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<p>Dear Melissa,
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">In the
last 48 hours, I feel as if our Small Team has become surreal, and
must object. In the discussion of a Separate, Second Comment
Period for Closed Generic applications, to follow GAC Early
Warnings, we had “broad agreement” as we have always defined “
broad agreement” – GNSO (2), ALAC (1+1), GAC (4).
</p>
Despite overwhelming agreement on a second comment period, we
somehow ended up with compromised language that was severely
problematic. Now, even that hard-fought compromise is being clawed
back.
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">No, no,
and no. These are Closed Generic terms – words that represent
entire industries – and the Broad Agreement is in favor of a
<i>meaningful second comment period </i>where the industry has
time to learn, discuss, and respond,
<i>with the leadership and following GAC Early Warnings</i>. We
would not be here in this Small Team if there was not already much
at stake on this issue. Greg, Alan and I laid out in a 5 page
paper of
factual information just how much – and the Small Team agreed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Alan,
<span style="color:red"><font color="#000000">I appreciate you
pointing us to the</font> </span>SubPro recommendation about
websites, but it does not help us here. ICANN websites are hard to
use, generally geared to experts, and very hard for newcomers to
navigate. What we have asked for, and what SubPro WG never had the
opportunity to discuss, is the special needs of Our Closed Generic
Framework- and a very Special Call Out to the World to Comment in
a Meaningful Way before this most valuable of gTLD real estate (as
I think Jason calls it) is given away.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><u>A
Second Closed Generic Comment Period to be meaningful and
effective would have:
</u></p>
<p>+ A page listing all the rules and evaluation criteria for Closed
Generics – not as written for applicants (e.g., in the Applicant
Guidebook), but written for the public seeking to understand
Closed Generic gTLDs and how to prepare meaningful comment (with
knowledge of the evaluation factors) in this evaluation process.</p>
<p>+ A good semantic search tool for searching the potentially
thousands of closed generic applications by members of the public,
so small businesses, NGOs and others can easily find all new gTLD
applications with closed generic strings that impact their
business or industry. For example, for the aviation industries,
such a search tool should find .airport, .runway, and .airplanes.
This type of tool is special, but not infrequent in our data-based
world.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"
style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt">3)<span
style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif">
</span>+ A homepage showing all Closed Generic gTLD applications
as part of a table visible with each new gTLD string, the
Applicant, translation of string to English if an
Internationalized Domain Name, and country of origin. You should
not have to search the closed generic string, to see all Closed
Generic gTLD applications at this summary level.
</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"
style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt">4)<span
style="font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif">
+ </span>Clear information about deadlines, easy input by the
commenter, easy review by the public and applicant, and a link to
any response the applicant may submit. (Consistent with other
aspects of our work, if additional features are made available for
the initial comment period, then they should be added to this
Closed Generics comment website as well.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><i>This
is not a big ask –a microsite dedicated to helping businesses,
industries and organizations across entire Generic Terms to
understand and navigate our new Closed Generic Framework, and
future Closed Generic policies that follow it.</i></p>
<i>
</i>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><i></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><i>Melissa,
what I share above was the “Broad Agreement” and put forward
as the compromise. I call for us to return to it. I see no
meaningful second comment period – and without it I believe
our Framework falls.</i></b></p>
<i>
</i>Kathy
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