Category — GAC

As reported by Kevin Murphy on DomainIncite.com: “A transcript of a December 2010 meeting between ICANN’s board and National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Larry Strickling, published following a disclosure request by DomainIncite, outlines America’s “tough love” policy over ICANN.

It reveals that Strickling hauled ICANN over the coals over its opaque decision-making, its failure to adequately address its Affirmation of Commitments obligations, and its apparent lack of respect for its Governmental Advisory Committee.

The era of ICANN engaging maturely and in earnest with governments, witnessed over the last six months, arguably began in that meeting room in Cartagena, the evening of December 7, 2010.”

Click HERE to read the full article.

According to ICANN.org: “The ICANN Board and ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) held another productive meeting to discuss the limited number of remaining issues related to the anticipated launch of the new gTLD program. This teleconference was the latest in a series of proactive, issue-oriented collaborations targeted at addressing GAC concerns to ensure the stable and secure delegation of new top-level domains.

ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush recognized the members of the Governmental Advisory Committee, “for their energetic and well-intentioned devotion to the work of reviewing and improving the introduction of new generic top-level domains. The discussions have resulted in significant progress, including improvements to trademark and consumer protections, assistance for potential applicants from developing countries, and other areas of the program.” Together, the Board and GAC have reviewed twelve issues, comprised of 80 sub-issues, discussing each in depth. The work has included several days of face-to-face meetings between ICANN’s Board and GAC, meetings that were informed by preparatory papers and conference calls.”

Click HERE to read more.

As reported on .nxt blog: “Governments have requested a face-to-face meeting with the ICANN Board prior to expected approval of the rules for new Internet extensions on 20 June.

The request from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) is a clear recognition that the planned teleconference between the two on Friday 20 May will not be sufficient to deal with outstanding issues in the ‘Applicant Guidebook’.”

Click HERE to read the full article.

The ICANN Board of Directors held their Board Meeting in San Francisco at the conclusion of the “Silicon Valley Public Meeting”. In a major development, the Board, for the first time, provided a timeline for approving the new Top Level Domain applicant guidebook.

The Board stated it will hold a special meeting on June 20^th to review the guidebook just prior to the start of the ICANN’s “Singapore Public Meeting”.

There are still some hurdles that must be overcome, such as the differences with Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), but feedback from the GAC is expected by March 25. Once feedback has been given, the final GAC scorecard for constituency comment is expected by April 15 with a public comment period ending May 15. On May 20, the GAC and the Board will have a teleconference to discuss the final scorecard. If all goes according to plan, the final guidebook will be posted May 30 and the board will consider it for approval on June 20.

If approved in June there will be a four (4) month communication period to the global Internet community before the application process would begin. Under the current timeline published by ICANN, the application period for new gTLDs could begin in October 2011, with delegation of new gTLD strings into the root zone in the 2^nd quarter of 2012.

Safenames will continue to keep you updated as we learn more about new developments with the new gTLD program.

If you would like to apply for a TLD for your brand or have any questions regarding new gTLDs and the ICANN application process, please contact your Safenames account manager.

You may also contact the Safenames UK office at +44 1908 200022 and emeasales@safenames.net, or the Safenames US office at +1.703.574.5313 and nasales@safenames.net.

Related posts:

1. ICANN Board and GAC to Meet: Final Hurdle for New gTLDs?
2. ICANN posts new TLD Applicant Guidebook – Could Approval for new Domain Extensions be next?
3. ICANN Board approves plan to begin accepting new gTLD applications in May 2011

According to the Board agenda for February 21, Sao Paulo, Brazil has been designated as the location for the 2006 ICANN Annual Meeting. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for the first week of December. Brazil served as host of the March 2003 ICANN meeting.

When Latin America comes up on the rotating schedule again in 2008, Mexico would make a great location for an ICANN meeting.

The 2007 schedule includes meetings in Europe, North America and Asia. My wish list: Barcelona in March, New York in June, and Korea in October.

At the ICANN Annual Meeting in Vancouver, the Government Advisory Committee launched a Public Forum section on the GAC website. To date, there have been only been four comments posted to the Public Forum, all by ALAC members, none by GAC representatives themselves. The last comment was posted on December 17, 2005.

According to the introductory note from GAC Chair Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, “I encourage the Internet community and the general public, world-wide to make use of their GAC representatives and to work with us, as part of the ICANN process, to facilitate the development of a comprehensive international public-private partnership in this important area of management of the global Internet infrastructure.”

The Wellington meeting is fast approaching. It would be beneficial for all interested parties if GAC representatives and members of the Internet community were making greater use of the GAC Public Forum.

I’m back from a fascinating, eye-opening week in Vancouver for the 2005 ICANN Annual Meeting. It was a long week, but worth the trip. The results of the meeting are better covered on other websites, but I will direct attention to the captioning from Saturday’s Public Forum and the results of yesterday’s Board Meeting.

Here’s another website interested parties should pay much closer attention to:
gac.icann.org. The GAC Vancouver Communique is available here. The GAC also has a new Public Forum for comments on GAC activities.