[Gnso-newgtld-wg] Consensus on Recommendations

Wed Dec 23 17:23:02 UTC 2020

My +1 to Alan was lazy but I did not have much to add so didn’t want to waste people’s time.  But I strongly agree with Paul that mislabeling things has caused an enormous amount of grief in this community over the past couple of years should be avoided.  I would also point out to leadership that based on the response to Alan’s message and discussion on the calls, Alan’s position appears to be the consensus. In other words, the consensus of the WG is that the WG recommendations given to the GNSO should only include those where there was actual consensus.

Marc H. Trachtenberg
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Chair, Internet, Domain Name, e-Commerce and Social Media Practice
Greenberg Traurig, LLP
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M +1 773.677.3305
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[Greenberg Traurig]

From: McGrady, Paul D. <PMcGrady at taftlaw.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2020 5:33 AM
To: Trachtenberg, Marc H. (Shld-Chi-IP-Tech) <trachtenbergm at gtlaw.com>; alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca; gnso-newgtld-wg at icann.org
Subject: RE: [Gnso-newgtld-wg] Consensus on Recommendations

I could not agree more with Alan and Marc if I tried.  Something is not a WG Recommendation if it isn’t a consensus based recommendation from the WG.  Mislabeling things has caused an enormous amount of grief in this community over the past couple of years (to the point where I have heard true multistakeholderists™ ask why they even bother).  I hope this WG doesn’t get this wrong as well.

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From: Gnso-newgtld-wg <gnso-newgtld-wg-bounces at icann.org<mailto:gnso-newgtld-wg-bounces at icann.org>> On Behalf Of Marc Trachtenberg via Gnso-newgtld-wg
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2020 1:12 AM
To: alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca<mailto:alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>; gnso-newgtld-wg at icann.org<mailto:gnso-newgtld-wg at icann.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Gnso-newgtld-wg] Consensus on Recommendations

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+1

Marc H. Trachtenberg
Shareholder
Chair, Internet, Domain Name, e-Commerce and Social Media Practice
Greenberg Traurig, LLP
77 West Wacker Drive | Suite 3100 | Chicago, IL 60601
T +1 312.456.1020
M +1 773.677.3305
trac at gtlaw.com<mailto:trachtenbergm at gtlaw.com> | www.gtlaw.com<http://www.gtlaw.com/>  |  View GT Biography <https://www.gtlaw.com/en/professionals/t/trachtenberg-marc-h>

[Greenberg Traurig]

From: Gnso-newgtld-wg <gnso-newgtld-wg-bounces at icann.org<mailto:gnso-newgtld-wg-bounces at icann.org>> On Behalf Of Alan Greenberg
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2020 12:47 AM
To: New gTLD SubPro <gnso-newgtld-wg at icann.org<mailto:gnso-newgtld-wg at icann.org>>
Subject: [Gnso-newgtld-wg] Consensus on Recommendations

*EXTERNAL TO GT*
I raised an issue during the last call and I wanted to repeat it here for those who were not on the call and have not reviewed the recording.

Jeff described how the leadership team will assess the level of consensus on recommendations (packages of recommendations if I recall correctly, but that is not relevant here) and state them clearly in the final report.

For recommendation that achieve a Full Consensus or Consensus (as defined in the PDP Charter), that is fine. But I have a great problem if a "Recommendation" does not achieve either level of Consensus and is still labelled as a "Recommendation".

Historically most Recommendations coming out of PDPs have WG consensus. Until recently, for the few cases where a "Recommendation" did not have WG consensus, the GNSO Council chose to not endorse it and did not pass it on to the Board.

That changed recently with the EPDP where the GNSO Council ratified recommendations that did not achieve consensus, including even one with Divergent opinions (defined in the WG Charter as "No Consensus").

There is no way of knowing how the Board will treat such recommendations, nor how the CURRENT GNSO will react to receiving recommendation s from us that do not have consensus. But I feel that we should be taking a prudent stance going forward.

We have been very careful only to draft recommendations that seem to have WG consensus. However, until we do the final assessment, we do not know if there is really agreement or not.

If there is not agreement, that we must delete them as Recommendations. We still of course need to fully document the discussion AND the difference of opinion. But to keep them as a formal recommendation that might be accepted by the GNSO Council and the Board violates our basic operating principles.

I think that many of us would react poorly to finding a specific recommendation on closed generics where clearly we do NOT have consensus. Why would it be more acceptable to keep other recommendations where the final assessment is that despite what we thought earlier, there is similarly no consensus on the recommendation?

Alan
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