ICANN 48

Buenos Aires

Business Digest

Why a Business Digest?

This Digest is designed to serve as a non-exhaustive review of highlights of the ICANN Public

Meeting relevant to a wide variety of businesses stakeholders affected by ICANN’s work,

presented in business friendly language. Please provide feedback and comments to the

ICANN Business Engagement Team at businessengagement@icann.org.

Executive Summary

ICANN held its 48th public meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With around 2,000 registered

participants, the event was a great success for the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region.

ICANN’s last public meeting in Durban, South Africa saw the official signing of the first Registry

Agreements (RA) for new gTLDs. Since then, more than 250 contracts have been signed and

the first new gTLDs were delegated on 23 October 2013.

Much of the discussion during ICANN 48 however was focused on the broader topic of

Internet governance. Given the recent spotlight on the topic, sparked by the NSA scandal and

subsequent debate at the United Nations General Assembly, the community was eager to

discuss the consequences of the Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet

Cooperation, and the scope and rationale for other initiatives, panels, and meetings –

specifically the 1net movement, the High-Level Panel on Global Internet Cooperation and

Governance Mechanisms, and the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of the

Internet Governance to be held on 23 and 24 April 2014, in São Paulo, Brazil.

In order to keep interested businesses continuously informed about the latest developments

and debates revolving around Internet governance and the business world role in it, the

Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE) team business digest is accompanied by two online

spaces meant to inform and exchange ideas on a daily basis with the business world: the

Twitter feed @ICANN4biz and the LinkedIn group ICANN for Business. Feel free to join,

participate and engage, and provide feedback.

Here are some key takeaways:

Through the framework of the Latin America and Caribbean engagement strategy,

regional stakeholders played a key role in the organization of this ICANN meeting. For

the first time the main meeting agenda included a series of activities and sessions that

were created and designed by organizations from the region, for the region.

The business engagement team worked closely with the LAC regional engagement

team to organize several events targeted at the vibrant local business community and

domain name sector.

The new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) program has now moved to the

delegations phase, with many new gTLDs starting their sunrise period. Name Collision

issues and the last resort auctions are now the main points of discussion around the

topic.

Discussions on Internet governance dominated much of the discussion resulting in the

organization of a session to prepare the ICANN community to the Multistakeholder

meeting in Brazil.

Acronyms Guide

For more help with Acronyms in this report, please see the ICANN Acronym Helper. ATRT 2 – Second Accountability & Transparency Review Team

BCUC – Business and Commercial Users Constituency

ccTLD – Country code Top Level Domain name

CSG – Commercial Stakeholder Group

DNA – Domain Name Industry Association

DNS – Domain Name System

DNSSEC – Domain Name System Security Extensions

GAC – Governmental Advisory Committee

GNSO- Generic Names Supporting Organizations

gTLD – Generic Top-Level Domain name

IDN – Internationalized Domain Name

IPC – Intellectual Property Constituency

ISPCP – Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers Constituency

KISA – Korea Internet and Security Agency

LAC – Latin America and Caribbean

RA – Registry Agreement

RPM – Rights Protection Mechanisms

SSAC – Security and Stability Advisory Committee

TMCH – Trademark Clearinghouse

1

Local Beginnings: Spotlight on Argentina and the Region

The Network Information Center (NIC) Argentina was the local host for ICANN 48.

NIC Argentina is an office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina that has been

responsible for operating the .AR country code top-level domain (ccTLD) since 1987.

Dr. Juan Manuel Abal-Medina, Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers of Argentina and Dr. Gustavo

Justich, Director of NIC Argentina both attended the ICANN 48 opening ceremony and

delivered remarks welcoming ICANN and the community to Buenos Aires.

Here are some statistics about the Internet in Argentina and the Latin America and Caribbean

region:

Argentina went from 3.7 million Internet users in 2001 to 31 million users in 2013,

making Argentina the number one country in the region in terms of Internet

penetration, with 75% of the population online. With a total population of 581 million

and 236 million Internet users, the LAC region has an Internet penetration of 40%.

In 2003, employment in the ICT sector in Argentina amounted to 19,000 positions,

today the sector employs more than 77,000 people. The ICT sector grew from $830

million in 2003 to $3.6 billion in 2013, a 500% increase.

There are 9 million ccTLD domain names registered in the region. .AR has 2,6 million

registered names and it is second only to Brazil (.BR) which has 3 million active

domains. In 2012 the annual growth of ccTLD domains in the region was 14,2%,

slightly above the world average of 14%.

24 new gTLDs applications came from five different countries in Latin America. Brazil leads with 10 applications followed by Uruguay, Mexico, Panama, and Colombia.

As previously mentioned, for the first time at an ICANN meeting, a part of the meeting agenda was dedicated specifically to the hosting region. The business engagement team worked closely with the regional engagement team and regional stakeholders to conduct strategic outreach and preparation for the meeting. You can download the Participant Guide for Latin America and the Caribbean from the Buenos Aires meeting website to see the relevant sessions, including the ones devoted to business participants. The business engagement team also organized a pre-ICANN 48 webinar in Spanish for business newcomers from the LAC region.

2

Welcome Ceremony and President’s Opening Session Roundup

The ICANN 48 opening session also served as an occasion to highlight the crucial role the LAC

region has played in the growth of ICANN throughout the years. ICANN President and CEO

Fadi Chehade pointed out that, in August of 1998, Buenos Aires was the location of the final

meeting of the International Forum on the White Paper (IFWP) that lead to the creation of

ICANN.

To commemorate Argentina’s historic role on the 15th anniversary of the organization, Fadi

showed presented a video on Internet pioneers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

ICANN Board Chairman Dr. Steve Crocker discussed recent achievements in the new gTLD

program and in the ICANN community. Dr. Crocker also covered some of the latest

developments in the Internet governance discussion, specifically the aforementioned

Montevideo Statement and the forthcoming Brazil meeting.

Other highlights from the opening ceremony:

ICANN Board Member Sébastien Bachollet announced plans to create a

Multistakeholder Ethos Award to honor community members starting at ICANN 49 in

Singapore.

Lesley Cowley, the CEO at the .UK registry Nominet, was presented with the first

ICANN Leadership Award.

Fadi announced the signing of a

Memorandum of Understanding

with the Korea Internet and

Security Agency (KISA) to work on

engagement efforts such as an

exchange program and a pilot

project to promote language

localization efforts in the region.

In his opening, Fadi took the chance to reflect on the first 15 years of ICANN and his first year

as CEO of the organization, discussing the progress on the four objectives and sixteen goals he

laid out in Toronto during ICANN 45, at the beginning of his term: Affirmation of purpose,

Operational Excellence, Internationalization, and Multistakeholder evolution.

At the end of the session he announced the creation of two new email addresses going

directly to his mailbox:

Learnyear1@icann.org will be used to collect feedback on his first year as President

and CEO and what could be improved.

Doyear2@icann.org is for suggestions on how to move forward in his second year.

3

Domain Name Industry Developments

Latin America and Caribbean DNS Forum

The 1st Latin American & Caribbean DNS Forum was held right before the start of the ICANN

Buenos Aires meeting and was hosted by ICANN, Internet Society, the Latin American and

Caribbean Association of ccTLDs (LACTLD), the Latin America and Caribbean Network

Information Centre (LACNIC), the Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC)

and the Public Interest Registry (PIR).

The event explored the opportunities and challenges for the LAC region brought on by

changes in the Internet landscape. From an industry perspective the Forum addressed several

important issues, among others:

Divides in digital access and participation from the region.

The need to propose sustainable business models for the region and to address

opportunities and challenges created by the new gTLDs.

How to foster cooperation in dealing with cyber-security threats and to promote an

open and global Internet.

The Domain Name Association

During the meeting, the recently formed Domain Name Association held an information

session and cocktail reception at the Alvear ART Hotel in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, 20

November.

The DNA is the first‐ever industry trade group to represent the interests of the entire domain

name industry and will promote, advance and support the common interests of the industry

with regards to the provisioning, expanded adoption and use of domain names. The info

session gave an overview of the type of memberships available in the organization: executive,

strategic and supporting membership.

Major companies like Demand Media, Donuts, GoDaddy, Google, and Amazon are listed as

members of the DNA.

The DNA is a fully independent organization, not supported or promoted by ICANN itself. That

said, having established itself as a locus for information and leadership among domain name

companies, the DNA constitutes a helpful addition to the domain name marketplace.

Interested companies can follow the DNA on slideshare and twitter or visit the DNA website

and the accompanying educational website www.whatdomain.org.

4

New gTLDs

Progress on the New gTLD Program is steady. The major milestone of the delegation of the

first new gTLDs was reached on 23 October 2013, when the first four new gTLDs whose

contracts were signed on the stage of the opening session of ICANN 47 in Durban were

delegated: كة ب ش (.SHABAKA or .WEB in Arabic), онлайн (.ONLINE in Russian), сайт (.SITE in

Russian), and 游戏 (.GAMES) in Chinese. More than 100 new gTLD strings were delegated by

the end of January 2014.

Trademark protection mechanisms, the new gTLDs last resort auctions, and the issue of name

collision (see security and stability section below) dominated much of the discussion around

new gTLDs at ICANN 48.

Trademarks Protection

New gTLD Program Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPM) include both proactive and reactive

measures for defending Trademarks. This helpful infographic addresses uses of the Trademark

Clearinghouse, Uniform Rapid Suspension System, and Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute

Resolution Procedure. These are among the most innovative and important mechanisms

developed as part of the new gTLD program, and apply to all companies with a Trademark to

protect their web presence.

Auctions

Section 4.3 of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook describes auctions as the last resort method

to resolve string contention sets. Preliminary Auction Rules were published on 1 Nov 2013 and

were later revised to include community feedback. An updated version of the Auction Rules

was published on 12 December 2013. This version was posted for public comment on the

ICANN website on December 17.

The documents published for public comment are:

Auction Rules.

Bidder Forms.

Bidder Agreement.

Draft Auction Schedule.

The first auction notifications will be issued in mid February.

For all up to date information on the New gTLD Program you can download the presentations

and audio recordings of all past webinars, and look up date for upcoming webinars here.

For the latest announcements and contracting statistics go to:

newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/latest.

For New gTLD Program statistics, click here.

5

Security & Stability Matters In addition to its private meetings, the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) provided public briefings to the ALAC, GAC, and GNSO, including the Registry, Registrar, and Commercial Stakeholder Groups, and to the public at its session on 21 November. During these meetings the SSAC provided updates on its activities, including on the SSAC Comment on ICANN’s Initial Report from the Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services (SAC 061), the SSAC Advisory on Concerning the Mitigation of Name Collision Risk (SAC 062) and the SSAC Advisory on DNSSEC Key Rollover in the Root Zone (SAC 063).

Name Collision

Companies should be aware that the names they use for internal networks may be affected by

the delegation of new gTLDS. A name collision occurs when an attempt to resolve a name

used in a private name space (e.g. on an internal network under a non-delegated Top-Level

Domain, or a short, unqualified name) results in a query to the public Domain Name System.

When the administrative boundaries of private and public namespaces overlap, name

resolution may yield unintended or harmful results.

In May 2013, ICANN commissioned a study to explore the scope and risk of name collision in

relation to new gTLDs. A series of proposals and public comment periods followed, resulting in

the New gTLD Collision Occurrence Management Plan, the selection of a lead for creating a

"Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework," in cooperation with the community,

and the publication of Alternate Path to Delegation Reports for all but 25 strings. The

alternate path to delegation gives applicants the possibility to proceed without waiting for

their Name Collision Occurrence Assessment by adopting a conservative collision mitigation

measures and initially blocking a selection of domains while the assessment is conducted.

Resources and additional material on name collision can be found at:

Name Collision informational center.

Name Collision Update video.

Guide to Name Collision Identification and Mitigation for IT Professionals.

Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework mailing list.

DNSSEC

The SSAC conducted its usual sessions on the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC):

DNSSEC for Everybody -- A Beginner's Guide. DNSSEC Workshop.

For a complete list of SSAC Reports and Advisories click here.

6

GAC Advice:

Issued on 17 November 2013, the ICANN 48 Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Advice

further builds on the communiqués released at ICANN meetings in Beijing and Durban.

The GAC asked the board not to move beyond initial evaluation on the strings .GUANZHOU

(IDN in Chinese), .SHENZEN (IDN in Chinese) and .SPA. Moreover, they asked for the string

.DOCTOR to be re-categorized as falling within Category 1 safeguard advice addressing highly

regulated sectors, as defined in the Beijing GAC Communiqué.

The Communiqué further mentions the GAC’s continued commitment to the protection of

Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) acronyms, and to provide further advice on how

existing protections should apply to the words “Red Cross”, “Red Crescent” and related

designations at the top and second level.

Safeguards for the .WINE/.WIN strings proved once again to be problematic, as the protection

of geographical indications involves careful negotiation and is also relevant to such

organizations as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade

Organization (WTO).

You can read the entire document here: Buenos Aires GAC Communiqué.

View Applicant Responses to Buenos Aires GAC Advice.

To view the content of all other GAC meetings click here.

Internet Governance Landscape

A number of session were held to discuss the Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet

Cooperation, the /1net movement, the High-Level Panel on Global Internet Cooperation and

Mechanisms, and the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of the Internet

Governance:

SO/AC Led High-Interest Topics – The session theme was "Evolution of Internet

Governance – Montevideo Statement and ICANN's Post-Bali/Pre-Brazil Activities –

Methods and Objectives," the objective was to ensure broader collaboration among

the various Supporting Organization and Advisory Committees within ICANN, in the

context of Internet governance developments.

Internet Governance – A diverse panel representing the broader community discussed

the evolution of the global multistakeholder Internet Governance Ecosystem and the

ICANN Community’s role in it.

ICANN Community Preparation for the Multistakeholder Meeting in Brazil – Given the

increasing interest during the week over the upcoming events, a special session on the

Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of the Internet Governance in Brazil

was lead by Fadi Chehade, to give the community a better idea of what its role will be

in preparation for the meeting. The Brazil meeting will take place in São Paulo on 23

and 24 April 2014. More information is available at www.netmundial.org.

7

Constituencies’ Corner

As always, the GNSO Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG) and its constituencies held active

discussions on an array of ICANN topics. The CSG represents the views of business users and

connectivity providers; its mission is to ensure ICANN policy and ICANN contracts are

consistent with the development of an Internet that is a safe place for business-to-business

and business-to-consumer transactions and communications to take place based on high

levels of business, user and consumer confidence.

Business and Commercial Users Constituency (BCUC)

The BCUC meeting addressed a number of policy issues such as WHOIS privacy, proxy

accreditation, and namespace collision mitigation, as well as the BCUC position on the

recommendations from the Accountability and Transparency Review Team 2 (ATRT 2) and its

input for ICANN’s five-year strategic plan.

Internet governance issues were not absent from the discussion as the constituency meeting

addressed the Montevideo Statement and the Brazil meeting, assessing the business world’s

role in the event and how to conduct outreach and raise awareness about the

multistakeholder meeting.

Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC)

The IPC covered several topics regarding intellectual property rights protection and

compliance as required by the new gTLD program, with briefings from various ICANN staff

members on contractual compliance, rights protection mechanisms requirements and the

TMCH.

The constituency representatives were also briefed on the Community Regional Outreach

Pilot Program (CROPP), a program to support outreach and recruitment of new members, as

they look for ways to make the membership base more global and regionally diverse.

Internet Service Provider & Connectivity Providers Constituency (ISPCP)

The ISPCP addressed a number of ICANN developments, including the implications of ICANN's

role in the broader conversation about Internet governance.

The ISPCP also made significant contributions on the issue of name collision and discussed the

policy development process with regard to reserving International governmental and non-

governmental organizations names.

Outreach activities were also part of the ISPCP meeting agenda, specifically a program on

gTLD awareness to prepare ISPs for technical impacts of the expansion of the gTLD

namespace.

8

Additional Resources and Useful Information

Accountability and Transparency Review Team 2 (ATRT2)

A unique feature of ICANN is that it has regularly mandated external review mechanisms to

address its accountability and transparency. The ATRT2 started its activities before ICANN 46

in Beijing. Questions for the ICANN community were posted for public comment at the end of

the Meeting. As a result of the public comment period and the consequent reply period, the

Team compiled a series of issues for recommendations. During Durban 47, the ATRT2 met

with the ICANN Board and various Committees, Supporting Organizations, and Stakeholder

groups to further receive community inputs on these issues.

The ATRT2 delivered its final Report and Recommendations on 31 December 2013.

WHOIS

Broadly speaking, WHOIS and registration services refer to information that is maintained and

made publicly available on people or organizations that register for domain names. In

December 2012, ICANN announced the creation of an Expert Working Group (EWG) on next-

generation gTLD registration directory services, as a first step in fulfilling the ICANN Board’s

directive to help redefine the purpose and provision of gTLD registration data. The Initial

Report describes the design principles and features needed for a replacement system to

WHOIS, after considering the important Community work over the last decade, including from

the GNSO, the SSAC, WHOIS Review Team, and the GAC.

The EWG’s primary goal at ICANN 48 was to clarify its initial recommendations and share new proposals on key issues, creating a foundation for continued dialogue about a possible replacement for WHOIS. To this end, the EWG presented an overview of its recommendations in the session Exploring Replacements for WHOIS – A Next Generation Directory Service.

Public session materials are posted here:

Status Update Report on Next Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services.

Discussion Document for EWG Buenos Aires Public Session.

Presentation: Exploring Replacements for WHOIS - A Next Generation RDS.

Watch video on the EWG Status Report Update and visit whois.icann.org.

ICANN 50 London Fellowship Application Round Open

The ICANN Fellowship Program seeks participants from developing regions and countries of

the world, in order to help create a broader base of knowledgeable constituents who will

become the new voice of experience in their regions and beyond. The program is now

accepting applications for the ICANN 50 meeting in London, United Kingdom and encourage

the participation of people from the business sector: apply here.

9

ICANN Online Learning Platform

ICANN Learn was launched during ICANN 48. This free and open online learning platform is

meant to provide a space to provide introductory information for new participants and to

share institutional knowledge, in order to increase the base of informed ICANN stakeholders.

ICANN Learn needs input and feedback to ensure the platform is as useful as possible. Go to

learn.icann.org, create an account, enroll in a few courses, and start learning.

For a monthly update on ICANN Policy status click here.

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