[SubPro-IRT] Topic 21.1: Geographic Names - Updated

[alexander at schubert.berlin]

Hi members,

 

I guess few of us have ever dealt with the real-life issues of obtaining “government support” for a geo gTLD. I have: both in the last round, and right now for the 2nd round. And I urge us to remember one of the glaring issues that actually created quite a commotion in the 1st round:

The total absence of any timeline for such letter. In the last round one applicant had government support that was literally ‘years old’ – and allegedly even subsequently withdrawn: .africa. Remember what hassle that caused?

So, I recommend introducing a simple shelf-life requirement for the support letter. It is of course laudable when such support letter has been acquired years before the application submission. But even IF an applicant acquired such expression of support very early out – would it be an unbearable task for them to kindly ask the applicable entity to re-sign the letter? Because sometimes the responsible entity changes (e.g., a new major in a city) and shouldn’t they have a say, too? Or they changed their mind – e.g., after having been approached by a more suitable applicant. I think the signature under the support letter shouldn’t be older than e.g., 6 months before the application submission. The exact amount of time would of course be subject to discussion. But I assume we could save ourselves quite some troubles if we require to either sign (or re-sign an already signed) letter X months before the actual application submission.

I also urge to have the deadline requirement stipulated in the letter itself: so that the relevant Government entity is aware that they will have to resign the letter later! Something along the lines: “The signee is aware that ICANN will require that this letter of support (non-objection) has to be authorized (or re-authorized) within 6 months to the actual application submission.”

Has the example support letter draft been finalized already? Is the draft publicly available for review?



 

Thanks,

 

Alexander 

___________________________________

Alexander Schubert

LinkedIn.com/in/alexanderschubert

+1(202)684-6806

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: SubPro-IRT <subpro-irt-bounces at icann.org> On Behalf Of Michael Karakash
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2023 9:51 PM
To: subpro-irt at icann.org
Subject: [SubPro-IRT] Topic 21.1: Geographic Names - Updated

 

Dear IRT Members,

 

We’ve updated the Geographic Names AGB section <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N1iLzfPp4IeTuTyO46T7WSjww7kpe_fzJIVOaSQ5qwI/edit?usp=sharing>  based on the discussions held on the 3 October IRT call. As noted during that session, we will not be having another dedicated call on this topic but can continue to discuss this on-list if there are any comments or concerns.

 

As a reminder, past agenda items and video/audio recordings from the previous session can be found on the IRT Community Wiki. <https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=273449325> 

 

Thank you!

 

Best,

 

Michael

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/subpro-irt/attachments/20231013/48099af3/attachment.html>