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WELCOME |
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Welcome to
Bizconst News, the Business Constituency newsletter. There is
a wide range of issues under consideration at the moment, with two draft
positions going through the BC consultation process (WHOIS and dot net).
The three BC reps, and
the WHOIS Task Force reps continue to lead on issues on behalf of the BC
and welcome and encourage the support and views of the membership.
This is particularly important for draft positions which need membership
endorsement. So a reminder for you to respond to the current
drafts, which can be accessed from this newsletter.
It's also time to start
thinking about the next ICANN meetings, which are to be held in Malaysia
in July. The organisers are not only proud to be hosting the
event, but are making a real effort to showcase the hospitality and
welcome that Malaysia can offer. Details of pre-registration can
be found below, and we recommend early booking if you wish to stay at
the legendary Shangri-La Hotel, which is also the conference venue.
Finally, the main aim of
this newsletter is to present members with a clear summary of current
issues with ongoing links for further information. The secretariat
welcomes your comments on the newsletter in the hope that we can
continue to develop it to meet your needs.
Best wishes
Gary
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ICANN
MEETINGS IN ROME |
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ICANN
meetings took place in Rome, March 2004. As well as the three BC
reps and the secretariat, there was a good attendance from BC members.
Cross-constituency and
BC meeting
A meeting of the
BC, ISPCP and IPC constituencies took place the morning of 2 March. In the afternoon, there was a Business Constituency
meeting.
Statement to the
Public Forum
The three BC reps
delivered a statement at the Public Forum at the ICANN meeting in Rome,
regarding finance and litigation. This is not an official BC
position as it was not
possible to put it
through the usual member consultancy procedure.
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WHOIS |
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The
final BC position on the three WHOIS Task Forces is now in circulation
for comment. Please send your comments to the secretariat by the end of
business on Friday 30 April. Non response will be assumed as
acceptance of the position.
Members
are asked to pay particular attention to the new issues which the
position addresses - namely, the willingness to consider tiered access
to WHOIS data, as long as there is an effective mechanism for legitimate
users to achieve access.
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DOT
NET |
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A draft BC position is in
circulation on the possible re-assignment of dot net. Under the terms
of the existing contract, the dot net registry has to be made
available for re-assignment away from Verisign this year. However,
unlike with dot org, the incumbent registry Verisign may also
re-apply.
This position paper will
for the basis of the BC's views in the recently established GNSO Council
sub-committee on dot net, for which the BC's Philip Sheppard, is the
chairman.
The position is open for
member comment until 3 May 2004.
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NEW
sTLDs |
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On 19 March, 2004, ICANN
announced that ten applications for new sTLDs had been received.
There is now a public comment period until 30 April 2004.
The applications will then be reviewed by an independent evaluation
panel beginning in May 2004.
The BC is sending public
comments based on the existing BC position.
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New
Registry Services |
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Following the community
outcry over the proposed introduction of the wildcard service in dot
com, the GNSO Council has been working as a task force on an Approval
Process for New or
Changed Registry Services. It has now developed a flow chart that
outlines the key decisions and processes involved in evaluating proposed
changes to Registry services.
At the start of April,
the Council asked ICANN staff three questions. The first is one of
scope: Do all changes require Board approval? The Council has also
developed a set of criteria for assessing the impact of a proposed new
registry service and, in its second question, has asked ICANN staff to
clarify which of these criteria fall within ICANN's Mission. The
criteria include ones on Adherence to standards, Security and stability,
Impact on third parties, the Degree of community support, and Market
forces.
Finally, the Council has asked whether ICANN's existing appeals
procedure is sufficient for this new process.
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UN
ICT TASK FORCE GLOBAL FORUM ON INTERNET GOVERNANCE |
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BC
member David Fares attended this forum and provided the following
summary as outlined by the chair, Jose-Maria Figueres.
In late March, the UN’s
Information and Communication Technology Task Force held a global
forum in New York, meant to provide input to Secretary General Annan
in the creation of his working group. The large majority of
participants at the meeting agreed that numerous expert bodies address
issues related to Internet governance, and that such bodies should
continue to be the focal points for future policy analysis. In
this regard, it was agreed, additional work is needed to ensure that
developing countries can participate meaningfully in these expert
bodies. Finally, there may be some policy issues where
additional international coordination is necessary. The Chairman
of the forum offered the following summary points:
- This was not a
negotiating forum and the discussions reflected this.
- The Forum did not
result in a definition of Internet governance.
- No one said that we
should discard the existing systems but rather we should support
negotiations in existing expert organizations, including
supporting ICANN's move towards greater inclusiveness and not
reinvent the wheel.
- There was an
emerging list of issues that need more dialogue, and more
awareness raising/sharing of information.
- UN ICT Task Force
can possibly play a role in providing a forum for these dialogues.
- There is a need to
empower many actors to participate in existing expert bodies
through capacity building, policy, language [translation],
technology and logistics [i.e. travel costs].
- There is a need for
collective learning about what is out there, and better understand
the gaps.
- Developing countries
were calling for existing processes to have more legitimacy, in
their view, by making them more inclusive.
- How to address the
legitimacy and transparency concerns to make sure that we maintain
creativity and entrepreneurship
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ICANN
NEWS |
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ICANN Meetings Schedule
In Rome the ICANN
Meetings Committee agreed upon the following location and dates:
2005
April 4-8 Latin America
July 11-15 Europe
Dec 5-9 North America
2006
March 27-31 Asia Pacific
June 26-30 Africa
October 30-Nov 3 Latin America
2007
March 26-30 Europe
June 25-29 North America
October 29-Nov 2 Asia Pacific
ICANN Board Meetings
ICANN is actively
soliciting proposals from organizations seeking to host an ICANN Board
of Directors Meeting in 2005 and 2006.
ICANN Job
Announcements
ICANN has begun active
recruiting for two staff positions -
Webmaster and and Chief Registrar Liaison. Recruiting continues for two
additional positions, Ombudsman and System Administration Engineer.
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ICANN
MEETINGS |
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The
next ICANN meetings will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 19
- 23 July. Agenda items will include a report from the president's
working group on the WIPO II proposals to provide a form of UDRP process
for international organisation names and country names.
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WSIS |
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The next preparatory meeting
of the World Summit on the Information Society will take place in
Hammamet, Tunisia, from 24-26 June 2004. Pre-registration
will take place from May 2004.
Further information and
details of the meeting can be found here:
www.itu.int/wsis
WSIS has recently opened
an online forum on Internet Governance, and encourages contributions
from stakeholders:
www.wsis-online.net/igov-forum/root
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MEMBERS
MATTERS |
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Thank you to all members who
have paid their fees for 2004. Once all invoices are paid, the
secretariat will update the member contact list.
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