ICANN ends its second virtual meeting
ICANN — the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — recently concluded its second virtual meeting for 2020.
The ICANN68 meeting was originally proposed to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but the continuing global threat of COVID-19 forced the ICANN organisation to take their meeting online.
This was ICANN’s 68th meeting since its inception in 1998 and its first ICANN meeting in Singapore in 1999. ICANN holds three meetings per year.
The online meeting was an opportunity for the core sections of ICANN to discuss issues of concern to the Internet community, and to invite community inputs into the further development of policy issues relating to the use of domain names.
Domain names are important because in order to connect to the internet you need a domain name, such as cookislands.gov.ck or oyster.net.ck. These are domains that use the country code top level domain (TLD) for the Cook Islands (.ck).
Domains are either country code TLDs or generic TLDs such as .com, .org, .info,
The Cook Islands has two active members within the ICANN community.
Maureen Hilyard, a development consultant, is the Chair of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) which looks after the interests of the Internet end-user community.
Pua Hunter, ICT Director at OPM, is a Vice-Chair of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) which consists of representatives of the governments of the world, addressing policy issues from the perspective of their own country’s jurisdiction.
During ICANN68, both the ALAC and the GAC organised discussions that involved experts and other online participants sharing their view on common issues impacting their communities.
Other communities that organised sessions included the ccNSO (Country Code Name Supporting Organisation) and the GNSO (Generic Name Supporting Organisation) which are the key groups that create the policies that apply to country code and generic domains.
Other Advisory committees who participated in ICANN68 included the SSAC (Security and Stability Advisory Committee) which advises the ICANN Board on security aspects of any policy development; and the RSSAC (the Root Server System Advisory Committee) which advises the Board on the operations and security of the root server system that manages the communication system that make the Internet work (by changing domain names that we use, to IP addresses that the root servers use to communicate with each other).
DNS Abuse
One of the most popular issues across the ICANN community was to do with abuse of the Domain Name System (DNS Abuse). At-Large ran two session on this topic looking at it first of all from the end-user perspective and another session on how registrars (those who sell domains) could work to monitor misuse of domain names.
At this time of the pandemic, misuse of domain names to send out false information about cures for COVID-19 has been a major issue for registrars who have taken down websites where they have been reported and found to be misusing a COVID-related domain name.
Public Interest Commitments
Another session that was related to the DNS Abuse issue, was Public Interest Commitments and the Dispute Resolution Process.
This first of all looked at the expectation that registrars must comply with the contracts that they have signed with ICANN.
Registrars must also ensure that domains are being used appropriately so that the internet remains reliable, stable and secure.
But the session also dealt with what happens if registrars ignore what registrants (those who are using domain names) may be using their domain name for, that may mislead a user to a site that contains misinformation.
The focus of the session was on where to from here, and how can ICANN manage bad registrants better?
New gTLD application round
ICANN is currently looking at the potential of a new round of applications for individuals, companies and communities to apply for new generic top level domains.
The top level domain name is the one to the right of the last dot. For example, .ck is the country code top level domain for the Cook Islands.
But someone may want to apply for .cookislands as a new generic top level domain. They would be able to do this for an application fee of US$185,000.
But the discussions that are being held at the moment, are around the application process, and how it can be made easier for applicants from developing countries and regions.
Universal Acceptance and Internationalised Domain Names
The final session that At-Large presented, was about Universal Acceptance and Internationalised Domain names.
End-users are being encouraged to use their own languages online. And to create their own domain names, in their own scripts.
But not all online software currently being developed, accepts these new domain names, especially if they are not in normal latin scripts.
Universal Acceptance Ambassadors have been appointed to work in their communities and with governments to help to make domain names in local languages more acceptable online so that they can be used by local communities.
ICANN Plenary Sessions
As well as At-Large and GAC sessions that were to engage participants with policy issues, ICANN also held cross community sessions where representatives from the various sections of the ICANN community to express their views on different topics.
Again the issues involved DNS Abuse and Malicious Registrations during COVID-19; the Internet of Things — Opportunities, Risks and Challenges; and finally How COVID-19 is impacting the work of ICANN by its multistakeholder groups.
Other At-Large sessions during the ICANN68 programme
As the Chair of the ALAC, Maureen Hilyard welcomed and opened the first session of the At-Large Program which also included Vice Chair Jonathan Zuck explaining the “Talking Points” for this week.
These are high level discussion starters around key topics that At-Large is concentrating on during 2020 and which have been reflected in their sessions at the virtual meetings — ICANN67 in March and ICANN68 in June.
The final session of the ALAC programme included the tabling of two reports that have been produced by At-Large.
The first of the reports — ATLASIII Survey Results and Recommendations — focused on the results of the survey that was undertaken by the participants of the Third At-Large Summit meeting (ATLASIII) which was held at ICANN67 in Montreal in November 2019, and their feedback relating to their potential involvement in future At-Large policy and outreach activities.
The second report — The At-Large Review Implementation Report — details the work that was required for At-Large to implement a plan of improvements relating to eight items that had been raised during the Review process that started nearly five years ago.
The items where those that had been agreed upon by the ICANN Board in December 2018 that At-Large should work on improving within their system.
This included how policy and advice was developed and reported, how to make At-Large Structures (the member organisations) more effective and participative in At-Large activities; working groups and how they operated; the organisation of leadership teams; raising more community awareness using social media; improved outreach and engagement support (capacity building;
During the past 18 months, six of the implementation items have been completed while two have some minor matters to be dealt with which it is aimed will be completed within the two year timeframe that was given for the task.
The At-Large week of meetings ended with a Trivia Quiz to which members from all parts of ICANN were invited. The quiz questions involved At-Large, ICANN68 and ICANN topics.
This was a much-needed social event that helped to relieve the tension of a week of intense activity focusing on important policy issues that are part of the work that ICANN is required to do to fulfil its vision:
“To be a champion of the single, open, and globally interoperable Internet by being the independent, trusted, multi-stakeholder steward of the Internet’s unique identifiers, and by providing an open and collaborative environment where diverse stakeholders come together in the global public interest.”
What is ICANN?
ICANN is a not-for-profit, public-benefit organization formed in 1998. Its staff operates the Internet’s Domain Name System, coordinates allocation and assignment of the Internet’s unique identifiers, such as Internet Protocol addresses, accredits generic top-level domain (gTLD) name registrars, and helps facilitate the voices of volunteers worldwide who are dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. ICANN promotes competition in the domain name space and helps develop Internet policy.
