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Notes from 20 Sep 2022 APAC Space @ICANN75 Kuala Lumpur

Notes from 20 Sep 2022 APAC Space @ICANN75 Kuala Lumpur

Owned by Melody Au
Oct 24, 2022

Overview

This APAC Space conference was held at ICANN75 on 20th Sep 2022. The main agenda items included:

  1. The APAC Regional Plan FY22 Achievements and FY23 Highlights.
  2. Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) initiative to have more regional collaborations;
  3. Registries Stakeholder group (RySG) updates on policy topics and community discussions; and
  4. Outreach by the Youth4IG (Y4IG) to gain support for youth participation.

The session also welcomed new APAC Board members, Sajid Rahman, Christopher Chapman (inaugurated at AGM 2022), Edmon Chung (inaugurated at AGM 2021) and bid farewell to outgoing Board member, Akinori Maemura. A group photo was taken after the session to commemorate the first APAC gathering since the start of the pandemic.

Pam Little facilitated the open community discussions.

Details of Session

1. APAC Regional Plan FY22 Achievements and FY23 Highlights – Jia-Rong Low, Vice-President, Stakeholder Engagement & Managing Director, APAC, ICANN

Jia-Rong gave an update of the ICANN APAC Regional Office’s achievements in FY22 (July 2021 to June 2022) based on the FY21-25 APAC Regional Plan. He also shared upcoming highlights for FY23, and sought inputs/comments.  

Full details are in the presentation slides.

Community Discussion

  • Universal Acceptance (UA)

Ananda Gautam (Youth Internet Governance Forum Nepal) asked if ICANN will support UA activities in Nepal and how local youths can contribute. Jia-Rong and Ajay Data (UASG) asked him to reach out to discuss collaboration possibilities. 

Bibek Silwal (Next Gen, Nepal) asked if it is a challenge to implement UA if the generic top-level domain (gTLD) is being hosted outside of the country. Ajay replied that geographical boundaries do not limit the implementation of UA. Edmon Chung (DotAsia) added that UA would be better implemented if more registries and registrars and the upcoming next round of new gTLDs are established in countries where Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are useful.

  • Domain Name System (DNS) Abuse/Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC)

Sonny Zulhuda (Malaysia Internet Society) asked about the challenges hindering country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) from implementing DNSSEC. Jia-Rong explained that some ccTLDs require additional training to roll out DNSSEC while others do not see a business case to justify the implementation costs. Jia-Rong shared that the Asia Pacific Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO) and his office had jointly identified the need to advocate for end-user demand on DNSSEC.

Alban Kwan (CSC Digital Brand Services) asked ICANN to create more opportunities/ platforms to discuss issues on DNS Abuse. Jia-Rong agreed. Kenny Huang (TWNIC) also urged for more bottom-up initiatives between registries and registrars such as TWNIC’s partnership with DotAsia to mitigate DNS Abuse.

  • Other Discussions/Questions

Mubashir Sargana (Asia Pacific School of Internet Governance) asked why Pakistan is part of APAC geographically but supported by the ICANN office for Middle East and Africa. Jia-Rong replied that the entire APAC region is too large to be supported by a single regional office. Thus the task is shared between 4 ICANN regional Vice Presidents. Although Pakistan is not covered by the APAC regional office, nonetheless, there are cross-collaborations between the regional offices to support the community.

Brajesh Jain (Internet Community of India) encouraged more APAC individuals to apply for leadership positions in the NomCom for higher likelihood of more leadership appointments from this region.

An individual (unknown affiliation) asked which ICANN platform can be used to discuss blockchain issues. Jia-Rong shared that emerging technology issues can be discussed at the APAC DNS Forum.

2. Australia GAC Team Updates: Introductions and Exploring Regional Collaboration – Ian Sheldon, Australia GAC Representative

Ian shared that he struggles to understand perspectives from different ICANN groups as a new GAC member. He urged the APAC community to have more open conversations to build stronger personal connections and relationships that will facilitate the work within the community. Yien Chyn said that the ICANN APAC office will be happy to support such related initiatives.

3. RySG Outreach: Updates on Policy Topics and Community Discussions – Samantha Demetriou, Chair of RySG

Samantha shared that the amendment to the base Registry Agreement and the Registrar Accreditation Agreement is now open for public comment. This will have an impact on all of ICANN’s contracted parties and how they respond to queries.

The amendment will formalize the technical requirements and set the service level expectations for operation of the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) that will replace the WHOIS protocol. Nonetheless, registration data directory services will continue to be provided by contracted parties. The type of data that is being accessed and its availability will also remain the same.

Registries and registrars will vote on this amendment in Jan/Feb 2023 and Samantha encouraged as many as possible to participate for the amendment to be approved.

Holly Raiche (Internet Society Australia) asked if this amendment is a reaction to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Samantha clarified that this amendment is a technical protocol that could facilitate the outcome of the policy discussions on the GDPR. They are related but not the same.

4. Y4IG Outreach: Introductions and Exploring Support for Youth Participation – Puteri Ameena Hishammuddin, Y4IG

Ameena proposed to engage APAC youths in Internet Governance via the set-up of two policy and capacity building sub-groups within Y4IG. The first sub-group will provide a platform to discuss and consolidate inputs on technical policies for submission. The second sub-group will be a research group for youths and interested ICANN community members to work together to identify policy gaps such as via Hackathons, and propose solutions with the aim of submitting to Policy Development Processes (PDPs). She asked the APAC community for feedback regarding the sub-groups and for support by providing mentorship, resources and sharing of expert networks.

Ameena also encouraged interested youths between 18 – 30 years old to join Y4IG, participate and give inputs to the sub-groups.