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Notes from 11 March 2019 APAC Space at ICANN64

Notes from 11 March 2019 APAC Space at ICANN64

Owned by Hann Kenn Yee
Last updated: Mar 02, 2025 by Aleksey Khapchenko (Unlicensed)Version comment

APAC Space at ICANN64 in Kobe, Japan recorded the largest attendance by far, with 117 participants attending the face-to-face meeting, and 24 participants participating remotely. Participants included the at-large community, governments, registries, and registrars. Pam Little led discussions as the APAC Space Community Facilitator for this session. This session covered the following topics:

  • Introduction to the Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG)
    • RySG’s structure, key functions and upcoming focus areas
  • Introduction to the ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom)
    • NomCom’s responsibilities, and Board and leadership positions that were open for application
  • Update on the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process (Sub Pro PDP) Working Group (WG)
    • The PDP’s current work, potential challenges, and next steps
  • Discussion on the evolving ICANN Governance Model, and how the APAC community can participate effectively
  • The Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and Universal Acceptance (UA) Update was not conducted due to lack of time.

The meeting also observed a minute of silence for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake which occurred on 11 March 2011 at 14:46 Japan time.

The key action point following the meeting is:

  • Continue discussion on the evolving multistakeholder model and effective participation in the next APAC Space web conference.

Links to the meeting recording and presentation slides can be found at the APAC Space Community Wiki webpage at https://icann-community.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GSEAPAC/pages/114296860/APAC+Space.

Details of the sessions are as follows:


Welcome Remarks
by Jia-Rong Low, VP of Stakeholder Engagement and Managing Director — Asia Pacific, ICANN

Jia-Rong highlighted the growth in APAC Space attendance over the years. The APAC Space remains true to its nature as a “space” for the APAC community to gather and share views on issues at ICANN.


Introduction to the RySG
by Donna Austin, Chair of the RySG

Donna introduced RySG’s structure and activities to the APAC community. The RySG represents the interests of generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry operators in ICANN’s multistakeholder community. The RySG, together with the Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG), forms the Contracted Parties House of the GNSO Council. RySG membership is only open to the registries that hold a Registry Agreement with ICANN. There are currently 80 members in RySG.

A key function of RySG was to ensure that its members were well-informed about policy issues in ICANN, and to share information with the smaller registry operators who do not have the resources to follow ICANN’s policymaking across various issues. Donna acknowledged that participating in ICANN, including the RySG, could be challenging due to the APAC time zone. As the new RySG Chair, Donna aimed to find ways to engage the APAC registries. Donna was also keen to improve dialogue with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and other community groups to be more proactive in communicating the impact of ICANN policies from RySG’s perspective.

Some of RySG’s focus areas were:

  • Participation in the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) on gTLD Registration Data.
  • Development of the Registrant Data Access Protocol (RDAP) profile. RDAP enables users to access registration data.
  • ICANN Compliance Audit – there were concerns about the scope of the audit so a closed session was held during ICANN64 Kobe with ICANN’s Contractual Compliance team to discuss further.
  • Participation in DNS Abuse discussions.

Community Discussion

  • A community member commented that registries do not need to be an RySG member to participate in ICANN. Also, local registries help one another in registry operational matters outside of ICANN. For example, affected registries worked together on licensing requirements in China.
  • Jia-Rong highlighted that RySG members among the APAC community were good sources of information to find out more about ongoing policy discussions within ICANN.
  • A community member observed that country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) were present and their operational and policy concerns may differ from gTLD registries. Donna responded that ccTLDs organize by region, such as APTLD for the APAC region. gTLD registries on the other hand organize differently, such as the Brand Registry Group, GeoTLD group, and the broader Domain Name Association group which includes both ccTLD and gTLD registries and registrars. Traditionally, RySG focused on ICANN-related topics. Donna invited the APAC community to participate in the GDD Industry Summit 2019.
  • A community member asked about RySG’s approach to the increasing diversity and differences in opinions on policy. Donna replied that RySG was discussing how to develop public comments that add value to policymaking and can be taken into account by policymakers. Also, RySG was finding ways to showcase the diversity of registries and how some registries define success differently from the traditional measure of the number of domains sold.


Introduction to the ICANN Nominating Committee
by Leah Symekher and Pablo Rodriguez, 2019 NomCom Delegates and Outreach SubCommittee Co-Chairs

The ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom) is a group of elected representatives in charge of selecting members for the open seats on the ICANN Board of Directors, constituencies in ICANN, and the Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) Board. NomCom comprises 15 voting and 5 non-voting members (total 20 members) from the various ICANN constituencies. NomCom members do not represent the views of their constituencies but collectively work in the interest of the global Internet Community. For example, they ensure that there is a diversity of representation and relevant skills in leadership positions.

The APAC community was encouraged to apply to join the NomCom. The application period closed on 22 March.

Community Discussion

  • A community member asked how the regional groupings were decided in NomCom, as the APAC region is larger in size and population. Pam replied that the NomCom grouped the regions based on ICANN’s definition of the five regions. Edmon added that the regional groupings were decided at the ICANN17 Meeting in Montreal and were based on UN groupings.
  • Pam replied to a question from a community member that the two ICANN Board members from the APAC region were Akinori Maemura and Chris Disspain. She explained that the ICANN Bylaws allow individuals to indicate their location based on their place of birth, citizenship, or place of residence. Pam suggested for the NomCom to ensure diversity in other aspects besides geographic diversity, such as cultural and gender diversity.
  • A community member asked how a newcomer would be able to contribute to a leadership position and if there were minimum criteria for applications. Pablo encouraged newcomers to the ICANN community to apply for leadership positions as they may have the required and relevant skills to lead even though they may be new to ICANN. Leah pointed to the NomCom website http://nomcom.icann.org as reference for the criteria and requirements. She added that the NomCom puts together the job criteria after interviewing various leaders across the community and identifying the necessary skills for the position.


Update on the New gTLD Sub Pro PDP WG
by Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Working Group Co-Chair, and Michael Flemming, Sub Group B Co-Lead

Cheryl Langdon-Orr introduced and updated on the Sub Pro PDP. The Sub Pro PDP WG reviews the previous New gTLD application round and makes recommendations for subsequent New gTLD application rounds. The Sub Pro PDP WG had completed a review of the public comments to its Supplemental Initial Report and were beginning internal discussions on the topics in the initial report. The Sub Pro PDP had split into 5 Work Tracks, each focusing on a single theme, but aims to converge all their work into a single Final Report aimed for submission to the GNSO Council in Q3 2019.

Michael Flemming highlighted that one of the challenges faced by the PDP WG was that it was unclear what should be done if there was agreement that something should be changed but no consensus on what the solution should be. Also, there were other policy discussions such as the Rights Protection Mechanisms and the Name Collision Analysis Project whose outcomes may affect the Sub Pro PDP, but these policy discussions were not near completion. Further direction was needed to implement policy recommendations.

Community Discussion

  • A community member commented that he disagreed with one of the proposals within ICANN org’s Recommendations for Managing Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant Top-Level Domains paper, which recommended for IDN variant TLDs to require separate applications and separate registry agreements. This would lead to increased inefficiencies and costs in the application process. Cheryl noted that the paper was not a product of the Sub Pro PDP work, but she encouraged others to raise similar thoughts or concerns for the PDP Working Group to take into additional consideration.
  • A community member asked whether the subsequent new gTLD applications would be conducted round by round or continuously opened. Cheryl answered that while there was general agreement for another new gTLD application round, the WG was still discussing how the round would be conducted.


The Evolving ICANN Governance Model
by Pam Little, APAC Space Community Facilitator

Pam Little provided background that ICANN’s Five-Year Strategic Plan included a focus area on “Governance” which looks at balancing efficiency and effectiveness with inclusivity and diversity of the multistakeholder model. The ICANN Board was facilitating community discussion on this topic in ICANN64 Kobe. Due to the lack of time, this topic will continue to be discussed at the next APAC Space web conference.

The APAC community were asked to consider the following questions:

  • How to balance efficiency and inclusiveness?
  • What should diverse representation look like?
  • What are the challenges facing APAC stakeholders and how should the governance model evolve to address them?

Community Discussion

  • Heather Forrest, who previously served as GNSO Council Chair, noted that most calls occurred at inconvenient timings for the APAC region. During her tenure as Chair, Heather had asked the GNSO Council to consider how the APAC community could participate in ICANN effectively whether in policy discussions or in leadership roles given the time zone difficulty. Pam added that there were also cultural, language, and knowledge barriers to participation faced by the APAC community.