We hope that this newsletter continues to provide you with relevant information regarding all the issues and news.  Its aim is to give a snapshot of an issue with onward links to fuller detail and background information.  Remember the Issues Made Easy and Glossary sections of the BC website will decode any obscure acronyms for you. The secretariat would be pleased to hear your comments about the newsletter.

Best wishes
Gary
 

ICANN meetings took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina 
4-8 April 2005.

This series of meetings had a packed agenda with a wide range of policy issues and procedural discussion, including: ICANN Strategic Plan, WHOIS developments, dot net re-delegation and updates on gTLDs. At the Mar del Plata WSIS session, a statement of support was released and it was encouraging to see that for the first time, there was broad participation by several governmental representatives in the session's speaker panels. 

For full details of all other meetings, including public forums, GNSO Council and Board of Directors meetings, click below.  All meeting records are posted as real-time captioning, but should be used as a guide rather than read as authoritative minutes.

www.icann.org/meetings/mardelplata

Finally, ICANN Mar del Plata kicked off a new initiative with group soccer matches to add some friendly sporting activity to the occasion.  Rumour has it that a volleyball tournament is scheduled for the Luxembourg meetings in July.
 

Hotel space may be at a premium so early reservations are recommended. Details of the meeting are yet to be posted but I will notify members of updates by e-mail once they become available. 
 

Revised Terms of Reference

A fresh draft of the Terms of Reference for the WHOIS task force was put before the GNSO Council for discussion on 12 May.

The draft reflects the context of the ICANN mission and current WHOIS purpose in the registrars accreditation agreement, and identifies issues that had been discussed during the meetings in Mar Del Plata. In the meantime there has been progress on "conspicuous notification" whreby Registrars will be obliged to ensure users are informed about the need to provide accurate data.

Public Comment Period on Preliminary Report

The public comment period for the Combined Task Force preliminary report closed on 12 May 2005
     

In the meantime the BC together with the Intellectual Property and ISP constituencies have agreed upon the text of a white paper describing the on-going advantages of sponsored names, the importance of IDNs and a process for future introduction. The paper will be circulated shortly and used in dialogue with the ICANN Board and others. It will also be used in follow-up to a forthcoming discussion paper on the future strategy for gTLDs being prepared by ICANN staff.

A further public comment from the ex-chair points out that the combined market share of .net and .com is some 84%. and  proposes that should the Board award .net to Verisign, then it should impose certain conditions to mitigate any competitive failure. This comment was discussed at the recent GNSO Council meeting.  

The feedback from these workshops led to a revised Strategic Plan which is now open for public comment until 20 May 2005. 
 

The BC representatives to the NomCom are Marilyn Cade and Catherine Gabay.

The process for 2005 is already underway and calls have been made to fill the following positions:

Two members of the ICANN Board of Directors
Two members of the GNSO
One member of the Council of the ccNSO
Three members of the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)

BC members are urged to seek out and encourage suitably qualified individuals to step forward and self nominate themselves for the positions. Submissions should be made before 15 June, 2005.  
 

The BC Credentials Committee comprises:

Catherine Gabay
Mike Roberts
Charles Shaban

In accordance with BC procedure, Marilyn Cade has rotated off as the liaison rep to the committee and Grant Forsyth replaces her with immediate effect.  

Many thanks to Marilyn for her help and support to this important committee.
 

Updated Member Contact List

Now that the 2005 round of membership renewals is almost completed, I will shortly be updating the BC member contacts list.  Details to follow soon by e-mail.

Member Services Survey

As part of our continuing efforts to make BC issues and services more user-friendly to members, I will be contacting you soon with a short member services survey.  Your responses to this will help us shape and maintain our communications with members in the future.
 

ICANN Newsletter

ICANN's latest newsletter is available here (pdf file)

ICANN Meetings Schedule

2005
July 11-15 Luxembourg
Dec 5-9 Vancouver, Canada

2006
March 27-31 Wellington, New Zealand
June 26-30 Marrakesh, Morocco
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 2006.