SO/AC. Mexico City. 05 March 09. >> Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to begin our next portion of today's program. If the presenters could kindly take the stage. We'll begin in just a moment, thank you. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, let's resume the public forum. We're going to begin with a series of reports. I'd just like to thank Amadeu, though, for his comments that were put to me at the end of the meeting, and I just wanted to confirm that I have approached Ms. Kim, who I was trying to keep on topic during the previous discussion and Amadeu suggested that I be in -- I approached Ms. Kim and apologized for and she was gracious enough to accept that apology and also to apologize herself for jumping out of turn. So that's done. Let's begin this session with a presentation from Adrian Kinderis about the Sydney meeting. Adrian. >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Yeah. Thanks, Paul. G'day! 'Ow are ya goin? Crickey, what a bonza mob eh? On behalf of the Host Committee, I'd like to invite all of youse to the 35th ICANN shindig in Steak and Kidney in the land down under from June 21st through 26th, 2009. Thank you. [Laughter] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: For the benefit of the scribes -- [Applause] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Hello and good afternoon. What a good-looking audience you are. On behalf of the host committee I'd like to invite all of you to the 35th ICANN meeting to be in Sydney, Australia, from the 21st through the 26th of June, 2009. For those of you that don't know, ICANN -- Australia is located -- [Laughter] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: -- here. [Laughter] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Now, I understand for a lot of you it might be a long flight. But I hear that Richard Branson is commencing a journey through the center of the earth service. Should be online in the next couple of months for the North Americans. Should cut down on travel times. It started last week. But anyway, actually it will be good to see most of you jet-lagged for the meeting and a little dusty as all of us Australians generally are each and every meeting. I'd like to start if I could by dispelling a few myths. This doesn't happen. [Laughter] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: And I can't say this doesn't happen, but it happens perhaps a little more rarely. [Laughter] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: And -- >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Adrian, sorry to interrupt but you could explain who has produced these slides. I don't think the rest of the audience can read the -- >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Oh, that's from the Council of Australians for Uneducated Americans, who produced those slides. Thank you. [Laughter] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: And a bit of a community announcement. If you're coming to Australia, first of all, snakes. Our planet has the top 10 most deadly snakes. "Our planet." Of the planet's top 10 -- let me start again. Of the planet's most deadly top 10 snakes, we have them all. Spiders. Our spiders outperform the best biters in the world. Even the cute little platypus, when it comes to causing pain, it's got a little stinger in his flipper there and it can be quite an excruciating bit of pain. Speaking of excruciating bit of pain, that's Dame Edna Everage, for those of you who know who that is. We also have trouble with kangaroos, crocodiles, and stingrays. And of course probably the most dangerous, Russell Crowe. [Laughter] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Now, Sydney is a very beautiful city, and it was first settled by the first white Australians, and that was done in the early 1700s and it has developed over time and is now a buzzing metropolis. I encourage you all to come and have a look. Unfortunately, I don't have a long time, due to the proceedings here today, to go into everything there is to do and see, but let me just give you a quick bit of coverage. For the sports fans, there is AFL football, the game that God invented, and in fact, it was rumored that Jesus was quite a good forward. There's also, at the time we're there, rugby will be played. And there's a famous state of origin game between Queensland and New South Wales on the Wednesday of the meeting, so I encourage you all to watch. You could also go to Tooronga Zoo and see the native wildlife and the Australian fauna. So once again, just a few things you could do. Actually, in all seriousness, we do have a quick video here, some of the highlights of Sydney. [Video playing] [Applause] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: As you can see, Sydney really is a very, very beautiful city. On the advice of Paul Levins, I just -- a quick little bit of audience participation, if I can, just to help you out. Once again, a community service. I'm just going to go through a few quick terms and I want you all to have a go at saying them, just so you'll be up to speed when you touch down. The first one, it's, "'ow are ya goin'?" You ready? After me? One, two, three. 'ow are ya goin'? >> 'ow are ya goin'? >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Good. Obviously, this means how are you. I'll try it once. Then after me. Bewdy. >> Bewdy. >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Good, good. Next one: She'll be right. >> She'll be right. >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Good. Getting there. Last one: Avagoodweegend. >> Avagoodweegend. >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: All right. Beautiful. Well done. Seriously, though, folks, we'd love to see you all come down to Sydney. We realize it's a long trip but well worthwhile, and you've seen some of the images today. We've got a lot to talk about, we've got a lot to talk about at this meeting, and I'm sure that the issues that are contentious will remain so. So let me leave you with a summary of some images of not only Sydney, but of Australia that are a beautiful and thought-provoking. >> Ahhhh! [Laughter] >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: I don't know who -- sorry about that. And everybody, that's the Web site. It's now up. It's now able to be viewed. It has all the hotel information. The Hilton Hotel in Sydney. So go ahead, book in early. There's plenty of things to do. I suggest you take another week, and you could spend that just in Sydney alone but there's plenty of trips. Ayers Rock, we saw images there, Uluru in the middle of Australia, northern Queensland. Stay away from the stingrays. But, yeah. So please I'll see you all in Sydney. Thank you. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thanks, Adrian. [Applause] >>STEVE CROCKER: Adrian? Adrian? Adrian? One quick question. Adrian? Sorry. Yeah. One quick question. We're going to be coming what we in the northern hemisphere usually think of as summer but it's going to be dead of your winter, right? What's the nominal temperature and weather to expect? >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: Yeah. Sydney has actually got a fairly -- as far as winter goes, I mean, there are other Australians here and there's plenty in the audience. I would suggest sort of between 10 and 25 Celsius is where you're going to end up. It's not going to get down -- you know, it's not going to get cold or going to snow. It's still quite pleasant. Sydney has a very hospitable climate in that way. >>STEVE CROCKER: Thanks. >>ADRIAN KINDERIS: I don't know what the conversion was to Fahrenheit, so you'll have to do that yourself. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you, Adrian. As a New Zealander, I'm going to put aside the parochialism that we're all brought up to hate Australians from birth and confirm that Sydney is, in fact, a fantastic, beautiful, exciting town and you will really have a good time in Australia. Thanks, Adrian. Now, we're going to have a series of reports. The reports have been posted. The presenters are only going to have a few minutes each, and then there will be some time for questions, and we begin with the At- Large Advisory Committee and if I could have Cheryl come and present on behalf of that. Thank you, Cheryl. >>CHERYL LANGDON-ORR: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And there should be - - yes, there is, excellent -- and Adrian has stolen the little things that makes things move forward so I'll have to say "click twice" and it will happen. There is a couple of bits of -- or he's going to toss it to me. Even better. This is buying into my time. Thank you, Adrian. Okay. The ALAC report to the 34th international meeting of ICANN. The ALAC has been, with the exception of a few listed joint projects such as the joint SO and AC and the e-crimes sessions that I'm sure many of you joined, and some of the main -- well, most of the mainstream ICANN meetings, been devoted to our at-large summit. The summit began its face-to-face work on Saturday, the 28th of February, 2009, in the main venue here, and I'd like to take a moment to thank all of the staff and all of the board members who devoted their time out of their busy schedule to come and I think spend very important time with all of our delegates on that day. But there was, in fact, hundreds of hours committed to getting our community properly prepared for this summit. I want to, in particular, recognize here in my report the preparatory calls that the working groups themselves did, getting ready for their five topics, which were: At-large engagement in ICANN; future structure and governance of ICANN; new gTLDs, including IDN gTLDs; transparency and accountability of ICANN; security issues within ICANN's mandate. And it is this quite significant product -- it is a quite significant product of these efforts that has resulted in the summit declaration that was handed to the board via our president and CEO, Mr. Twomey, at this morning's summit closing general session wrap-up, outlook, and closing remarks. The board should note, however, that in the true spirit of engagement, in a continuous improvement process, the declaration by the at-large delegates representing their respective at-large structures has now been further refined and expanded, and this now complete declaration has been uploaded to our summit ATLAS, and yes, it does say "ATLAS" which I think is incredibly appropriate micro-site for the community's review and the board's note. And in my large report, there is a hyperlink to that. This is where you'll also find the materials presented and referred to in this morning's closing session, as a result of the working group activities and the thematic sessions. In these working group reports, there are literally dozens of specific recommendations for consideration, and I do not intend to list them here. ALAC also held its normal monthly meeting for February. All right, it was in March, but it was the 2nd day of March, and it sort of works out. Here on Tuesday evening. And it was rewarding and enlivening to see how many of our summit attendees -- and here, I mean delegates plus others, because every time we were gathered in full assembly, we had between 20 and 30 nondelegates in the room, many of whom have decided to make application to become certified at-large structures. These people had the energy, after a horrendously long day of their general assemblies within their regional organizations, working group finalization, and a hectic, hectic number of briefings, to stay on and watch the At-Large Advisory Committee conduct a meeting. I refer you -- this was held in the MelĂ­a Hotel, and I refer you to this absolutely gorgeous glossy document which outlines all of the at- large summit activities. If you didn't get one in your packs, it is in soft copy at the Web site, and now I get to push the button. You go there, and you find the ATLAS micro-site linked from our front page. Just hit the logo. At the end of this event -- and thanks to our ICANN 101's and the thematic sessions -- each of our ALSs have found new networking opportunities and new friends. But we've gone beyond the confines of us at the edges. We've interacted with the other ACs, with the SOs, with staff, and even the board members who came to breakfast this morning have explored new ways of communicating. Some of them in languages comfortable to themselves, some of them not so comfortable, but they all had, I think, enlightening, entertaining and enjoyable experiences. I would like to thank the board again for allowing us to run this summit in conjunction with the 34th meeting, but we realize it is now from the edges that we must continue to put in this productivity to the events that continue on. When public comments come out, we will respond. We realize that this is the only way that we can maintain our proposed role as per the ALAC review of the primary voice of the Internet user, and I'm going to dally slowly while I walk away with my choice of leaving music. [Music] [Applause] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you very much, Cheryl. Thank you for being so concise. Ken, you answer -- do you have a microphone there? >>CHERYL LANGDON-ORR: Indeed, I do. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Are there any questions of the charge of the At-Large Advisory Committee? If not, we'll move to the next report, which is going to come from the address support organization. Can I call on Louie to give that report? Thank you, Louie. >>LOUIS LEE: Thank you, Peter. Hi. The ASO has been having some activities lately. There's been many outreach activities, roundtables for governments and regulators, and the new RIPE cooperation working group in the European region and the ARIN government working group. The AC itself has had some activities of late also. We've put forth the global policy for the allocation of the remaining IPv4 address space. This is the global policy that directs how IANA delegates the remaining five blocks of address space to the regional Internet registries. Currently, we have about 12% of our address space remaining, 32 blocks total, and that is expected to reach to the five-limit minimum sometime in mid-2010, plus or minus a few months. Now, the comment period has closed, and it's on the agenda for tomorrow's ICANN board meeting. We expect ratification. On the topic of our appointment to the ICANN board, we are in process of selecting the next person to be appointed to the ICANN board seat, to be vacated by Dave Wodelet later this year. We expect to have the person selected by the end of April with an announcement of our decision on May 1st. There's been a series of prudence proposals to ensure the efficient use of historical IPv4 resources. These are resources that were given out before the formation of the regional Internet registries. As such, the resource holders do not have contracts to be, say, licensed. Not quite the best word, but to be given the right to use these address spaces. So there is a policy in the works. It is titled "The Global Policy Proposal for the Allocation of IPV4 Blocks to the Regional Internet Registries." So it addresses the recovery of the IPv4 address space that's returned to the regional -- to the regions by these legacy holders, and these blocks would be returned back to IANA. In turn, the second phase of this proposal, if implemented, would dictate how IANA would then, in turn, redistribute those blocks to all the regions. This would help ensure the fair and just distribution of address space in what is termed "the endgame," the near point where the v4 address pool is exhausted. The goals of these prudence proposals include increasing IPv4 deployment with easier access to resources, it will raise awareness, and we also have regional policies to dedicate IPv4 blocks to facilitate the V6 deployment. So, in turn, get ready for IPv4 endgame. These regional policies cover things like DNS, other Internet infrastructure equipment that would still require V4 address space, mechanisms for network translation so that you can inter-operate in a V4/V6 world, with moderate success today but perhaps there will be future technologies that would help with that. So the registries are looking to have that there, to be prudent, to be in case that this is needed. So that we can be sure that the Internet continues to operate. And there is a new proposal coming -- wait. I'm sorry. So we, at this point, invite you to participate in our policy development process. This is going on in all the regions, and you may -- if you need more information, you may reach me through the ASO Web site, ASO.ICANN.org and our contact information is posted. And now I leave with my choice of music. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you, Louie. [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, are there any questions of the chair of the ASO? You can even ask these people why they've chosen this particular music, I suppose. [Laughter] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: The next presentation will be from the ccNSO. Chris, could you come and present for us? Thanks. >>CHRIS DISSPAIN: Thank you, Peter. Good afternoon, everybody. After the presentation from Adrian on the visit to Australia, I feel as if I should make a brief personal statement. I'm able to do this by using an acronym of which you are all aware. That acronym is "IANA." In this case it stands for "I am not Australian." [Laughter] >>CHRIS DISSPAIN: The highlights of the ccNSO meeting. We approved a membership application which means that as of yesterday, we have 90 members. [Applause] >>CHRIS DISSPAIN: We've approved the setting up of a working group to look at delegation and redelegation issues. This will eventually need to be dealt with under a policy development process, but we believe that from a management and logistical point of view, getting the preliminary work done in a working group will, in the end, save us some time. On IDNs, we are working on finalizing the issues report for the policy development process, and our goal is to commence that as soon as possible. It will probably be in the next month or so. We still have some concerns about geographic names in gTLDs, and we will address those in our public comment to the draft application guidebook. And finally, we have passed a resolution which I don't usually do this, but I'm actually going to read it to you, because it's important. Resolution of the ccNSO council in respect to IDN ccTLDs delegated under the fast track. "the ccNSO council resolved IDN ccTLDs should be treated similarly to ASCII ccTLDs, and so, on the relationship between ICANN and IDN ccTLD managers, the entering into of a documented relationship between ICANN and an IDN ccTLD manager should be voluntary and not a requirement for the delegation of the IDN ccTLD. Such a documented relationship should be encouraged. It is in the best interests of IDN ccTLD managers and the entire DNS community to adhere to all relevant IETF standards, including the IDNA protocol and the IDN guidelines, and to commit to complying with future IDNA protocol updates. On financial contributions to ICANN, financial contributions should be voluntary and should not be a requirement for delegation of an IDN ccTLD. As previously stated by ccTLD managers, detailed information from ICANN on the breakdown of the costs involved in the IDN ccTLD fast track program and other costs ICANN incurs related to ccTLDs would be welcome and would help advance discussions. Concrete proposals on possible financial contribution models would also help to advance discussions. The council acknowledges and appreciates the work on the information outlined has commenced and looks forward to receiving it as soon as possible." That's it. I have met the time and, therefore, no music is required. Thank you. [Laughter] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you, Chris. And obviously personal congratulations on achieving the 90. We can remember the days when we were forming the ccNSO when it seemed a large number, indeed. Well done. Question from the floor. Roberto? >>ROBERTO GAETANO: My question is: What is the policy generally for ccTLD operators versus giving domain name -- second level domain names? Do the users who request a second-level domain name have to pay a fee or do they give voluntary contributions? Because in the very beginning, there was no fee for that, so I was wondering whether this is continuing. >>CHRIS DISSPAIN: Sure. It varies from territory to territory, Roberto. There are countries who supply -- provide domain names either at the second level or the third level, depending on the way that they are structured, for nothing. There are also territories that charge varying degrees of money. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Thanks, Chris. The next report comes from the Government Advisory Committee, and if I could have Ambassador Karklins. Thank you, Janis. >>JANIS KARKLINS: Thank you, Chairman. The 38 members, two observers, and one invited country participated in this GAC meeting. Two members participated remotely. The Government Advisory Committee expresses warm thanks to AMIPCI of Mexico for hosting the meeting in Mexico City, and ICANN for supporting GAC meetings. On IDN ccTLDs, Chairman, the GAC welcomes the release of the second version of the draft implementation plan for IDN ccTLD fast track process, which has been amended as a result of public comments. However, it does not address the important issue of the cost recovery rationale for the imposition of fees. Nonetheless, it represents a good basis for further discussions. The GAC comments on the draft implementation plan for the fast track released prior to the Cairo meeting are attached in Annex A. The GAC reiterates its view that documentation of responsibilities and fees should be kept voluntary. GAC notes the growing interest and level of preparedness of many countries and territories to introduce IDN ccTLDs under fast track process. The GAC hopes that the development of IDN ccTLD fast track and the new gTLD implementation plans should proceed smoothly, and that the decisions on the rollouts will be taken by the board in the 2009 annual meeting. In the event of any delay in new gTLD implementation plan, the GAC believes that IDN ccTLD fast track should not be affected by such a delay. The GAC appreciates the exchange of views on these issues with the ccNSO. On new gTLDs, the GAC comments on the new gTLD program draft applicant guidebook posted on the 24th October 2008 are attached in Annex B. While recognizing the enormous amount of work that ICANN staff accomplished in preparing the draft applicant guidebook Version 2, the GAC regrets that the late posting of the document did not allow the GAC sufficient time to consider and provide comments on proposed changes. The nearest opportunity to comment on the draft applicant guidebook, Version 2, for the GAC will be meeting in Sydney. The GAC appreciates engagement inter-sessionally with ICANN staff, providing an overview on the changes made to the draft applicant guidebook Version 2 as a result of public comments received on the initial version, given the GAC's desire to ensure that the recommendations contained in the GAC new gTLD principles document are incorporated. GAC equally appreciates the exchange of views on these issues with the GNSO. On contractual issues between intergovernmental organizations and ICANN, Mr. Chairman, experience from the 2003 round of new gTLDs leads the GAC to propose that in the specific cases when the applicant is an intergovernmental organization bound by treaty obligations, the relevant adjustments should be made to standard ICANN contractual provisions in order to assure that public international law is fully respected by ICANN contractual arrangements and policies. In this regard, the GAC noted with concern the extended delay in completion of contract negotiations with the universal postal union for the dot post SLT -- SLD, and urges ICANN to quickly conclude negotiations in line with the above principles. In line with its commitment in Cairo, the GAC has communicated to the board its input on the 19th September 2008 PSC report, "Improving institutional confidence in ICANN." The GAC letter of 22 December is attached to this communique. The GAC would welcome early opportunity to discuss an agreed joint approach to the review of the GAC's role within ICANN as outlined in Annex A, Article 7, of the September 2006 Joint Project Agreement between ICANN and the U.S. government. Pending clarification of the board intentions with regard to PSC report, "Improving Institutional Confidence Plan" of 27 February 2009, the GAC would appreciate commenting on the report in Sydney. The GAC welcomed the interaction with NRO, which confirmed the importance of the management of IPv4 resources in the public interest, and urgency in promoting IPv6 deployment. And with regard to interaction with the board, Mr. Chairman, in order to facilitate better GAC input to ICANN policymaking, the GAC proposes that all documents to be considered at ICANN meetings be posted not less than 15 working days before the meeting. In the event this is not possible, then the GAC may need to defer discussion until the subsequent meeting. The GAC welcomes the arrangement by the board for greater involvement in the planning of schedule for future meetings starting with Sydney meeting in order to facilitate the participation of GAC members in ICANN events. And GAC warmly thanks all those among the ICANN community who have contributed to dialogue with the GAC. And if you would allow me very briefly to outline major issues in our comments on IDN ccTLD fast track and new gTLDs. It is -- I will not read all the text, but just a few paragraphs. Relationship between ICANN and IDN ccTLD operator. IDN ccTLDs should be similarly treated as ASCII ccTLDs. The GAC emphasizes that it is primarily for the local Internet community, including relevant governments or public authority, to determine the manner in which the strings should be selected, the manner in which the registry operators should be selected, and the registry policy that should apply for selected IDN ccTLDs. The documented relationship between ICANN and IDN ccTLD operators should be kept voluntary. The documented relationship on the basis of proposed documentation of responsibilities either as it stands today or in modified format may be encouraged but should not be a condition for IDN ccTLD delegations. As it has always been the case, it is in the best interests of IDN ccTLD operators and the entire IDN community to adhere to all relevant IETF standards, including IDNA protocol, IDNA guidelines, and commit to comply with the future protocol updates. On the financial contributions, financial contributions should be calculated on the cost recovery basis. Full disclosure and breakdown of costs involved in the IDN program would be desirable for better understanding the possible cost recovery models. And financial contributions should be kept voluntary and should not be a condition for IDN cc delegation. Further information from ICANN staff on the different possible cost recovery mechanisms and concrete proposals would help advance position on this subject. I think I've taken too much time already. The full communique and comments are published on our Web site, and those who are interested are most welcome to read them. Thank you. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you, Janis. Are there questions for the chairman of the GAC? Seeing none, we'll ask the -- Avri Doria to come and give the report from the GNSO. Thank you, Janis. Welcome, Avri. >>AVRI DORIA: Thank you. Thank you, Peter. Watch my time go down for a while. Okay. I'm going to start out by mentioning that the GNSO council reached two unanimous decisions this week on WHOIS study proposals taking into account ALAC and GAC requests and opinions. I want to point out that while this is just one step in the WHOIS issue, it is to my knowledge the first time the GNSO has achieved unanimity on any topic under the WHOIS rubric. [ Applause ] [ Laughter ] The second unanimous decision was on approval of the RAA amendments and follow-on work. In this motion, we requested that the board adopt the measures in its meeting on 6 March for the following reasons: This has been a two-year process, there have been multiple consultations and two formal comment periods, two amendments were added subsequent to the last public comment period, and the final set of amendments has been public since December. The ALAC and the GNSO, unanimously, I'll mention, with everyone voting -- I just want to make sure -- approved the set as it was posted in December. As the RAA becomes important, also the RAA includes important new enforcement and compliance tools. The RAA becomes effective with a new accreditation or upon renewal and has a five-year term. Any registrars that renew before it is in force won't be under the new agreement for five years. If the amendments cannot be adopted at this meeting, then please do so as soon as possible. The hope is to get all registrars, including those who will not need to renew in the near future, under the new agreement as soon as possible. There have been discussions and support for a system of incentives to encourage registrars to sign the new agreements as soon as possible. I want to point out that the unanimous recommendation was due to remarkable work of several council members over the last week who negotiated in good faith and made compromises. I am especially grateful to the registrar constituencies' openness and willingness to discuss further amendments to the RAA and I'm especially grateful for the willingness to negotiate a registrant's rights charter. On the new gTLD draft applicant guidebook, we've declined at this point to make any council-wide statements, though individuals and constituencies may comment. We'll be discussing the [[IN ccTLD implementation plan at a later time. We also met with and had open and frank discussions with the GAC and the ccNSO and have agreed to further exchanges in the future, including the possibility of working together on appropriate issues of common concern. Several other policy efforts, including fast flux and inter-registrar transfer policy, are nearing completion, while new efforts, such as one on registration abuse, are being started up. In all of these policy efforts, we have been making extensive use of working groups and are open to the community as well as constituency and council members. In addition to its policy work, the council and constituencies have been very active in implementing the board -- board-mandated process changes and restructuring. Five working teams have been established to deal with the various issues. These working teams are open to interested participants in the community and not just those of us in the constituencies or on council. All in all, it's been a very good week for the GNSO Council. Thank you. [ Applause ] Want to stay up here if you have any questions. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you, Avri, and congratulations on the two resolutions that you mentioned. In relation to the board voting on the RAA, I've asked general counsel if we can do that, there are a couple of issues, I understand, mostly related to whether or not proper notice has been given, but we're with you and will if we can. >>AVRI DORIA: Thank you. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Are there any questions for the chairman of -- the chair of the GNSO? No. >>AVRI DORIA: Thank you. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Now I can call on Suzanne Woolf, who is the chair of the RSSAC. Suzanne. >>SUZANNE WOOLF: Okay. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'll take just a minute here to give you a couple of items RSSAC is working on. RSSAC's Root System Advisory Committee, which provides technical input to ICANN on DNS and issues around the maintenance and distribution of the DNS root zone. The next meeting will be in San Francisco at the end of this month. And I expect will take up two major agenda items. The first is the independent review of or RSSAC -- >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Could I ask you to slow down? The scribes seem to be having -- [ Laughter ] >>SUZANNE WOOLF: And I was doing so well. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thanks. >>SUZANNE WOOLF: The independent review of RSSAC is like the other reviews that undertakes of SOs and ACs. The independent consultants were hired in October and released their report last week with their findings and some recommendations. There was a workshop here yesterday presenting the report and I expect a presentation and some discussion in San Francisco as well. The report has been posted for public comment and further action by the board. The major technical topic currently under discussion is the request from the board to undertake with SSAC a joint study on scaling the root zone. It's anticipated to provide input to operational decisions and processes as several changes to the root zone move forward. Various changes contemplated now include all of the changes to add more TLDs, to add IDNs, more IPv6 support and DNSsec, and all of those changes together are expected to be significant just in terms of operations and maintenance of the root zone. So technical advice is being sought on making sure that these changes are undertaken in the safest and most reasonable way possible. The initial request from the board included a very aggressive time line so we're working hard to organize the steering group and getting under way on terms of reference to frame the study and any recommendations that will come out of it. There will be more on both topics in Sydney, I'm sure, and since I didn't choose any music, I'll make sure I step down now. Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Please convey the thanks of the board to the committee for the effort that's going into meeting that time line. Now, Steve Crocker, chair of the SSAC. Thanks, Steve. >>STEVE CROCKER: Thank you very much. And it's very fortuitous that I get to follow Suzanne who I've had the pleasure of working with closely. Next -- well -- oh, that works. As we usually do, we have two public meetings at each of these ICANN meetings. One for what I'll call the regular SSAC activities and on this slide is a list of the reports that we presented and a second major meeting on DNSsec which I'll cover in the next slide. In -- this meeting we presented work on registrar abuse contacts and on WHOIS usage and display, we're still ironing out the details of that report so it's not yet published. We had previously given some comments on the ICANN strategic plan and we have given some comments on the status of DNSsec as viewed from SSAC which is standing back a bit from the detail from the people who are in it every day. I sit on both sides of that, so it's a bit of a -- sort of a joint effort. And there will be a report on that shortly. We have in progress fast flux studies and the study on the hijacking of high-value domains, particularly some issues on the registrar side of things. As Suzanne mentioned, we have a root scaling study that has been commissioned by the board. She covered a great deal of that. I don't need to repeat what she said. We will be making very substantial outreach efforts to draw comments and questions and concerns from the community. As Suzanne said, we have a steering group formulated, we're working aggressively. We have taken note of the schedule that's been requested from the board. I think, frankly, although we will be able to give some responses by then, I am -- I do not want to set the expectations that we can cover the necessary ground entirely by then. We had a -- about a three-hour workshop on DNSsec. Very extensive amount of work has been taking place and I would say that the things have shifted. In the U.S. the dot gov domain was signed. We have activity around the world with new TLDs coming and announcements expected momentarily. Inside of ICANN, two significant developments, a creation of an interim trust anchor repository, and we had a detailed report on how that's working. That's a -- a means for IANA to make available the keys for top-level domains until the root is signed. And then a separate report on the quite extensive activities inside of ICANN on providing first-class, very stringent DNSsec capabilities for whatever zone-signing and management they are tasked with, both at the root level and in subordinate levels. We were also privileged to have a report by Bill Dee from the European Commission on a meeting in Brussels about a month ago, exactly, that I was privileged to be at where the European ccTLDs and their government counterparts spent a vigorous day discussing various issues related to DNSsec. So all in all, it's been quite a active period. And I think it will continue to be so. I neglected to list on the slide, or if I did, I neglected to note it that just as there is an external review of RSSAC in place, in parallel, as it turns out, there is a comparable review of our committees. And there was a public report -- well, there was a report issued from the external reviewers and a public presentation of that report this morning with quite a lively discussion and much more to come, and my understanding is that the time line for the way this is going to evolve is that there will be some significant discussion and recommendations by Sydney and then by Seoul probably the main fruits of that, the recommendations adopted by the board to then be implemented. Thank you very much. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you, Steve. And could you also convey the board's thanks for your efforts in attempting to make the time line and thank you for the indication as to how that's going. Questions of Steve Crocker, please? Seeing none, we'll move to the next item which is the report from the nominating committee and we have Tricia Drakes who is the chair of the nominating committee to give that report. >>TRICIA DRAKES: Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. And it's a great pleasure to be giving this report. Firstly, and unpractical, if I can get the slide to work, yes, we had our initial meeting of the committee in Cairo following the conclusion of the annual meeting and we've had three teleconferences since. 22 members, including myself as chair, Alan Levin as associate chair and Hagen Hultzsch as advisor to the chair, being the immediate past chair. We actually have been -- experimenting perhaps is not the right word but have made a few changes. The first is having greater visibility and awareness in terms of our outreach in recruiting candidates and encouraging them to submit SOIs. That includes the lanyards that all nominating committee members and Maria Farrell and Patrick Jones, as nominating committee supporting staff, are wearing, the booth outside, outreach that we've been doing in different parts of the world and really looking to try and get people interested in ICANN who perhaps have not been aware and have not been traditional targets. So we're -- and equally the members of the nominating committee are very visible now, which I believe is a change from what has happened in the past. And hopefully, by the time, then, that the SOI period ends, we will actually have a broader range of candidates fitting the agreed job descriptions and requirements we're working to than we might otherwise have had before. Having said that, when we then move to the selection phase in terms of candidate confidentiality and the independence of NomCom, that very, very, very much remains a key point. We have requirements under the bylaws, but also in terms of working so although this openness is happening as we are, I suppose, recruiting, we would want to respect the confidentiality aspects when we get into selection. On the -- as I say, the independence of NomCom is really very important. We have, again, engaged [[Benson (inaudible) to help us in the assessment process, keeping information, finding out about candidates, but the selection itself remains the prime responsibility and the responsibility of the committee itself. We have a very good system and I think this is the second year of full use, it's the track system which actually supports our own internal communications, hosted away from the ICANN sites, confidential, I hope secure, and the information kept in there. The closing date for statements of interest is the 15th of April. Please, I hope you'll submit but equally we hope you won't leave it until the very last day. And the plan is that following the Sydney meeting, we will have a two-day selection meeting, when I say following in Sydney, following the actual main ICANN meeting to make selections. Finally, what we're looking for? Three ccTLDs, three-year terms for board members. Which is actually 20% of the voting power of the board. So the burden in doing this we recognize is very important. Everything's important, but that certainly. GNSO, two ccTLDs, two-year terms. At-large advisory, three ccTLDs, but we have to recruit for Africa, Asia, Latin America, and ccNSO, one seat. That's our Web site. And thank you very much. [ Applause ] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you, Tricia. Are there gets for the chair of the nominating committee? And if not we'll call on the very last speaker. Last but not least the ombudsman. >>FRANK FOWLIE: Mr. Chairman, as promised I'll be excessively brief, my report has been up on the Web site since Monday, the ombudsman blog has been putting out information since the meeting began and I think everything I could provide is already available so I'd be very happy to take any questions. Again, excessively brief, Mr. Chairman. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Just as we like it. Questions for the ombudsman? Questions about the ombudsman? I see one. Jean-Jacques. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Jean-Jacques. >>JEAN-JACQUES SUBRENAT: Thank you, Chair. Frank, could you just give us a sense of, during this meeting of ICANN in Mexico, how many people came to see you and how many are potentially things which you would take up as ombudsman? I mean apart from the purely information side of things, things. >>FRANK FOWLIE: Thank you. Actually, this was the busiest meeting I've -- I've had. There were times when I had people in two different rooms. There were times that I was speaking with someone, I had two people waiting outside to speak with me. There were -- I think, Mr. Chairman, I can tell you that we functioned very efficiently. We resolved -- or worked with staff to resolve a systemic issue and had a report out for review by stakeholders within 24 hours of receiving systemic -- a systemic complaint. With the face-to-face visits, there were probably six issues where I opened a file. Most of them who I was able to conclude during the meeting. There will be the one systemic issue which will be reported to the board. Feedback from the stakeholders thus far has been supportive of the recommendations I have made. And that report will be made public in accordance with Section 4 of Bylaw V. There were a number of other people who came to visit to generally and look and see inside the fish bowl, to find out what an ombudsman looked like, and we had some very engaging social conversations about ombudsman processes and how dispute resolution systems fit into the overall operation of ICANN. Does that answer your question, Jean- Jacques? Merci beaucoup. >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Any other questions. If not -- >>FRANK FOWLIE: Nancy, do you have my music? [MUSIC] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, it's now time for a coffee break. The next piece of the public forum will be reports from the chairs of the various board committees. So we'll see you back for that shortly, thanks.