Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society

Tag: GNSO

ICANN New Delhi, India meeting from February 10th to 15th, 2008 – how you can participate

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 31st public meeting is being held in New Delhi, India from the 10th February 2008 to the 15th February, 2008. Visit the meeting site at http://delhi.icann.org/ where you can find the complete meeting schedule page where you can filter based on organisational interest (such as At-Large, GNSO, etc).

As in previous ICANN meetings, you can use Realplayer to view/listen to many of the ICANN meetings live. Note for Trinidad and Tobago, the time diffference is 9 hours and 30 minutes. So the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) meeting on Wednesday 13th February 2008 from 3:30pm to 5:30 pm is from 6am to 8am in Trinidad and Tobago.

Often the presentations and relevant documents that are the subject of discussion at the meetings are available for download in PDF format while listening/watching the live stream. Also, such webcast meetings has a web based chat feature which allows you to ask questions and text chat during the meeting with other attendees who are logged in as well as with other remote participants. You can ask someone via the web chat to actually ask a question to the panel discussion. Do check out the ICANN Delhi, India meeting schedule page.

11 February 2008
ICANN Los Angeles 2007 meeting from October 27th-November 2nd, 2007 – how you can participate

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 30th meeting is being held at Los Angeles. As always, a variety of Internet related matters will be discussed. The main meeting page is at http://losangeles2007.icann.org/ where you can view the meeting events sorted either by committees/organisations (GNSO, At-Large, NCUC, etc…..), subject topic (ccTLD, IPv6, IDN, gTLDs, etc) or by type (working groups, public forums, webcasts) and of course by day.

Several meetings are webcast, meaning you can view/listen to the meeting live. You will need to install the Real Player to listen to the audio stream or the video stream.

Note that for Trinidad and Tobago, there is a three hour difference between the stated times. So for example the ccNSO meeting on Tuesday 30th October, 2007 from 9am to 5pm is from 12noon to 8pm in Trinidad. Often the presentations and relevant documents are available for download in PDF format so you can follow the presentation while listening to the audio.

The installation of the Real Player on Windows was uneventful and I noticed no problems. I listened to the Monday 29th October 2007 GNSO Workshop on New gTLDs meeting and it went well on my 256kbits/s ADSL connection.

Many meetings, including those that are webcast also has a web based chat feature which allows you to ask questions and well, chat during the meeting with other attendees who are logged in as well as with other remote participants. You can ask someone via the web chat to actually ask a question to the panel discussion.

Many of the meetings, especially the public and webcast ones are transcribed and meeting transcripts are made available soon after the meetings. So check out the ICANN Los Angeles Meeting page.

30 October 2007
Draft Final Report on concerns re: GNSO proposed policy for introducing new gTLDs

The ad-hoc Working Group formed to allow members of the At-Large community to express concerns that they might have regarding the GNSO’s proposed recommendations for new Top Level Domains has released a draft final report. See also the GNSO report on policy for introducing new gTLDs ; questions for ICANN workshop for 29 October needed post.

26 October 2007
GNSO report on policy for introducing new gTLDs ; questions for ICANN workshop for 29 October needed
A followup post to the Summary of GNSO report on policy for introducing new generic Top Level Domains.

The controversy (as I see it), is the meaning that people associate with certain letter combinations. For example, if the North American Zookeeper’s Institute wanted its own top level domain and met the technical requirements for a registry gTLD, then a .nazi gTLD could be created. Hmmm…….

The list of gTLD that could offend someone based on their thoughts of morality, religious beliefs are potentially limitless. Governments which object to expression of certain ideas could also object to creation of certain gTLDs because of the ideal the gTLD gives recognition to. Some examples :
- Should a group be allowed to get a .god gTLD for example? Or .jesus gTLD? Or a .mohammed gTLD?
- What about a .casino gTLD? Lots of persons object to gambling.
- Or a .freetibet gTLD?
- Or .gay?
- Or .porn?
- Should a group outside Trinidad and Tobago create a .tnt or .trinidad gTLD?
- Should a group/country outside Trinidad and Tobago object to a local group here applying for say a .trinidad being formed? What if the word “tnt” is a racial slur in another language? What if it offends religious sensitivities in other country?
How to make this equitable to all? That’s want the policy for introducing new gTLDs is trying to do. As such, the proposed recommendations #6 and #20 re: new gTLDs are the ones generating the most controversy
- #6 : “Strings must not be contrary to generally accepted legal norms relating to morality and public order that are recognized under international principles of law.”
- #20 : “An application will be rejected if an expert panel determines that there is substantial opposition to it from a significant portion of the community to which the string may be explicitly or implicitly targeted.”
What are your thoughts on this? Read the reports on the proposed policy and edit the wiki page
at http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/New-gTLDs with your proposed questions for the ICANN workshop for October 29th, 2007 (edit the page by clicking on the “edit page button” ; the password is “ttcswebwiki”)

If you’re willing to meet in person to debate/discuss this issue over the 20-21 October weekend, email me at admin a.t ttcsweb d,ot org. If enough persons are interested, the TTCS could arrange to meet on a Saturday or Sunday.

Relevant links :
- TTCS New-gTLD wiki page
- The summary of the report on the Introduction of new Top Level Domains (PDF ; 191K)
- The Actual Report on the Introduction of new Top Level Domains is available in two parts :
  - http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/pdp-dec05-fr-parta-08aug07.htm
  - http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/pdp-dec05-fr-partb-01aug07.htm
- A working group mailing list has been setup at : http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/gnso-liaison_atlarge-lists.icann.org
- NCUC/At-Large – gTLDs – Freedom of Expression meeting at ICANN San Juan 2007
  - Full transcript of NCUC/At-Large gTLD – Freedom of Expression meeting at ICANN San Juan 2007.
- New Geo-TLDs – More Consumer Choice or More Consumer Confusion? at ICANN San Juan 2007
- IP Justice campaign re: gTLD at http://ipjustice.org/wp/campaigns/icann/gtlds/
17 October 2007