Supplemental Report to Names Council Concerning Working Group C (17 April 2000)

To the Names Council:

Working Group C has achieved rough consensus on two additional items.

The first additional consensus point reads: "The initial rollout should include a range of top level domains, from open TLDs to restricted TLDs with more limited scope."

The vote tally on the first item was 50 YES, 18 NO. The NO voters included both persons urging that the initial rollout should include *only* open gTLDs (such as Crocker, Broomfield, McCarthy, Teernstra, Wesson, Dalgleish), and persons skeptical of open gTLDs (such as Sheppard, Gymer, Schwimmer).

The second additional consensus point reads:

"Criteria for assessing a gTLD application, subject to current technical constraints and evolving technical opportunities, should be based on all of the following principles:

1. Meaning: An application for a TLD should explain the significance of the proposed TLD string, and how the applicant contemplates that the new TLD will be perceived by the relevant population of net users. The application may contemplate that the proposed TLD string will have its primary semantic meaning in a language other than English.

2. Enforcement: An application for a TLD should explain the mechanism for charter enforcement where relevant and desired.

3. Differentiation: The selection of a TLD string should not confuse net users, and so TLDs should be clearly differentiated by the string and/or by the marketing and functionality associated with the string.

4. Diversity: New TLDs are important to meet the needs of an expanding Internet community. They should serve both commercial and non-commercial goals.

5. Honesty: A TLD should not unnecessarily increase opportunities for malicious or criminal elements who wish to defraud net users.

6. Competition: The authorization process for new TLDs should not be used as a means of protecting existing service providers from competition."

The vote tally was 46 YES, 21 NO, 1 ABSTAIN. The most common objection among the NO voters was that the principles (while well-meant) were not useful or meaningful, and were too vague and subjective to serve as technical requirements.

A third proposed consensus item, "recommend[ing] that the Names Council charter a working group to develop policy regarding internationalized domain names using non-ASCII characters," came nowhere near achieving rough consensus. (The final tally was 19 YES, 33 NO, 17 ABSTAIN.) The most common criticism was that the technical specifications for internationalized domain names, now under consideration by an IETF working group, are still undeveloped, so any action to charter a DNSO working group would be premature.

Vote tallies follow.

Jon

Jonathan Weinberg
co-chair, WG-C
weinberg@msen.com

ITEM ONE

YES: Fausett, Ambler, Lee, Brunner, Alvestrand, Love, Auerbach, Langston, Mueller, Dixon, Denton, Linares, Walsh, Yap, Seng, Shrewsbury, Campbell, Becar, Vienneau, Kamantauskas, Parker, Dawson, Feld, Elliott, Penman, Greenwell, Higgs, Chon, Vestal, Simon, Schuckman, Renard, Winter, Kroon, Schutt, Stubbs, Graehl, Connelly, Rindforth, Lubsen, Tan, Lupo, Echeberria, Iriarte, Semich, A.-C. Andersson, Park, A. Andersson, Kang, Kozlowski

NO: Crocker, Broomfield, Connolly, Rader, McCarthy, Kelsey, Sheppard, Tamulione, Gymer, Joshi, Teernstra, Schwimmer, Cade, Wesson, Dalgleish, Garvey, Porteneuve, Winer

ITEM TWO

YES: Fausett, Ambler, Lee, Alvestrand, Love, Broomfield, Mueller, Dixon, Linares, Walsh, Winer, Yap, Seng, Sheppard, Shrewsbury, Campbell, Becar, Tamulione, Vinneau, Parker, Dawson, Feld, Gymer, Penman, Joshi, Chon, Vestal, Schuckman, Renard, Winter, Kroon, Stubbs, Connelly, Rindforth, Lubsen, Tan, Lupo, Dalgleish, Echeberria, Iriarte, A.-C. Andersson, Park, A. Andersson, Kang, Kozlowski, Porteneuve

NO: Crocker, Brunner, Auerbach, Connolly, Langston, Denton, Rader, McCarthy, Kelsey, Kamantauskas, Elliott, Greenwell, Simon, Teernstra, Schutt, Schwimmer, Cade, Grahl, Wesson, Semich, Garvey

ABSTAIN: Higgs

ITEM THREE

YES: Crocker, Lee, Love, Broomfield, Dixon, Denton, Linares, Winer, Yap, Shrewsbury, Becar, Dawson, Penman, Stubbs, Connelly, Tan, Park, Kang, Kozlowski

NO: Ambler, Brunner, Alvestrand, Auerbach, Connolly, Langston, Mueller, Walsh, Rader, Kelsey, Sheppard, Campbell, Vienneau, Kamantauskas, Elliott, Gymer, Greenwell, Joshi, Chon, Vestal, Simon, Schuckman, Teernstra, Renard, Winter, Kroon, Cade, Wesson, Lubsen, Dalgleish, Semich, Porteneuve, Winer

ABSTAIN: Fausett, Seng, McCarthy, Tamulione, Parker, Feld, Higgs, Schutt, Schwimmer, Graehl, Rindforth, Lupo, Echeberria, Iriarte, A.-C. Andersson, A. Andersson, Garvey