In this session we will discuss the draft Service Level Agreement (SLA) included in the draft new gTLD Registry Agreement. The SLA specifies the performance level expected from new gTLD registry operators for the core registry services, i.e., DNS, Whois and EPP.

Discussion will be focus on the service levels (availability, response time, update), the way to measure them, and the emergency thresholds that would trigger an emergency transition.

ICANN is looking for input on what these parameters should be with the goal to address the interests and needs among Internet users, registrants, registrars and registry operators.

The draft SLA can be found in Section 4 of Specification 6 of the draft Registry Agreement, see http://icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-agreement-specs-clean-12nov10-en.pdf

A group of gTLD registries and interested parties led by Michael Young (then with Afilias) provided ICANN with a proposal for modifications to the SLA. To simplify the review ICANN has produced a redline using the current draft SLA as the base document. Changes in formatting were not marked. Also, there is some text from the current draft SLA that is reused in two sections of the proposal, that was not marked as redline either. The proposal will be presented during this session.

It is worth mentioning that ICANN does not endorse the proposal and has not yet considered its merits.

Who Should Attend? | Everyone interested in the performance of registry services (DNS, Whois, EPP) for new gTLDs. For example technical community, domain name users, registrants, registry operators, potential new gTLD applicants, and government representatives.