Business Constituency

The Business Constituency (BC) represents the position and interests of small, medium, large and multinational enterprises as DNS and Internet Users to ICANN. The Constituency has over 50 members, but extends association membership to over 50,000 members and indirectly to over 1.5 million; 90% belong to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It is one of the Constituencies under the Commercial Stakeholders Group (CSG) in the Non-Contracted Parties House under ICANN's GNSO. It was set forth by the ICANN Bylaws.

Mission

The main objective of the Business Constituency is to ensure the full representation of the views and interests of the Internet's ommercial community, as ICANN policies should be consistent in maintaining a secure, stable and reliable Internet in conjunction with business development. It is important that they promote consumer confidence through participation in a common forum of both suppliers and users.

Executive Committee

The Business Constituency has an Executive Committee designated to administer, supervise and coordinate its activities and positions to accomplish its mission and effectively represent its members to the ICANN Board.

The Constituency's responsibilities include:

• Election of two representatives, from different geographical regions, to the GNSO to discuss the Constituency's position regarding domain name policy issues.
• The Constituency's Credentials Committee evaluates the qualification of a member based on the BC charter. David Fares, Mike O'Connor & Martin Sutton are members of the Credentials Committee.
• Appoints two members to ICANN's Nominating Committee to represent small and large business. Mike Roberts & Chris Martin were appointed in 2009, they respectively represent small and large business.
• The BC appoints one rapporteur who will be responsible for leading every major policy issue, prepare drafts of position papers, and serve as spokesperson; and also appoints one support and one or more observers to be assigned to the rapporteur to ensure a more active policy group.

Members

• Marilyn Cade, Chair
• Steve DelBianco, Vice Chair Policy Coordination:
• Chris Chaplow, Vice Chair Finance & Operations:
• Zahid Jamil & Mike Rodenbaugh, GNSO Councilors
• Sarah Deutsch,CSG Representative

Roles of BC Members

Every member has important role and contributes to the development of the Constituency by:

• Sharing their views and opinions regarding ICANN's proposals
• Contributing to developing the Constituency's position in the GNSO Council
• Providing Input in every ICANN public comment process
• Becoming an active participant to the BC e-mail lists
• Attending the BC Conference calls
• Becoming Issue Managers/Rapporteurs regarding specific policy topics and help in guiding the development of positions for the Constituency.
• Helping to represent the interests and views of the Constituency in the development of policy recommendation for gTLD Policy through Working Groups
• Representing the Constituency in leadership position in the different organization of ICANN
• Reaching out and act as "ambassadors" to other businesses, to increase awareness and business engagements within ICANN and Business Constituency
• Serving as liaison for information exchange and interaction on behalf of the Business Constituency with other GNSO constituencies
• Interacting and speaking on behalf of business users regarding their concerns and views with the ICANN Board its staff, and other stakeholders, such as the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC).

Positions and Statements on ICANN Policy Issues

The Business Constituency actively provides the consensus position and statements of its member for every ICANN Policy that impacts the interest of the commercial Internet and DNS users. The Constituency has provided its positions and statements regarding:

• gTLD Applicant Guidebook
• Inter Registrar Transfer Policy Part B Working Group Proposed Final Report
• Recommendations on new gTLD Guidebook
• Recognizing new UDRP providers
• Initial Report on Registration Abuse Policies
• Process for Amending gTLD Registry Agreement
• Response to the Whois Response Team
• Response to the Security, Stability, and Resiliency Review Team
• Propose new GNSO policy development process

Their full positions can be found here, while their full statements can be found here.

External Links

The Commercial and Business Users Constituency Homepage

Business Constituency

Commercial Stakeholder Group. Represents the full range of large and small commercial entities of the Internet, including the Business Constituency, Intellectual Property Constituency and the Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers Constituency (ICANN Bylaws).

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).

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).