[AfrICANN-discuss] ICANN Extends Comment Period for GNSO Improvements

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

ICANN Extends Comment Period for GNSO Improvements
24 March 2008

Email comments by 25 April to the public forum at:
gnso-improvements-report-2008 at icann.org.

The public comment period on the GNSO Improvements Report has been
extended by 30 days and will now close on 25 April 2008.

In response to a request from three constituencies of the Generic
Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), the Executive Committee of the
ICANN Board agreed to grant the month long extension of the original
March 25 deadline to permit sufficient time for: (1) the parties
requesting the extension to have additional time to prepare and
provide their proposal to the ICANN Board (including the details of
the consultations and nature of the support that they have gathered);
and (2) to allow time for an additional call to the community to file
submissions relating to all aspects of the posted report.

The extension decision by the Executive Committee was prompted by a
request from Philip Sheppard on behalf of the Commercial and Business
Users, the Intellectual Property, and the Internet Service and
Connection Providers Constituencies.

The comment forum was originally opened for the community to respond
to a set of recommendations developed by the ICANN Board Governance
Committee's GNSO Review Working Group to improve the effectiveness of
the GNSO, including its policy activities, structure, operations and
communications (see 3 February 2008 Report of the Board Governance
Committee GNSO Review Working Group On GNSO Improvements [PDF, 197K].

The Report reflects the Working Group's examination of many aspects of
the GNSO's functioning, including the use of working groups and the
overall policy development process (PDP), and the structure of the
GNSO Council and its constituencies. The Board Governance Committee
determined that the GNSO Improvements working group had fulfilled its
charter and forwarded the report to the Board for consideration.

On 15 February 2008, the ICANN Board acknowledged receipt of the "GNSO
Improvements Report" and indicated that it would like to receive final
public comments on the Report to enable it to consider and implement
the Report's recommendations as soon as possible. The Board directed
ICANN Staff to open a public comment forum on the Report for 30 days,
draft a detailed implementation plan in consultation with the GNSO,
begin implementation of the non-contentious recommendations, and
return to the Board and community for further consideration of the
implementation plan.

The entire comment forum, as well as background information, is
available online at
http://www.icann.org/public_comment/#gnso-improvements-report-2008.

Additional background information about the GNSO Improvements
Initiative can be found at
http://www.icann.org/topics/gnso-improvements.


-- 
Anne-Rachel Inne