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Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Monitoring and Evaluation of New TLD Program

At its July 2000 meeting in Yokohama, the ICANN Board adopted the policy, recommended by the DNSO Names Council, of introducing new TLDs in a measured and responsible manner. At its November 2000 meeting in Marina del Rey, the Board selected seven new TLD proposals for negotiations toward appropriate agreements with ICANN.

Two of these agreements (.biz and .info) have been completed and approved by the Board; others are nearing completion. At its 7 May 2001 meeting, the ICANN Board adopted resolution 01.60, instructing the ICANN President to propose to the Board at its Stockholm meeting formation of a group to recommend "processes for monitoring the implementation of the new TLDs and evaluating the new TLD program, including any ongoing adjustments of agreements with operators or sponsors of new TLDs."

Because the introduction of new TLDs has implications for many different types of Internet stakeholders (e.g., registrants; registrars; business, organizational, and individual domain name holders; the technical community; root-server operators) the ICANN President proposes the formation of a multi-disciplinary task force composed of three persons chosen with the advice of the Names Council; two persons chosen with the advice of the Chairs of the IETF and IAB; and one person chosen with the advice of the Chair of the Root Server System Advisory Committee. The task force would be known as the "New TLD Evaluation Process Planning Task Force" and would be chaired by the ICANN President.

The following suggested resolution would authorize creation of this task force:

Whereas, in resolution 01.60, the Board directed "the President to prepare and present to the Board at its Stockholm meeting in June 2001 a proposal to form a committee to recommend processes for monitoring the implementation of the new TLDs and evaluating the new TLD program, including any ongoing adjustments of agreements with operators or sponsors of new TLDs;

Whereas, the President has recommended to the Board the formation of a New TLD Evaluation Process Planning Task Force chaired by the President and consisting of members selected with the advice of the Names Council and the Chairs of the IETF, IAB, and ICANN DNS Root Server System Advisory Committee;

Resolved [01.xx], the Board directs the President to form and chair a New TLD Evaluation Process Planning Task Force, for the purpose of recommending to the Board and the broader Internet community:

(a) a plan for monitoring the introduction of new TLDs and for evaluating their performance and their impact on the performance of the DNS. This assessment should focus in technical, business, and legal perspectives and rely on data gathered as part of the contractual arrangements with the new TLDs as well as other data inputs that can be readily secured;

(b) a schedule on which a plan should be executed; and

(c) potential criteria to be used as guidelines for evaluating when and how additional TLDs should be considered by the Board.