[AfrICANN-discuss] January monthly Magzine - ICANN

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

<http://www.icann.org/>
January 2009 -- Volume 2 | Issue 1 In this issue:

   - Executive Staff Focus
   - New gTLDs
   - Fellowship Program
   - Annual Report Published
   - APRALO IGF Planning Chronicles
   - Board of Directors Update
   - ICANN Acronyms Explained
   - Nominating Committee
   - Calendar

Executive Staff Focus
By Doug Brent--ICANN COO

*The "Executive Staff Focus" is a monthly report about what is on the minds
of ICANN executives. Each month will be written by a different ICANN
executive. This month's report is written by Doug Brent, ICANN's Chief
Operating Officer.*

Happy 2009 to all! Clearly 2009 will be a significant year for the ICANN
community with new TLD implementation, new IDN country code implementation,
new automated root zone processing, DNSSEC operational readiness -- and more.
There is also continued work on GNSO improvements, organizational reviews
for ALAC, Board, At Large, SSAC and RSSAC, ongoing policy development work,
establishing community agreement on a security framework for ICANN, and
running the planning processes around the budget and operating plan. Even
this is a partial list. The potential impact of community work this year
will be significant.

>From a staff viewpoint, the holidays were a time to read through the 300+
pages of comments on the new gTLD program. As stated in a recent ICANN
release, comments ranged from detailed concerns regarding specific
implementation points, to broader concerns about brand protection issues,
financial considerations, the registry agreement, and the impact of new
gTLDs on the global marketplace. The ICANN staff, Board and community have
an opportunity to show how the ICANN model works by thoughtfully considering
and responding to these concerns. Processing, summarizing, considering and
recommending responses to this feedback is the major focus for many staff
during January. Clearly, the staff work is just the beginning of broader
consideration.

Without going through the current status and story behind staff support work
on each major initiate mentioned above, it might be helpful to briefly
mention one of the more prosaic ones: the fiscal year 2010 budget (covering
1 July 2010 through 30 June 2011). The one-year ICANN budget is derived from
the activities outlined in the strategic plan (likely to be approved by
ICANN's Board on 3 February, 2009). By mid-February -- earlier than ever
before -- a multi-year budget framework will be posted for consideration.

The goal here is to provide enough information to the community to start the
discussion and debate on ICANN's budget with plenty of time to get comment,
revision and consensus prior to Board consideration in June. Some key
questions to be answered in this budget: How big does ICANN need to be? How
can we accurately capture important work that takes place across the
organization (e.g. Security initiatives)? How will we handle some of the
uncertainty related to scale, cost and revenue in the new TLD program?

Related to the budget, you may have also noted an ever-expanding list of
dashboard reports on ICANN's homepage, and with more coming. Accountability
is a major theme of the Board and executive staff, and full accountability
demands adequate community reporting.

Best,
Doug
What's Your Address? Latest News on New gTLDs

The first public comment period on the Draft Applicant Guidebook for new
gTLDs closed on 7 January. It has received over 300 comments from
individuals and organizations representing intellectual property interests,
brand owners, business owners, ICANN supporting organizations, domain name
industry players and governments from 24 different countries. Respondents
had the option to comment on the Guidebook as a whole or on one of its six
modules. Just over half (55 percent), chose to comment on the Guidebook; the
rest commented on specific modules or topics. The fifth module, covering the
base agreement between new registries and ICANN, received the most comments
(around 30 percent). The responses received are now being compiled,
summarized and evaluated. An analysis of the comments will be posted next
month. Alongside the feedback received from a number of outreach events,
this summary and analysis will inform ICANN staff through the next program
development phase, including re-examining and amending the current guidebook
where appropriate. While this analysis is ongoing, a preliminary review has
drawn out some key concerns raised by the community. They are:

   - Brand protection issues and the impact on brands and trademark owners;
   - Financial considerations, including evaluation fees, ongoing registry
   fees, and refund procedures;
   - Various issues surrounding the proposed registry agreement,
   particularly, price controls, registry/registrar separation, the management
   of future agreement amendments, equitable treatment, and others;
   - General comments and concerns related to expanding the top level and
   its impact on the global marketplace, specific industries and Domain Name
   System stability.

ICANN staff also acknowledges the concern that a number of parties have New
gTLDs raised regarding the current global economic crisis and the impact it
may have on potential new gTLD applicants. As the new gTLD program
progresses, there will be a number of additional consultation and outreach
events, details of which will be posted on the ICANN website in February.
We have heard your comments on New gTLDs!

All your comments and concerns regarding new gTLDs will be considered and a
response will be provided. A comprehensive analysis of the comments receive
is being written and will be released in this first meeting by myself or
other members of the community, encourages individuals to step up, learn,
and find their voice.

The comprehensive analysis of the comments alongside the feedback received
from these and other outreach events, will inform ICANN staff through the
next program development phase, which will mean amending the current
guidebook. Thank you to all those that contributed their responses to the
first public comment period. ICANN looks forward to continuing a productive
dialogue on this that will result in amendments to the application process.

*For on-going updates:* http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm

more... <http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm>
2008 Annual Report Published

ICANN's third annual report covers in detail the organization's achievements
and progress during 2008, including three major initiatives ICANN has
undertaken this year: the process for introducing new generic top-level
domains (gTLDs) to the Internet; the introduction for the first time of
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs); and an extensive Improving
Institutional Confidence (IIC) consultation, to enable the conclusion of the
Joint Project
Agreement (JPA) with the United States government in September 2009.

The annual report encompasses reports from the chairs of ICANN's Supporting
Organizations and Advisory Committees as well as detailed rundowns of each
department's activities during the year. The report also recognizes ICANN's
work since its inception 10 years ago with a brief history of its
achievements linked to its 33 international public meetings. Fittingly, the
report includes a special memorial to Jon Postel, one of the Internet's
pioneers, from former ICANN chairman Vinton Cerf.

Further contents include:

   - A brief biography for each member of the Board of Directors
   - Messages to the ICANN community from the CEO and Chairman
   - Highlights of the organization's Strategic and Operating plans
   - An in-depth look at the New Delhi, Paris, and Cairo meetings
   - A detailed description of ICANN's framework for corporate governance
   and accountability
   - ICANN's financial report for 2007-2008
   - ICANN's compensation practices and salary structures for the corporate
   officers

The complete annual report is available online at
http://www.icann.org/en/annualreport/annual-report-2008-en.pdf. Printed
books will be available in late January 2009, and can be requested from
Corporate Affairs at publications at icann.org.

more... <http://www.icann.org/en/annualreport/>
APRALO IGF Planning Chronicles
Report on APRALO's Participation at IGF 2008 (December 8, 2008)

APRALO successfully organized and completed two events at the recent
Internet Governance Forum (IGF), including some impressive outreach.

A main Session on Realizing a Multilingual Internet was webcast and
translated. APRALO's representatives, Hong Xue and other colleagues, worked
diligently with the other co-organizers and workshop planning was discussed
at every monthly meeting of APRALO from June 2008.

Hong was behind a huge amount of document drafting, program development and
other arrangements. She attended all the face-to-face meetings in Geneva,
Cairo and Hyderabad and joined the discussions on the list. Finally, on
December 3, 2008, the first IGF Main Session on Realizing a Multilingual
Internet was successfully held in Hyderabad.

The Panel was chaired by Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO of Rediff.Com, and
moderated by Ms. Miriam Nisbet, Director of the UNESCO Information Society
Division. The panel discussed issues related to multilingualism and
promoting diversity on the Internet, including accessibility and the
importance of enabling access for people with disabilities. The session
identified the critical issues such as contents in local languages,
localization and availability of tools and internationalize domain names in
the tri-layer of technology, language and culture.

A second workshop was also held on Internationalized Domain Names: Myths and
Opportunities (also transcribed and translated). Co-organized by APRALO,
ALAC and ICANN, it was held the day after the first session, on December 4.
The workshop explored how the domain name system itself create new
possibilities for broader Internet accessibility and discussed the effect
the proposed standard changes have on additional scripts and mnemonics and
on applicability of possible existing registrations. Hong, along with the
representatives from IETF, ccNSO, Egyptian Government and ICANN Board,
talked about the technology, policy and legal issues on IDN imminent
implementation, with Hong focusing on individual users' concerns and
expectations for IDNs.
Board of Directors Update

There is no January Board meeting. Due to the Board meeting that will be
held at the Mexico City meeting on Friday 6 March, the first Board meeting
for 2009 will be held on Tuesday 3 February.

The agenda is online at: http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/

Highlights include:

   - Reports from Board Committees
   - 2009-2012 Strategic Plan
   - Updates on the Fast Track, Compliance, Mexico City and others
   - Two redelegations -- Somalia's .SO and Belarus' .BY
   - Bylaws changes regarding the NomCom and Board Committees
   - GNSO Improvements

The Board will also be holding a special meeting on 12 February to review
progress on the Applicant Guidebook in time for the Mexico City meeting.

The agenda will be posted a week before the meeting at the following web
address: http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/

A new aspect regarding Board minutes and increased transparency is the
release of Board Committee minutes. From now on, minutes will be made public
for each Board Committee as soon as they are approved (typically at the
following meeting).

So far, there are three Board Committees that have posted minutes (you can
see all the Board Committees here:
http://www.icann.org/en/structure/boardcomms.html).

(Incidentally, the Executive Committee has always posted its minutes. See:
http://www.icann.org/en/committees/executive/)

The currently available Committee minutes are:

   - *Audit Committee*
   Its 3 December meeting minutes are at
   http://www.icann.org/minutes/minutes-governance-03dec08.htm
   - *Finance Committee*
   Its 18 November meeting minutes are at http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/
   minutes-finance-18nov08.htm<http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/minutes-finance-18nov08.htm>
   - *Public Participation Committee*
   Its 16 December meeting minutes are at http://www.icann.org/minutes/
   minutes‐participation-16dec08.htm<http://www.icann.org/minutes/minutes-participation-16dec08.htm>

more... <http://www.icann.org/en/general/board.html>
ICANN Acronyms Explained

*GNSO--Generic Names Supporting Organization *

The GNSO is one of ICANN's three supporting organizations and helps to
promote the development of Internet policy and encourage diverse and
international participation in the technical management of the Internet.

The GNSO Council is currently comprised of two representatives from each of
the following constituencies:

   - gTLD registries (under contract to ICANN)
   - Registrars (accredited by and under contract to ICANN)
   - Internet Service and Connectivity Providers (ISPs)
   - Commercial and Business Users (both large and small)
   - Non-Commercial Users
   - Intellectual Property Interests

The GNSO is one of the three supporting organizations (along with the ASO
and ccNSO) that contribute to the development of Internet policy based on
input from their constituencies and in conjunction with the other two
supporting organizations.

Some current GNSO issues are Whois, Fast Flux, Registration Abuse and Domain
name expiration policy to name just a few. For more information on the GNSO
visit: http://gnso.icann.org/

(If you'd like to learn more about any of the above issues, please let us
know!)

*IDN--International Domain Names *

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names represented by local
language characters. Such domain names could contain letters or characters
from non-ASCII scripts like Arabic or Chinese. Many efforts are ongoing in
the Internet community to make domain names available in character sets
other than ASCII. These "internationalized domain name" (IDN) efforts were
the subject of a resolution by the ICANN Board of Directors, which
recognized "that it is important that the Internet evolve to be more
accessible to those who do not use the ASCII character set," and also
stressed that "the internationalization of the Internet's domain name system
must be accomplished through standards that are open, non-proprietary, and
fully compatible with the Internet's existing end-to-end model and that
preserve globally unique naming in a universally resolvable public name
space."

For an IDN Fast Track update go to:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-22jan09-en.htm

more... <http://www.icann.org/en/general/glossary.htm>
Nominating Committee

ICANN accomplishes its work through various entities such as the Board of
Directors; the three supporting organizations GNSO, ccNSO and ASO; and the
At Large Advisory Committee.

The Nominating Committee selects well-qualified, accomplished individuals to
serve in the four sets of leadership positions.

Available Leadership Positions Include:

   - BOARD OF DIRECTORS -- 3 Seats
   - AT-LARGE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ALAC) -- 3 Seats
   - COUNTRY-CODE NAMES SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONCOUNCIL (ccNSO) -- 1 Seat
   - GENERIC NAMES SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION COUNCIL (GNSO) -- 2 Seats

An Invitation for Statements of Interest and Suggestions for Candidates for
ICANN's Nominating Committee has been posted on ICANN's website at
http://nomcom.icann.org/invitation-2009.html

The Nom Com is responsible for selecting all ICANN Directors (except the
President) and those selected by ICANN's Supporting Organizations. For more
information on the Nominating Committee go to: http://nomcom.icann.org/

Statements of Interests should be received before 15 April 2009 and the
selected appointees will be announced by early September 2009.

more... <http://nomcom.icann.org/>
Upcoming Meetings

ICANN's 34th International Public meeting will be held in Mexico City on *1-6
March 2009*. For the most updated information on the Mexico City Meeting,
please visit: http://mex.icann.org/

   - 3 Feb -- Board Meeting
   - 9 Feb -- Board Finance Committee Mtg.
   - 11 Feb -- Board Governance Committee Meeting
   - 16 Feb -- IANA Committee Meeting
   - 17 Feb -- IANA Public Participation Committee Meeting
   - 23-24 Feb -- APTLD meeting in Manila, The Philippines. www.aptld.org

Links

*Policy update: *http://www.icann.org/en/topics/policy/

*Compliance newsletter: *http://www.icann.org/en/compliance/newsletter/

*Monthly magazine: *http://www.icann.org/en/magazine/

*Blog: *http://blog.icann.org/

*Announcements: *http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/

*Public Participation: *http://public.icann.org
*Have Your Voice Heard* -- Visit the Public Participation Site and let us
know what you think about the current issues. If you care about the Internet
and how it evolves, your voice will only be heard if you get involved. We
look forward to seeing you.
We Want To Hear From You

If you have a comment about an article you've read, want to know more about
a particular topic, are confused about an acronym, or if you would you like
to submit an Op-Ed article? We invite you to submit your thoughts, ideas,
and feedback to us at: michele.jourdan at icann.org


How the Fellowship Program is Benefiting the Internet Community

[image: Photo of Janice Lange]
*Janice Lange*

As the manager of the ICANN Fellowship program, I would like to take this
opportunity to introduce to some, and further elaborate to others in the
ICANN community, what this grant program is all about. As with most stories,
it is best to start at the beginning....

The fellowships program is the result of Item 4.3 in the 2006-07 Strategic
Plan: Implement a program to enhance and develop relevant skills and
knowledge in existing participants and in the next generation of ICANN
leadership. According to the project charter, the main goal was to: develop
and implement a mechanism for transparently and accurately providing
financial scholarships to individuals from developing countries in order to
facilitate their participation in ICANN meetings. To accomplish this, ICANN
sought to enable improved participation for least and less developed
economies, in particular governments, ccTLDs, non-profits not involved in or
associated with the at-large advisory committee and the private sector. It
is a means-tested program so applicants must be citizens of economically
eligible countries. We use the World Bank classification of low,
lower-middle, and upper-middle economies. For more information on this,
please go to the Fellowship webpage <http://www.icann.org/fellowships>.

The program is part of ICANN's Global Partnerships department, and is a
one-time grant awarded by an independent selection committee based on a mix
of criteria including applicant experience and references, geographic
proximity to meeting, receipt of past fellowships, and so on. The fellowship
covers the cost of airfare and hotel, as well as providing a stipend after
successful completion of the program, in order to assist in covering some
basic expenses.

Since its inception, the program has expanded its base to include not only
the three times a year participants, but also an active alumni group. At the
end of each ICANN meeting, the successful participants (and by successful,
we mean that the participants are required to attend daily morning briefing
sessions which are highlighted with speakers from both ICANN staff and
community; provide daily updates and engage in discussion on previous days'
events and discussions; and take advantage of opportunities to speak out in
public forums or meeting venues) are added to a continually updated alumni
email distribution list and internal wiki. Both of these venues allow for
opportunities to share information on: local, regional and global events,
workshops and conferences, ask questions of each other or the ICANN staff,
and receive support from those that they have bonded with through the
fellowship experience.

The fellowship program provides an opportunity and experience like no other
in the ICANN community. It develops and fosters a passion for the Internet
community and the opportunity to become part of a larger cause. By allowing
individuals to become a fellow more than once, the knowledge and networking
gained from successive or multiple opportunities comes is showcased in the
number of fellows who are gaining a voice in the ICANN community. The first
time any of us attended an ICANN meeting, we remember a sense of feeling
overwhelmed and small (how will my voice count and how do I start to know
where to go or what to do?) The mentoring and guidance given in this first
meeting by myself or other members of the community, encourages individuals
to step up, learn, and find their voice. By the second experience, the
fellow is able to create their own agenda, participate more fully and begin
to mentor others to keep the circle of learning alive. A third selection
brings a fully! engaged and knowledgeable community participant into the
meeting, and this is the point where they are the leader, and mentor, who
can now fly on their own.

In this past year, individuals from the fellowship alumni program have put
themselves forward to the Nominating Committee; joined or attended their
first GAC meeting; spoken and contributed to ccNSO meetings and the main
Public Forum (something acknowledged by the Chairman, Peter Dengate-Thrush),
or joined another supporting organization such as the GNSO and ALAC.

As this program continues to grow, we will bring the ICANN community monthly
updates from the alumni themselves, sharing what they have learned, how they
have benefited and grown due to the fellowship program, and their
expectations of participation and leadership in the future.

more ... <http://www.icann.org/fellowships>

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