Generic Names Supporting Organization

GNSO is the acronym for Generic Names Supporting Organization and represents the organization which develops policies for generic TLDs. GNSO is an important institution of ICANN, also considered as a constituency group within the ICANN process.

Short overview

The main objective of GNSO is to strive in keeping gTLDs operating in a correct, fair and orderly manner across the Internet, while promoting innovation and competition. Some examples of the type of issues which GNSO is facing with are:

• During the registration of a domain name, what type of services must the registrar provide?
• If the registrant forgets to renew the domain name, and lets it to expires, how can the domain name be recovered?
• What happens if someone registers a domain name that is very similar to another domain name?

In order to understand the purpose of GNSO it is important to first understand how it works and about GNSO policy development process.

The GNSO Council consist of 22 members which form 20 votes, while the Chairman is represented by Stephane van Gelder.

ICANN Supporting Organizations

Apart from GNSO, there are other supporting organizations or advisory committees which help ICANN to fulfill its objectives. Such organizations are listed below:

• Address Supporting Organization (ASO)
• Country Code Domain Name Supporting Organization (CCNSO)
• At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)
• Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)

GNSO Development Process

The GNSO is the primary engine within the ICANN community for developing, recommending changes, and making modifications to generic top-level domain (TLD) policies. At its core, the objective of the GNSO is to identify ways to improve the inclusiveness and representativeness of the its work while increasing its effectiveness and efficiency.

However, an important GNSO improvement was involved in the development of recommendations for the new GNSO policy development process. The ICANN Board launched in June 28th 2008 a set of recommendations for improving the effectiveness of GNSO. These recommendations were related to GNSO activities, operations and structure.

GNSO Improvements

The main areas of GNSO improvements which were approved by the Board are classified into five main categories:

1. The creation of a Working Group Model
2. Revising the PDP (Policy Development process)
3. The restructuring of GNSO Council
4. Communication improvement and a better coordination between ICANN structures
5. Improving constituency procedures

Generic Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains and other responsibilities set forth in the Bylaws (ICANN Bylaws).

Address Supporting Organization. Advises the Board with respect to policy issues relating to the operation, assignment, and management of Internet addresses (ICANN Bylaws).

At-Large Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN related to the interests of individual Internet users (ICANN Bylaws). Not to be confused with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group.

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).

Policy Development Process