ICANN At-Large's monthly announcement

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Hi all

I don't know how many of you are interested in the
ICANN At-Large's monthly announcement, but if you are,
read on!

Cheers
David
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ICANN AT-LARGE MONTHLY ANNOUNCEMENT

In this issue:

* ALAC WELCOMES NEW, RETURNING MEMBERS – ICANN’s
Nominating Committee selected Jean Armour Polly, from
the U.S.A., for the At-Large Advisory Committee’s open
North America seat, and re-appointed ALAC member
Roberto Gaetano, from Italy, to serve for another term
as a European representative on the ALAC. Their terms
will begin at the conclusion of ICANN’s Cape Town
meeting (5 December 2004) and conclude at ICANN’s
annual meeting for 2006.

* ICANN CAPE TOWN MEETING – ICANN's meeting in Cape
Town, South Africa, 1-5 December 2004 will include an
At-Large meeting with end-users from the Africa region
on Thursday, 2 December, at the Cape Town
International Convention Center. Policy discussions
and workshops of interest to the At-Large community
also will be featured: a Workshop on WSIS and a
Workshop on Internationalized Domain Names have been
scheduled for Tuesday, 1 December, at the same
location. All of these events are free and open to the
public and interested individuals are encouraged to
attend. The full Cape Town schedule is posted at
<http://www.icann.org/meetings/capetown/>.

* AUCTIONING EXPIRED DOMAIN NAMES – GOOD OR BAD FOR
CONSUMERS? – 
Comments thus far on the At-Large forum are running
against registrars directly selling or auctioning
expired domain registrations (see
<http://forum.icann.org/alac-forum/>). For example, Ed
Perrone states, “I don't believe registrars should be
allowed to own/purchase/traffic in ANY domain names,
except perhaps their own name that they use strictly
for their own business purposes. Registrars have too
much of an advantage, too much ‘inside information’."
The ALAC is interested in hearing At-Large community
views on plans by two registrars to begin directly
selling or auctioning expired domain registrations. Is
this good for registrants? Should registrars have the
right to control and auction these names and, if so,
what is ICANN’s role? What might this mean for ICANN’s
delete policy and Verisign’s proposed wait list
service? Send your comments to forum@alac.icann.org.

* .POST and .TRAVEL MOVE FORWARD – ICANN recently
announced that it has entered into commercial and
technical negotiations with two of the ten candidates
applying for new sponsored top-level domain (sTLDs).
The status of the additional applicants is still
pending (.asia, .cat, .jobs, .mail, .mobi, .tel, .tel,
and .xxx). After the application period for new sTLDs
closed in March 2004, an independent evaluation team
evaluated the applications against specified selection
criteria. After the team made their recommendations,
ICANN staff entered into contract negotiations with
recommended applicants – a process “dictated by the
issues surrounding each application and the
responsiveness of the applicant.” See
<http://www.icann.org/tlds/stld-apps-19mar04/stld-public-comments.htm>
for more information and email addresses for public
comments.

* ADDITIONAL AT-LARGE EVENTS – Two more events for the
Latin America At-Large community have been scheduled
in November: an At-Large meeting will be held in
conjunction with “V Iberoamerican Independent Congress
of Domain Names III,” 8-11 November in Caracas, (see
<http://www.iberolatino.com.ve/index.htm>); and an
At-Large meeting will be held in conjunction with the
“Seminario-Taller Sobre Nombres de Dominio,” 23-25
November in Panama (see
<http://www.nic.pa/stsnd.html>.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * *

* ALAC WELCOMES NEW, RETURNING MEMBERS – ICANN’s
Nominating Committee selected Jean Armour Polly, from
the U.S.A., for the At-Large Advisory Committee’s open
North America seat, and re-appointed ALAC member
Roberto Gaetano, from Italy, to serve for another term
as a European representative on the ALAC. Their terms
will begin at the conclusion of ICANN’s Cape Town
meeting (5 December 2004) and conclude at ICANN’s
annual meeting for 2006.

Jean Armour Polly is a professional librarian employed
by the Liverpool (NY) Public Library as Assistant
Director and Administrator of Systems and Technology.
She is also known as Net-mom® and is the author of six
editions of Net-mom's Internet Kids & Family Yellow
Pages (Osborne McGraw-Hill), a directory to thousands
of the best children's Internet resources. Roberto
Gaetano has served on the ALAC since June 2003 and has
been an active participant in the Internet and ICANN
policymaking process since 1997. He has played
important roles in ETSI (European Telecommunication
Standards Institute), CORE (Council of Internet
Registrars), the formation of ICANN's original Domain
Name Supporting Organization (DNSO) and early
discussions on the formation of ICANN.

Other Nominating Committee appointments include: on
the ICANN Board, Vinton G. Cerf (U.S.A. - North
America), Joichi Ito (Japan - Asia/Australia/Pacific),
and Vanda Scartezini (Brazil - Latin America/Caribbean
Islands); on the ccNSO Council, Yassin Mshana
(Tanzania - Africa), Eva Frölich (Sweden - Europe),
and Charles Shaban (Jordan - Asia/Australia/Pacific);
and on the GNSO Council, Maureen Cubberley (Canada -
North America).

* ICANN CAPE TOWN MEETING – ICANN's meeting in Cape
Town, South Africa, 1-5 December 2004 will include an
At-Large meeting with end-users from the Africa region
on Thursday, 2 December, at the Cape Town
International Convention Center. Policy discussions
and workshops of interest to the At-Large community
also will be featured: a Workshop on WSIS and a
Workshop on Internationalized Domain Names have been
scheduled for Tuesday, 1 December, at the same
location. All of these events are free and open to the
public and interested individuals are encouraged to
attend. The full Cape Town schedule is posted at
<http://www.icann.org/meetings/capetown/>.

* AUCTIONING EXPIRED DOMAIN NAMES – GOOD OR BAD FOR
CONSUMERS? – Comments thus far on the At-Large forum
are running against registrars directly selling or
auctioning expired domain registrations (see
<http://forum.icann.org/alac-forum/>). For example, Ed
Perrone states, “I don't believe registrars should be
allowed to own/purchase/traffic in ANY domain names,
except perhaps their own name that they use strictly
for their own business purposes. Registrars have too
much of an advantage, too much ‘inside information’."
The ALAC is interested in hearing At-Large community
views on plans by two registrars to begin directly
selling or auctioning expired domain registrations. Is
this good for registrants? Should registrars have the
right to control and auction these names and, if so,
what is ICANN’s role? What might this mean for ICANN’s
delete policy and Verisign’s proposed wait list
service? Send your comments to forum@alac.icann.org.

On 20 September 2004, Network Solutions announced the
introduction of a "New, Enhanced Backorder Service
that Provides Preferred Access to Expired Domain
Names," (See link at
http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-21sep04-1.htm).
This followed Tucows' announcement on 7 September 2004
of a similar, new "Auction Service for Expiring Domain
Names," (see link at
http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-21sep04-1.htm).
If registrants fail to renew their domain names at the
conclusion of an expiration grace period, NSI and
Tucows plan to auction the rights to these domain
names, instead of allowing them to “drop back into the
pool” of names available for re-registration on a
first-come, first-served basis, as is currently the
process. Both registrars plan to give part of the
auction price to the prior registrant (NSI plans to
give 20% or less, Tucows plans to give about 80%).

ALAC members would like to explore how this might
effect implementation of the current ICANN “Expired
Domain Deletion Policy”
http://www.icann.org/registrars/eddp.htm and
Verisign’s proposed “Wait List Service”
http://www.icann.org/minutes/report-vgrs-wls-22aug02.htm,
as well as basic questions about registrars’ “rights”
to domain names, and ICANN’s role regarding these
auctions. Please share your views via email to
forum@alac.icann.org.

* .POST and .TRAVEL MOVE FORWARD – ICANN recently
announced that it has entered into commercial and
technical negotiations with two of the ten candidates
applying for new sponsored top-level domain (sTLDs).
The status of the additional applicants is still
pending (.asia, .cat, .jobs, .mail, .mobi, .tel, .tel,
and .xxx). After the application period for new sTLDs
closed in March 2004, an independent evaluation team
evaluated the applications against specified selection
criteria. After the team made their recommendations,
ICANN staff entered into contract negotiations with
recommended applicants – a process “dictated by the
issues surrounding each application and the
responsiveness of the applicant.” See
<http://www.icann.org/tlds/stld-apps-19mar04/stld-public-comments.htm>
for more information and email addresses for public
comments.

As the process for selecting new sponsored top-level
domain (sTLDs) moves forward, ICANN announced that it
is “pleased that the independent evaluation process,
which began earlier this year, has already provided
the basis to now enter into commercial and technical
negotiations with these two registry applicants.” The
independent review process, headed by an independent
project manager, consisted of three panels of experts
to measure the applications against the criteria
posted in the RFP. Those three panels tested the
applications against the criteria in the areas of:
technical competence; business and financial
sufficiency; and whether the TLD belonged to a
sponsored community.

Each panel submitted a report determining whether each
applicant met the criteria and describing the
reasoning behind the conclusion. These reports were
forwarded to each applicant. In cases where the
applicant had not met all three sets of criteria, the
reports were accompanied by an offer to the applicant
to respond in writing to the findings of the
independent panels. At this stage in the process many
of the applicants have now responded and the path each
applicant now takes varies according to which sets of
criteria were or were not met. An update on the status
and progress of the additional applicants will be made
as they proceed further through the process.

* ADDITIONAL AT-LARGE EVENTS – Two more events for the
Latin America At-Large community have been scheduled
in November: an At-Large meeting will be held in
conjunction with “V Iberoamerican Independent Congress
of Domain Names III,” 8-11 November in Caracas, (see
<http://www.iberolatino.com.ve/index.htm>); and an
At-Large meeting will be held in conjunction with the
“Seminario-Taller Sobre Nombres de Dominio,” 23-25
November in Panama (see
<http://www.nic.pa/stsnd.html>.

The Interim At-Large Advisory Committee
 alac@icann.org
 www.alac.icann.org



=====
David Goldstein
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             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

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