ccNSO Newsletter | June 2021
ccNSO Policy Development
Heads up ccNSO members: It is almost time to vote!


The proposed policy for ccPDP3 on the retirement of country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) will now go into the decision-making phase:



  • On 4 June 2021, the ccNSO Council adopted the resolution to split the third ccNSO Policy Development Process (part 1: retirement of ccTLDs, part 2: review mechanism with respect to decisions pertaining to the delegation, transfer, revocation and retirement of the delegated Top Level Domains associated with the country codes assigned to countries and territories listed in the ISO 3166-1. Each part will be following its own timeline independently.
  • On 8 June, the Issue Manager submitted the Final Report on the retirement of ccTLDs to the Chair of the ccNSO Council. The Final Report is available here.

Next steps
At the upcoming 17 June 2021 meeting, the ccNSO Council is expected to discuss and vote on the recommendation to adopt the proposed policy on the Retirement of ccTLDs (ccPDP3-RET). If approved by Council , the next step will be that the ccNSO members vote on the recommendation. The (first) round is expected to start on Wednesday, 7 July 2021 (00:01 UTC) and will close on Wednesday, 28 July (23:59 UTC). At least 50% of the ccNSO members need to lodge their votes, and at least 66% of the members need to vote in favour. The ccTLD and broader communities will have an opportunity to learn more about the proposals before voting begins.

Who can vote? And is your ccNSO Member profile up to date?
Members of the ccNSO will be invited to cast their ballot via confidential mail voting. Voting ballots will be sent by tally@icann.org to the e-mail address of the primary contact of each ccNSO Member, as listed in the ccNSO Members database. Do you have questions or concerns regarding the accuracy of the e-mail address of the primary contact for your ccTLD? Please contact Joke Braeken.
ccNSO planning for ICANN71
What to expect?
The Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) program starts on Monday, 14 June with Tech Day, a workshop open to all community members with an interest in technical, operational, and security topics.

On Tuesday, 15 June the first session of the ccNSO Members Meeting will focus on governance of the ccNSO, and the second session will provide members with the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session with ccTLD-associated ICANN Board members. On Wednesday, 16 June, two ccNSO Policy Development Process Working Groups will provide an update on their progress to date and seek input from the ccTLDs and other community members present on their proposals. Finally, on Thursday, 17 June there will be a meeting of the Strategic and Operational Planning Committee (SOPC), followed by a ccNSO Council meeting.

The detailed ccNSO schedule, including a summary of the topics covered and remote participation details for ICANN71, is available on the ccNSO ICANN71 workspace.

You must be registered and signed in to view the ICANN71 schedule and participation details.  Register to participate.
Access and ability to log into the schedule platform can take up to 30 minutes after completing the registration process.
Highlights:

  1. ccNSO Governance Session
  2. Questions and Answers with ccTLD-related ICANN Board Members
  3. ccNSO Policy Session
Links to bookmark now


ccNSO Schedule Hub

ccNSO Members Meeting

Tech Day
Q&A WITH ccTLD-RELATED ICANN BOARD MEMBERS
Tue, 15 June | 10:30-12:00 UTC

The ccNSO-appointed ICANN Board members, Patricio Poblete and Nigel Roberts, have been invited to attend a question and answer session and to share their experiences as Board members. Also invited are ICANN Board members with a long standing association with the ccTLD community: Becky Burr, Danko Jevtović, and Lito Ibarra.
ccNSO GOVERNANCE SESSION
Tue, 15 June | 07:00-08:00 UTC

ICANN71 marks the 3rd ccNSO Governance Session, building on the previous sessions at ICANN69 and ICANN70. The goal of this ICANN71 session is to consult the ccNSO membership on the proposed high level structure of the revised Members Rules of the ccNSO. The new Rules will have a direct impact on the governance structure of the ccNSO, specifically on the respective roles and responsibilities of the Council and ccNSO membership. The current internal ccNSO Member Rules were adopted in 2004, and since then the ccNSO has evolved: on the one hand it went from 40+ to 172 members, and on the other hand the ccNSO evolved from an organisation with limited scope and mandate to being one of the five Decisional Participants. The results of the session will provide the basis for further work on the new Rules, which will be presented during ICANN72.
ccNSO POLICY SESSION
Wed, 16 June | 10:30-12:00 UTC

During this session the respective working group chairs will raise community awareness regarding the voting for the ccPDP3 Retirement policy, and will consult the community regarding progress to date and next steps by the ccPDP3 Review Mechanism and ccPDP4 on the (de)-selection of IDN ccTLD strings. 

The ccPDP3 Working Group, which develops a review mechanism for decisions pertaining to delegation, transfer, revocation and retirement of ccTLDs has - among others - identified the decisions that should be subject to a review mechanism, and is currently exploring the requirements for the review mechanism itself.

The ccPDP4 Working Group on the (de) selection of Internationalised Domain Name ccTLD strings is steadily making progress reviewing and updating the criteria, procedures and documentation of the process for the selection of IDN ccTLD strings.
CSC/IANA Update
Wed, 16 June | 14:30-15:30 UTC
A CSC/IANA update to the community will be held to inform the ccTLD and gTLD registry operators (and other interested stakeholders) about the latest with respect to the IANA Naming Function and CSC. This would be the first time since ICANN66, that the CSC, and IANA staff would meet with the direct customers of the IANA Naming Function, namely the ccTLD and gTLD registry operators. Goal of the session is to inform the community about the current state of affairs and what direct customers can expect in the near future.  
STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL PLANNING COMMITTEE
Thu, 17 June | 07:00-08:00 UTC

The ccNSO Strategic and Operational Planning Committee (SOPC) regularly holds joint meetings with its counterpart in the GNSO, the SCBO. The groups previously discussed their respective rankings of ICANN org’s Operating Initiatives and Functional Activities.  One of the topics the SOPC will discuss at its ICANN71 meeting is to further improve and repeat this exercise in future. Moreover, the SOPC meets with the ICANN org Planning Team on what the community may expect over the next couple of months in terms of planning- and finance topics.
 
About the SOPC
The aim of the Committee is to coordinate, facilitate, and increase the participation of ccTLD managers in ICANN and PTI's strategic and operational planning processes and related budgetary processes.
ccNSO COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING
Thu, 17 June | 12:30-14:00 UTC

The ccNSO Council will have its 174th meeting at ICANN71 on 17 June 2021. All Council meetings are open to observers. 

Highlights from the upcoming Council meeting:

  • Adoption policy recommendations for ccPDP3 regarding the retirement of ccTLDs
  • Decision on the ccNSO Council Work Plan for the next 2 years, and transition towards quarterly work plans.
  • Finalizing ccNSO part of implementation of the second ccNSO organisational review recommendations
  • How to organize the continuous organizational improvement process, with a potential expanded role for the ccNSO Guidelines Review Committee (GRC).
  • ICANN71 Policy Forum will be held as a Virtual Public Meeting during 14 to 17 June 2021.
  • Sessions will be held during regular working hours in The Hague, Netherlands (CEST / UTC+2, Amsterdam/Paris).
  • Register to participate.
  • Consult here the Policy Forum schedule.
  • Explore virtual participation tools and download the participation guide here. 
  • Zoom recordings are posted on the ICANN org schedule platform within the session description of each session as soon as they become available, which is generally the same day as the live session, by the end of the day or within 12 hours of the session conclusion.