[registrars] GNSO IDN working Group

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello All,

The GNSO has re-instated the GNSO IDN Working Group which was originally
created in May 2006.  The new charter for the working group is listed
below, and the group is due to report at the ICANN meeting in Portugal.

So far we have the following members from the Registrars Constituency on
the working group:

Bruce Tonkin

Werner Staub

Paul Diaz

Yoav Keren

If any other member of the registrars constituency would like to join,
please let me know.   You will need to be a financial member of the
constituency.


Regards,
Bruce Tonkin


GNSO IDN Working Group
======================

The IDN Working Group operates in the context of the following related
activities within ICANN:

(1) There is a President's Advisory Committee on IDNs
http://www.icann.org/committees/idnpac/ which has been in operation
since November 2005.  Amongst other things this committee is tasked with
analyzing the challenges relating to the technical implementation of
internationalized top level domains and suggestions towards their
resolution.    IN particular the committee is supervising laboratory
tests (see http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-19oct06.htm).

(2) There has been a working group of gTLD registries and ccTLD
registries to create a set of technical Guidelines for the
Implementation of IDNs at the second level.   See
http://www.icann.org/general/idn-guidelines-22feb06.htm for version 2.1
of the Guidelines dated - 22 Feb 2006.

(3) The GNSO has a Committee developing policy recommendations on new
gTLDs, as part of a policy development process called PDP-Dec05.   The
policies developed for new gTLDs apply to new gTLDs that use the IDN
standards.  See: http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/ for more
information.

(4) The ICANN staff have produced a draft issues report on IDNs dated 2
August 2006 available at:
http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/idn-tlds/issues-report-02aug06.htm


(5) The ccNSO has formed a ccNSO IDN working group.  From the minutes of
23 Aug 06 (http://www.ccnso.icann.org/minutes/minutes-23aug06.pdf) the
purpose of this group is to: consider what the ccNSO should do on IDN
issues, what policy issues should be considered jointly with the GNSO,
and liaise with the GNSO and prepare a report on the current status and
future steps for the ccNSO on IDN issues.

(6) External to ICANN, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) has
released a document (RFC4690: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4690.txt)
which provides a review and recommendations for Internationalized Domain
Names.


The purpose of the GNSO IDN Working Group is to identify and specify any
policy issues that should be considered by the GNSO via a policy
development process that have not already been considered within
PDP-Dec05.  It should do this using the following steps:

(i) review the draft recommendations on new gTLDs (which include IDN
gTLDs) from the GNSO's Committee on new gTLDs

(ii) review the current status and outcomes from the laboratory tests,

(iii) review the ICANN staff issues report,

(iv) review the IAB document (RFC4690)

(v) liaise with the ccNSO working Group to discuss any policy issues
which they have identified


Note for a policy issue to warrant a policy development process it must
meet the following criteria:

(A) is within the scope of ICANN's mission statement;

(B) is broadly applicable to multiple situations or organizations;

(C) is likely to have lasting value or applicability, albeit with the
need for occasional updates;

(D) will establish a guide or framework for future decision-making; or

(E) implicates or affects an existing ICANN policy.

Membership: Membership is open to any member of a GNSO constituency or
the GNSO Council.
ICANN advisory committees may appoint liaisons to the working group.

Voting: Voting will be on the basis of 1 vote per member

Duration: The working Group must complete its work by the end of the
ICANN meeting in Portugal on 26-30 March 2007, and provide a report to
the GNSO Council.

Chair: The chair will be appointed via election from the existing
members of the IDN working group established by the GNSO Council on 18
May 2006 to review the IDN issues report in the lead up to the ICANN
meeting in Morocco.


Regards,
Bruce Tonkin