Working Group
A Working Group (WG) is defined as a group of individuals or experts in a particular field who came together to achieve specific objectives. Different organizations like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the Internet Engineering Task Force created different working groups to accomplish specific purposes. Based on RFC 2418, Working Groups are created to address specific problem or to produce one or more specific deliverables such as guidelines, standards or specifications. Working groups operate for a short period of time, generally upon completion of its goal. Its term may also be terminated for any other reason.[1]
Organizations like IETF, ICANN etc. determine if there is a need or if it is appropriate to create a working group in order to resolve certain issues. Any organization provides guidelines and defines the criteria in establishing a working group. Every working group has a charter, which serves as an agreement between the working group and the organization. It contains the specific assignments of the working group that needs to be fulfilled.
ICANN Working Groups
ICANN's supporting organizations have different working groups tasked to address or resolve different issues. Membership of the ICANN working groups are open to individuals within the ICANN community who are willing to volunteer their expertise on certain issues. The decision whether it is necessary to forming a working group for policy development is decided by ICANN's Supporting Organizations (SO) or Advisory Councils (ACs). Discussions and meeting of working groups are properly documented and translated using the 5 United Nations languages so that non-English speaking members of the internet community.Any decision or recommendation made by a working group will be evaluated by the SO and the ICANN Board.[2]
Historically, the first working group was created on June 12 1999 during the transition period of the management of the domain name system from the US government to ICANN. The interim DNSO Names Council of ICANN formed Working Group A to examine the Chapter 3 of the WIPO recommendations regarding the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy.Amadeu Abril i Abril of Nominalia and Jonathan Cohen of Federation International des Conseils en Propriete Industrielle were appointed co-chairs of Working Group A. Its initial members include: [3]
- Mark Partridge
- Susan Anthony
- Michael Heltzer
- Ted Shapiro
- Peter Dengate Thrush
- Randy Bush
- Kathy Kleiman
- David Maher
- Ken Stubbs
- Jon Englund
- Luis H. de Larramendi
- Hirofumi Hotta
- Dr. Willie Black
Working Group A was criticized by University of Miami Law Professor Michael Froomkin. He described the working group as a failure and it is not properly constituted based on ICANN rules.He cited that working group A was not properly represented from each of the constituency under the DNSO, which is a requirement under the ICANN rules. According to him, the working group was manipulated and railroaded by the chairman by creating sub-groups, minimizing and disenfranchising inputs and points of view.[4]
Despite criticisms, subsequent Working Groups were also created by the DNSO Names Council on June 25, 1999 to perform specific tasks such as: * WG B - Protection on famous trade-marks
- WG C - Creation of new gTLDs
- WG D - DNSO business plan and internal procedures
- WG E - Global awareness and Outreach
GNSO Working Group Guidelines
The Generic Names Supporting Organization created guidelines for working groups to be able to deliver productive and effective results.[5]