Generic Names Supporting Organization

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The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) brings together smaller stakeholder groups, which in turn bring together constituencies and other groups, together into one Supporting Organization to develop policies, form consensus, and make recommendations related to gTLDs to the ICANN Board. This body was previously known as the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO), which it replaced in 2003.

Overview

The main objective of the GNSO is to keep gTLDs operating in a fair and orderly manner across the Internet, while promoting innovation and competition. Some examples of the types of issues that the GNSO face 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?

Stakeholder Groups/Constituencies

Four Stakeholder Groups appoint 18 individuals to the GNSO council. Two appointments are also made by the ICANN's Nominating Committee. Certain Stakeholder groups, like the commercial one, also delegate appointments to their constituencies.

• Non-Commercial Users Stakeholder Group, 6 appointments
• Commercial Stakeholder Group, 6 total appointments coming from constituencies
  • Commercial and Business Users Constituency, 2 appointments
  • Intellectual Property Interests Constituency, 2 appointments
  • Internet Service and Connection Providers Constituency, 2 appointments
• Registrar Stakeholder Group, 3 appointments
• Registry Stakeholder Group, 3 appointments

GNSO Council

Organizational Structure of ICANN (Image from ICANN.org)

The GNSO Council consists of 23 members, 20 of which are full voting members; they come from a variety of different regions and represent the aforementioned Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies involved in ICANN's multi-stakeholder model. James Bladel is its current chair.

Members Include:

Contracted Parties House

• Donna Austin - Vice-Chair, Asia Pacific (Term ends at AGM 2016)
• Hsu Phen Valerie Tan - Voting NCA, Asia Pacific (Term ends at AGM 2017)

Registry Stakeholder Group

• Keith Drazek - North America (Term ends at AGM 2016)
• Rubens Kuhl - Latin America/Caribbean (Term ends at AGM 2017)
• Donna Austin - Vice-Chair, Asia Pacific (Term ends at AGM 2016)

Registrar Stakeholder Group

• James Bladel - North America (Term ends at AGM 2017
• Volker Greimann - Europe (Term ends at AGM 2016)
• Jennifer Gore - North America (Term ends at AGM 2017

Non-Contracted Parties House

• Heather Forrest - Vice-Chair, Asia Pacific (Term ends at AGM 2016)
• Johan Helsingius - Voting NCA, Europe (Term ends at AGM 2017)

Commercial Stakeholder Group

Commercial and Business Users - Business Constituency

• Philip Corwin - North America (Term ends Annual Meeting 2016)
• Susan Kawaguchi - North America (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2017)

Intellectual Property Interests - Intellectual Property Constituency

• Paul McGrady - North America (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2016)
• Heather Forrest - Vice-Chair, Asia Pacific (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2016)

ISP Interests - ISP Constituency

• Wolf-Ulrich Knoben - Europe (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2016)
• Tony Harris - Latin America/Caribbean (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2017)

Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group

• David Cake - Asia Pacific (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2016)
• Stephanie Perrin - North America (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2016)
• Stefania Milan - Europe (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2017)
• Edward Morris - Europe (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2016)
• Amr Elsadr - Africa (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2017)
• Marilia Maciel - Latin American/Carribean (Term ends at Annual Meeting 2017)

Observers & Liaisons

• Patrick Myles - ccNSO Liaison, Asia Pacific - Non-Voting, Non-Member
• Olivier Crépin-Leblond - ALAC Liaison, Europe - Non-Voting Member

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 policies. The GNSO aims to identify ways to improve the inclusiveness and representativeness of its work while increasing its effectiveness and efficiency.

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

GNSO Improvements

The main areas of GNSO improvements which were approved by the Board, and are being implemented by the GNSO, 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

Implementation of URS

In September 2012, ICANN senior executive Kurt Pritz sent a public email to GNSO Council Chairman Stephane Van Gelder advising him that URS implementation could begin after a year of delay. Implementing URS included a pair of open meetings in Fall 2012, including one at ICANN 45 in Toronto. ICANN acknowledged the role played by the GNSO Council in developing and approving the model and said they were willing to "work in whichever way the GNSO wishes to proceed".

ICANN Supporting Organizations

Apart from GNSO, there are other SO's (supporting organizations) and advisory committees which help ICANN to fulfill its objectives. They include:

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

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).

Deprecated. Domain Name Supporting Organization. Predecessor of the Generic Names Supporting Organization, which advised the Board with respect to policy issues relating to the Domain Name System (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).

Country Code Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board global policies relating to country-code top-level domains (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).