Minutes | Meeting of the Technical Committee of the Board (BTC) | 31 August 2023

Board Member and Liaison Attendees: Avri Doria (Chair), Harald Alvestrand, Alan Barrett, Nicolas Caballero, Edmon Chung, James Galvin, Wes Hardaker, Christian Kaufmann, and Patricio Poblete

Other Board Members In Attendance: León Sánchez

ICANN Organization Attendees: Adiel Akplogan (VP, Technical Engagement), (Franco Carrasco (Board Operations Manager), Matt Larson (VP, Research), Jennifer Bryce (Project Manager), Kim Davies (VP, IANA Services & President, PTI), Carlos Reyes (Sr. Policy Director, Community Operations and Programs), Samaneh Tajalizadehkhoob (Director, Security, Stability and Resiliency Research), and Sarah Zagha (Counsel)

Invited Guests: Suzanne Woolf and Matthew Thomas (Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Working Party (WP) chairs) - only present for agenda item no. 1

The following is a summary of discussions, actions taken, and actions identified:

1. BTC Update Session with the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) DG Admin – The Committee received an update on the NCAP work from Matt Thomas and Suzanne Woolf, the NCAP Discussion Group Admin co-chairs. It was noted that Study 2 continues to progress well. The Discussion Group is currently meeting regularly and has extended the duration of its work sessions. An NCAP workshop will be held at the beginning of October 2023, and a community update will be given during ICANN78's Prep Week.

   • Action Item: ICANN org to inform the Committee of any timing considerations or dependency date for the New gTLD Program: Next Round in light of NCAP's work.
2. Approval of Pending Meeting Reports – The Preliminary Report for the 20 July 2023 meeting was approved during this Committee meeting.

3. Action Item Review – The Chair established the agenda for the meeting. Two action items were discussed and reviewed.

   • Action Item #1: The Committee and ICANN org to review the Alternative Naming System & ICANN paper, and consider topics relating to Alternative Naming Systems that could be discussed at the next Committee meeting, is completed, and is to be reopened at a later date.
   • Action Item #2: ICANN org to give an update on SAC113 Implementation during the next Committee meeting is completed, as it is on the agenda for the 31 August 2023 Committee meeting.

4. Approval of the Reviewed BTC Charter Based on the BCG Feedback – The Chair reminded the Committee that its revisions to its Charter were sent to the Governance Committee of the Board (BGC). The Chair highlighted a key area of current discussion between the BGC, Committee, and ICANN org: voting members. It was noted that the Committee will be notified once the BGC sends back a redlined version of the Committee's proposed revised Charter, which will contain the BGC's feedback.

   • Action Item: Board Ops to circulate the BGC's feedback on the Committee's proposed revised Charter once available.

5. Structure of Board Caucus on the Root Server System's Governance Evolution – The Committee discussed the existence, and historical background, of the Board Caucus on the Root Server Governance Evolution as well as its slating process.

   • Action Item: The Chair to draft a note to the BGC on the Board Caucus on the Root Server System Governance Evolution.

6. Alternative Naming Systems – The Chair opened the discussion on alternative names, how they relate to new gTLDs, and what, if anything, ICANN needs to do in light of the Next Round for new gTLDs. The Committee discussed the importance of issues relating to alternative naming systems, including trademarks, branding, the risk of user confusion, name collisions, and registrations under .ALT. The Chair noted that discussions on this topic would be ongoing.

   • Action Item: ICANN org (OCTO) to offer additional facts, structure and insight to issues relating to alternative naming systems discussed by the Committee going forward.

7. Priority Project Updates – The Committee received an update on the following projects:

   • SAC113 Implementation Update: ICANN org informed the Committee that the SAC113 Board Paper is scheduled to be presented to the Board on 10 September 2023. It was also noted that in July 2023, ICANN org met with the IETF leadership, and the leadership was kept abreast of ICANN org's work on this topic.
   • Domain Name System Security Facilitation Initiative Technical Study Group (DSFI-TSG) Report - Feasibility Assessment: ICANN org noted it was working on a draft decision paper on the DSFI-TSG Report to present to the Committee during a future Committee meeting.
   • Root Server System Governance Working Group (RSS GWG) 037/038 Implementation: ICANN org reported that the GWG has finalized its review of the principles of root server governance. ICANN org is in the process of drafting a document that incorporates the feedback on the principles and that by ICANN78, the GWG will have reviewed this document.

8. Updates from Technical Liaisons – The Committee received an update from the following Board Technical Liaisons:

   • SSAC (James Galvin): The Committee was notified that the annual SSAC workshop is approaching. It was noted that ICANN org's Samaneh Tajalizadehkhoob (Director, Security, Stability and Resiliency Research) is officially a technical liaison from OCTO to SSAC.
   • RSSAC (Wes Hardaker): The Committee was notified that the RSSAC continues its efforts to provide messaging about how the Root Server System functions to non-technical audiences. It was also noted that a new RSSAC caucus work party on RSS security incident reporting has been formed. This new work party will be defining contexts and guidelines for when root server operators should jointly publish a statement about security events affecting the entire Root Server System.
   • IETF (Harald Alvestrand): It was noted that the IETF recently had a meeting in San Francisco, California.
9. Any Other Business – The Chair summarized the action items stemming from this Committee meeting.

The Chair called the meeting to a close.