Dear Colleagues:
Welcome to Marrakech, ICANN55 – the first meeting of 2016! The new year has already been eventful for the GNSO Community. At this meeting the GNSO Council will complete its work on some important topics, while launching several new efforts for the year ahead.
It's been two years since the NTIA announced the IANA transition, but the ICANN community can finally see the finish line. Participants from the GNSO have been active in the work to develop recommendations to enhance ICANN Accountability, and the GNSO Council is expected to complete its final review of the CCWG-Accountability's Proposal in Marrakech.
Several working groups are examining issues relating to WHOIS, including implementation work on "thick" gTLDs, translation/transliteration of contact data, and soon, the Privacy/Proxy accreditation program. All of this work occurs in the shadow of a new policy development process (PDP) examining the feasibility of a "next generation" replacement for the WHOIS system itself.
New gTLDs will also be the subject of GNSO work, as we kick off a PDP to examine issues associated with the next round of applications, review Rights Protection Mechanisms and check in with the cross-community work on country and territory names. And in the weeks following ICANN55, keep an eye out for the launch of a new cross-community group to examine the topic of gTLD Auction funds.
Tackling this workload wouldn't be possible without the work of the many community volunteers from around the globe. Newcomers are always welcome and sorely needed. If these topics, or other GNSO or cross-community projects, are interesting to you, then get involved. Reach out to any of us on the Council, or your stakeholder group or constituency leadership, and contribute your ideas to the work ahead.
James Bladel
GNSO Council Chair
Please also download the GNSO Policy Briefing for ICANN55: http://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/background-briefings