review terms of reference for public comment
- Discussion and possible selection of the site for the February 2008
meeting
------------------------------
You can view all past, current and future Board meetings, along with minutes
and agenda on one webpage on the ICANN website at
http://www.icann.org/minutes/<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.liwdddcab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fminutes%2F>
.
Interview with the CEO
[image: Paul Twomey - CEO and President,
ICANN]<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.uv9yjacab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2F>
*The President and CEO of ICANN, Dr Paul Twomey, answers a few questions
about reviews, retreats and the Indian IT revolution. *
What have you been up to this month?
I've been working on a combination of things. With Doug Brent [ICANN COO]
I've been working on a series of operational reviews; we've had a strategic
retreat with the board; and I've been working closely with Rajasekhar
Ramaraj [ICANN board member] on building relations with the Indian business
community and also with the Indian government.
What are these operational reviews?
Well, one of the things the board committee, particularly Njeri Rionge, has
been pushing over the last twelve months has been to have an ongoing process
of operational review, and so we established an operational review panel.
The idea is actually to review each business unit within the ICANN staff
process, and look for opportunities for improvements, particularly with a
mind towards working to adopt some sort of quality performance measure or
test for the staff functions of ICANN over the next several years.
What have you found out?
The big message that came out of it was, that as ICANN's staff functions
have grown to meet the demands of the community, some units have done well
in developing internal processes, managing work; other units need to do
better at doing that developmental process. And probably the most
challenging aspect is the need for managing certain processes across all the
units... that needs to be improved.
I don't find this surprising in an organizational sense. The staff function
for ICANN, say when I first became president, was very small; essentially
everything was done by people who could meet around the water cooler. But
that, of course, meant that a lot of things didn't get done: we didn't have
enough staff. As we've been able to increase staff numbers to support the
community and deal with the depth and complexity of the work coming from the
community, part of our aim has been to ensure that each unit manager runs
their own affairs and makes sure it runs well.
Getting on to the board retreat...
The board retreat was an opportunity for board members to meet face to face
and be able to talk through, in a more informal setting, the issues they see
in front of the organization. There were two key aspects: one was talking
through what they thought should be their input into the strategic planning
process, so they had a chance to talk through in great detail what strategic
issues were facing ICANN and what particular insights they had for the next
three-year cycle.
The second conversation was their own thinking about succession: recognizing
that Vint is moving on as chair. The board members were having an open
discussion amongst themselves about what sort of characteristics they'd be
looking for in a new chair, and some discussion of potential options. That's
a conversation which clearly hasn't come to any conclusion and which is
still an ongoing discussion among the board members.
As CEO, what changes do you think Vint leaving will have on ICANN and its
Board?
Well I think there's no doubt that Vint's been an outstanding contributor to
ICANN - just as he's been an outstanding contributor to the entire Internet.
I think we should recognize though that there is no Vint Mark II.
We also have to recognize that whoever moves into the position of being
chair is simply not going to be the same person. It's probably healthy that
it's not - it's good to have a different style. But I think, very
importantly, we ought to recognize why there's the chair of ICANN. The chair
of ICANN's role is to be the chair of the board, and to be something of a
public face for the organization.
You mentioned new relationships with India - why India, and what have you
been doing?
Well, India is a very large country, its economy is growing at high
single-digit growth rates; it has a significantly growing middle class; a
very large IT outsourcing business, process outsourcing and now increasingly
R&D-based IT industry, particularly in Bangalore and Hyderabad.
So Rajasekhar Ramaraj, our board member from India, was keen - and we've
been keen - to organize a sort of outreach to Indian business, which we did
in Bangalore, and also further with industry associations in Delhi.
And what is ICANN telling the Indians?
Well, what it is that ICANN does or does not do. The community that
co-ordinates the unique identifier system is at the very heart of their
whole business model, particularly for the business-process outsourcing, the
software outsourcing industry... The very fact that all those people can
build those very successful businesses in India is because they can ensure
that their customers' customers can be reached by the software they're
writing very easily - instantly.
ICANN stands for a single interoperable Internet, and their business success
has been based upon a single interoperable Internet, and I think they
recognize that - they haven't heard it expressed that way.
Steve Crocker also attended and he talked a lot about DNSSEC, IPv6 - the
need for IPv6 uptake - and I think that was taken on board in India. We
spent some very interesting time with the Indian CERT. Traditionally inside
ICANN, I think, we've seen the sort of security details that the CERTs are
worried about as just being an application-layer concern and therefore
outside our remit. But there are application-layer aspects to what they do.
Where the two Venn diagrams intersect is in things like flux of IP
addresses, spoofing of domain names, use of tasting of domain names -
potential ways of setting up attack sites, and spoofing sites.
One of the big events just after the Los Angeles meeting in Noevmber is the
Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio where the topic of 'critical Internet
resources' is going to be discussed. What role do you see ICANN playing at
that meeting?
I think the fact that critical Internet resources are one of the agenda
topics is a good thing. Very importantly, though, the function ICANN does is
only a small part of what critical Net resources are, and I think it's
important - especially for developing countries - that that discussion also
has to be about critical infrastructure and application-layer stuff as well
as simply the domain name system and IP addressing.
But nevertheless, in terms of DNS and IP addressing, I think that ICANN, the
Regional Internet Registries and others have a great story to tell, and
we're proud to go out and tell that story: what we do; how multi-party
stakeholder models work; the increasing number of country codes and
governments that have been involved in our work; the way in which the policy
procedures work; the further internationalization of ICANN as an
international non-profit organization: I think those are all good news
stories, so we'll be confident and happy to go forward and have that
discussion.
Thanks
Thank you.
The Great Reclamation [image: Reclaiming an IP
block]<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.uv9yjacab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2F>
It's
easy to forget in the day-to-day administration and management of the
Internet's names and numbers that the network is still a young invention
with a living history - one that is still be written as we speak.
A recent effort by IANA to reclaim a part of that old network for new users
helped put that history into context.
After several months' spent locating and contacting 29 organizations and
obtaining their permission, IANA has managed to free up one up of the 256
blocks of IP addresses that make up the current Internet.
The "slash-8" was number 14 if you view IP address as a list of 256
items<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.jd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iana.org%2Fassignments%2Fipv4-address-space>and
was assigned to the Public Data Network. The space was specifically
set
aside<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.ld8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iana.org%2Fassignments%2Fpublic-data-network-numbers>in
June 1991 to connect IPv4 networks to the ITU's
X.25 networks.
In that sense, block 14.0.0.0/8 is a piece of history. The X.25 protocol was
one of the first efforts to use the new packet-switching technology to
produce a more reliable, digital network. It preceded the OSI model that was
pushed heavily by the ITU but which was finally set aside in favor of the
TCP/IP model that the Internet as we now know it runs on.
Detective work
But despite X.25 still being in use in a few countries, its IP address block
is no longer needed, and so IANA ran through all the recipients of IP
addresses in that block since 1991, and asked if they would agree to return
their allocation. In some cases, the contact information was out-of-date; in
others, there was no contact information. But after some detective work by
the technical community all those in charge of the 984 addresses in use were
tracked down. At the end of August one final registrant was researching the
status of one last address.
In the first seven months of 2007, IANA has allocated nine slash-8s to the
RIRs (Regional Internet Registries), who then allocate them to organizations
and businesses in their regions. Block 14 and its 16 million IPv4 addresses
will be made available in the next few months, leaving just 47 blocks in the
free pool of unallocated addresses. Or, put another way, with the Internet's
growth as it is, the Public Data Network will buy roughly one month's worth
of expansion time.
The reclaim is unlikely to be repeated. We estimate it took six minutes per
address. Fine when less than 1,000 exist in a block of 16 million, but a
whole other world when the addresses have entered mainstream Internet use.
The future's... big
The solution to the diminishing pool of IPv4 addresses is, of course, the
step up to IPv6 networks. Barely 0.1 percent of the IPv6 address space has
been allocated so far. And of that, only a tiny fraction is in use. How big
is IPv6? If you could fit all IPv4 addresses into an iPod, it would take
something the size of the Earth to contain IPv6. We're unlikely to need to
go through a similar reclaiming exercise with IPv6 any time soon.
Participation
PUBLIC COMMENT
There was a bumper crop of public comment periods during and ending in
August, including: the draft management operating principles; the new gTLD
paper; and the latest iteration of ICANN's Strategic Plan.
You can view full details of all these comment periods on a specific August
public comment page
here<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.nd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fpublic_comment%2Fpublic-comment-200708.html>
.
Meanwhile, there are four comment periods currently open that will close
this month, which are: a request of information covering the issue of domain
tasting - which includes two online polls (see below); changes to the RAA
(see policy above for more details); independent review of the Nominating
Committee; and review of the .museum contract.
They can all be found, with full links, at the top of the main public
comment webpage<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.od8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fpublic_comment>
.
------------------------------
ONLINE SURVEYS
Following on from a successful experiment with feedback on new gTLDs, the
online survey system that ALAC has been using for several months has been
expanded to the recent domain tasting request for comments.
There are two surveys asking people what they think and if they have extra
information that might be useful. The first is a broad
survey<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.pd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bigpulse.com%2F872i>covering
people's experiences with domain tasting and their views on various
suggested ways to tackle the issue. The second, produced by the Intellectual
Property Constituency (IPC), is a more in-depth
review<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.qd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bigpulse.com%2F917i>of
how people - in particular businesses - have been impacted by domain
tasting.
So far, the surveys have proved popular since they represent a fast, easy
and structured way to gather information and views on particular topics. We
continue to run the traditional email forums and will be analyzing how the
two work alongside one another, while keeping one eye on a possible reform
of the forum process.
------------------------------
BLOG
A series of interesting and thoughtful blog posts and comments this month,
from a discussion<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.rd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.icann.org%2F%3Fp%3D185>over
whether we should spell ICANN "Icann", or Internet "internet"; to two
podcasts of Board
members<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.sd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.icann.org%2F%3Fp%3D181>Steve
Goldstein and Susan Crawford talking about the history of the Internet
and ICANN respectively. Also: a quick
review<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.td8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.icann.org%2F%3Fp%3D183>of
the history of new gTLDs, and some commentary on an effort by a
financial
services company to differentiate
themselves<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.ud8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.icann.org%2F%3Fp%3D178>through
their use of a .org domain.
------------------------------
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION SITE
There have been several threads of discussion on the public participation
site recently - most concerning
ideas<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.vd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.icann.org%2Fnode%2F263>for
new gTLDs. Would-be registrars from across the world have also been
seeking information on how to become ICANN-accredited. ICANN staffer Baher
Esmat wrote the first
post<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.wd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.icann.org%2Fnode%2F262>in
Arabic covering the IGF process.
The public participation
site<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.rw9yjacab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.icann.org%2F>is
open to all interested individuals, who are free to blog directly to
the
site, or comments on others' posts as soon as they have registered. The site
also runs feeds of news from ICANN and from the community on each page.
------------------------------
OUTREACH
ICANN conducts periodic outreach events with universities. Events were held
in Lisbon, Portugal and San Juan, Puerto Rico during the last two ICANN
meetings.
In advance of the ICANN meeting in Los Angeles, ICANN will conduct a number
of small outreach events with universities in Los Angeles. The first events
have been scheduled for 27 September 2007 at USC and USC-ISI. Additional
events are being planned.
More details on participating with ICANN can be found at:
http://icann.org/participate/<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.ziwdddcab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fparticipate%2F>
Other News
Delhi meeting: ICANN, together with the Ministry of Information and
Communications Technology of India and the Internet & Mobile Association of
India, held a workshop<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.xd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iamai.in%2F%2520Internet%26Issues%2Fagenda.htm>in
Delhi last month.
The event covered the domain name industry and Internet governance and was
attended by Shri R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, Department of
Information Technology, Government of India; Dr. Gulshan Rai, Director,
CERT-In; and ICANN Board members Shri R. Ramaraj, Steve Crocker, Chair of
the ICANN Security and Stability Committee, and ICANN CEO, Paul Twomey.
You can read Dr Twomey's thoughts and feelings about the meeting in his
interview above.
Global news: ICANN has developed a joint proposal with UNESCO for the IGF
meeting in Rio in November focussing on the multi-lingual Internet.
Preparations are also underway for a joint ICANN/TWNIC meeting in Taiwan in
October covering security, IDNs and IPv6.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICANN and the UN Economic and
Social Commission of Western Asia (UN ESCWA) aimed to encourage the
implementation of IDNs in the Arabic language was signed.
For more news from the Middle East region, visit regional manager Baher
Esmat's webpage
here<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.jggscbcab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.icann.org%2Fglobal-partnerships%2Fmiddle-east>
.
Announcements
The following announcements were made in the past month:
6 Sep: Bids welcomed for new gTLD approval
system<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.yd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2Fannouncement-06sep07.htm>
23 Aug: IDN .test root zone
update<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.cjwdddcab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2Fannouncement-2-19jun07.htm>
17 Aug:
- Clarification over .kp
ccTLD<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.zd8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2Fannouncement-2-17aug07.htm>
- Paris chosen for June 2008 ICANN meeting
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.9d8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2Fannouncement-17aug07.htm>
10 Aug:
- RFI on domain tasting
released<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.8d8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2Fannouncement-2-10aug07.htm>
- New TLD consultation
launched<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.7d8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2Fannouncement-10aug07.htm>
2 Aug: Global fellowships programme opens
doors<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.6d8snecab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2Fannouncement-02aug07.htm>
A full list of announcements is available online at:
http://www.icann.org/announcements/<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.kw9yjacab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fannouncements%2F>
News alert email
subscription<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.mw9yjacab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fcommunications%2Fnews_alerts.html>
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an
internationally organized, non-profit corporation that has responsibility
for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier
assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name
system management, and root server system management functions. These
services were originally performed under U.S. Government contract by the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and other entities. ICANN now
performs the IANA function.
As a private-public partnership, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the
operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to
achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to
developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up,
consensus-based processes.
*Interview with Jacqueline Morris
* [image: Jacqueline Morris - ALAC
chair]<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.uv9yjacab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2F>
Jacqueline
Morris is chair of the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC). She is an
Internet specialist based in Trinidad and Tobago, and a part-time lecturer
at the University of the West Indies.
What do you see as ALAC's role in ICANN?
Well the idea is that we should have loads and loads of people getting
excited about being involved in these things, get input from them as to what
are the important issues regarding the technical governance of the Internet,
take this to ICANN and say "these are issues that are important to our
people".
We should also do it the other way and get stuff from ICANN and say "this is
what they're going to do, and what do you think about it, and how do you
think it's going to affect you?" But we're still in a structural transition
period at the moment. We've been asking for input from the RALOs [Regional
At-Large Organizations] on a lot of things, and some of them are setting up
their structures so that they can go out to their membership.
One of the criticisms against this new ALAC system with ALSes (At Large
Structures) and RALOs is that it is unnecessarily bureaucratic. Do you think
there's something to that?
I don't think it's bureaucratic, because we don't have any rules at the
moment! So it can't really be bureaucratic. We have the bylaws which are
very loose - as they should be - and now we have to actually work out the
details.
Some of the RALOs are bureaucratic - that is true. Some have spent days and
months building their structures and their general assemblies and their
rules and regulations, and their operating principles and so on and so
forth. They actually have more paper than ALAC has.
But now we (ALAC) have to put in some rules, because we have people coming
in who are basically taking orders from their region, and that makes it a
lot more difficult to achieve that whole consensus and collegiality thing,
What is the main thing you want to achieve while you are chair?
The main thing is to get it all working properly or at least to a
good-enough level. It used to run on rough consensus; now we have to put in
some rules and not be as informal as we were. And we have started doing that
- writing down why we do what we do, documenting it and so on. And that
unfortunately is taking up an awful lot of time - it has to be done, but it
also takes away some of the energy from policy, which frustrates some
people. Like me!
What's on your mind at the moment?
Well we have an internal working group on the Registrar Accreditation
Agreement. We've got out working group on IDNs, which has about 20 people on
it, already set up. And then there's an ad hoc working group for each
committee that people are liaising to, so we've appointed a liaison to
Security and Stability advisory committee, and that has a little discussion
group. We'll know we're really cooking with gas when we get a liaison to the
GAC. Not from the GAC - to the GAC.
One of the biggest issues around At-Large has always been the ending of the
At-Large elections to be replaced with the Nominating Committee (in 2003).
Are you watching the NomCom review that's going on at the moment?
Yes. Everybody's talking about the NomCom review. I have spoken to the
reviewers [Interisle Consulting Group], I've given them names of people in
the At Large who are both pro and anti the NomCom concept. Personally, I
think it is important to have people who are not elected by a constituency.
I think of the NomCom people as kind of like the House of Lords - not
beholden to anybody in particular.
But one thing that I have been telling people all along is that we'll get
Board representation when we prove that we are viable and useful and
sensible. But they're not going to give it to us just because we say so, or
just because we're nice or just because it's our birthday. We'll get it
because we earn it, not because we think we deserve it. It's not our
birthright. Until we prove that we deserve it, it won't happen.
*Quick Links* ICANN
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*Public Participation
site<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=atygaecab.0.rw9yjacab.xrsqb6bab.183&ts=S0277&p=http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.icann.org%2F>
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