Minutes | Meeting of the Technical Committee of the Board (BTC) | 29 April 2024

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

ICANN Organization Attendees: Adiel Akplogan (VP, Technical Engagement), Franco Carrasco (Board Operations Manager), Kim Davies (VP, IANA Services & President, PTI), Andrew McConachie (Policy Development and Technology Director), Matt Larson (VP, Research), Carlos Reyes (Sr. Policy Director, Community Operations and Programs), and Sarah Zagha (Counsel)

Invited Guests: Jeff Osborn (Chair, RSSAC) and Robert Carolina (RSSAC)

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

1. Approval of Pending Meeting's Reports – The Committee was informed that the Preliminary Report for the 28 March 2024 meeting had been circulated, and that approval of these Preliminary Reports was pending. The Committee approved the 28 March 2024 Preliminary Report during this meeting.

2. Action Item Review – The Chair established the agenda for the meeting. There were updates to three active action items that were discussed:
   • Action Item #1: ICANN org (OCTO) to put together an AI-training for Board consumption, and to present it to the Board during the upcoming Board Workshop in Paris (training tentatively scheduled for 05 May 2024) is an action item that is now closed.
     • The AI-training has been finalized, and OCTO will be presenting it to the Board on 04 May 2024 during the upcoming Board Workshop in Paris, France.
   • Action Item #2: The Chair to ask clarifying questions to the Board Governance Committee (BGC) Chair regarding the overall structure of the joint BTC-BRC session (which will include a discussion of certain privacy and data-protection related risks associated with NCAP Study 2) is an action item that is now closed.
     • The Chair noted that he spoke with the BGC Chair regarding this action item, that James Galvin discussed and organized this joint session with the Risk Committee, and that a joint session is now planned for 23 May 2024. ICANN org (OCTO) noted that there are internal discussions to determine whether staff may first need to assess the NCAP Study 2 Final Report before the BTC and the BRC begin their discussions and make their combined recommendation to the ICANN Board. It was discussed that if ICANN org has not completed its assessment of the NCAP Study 2 Final Report before the BTC/BRC session on 23 May 2024, discussions and consideration by the committees of the NCAP's Study 2 recommendations can take place at a later date.

   • Action Item #3: ICANN org (Board Ops) to schedule a joint BTC-BRC session (which will include a discussion of certain privacy and data-protection related risks associated with NCAP Study 2) is an action item that is now closed. That session is tentatively scheduled for 23 May 2024.

3. SAC113 Implementation Update – The Committee was given an update by ICANN org on the implementation of SAC113, which calls for the reservation of a top-level domain string for private-use and internal network applications. ICANN org provided a recap of SAC113's implementation: In 2023, ICANN org conducted a Public Comment proceeding on a proposed procedure to identify and reserve a string for private use in accordance with the recommendation contained in SAC113 (after which the Board directed IANA and ICANN staff to choose a string); IANA selected .INTERNAL as the string and proposed that a second Public Comment period take place in order to compare .INTERNAL against the four criteria described in SAC113 (after which the second Public Comment period took place in 2024); ICANN org and IANA staff received 32 comments (13 of which were determined to be in scope and had concerns with .INTERNAL) and published a Public Comment Summary Report. ICANN org presented the Committee with a Board Paper (which includes a recommendation from the Committee that the Board reserve the string .INTERNAL permanently from delegation in the DNS root zone) for review and approval. The Committee posed questions regarding the Public Comments on the length of the .INTERNAL string, what it means to "reserve" the .INTERNAL string, what ICANN org will do to reserve it, and the difference between reserving a string for a specific purpose versus pulling it out for eligibility in the Applicant Guidebook. IANA staff noted that ICANN is making a policy decision that the .INTERNAL TLD is set aside for private use, that it will not be introduced into the root zone, and that it will be ineligible to be subsequently delegated for another purpose (gTLD, ccTLD, etc.). The Committee suggested that the Board Paper communicate that the .INTERNAL string will not appear in the root zone. ICANN org and IANA staff agreed additional clarifying language should be added into the Board Paper to address the Committee's questions and comments.

   • Action Item: ICANN org and IANA staff to add additional language to the "Reserving .INTERNAL for Private-Use Applications" Board Paper based on the Committee's feedback and present a revised version to the Committee at a future meeting or, in the alternative, circulate it via email, for the Committee's review and approval, before it is forwarded to the Board.

4. Presentation By RSSAC: New Outreach Material on How the Root Server System Work (For Non-Technical Audience) – Jeff Osborn (Chair, RSSAC) provided the Committee with a slide deck presentation on the Root Server System (RSS) that the RSSAC has developed as a way of explaining the RSS to a non-technical audience. The RSSAC Chair noted that while there is an underlying 12-page technical document that Wes Hardaker and Robert Carolina have developed (which must still undergo RSSAC review), the presentation is meant to be a high-level summary for a general audience. The topics explored within the presentation included: an introduction to the DNS, how devices get addresses from resolvers, how resolvers get addresses from authoritative servers, the operation of the Root Server System, and the resilience of the Root Server System. The RSSAC Chair concluded the presentation by inviting the Committee to give feedback. The Committee posed questions, provided suggestions on certain slides, and offered positive feedback on the presentation.

5. Updates From Technical Liaisons
   • SSAC (James Galvin): It was reported that SSAC provided ICANN org Legal with a preview of SAC124, that SSAC received comments from ICANN org Legal on SAC124: SSAC Advice on Name Collision Analysis, and that ICANN Legal was invited to join the next SSAC-NCAP meeting for a collaborative discussion regarding its comments. Next, a recap of the most recent SSAC Leadership workshop and the topics discussed during the workshop (e.g., SSAC's engagements with the larger community) was given.
   • RSSAC (Wes Hardaker): It was noted that the RSSAC continues to work on its Root Server System messaging and on RSS Security Incident Reporting work party. It was also reported that the RSSAC has started a new work party called the Guidelines for Changing Root Server Addresses, to which the Committee Chair and Edmon Chung are Board representatives.

   • IETF (Harald Alvestrand): A recap of IETF 119 (held in Brisbane, Australia) was given, and topics discussed during that meeting including ICANN's possible support to the work of the IETF.

6. Any Other Business – None.

The Chair called the meeting to a close.