[AfrICANN-discuss] ICANN 36 Seoul - Briefing note

Mon Nov 9 08:18:50 SAST 2009

Hi Anne,

Thanks for this. It was very insightful and useful to the rest of us who 
werent in attendence

Irene

Anne-Rachel Inné <annerachel at gmail.com> 
Sent by: africann-bounces at afrinic.net
11/07/2009 03:44 PM
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[AfrICANN-discuss] ICANN 36 Seoul - Briefing note

Seoul meeting briefing note
Date: 
Friday, 06 November 2009
Briefing Note – Overall Summary of the Seoul Meeting

What was it?

ICANN’s 36th international public meeting was the last of three held 
annually to conduct policy development and outreach. It was hosted by 
ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and 
KISA(Korea Internet & Security Agency), a public agency that plays a major 
role in developing and researching the Internet in Korea.

The meeting was opened by three local dignatories: Mr. See Joong Choi, 
chairman of the Korea Communications Commission; Mr. Heung Kil Ko, Senator 
and Chairman of the Culture, Sports, and Tourism, Broadcasting and 
Communications Committee of the National Assembly; and Ms. Hee Jung Kim, 
president of KISA. 

Mr. See Joong Choi spoke about how the Internet was 40 years old, and the 
impact it has had in that time. He talked about how important IP addresses 
were as assets for the future and that they become a common resource for 
all. And he welcomed the introduction of IDNs as paving a “new way toward 
the future”.

Mr. Heung Kil Ko spoke about how Korea was a leader in the knowledge and 
information society, with 77.6 percent of its citizens online. He spoke of 
the importance of an efficiently and stably managed IP address system, as 
well as dealing with security threats such as hacking and phishing. The 
conference would hopefully lead to close ties between ICANN and Korea, he 
added.

Ms. Hee Jung Kim also heralded the introduction of IDNs, and welcomed a 
recent change in the agreement that ICANN has with the United States 
government as strengthening the autonomy of the IP addressing system.

There were 1,207 attendees to the conference from 111 different countries. 
The participants engaged in a wide range of discussions about the 
Internet’s domain name system and related issues.

Further information about the meeting, including presentations and 
transcripts, is available at http://sel.icann.org.

ICANN’s next international public meeting will take place in Nairobi, 
Kenya beginning on 7 March 2010.

What happened and what are the next steps?

Many meetings, workshops, public forums and informal discussions were held 
over seven days by the different stakeholders of the ICANN model:

Business interests
Civil society - – including the At-Large Summit of individual Internet 
user representatives
Governments and government agencies
Internet service providers
Registrants
Registrars
Registries
The technical community

Several key issues and themes evolved over the course of the meeting. They 
are summarized below.

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)

WHAT HAPPENED:  The most significant progress at the Seoul meeting was the 
approval of the “fast track”, which will see a limited number of 
internationalized domain names introduced to the Internet’s root possibly 
before the end of the year. To celebrate the occasion, a special evening 
reception was held on the Monday.

The fast track was formally approved by the Board on Friday, and although 
there remain concerns about their introduction, the Chairman noted it as 
an historic achievement and the vote was met with a standing ovation by 
the audience. Dozens of press articles from across the world also 
recognized the event.

For the first time, Internet users that speak something other than Western 
languages will be able to represent an entire Internet address in their 
own language.

NEXT STEPS: Applications to the fast track will open on 16 November.

MORE INFORMATION:

Official announcement of the approval
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-30oct09-en.htm

Fast track webpage 

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

New gTLDs

WHAT HAPPENED:  The third version of the Applicant Guidebook, as well as a 
range of other papers and explanatory memoranda, were produced for 
discussion at the meeting. A main session on the program was held on the 
Monday.

In particular, additional work was done on the “overarching issues” that 
need to be addressed before the introduction of new top-level domains (see 
below for more specific information).

ICANN staff revised the deadline to the opening application date for new 
gTLDs. Instead of giving a date, or quarter, the launch date will be 
dependent on community efforts to find solutions to the overarching 
issues. This approach prompted some in the community to argue that ICANN 
needed to demonstrate its determination to the process.

The result at the end of the week was a compromise solution, approved in a 
Board resolution, that asked staff to look into how to introduce a system 
for allowing “expressions of interest” to be shown in new gTLDs.  That 
process may allow for likely demand to be gauged and provide useful data 
to move some discussions from theoretical to pragmatic.

The Applicant Guidebook is out to public comment until 22 November. 

Trademark Protection

The issue of how to protect trademarks in the event of a massive expansion 
in the domain name space continued to be an issue of much debate. A 
special session was held on the Wednesday to discuss the issue.

Following public comment on a report produced for the previous meeting in 
Sydney (the IRT report), possible solutions to the issue were reduced from 
four to two in a staff paper released prior to the meeting. Those 
solutions are: the creation of an IP Clearinghouse, or database of 
validated trademarks; and a Uniform Rapid Suspension process for use in 
clear-cut cases of trademark infringement.

That paper has been put to the GNSO for review.

Malicious Conduct

Two sessions on Monday afternoon addressed the concern that a large 
expansion of the domain name space will present new opportunities for 
abuse of the DNS, such as phishing, malware, the distribution of illegal 
content, and so on.

The broad concern is that with a large number of new companies entering 
the domain name market – both registries and registrars – that there will 
not be sufficient awareness of the problems of dealing with the criminal 
element online.

Summaries of the input received so far on this issue as well as a report 
by ICANN staff with proposed mitigation measures were posted for review 
prior to the meeting and a panel discussion dug further into both.

Security and Stability

A session on Wednesday focused on a report that review how the Internet’s 
current systems could scale to accommodate new Internet extensions, as 
well as other security related issues such as the introduction of a more 
secure form of the current system, called DNSSEC.

Broadly, there are some concerns that if a large number of extensions were 
introduced to the Internet at the same time, that the systems currently in 
place would not be able to cope.

There was some discussion about whether the report effectively recommended 
that new gTLDs would need to be delayed or spread out over time, although 
there was no agreement on that point and it remains for ICANN’s Advisory 
Committees in this area (RSSAC and SSAC) to review the report, public 
comments on the issue and report back to the community.

The root scaling report is out for public comment until 29 November.

Demand and Economic Analysis

Further economic analysis will be commissioned by ICANN in order to 
address outstanding concerns raised following review of the two previous 
economic studies.

NEXT STEPS: Feedback from the meeting, as well as comments sent to comment 
periods covering the third version of the Applicant Guidebook and papers 
related to the overarching issues, will be used to produce a fourth 
version of the guidebook for the Nairobi meeting in March.

Staff will review the possibility of introducing a system where potential 
gTLD applicants are able to provide “expressions of interest” in new 
Internet extensions in order to help the work move forward more 
effectively.

MORE INFORMATION:

The new gTLD program webpage contains the latest information as well as 
extensive background information on the whole process:
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm

Root scaling study session: 
http://sel.icann.org/node/7084

Trademark Protection session: http://sel.icann.org/node/7116

Malicious Conduct and new gTLDs session: 
http://sel.icann.org/node/7117

Malicious Conduct and Consumer Protection: 

http://sel.icann.org/node/7288

Registry/registrar separation session:
 http://sel.icann.org/node/7083

New gTLD update session: 
http://sel.icann.org/node/6739

Strategic Planning

WHAT HAPPENED: ICANN held its first strategic planning session for 2010 
was held on Wednesday morning.

The strategic plan is the process by which the organization’s priorities 
are mapped out, feedback is received from the community, and all the input 
is pulled into an Operating Plan, from which the organization’s budget is 
decided and allocated.

The session was more interactive than previous years with an online survey 
asking people to rank the importance of various areas of work e.g. 
implement new gTLDs, strengthen accountability, etc.

The plan recognized four main areas of focus for ICANN: preserve DNS 
stability and security; promote competition, trust and consumer choice; 
excel in IANA and other core operations; maintain ICANN's long term role 
in the Internet eco-system. Within these, no less than 18 projects were 
highlighted as being of strategic priorities over the next three years.

NEXT STEPS: A draft plan will be drawn up based on community feedback and 
provided to the Board for review. The plan will then be put out to public 
comment in early December, with the second set of feedback used to draw up 
a revised plan to be put before the Board for approval in February 2010.

MORE INFORMATION:

Strategic plan session: http://sel.icann.org/node/7103

Online survey: 
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Auve9xOKvl0YbWhg1NLKmA_3d_3d

Affirmation of Commitments

WHAT HAPPENED: The Joint Project Agreement (JPA) that ICANN had with the 
US government concluded in September and was replaced by an Affirmation of 
Commitments.

Under that Affirmation, ICANN becomes accountable to the global Internet 
community and a series of reviews are outlined that help ensure a high 
degree of public, global accountability.

A special session was held on the Wednesday afternoon where the Chairman 
and CEO took questions about the Affirmation and also outlined a path 
forward for carrying out the reviews.

The Affirmation was also given an hour-long slot at the public forum on 
Thursday.

NEXT STEPS: The Affirmation outlines a number of reviews. An initial draft 
of how these might work will be produced following community feedback and 
presented at the next ICANN meeting in Nairobi.

MORE INFORMATION:

The Affirmation of Commitments:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-30sep09-en.htm#affirmation

Affirmation session: http://sel.icann.org/node/7481

GNSO Improvements

WHAT HAPPENED: After years of hard work, the new GNSO Council sat for the 
first time in Seoul. There are now two main stakeholder groups: Contracted 
(made up of registries and registrars), and Non-Contracted (made up of 
commercial and non-commercial interests).

A new chair was chosen by both houses – Chuck Gomes – and he will work 
alongside two new vice-chairs: Olga Cavalli (Non-Contracted) and Stephane 
van Gelder (Contracted).

MORE INFORMATION:

The GNSO Improvements webpage: 
http://gnso.icann.org/en/improvements/

The GNSO Council session: http://sel.icann.org/node/6708

Independent Reviews

WHAT HAPPENED: A number of sessions that covered the review of specific 
parts of ICANN were held during the week.

Currently, two bodies are in the implementation phase: GNSO and ALAC. The 
GNSO process was largely finished with the sitting of the new Council; 
whereas the ALAC met the Board’s Structural Improvements Committee to 
discuss the implementation of its changes.

Meanwhile, going through the Working Group stage (i.e. just before 
implementation) there is: the Nominating Committee; Board; and SSAC.

Other reviews ongoing included: RSSAC (just at the start of the working 
group period); ccNSO (just about to head into the review process); and ASO 
(terms of reference for its review being drawn up).

NEXT STEPS: The reviews will progress through the clearly defined 
processes in each case. More sessions will be held in Nairobi to discuss 
and review that progress.

MORE INFORMATION:

ALAC and Board SIC session:http://sel.icann.org/node/7183

Nominating Committee review sessionhttp://sel.icann.org/node/7094

Board review session: http://sel.icann.org/node/7252

SSAC review session:
 http://sel.icann.org/node/7098

Board members and Councillors

Since this was ICANN’s annual general meeting, there was turnaround in 
Board and Council members.

In particular, Roberto Gaetano, Steve Goldstein, Wendy Seltzer and Thomas 
Roessler left the Board. From ALAC: Jose Ovidio Salgueiro, Fatimata Seye 
Sylla, Vanda Scartezini, Nguyen Thu Hue, and Sivasubramanian Muthusamy all 
ended their terms. And from the GNSO: Tony Harris, Philip Sheppard, Greg 
Ruth, Tony Holmes, Ute Decker, Cyril Chua, Carlos Affonso Pereira de 
Souza, Maggie Mansourkia, Jon Nevett, and Steve Metalitz all left the 
Council.

Special mention was given to leaving GNSO chair Avri Doria and leaving 
NomCom chair Tricia Drakes.

Peter Dengate Thrush was re-elected as chair of the Board, and Dennis 
Jennings as vice-chair.

Board Resolutions

The full set of Board Resolutions at the public meeting on Friday can be 
found online at http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-30oct09-en.htm
.

A transcript of the meeting can be found at:
http://sel.icann.org/meetings/seoul2009/transcript-board-meeting-30oct09-en.txt

And video recordings of proceedings can be found in two parts at:

http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/p77419459/ and

http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/p19863704/

Other Matters

Pictures of the conference can be found at: http://www.icann.org/photos/
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