Registrars Constituency 2006 03 27

Discussion with ICANN Staff

Presentation of operational plan from Kurt Pritz

Planning calendar broken into two segments: 1) Fiscal year strategic plan, formulated in Lux/Vancouver consultations, driven more by comments received than preconceived format, and 2) Operational plan = one-year action plan supports objectives in strategic plan

Objectives for 06/07:

Define and achieve oparations performance targets for IANA, gTLD Registry tasks, gTLD Registrar tasks, L-root server operations, and end-users
Develop procedures for dealing with potential business failure of key operational entities
Develop and implement an Emergency Response Plan, including responses for differnent emergency situations, ensuring agreed processes with key partners, ensuring full operational redundancy, and messaging strategies
Improve accountability of the budget process and ensure regularity of revenue flows consistent with ICANN mission and objectives
Improve access to technical advice and the resolution of the technical issues in local communities
Develop and implement a workforce planning methodology for INCANN staff to attract and retain high quality staff
Sustainability: Analyse implications of increased demand on ICANN operations and policy processes and develop ways of improving scalability

Organizational excellence in operations

Prosecute key issues to be addressed by ICANN (e.g., IDNs, Security, new TLD process, Whois development and accuracy, addressing issues of DNS market bahavior (within IP addresses and domain names, looking for potential harms))
Issues raised in market behavior include concerns over monetization (including 5-day add grace, auctions/xfers prior to RGP, batch pool behavior). Received letter from PIR yesterday expressing concern; papers published about level of activity and how it could affect registries' ops in 5-day add/grace. Probably will work with registrars to make recommendations to GNSO. PIR is complaining; VeriSign has identified this.

John Berryhill: VeriSign isn't identifying it as a problem yet because it's net positive revenue-wise. Paul Stahura: Not as big a burden as thread activity at time of deletions

Org excellence in policy development

Develop capacity to better understand economic issues, consumer needs, market expectations and business modelas and the the implications of these factors in ICANN policy development, and also the implications of that on Internet users
Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of supporting orgs and advisory committees

Increasing international participation

Improve stakeholder ability to participate, including new languages
Redesign business and policy practices and process to meet needs of global audience
In each region, work with cc managers, etc., to develop outreach programs for improved capabilities in IP address, domain name and root management services

Increase participation

Improve/deepan participation by end users, gov'ts, business community, technical and industry experts, developers of new business models that use the Internet
Develop communications plan to explain icann's mission and comms activities and achievements
Implement program to enhance and develop relevant skills and knowledg in exisitng participants and the next generation of ICANN leadership
Develop knowledge management program to institutionalize corporate memory and comm core ICANN values
Strengthen relationships with key partners
Identify key forums wiht which ICANN should interact to assist in dealing with issues that are related but not in ICANN's ambit
Develop mechanisms to report in ICANN's openness, transparency, inclusiveness and its multilateral and multi-stakeholder environment

Work toward post-MOU ICANN

Satisfy remaining MOU objectives
Engage community in analysis of issues for post MOU oversignt
Review ICANN structure to determine whether it's appropirate for post-MOU ICANN, make necessary changes and updates

GNSO Council update by Ross Rader

Whois TF completed final report for conflict handling; adopted as consensus, not voted on by board
Whois TF completed final report for purpose of Whois; further input useful. There's conflict remaining regarding the purposes of Whois among council members.
Next steps: board vote on local exemptions policy; council vote on purpose of Whois policy; TF will develop statement of purpose of Whois contacts

Transfers committee: purpose is to make sure transfers working right; now in process of making preliminary recommendations.
Next step: complete relim recs, circulate for constituency feedback

Whois accuracy WG: working on report for Marrakesh. Purpose is to make recommendations, not policy.

PDP Dec 05 (new gTLDs): collecting input on establishment of new TLDs. Committee met in Washington in Feb. 06. Broad support for introduction of new gTLDs. General agreement on standardized registry contracts. Committee looking for constituency input, please submit right away. Ask Ross or Liz Williams for specific criteria for input.

PDP Feb 06 (contractual policy conditions): Issues report prepared by staff, accepted by council. Terms of reference determined. Next steps: Meeting in Wellington; sonstituency must preprare and vote on position statement by Apr. 30. Public comment period now open.

Proposed RGP PDP: Goal implement rgp as mandatory offering as opposed to optional registry service. Narrow scope /terms of reference for TF/WG, not intending to look at expiry transfer or modify other rgp practices, council not yet discussed

proposed in response to recent public criticism of registrar practices. Ross has made this proposal to the GNSO only on his own behalf.

GNSO review: Requirement of ICANN bylaws, conducted by London School of Econ. Main areas of focus: representativeness, effectiveness, transparency, compliance