The ICANN76 Community Forum was recently hosted in the coast resort of Cancún, Mexico, and took place from 11 to 16 March 2023. Which topics were under discussion and what insights emerged? This was covered at the subsequent virtual ICANN76 Readout, hosted by eco – Association of the Internet Industry and ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
What were the highlights and most important insights from the ICANN76 hybrid event at Cancún? At the ICANN76 Readout on 28 March, an overview was provided by speakers from different sectors of the ICANN community. The virtual meeting was moderated by Lars Steffen, Director eco International. Co-hosters of the readout were Christopher Mondini, Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement & Managing Director from Europe ICANN Org, and Thomas Rickert, Director Names & Numbers at eco Association.
Christopher Mondini commenced the readout by providing an initial overview of the hybrid ICANN76 Community Forum. In total, 2,000 people from 164 countries took part in the Cancún meeting, with 1,200 participating on-site and another 800 online. Mondini was happy to note that, for the first time, there are two women at the head of ICANN: Sally Costerton from the UK has been appointed as ICANN’s interim Chief Executive Officer, while Tripti Sinha from the University of Maryland is now the Chair of the ICANN Board. In these women’s opening remarks in Cancún, both observed that ICANN is at an inflection point towards producing outcomes that build on important community work. Two core issues subject to implementation were highlighted: a work plan for an expansion of new generic top level domains (gTLDs); and a launch of the “Proof of Concept” system to make registration data available to authorized access seekers.
Mondini also drew attention to a range of additional ICANN events, including the Universal Acceptance Day, which involves a multi-faceted set of 50 events, and the forthcoming ICANN78 Annual General Meeting. This is due to be co-hosted in Hamburg in October 2023 by the eco Association.
Key panellists’ insights from Cancún
Following on from Mondini’s overview, each of the panellists delivered summaries on their key insights from the Cancún forum, with Domain Names Systems (DNS) abuse highlighted as a primary topic. For example, Sebastien Ducos, the Chair of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council, focused on DNS abuse, as well as on the topics of the RDRS (the Registry Data Request Service) and Sub-Pro ODP (Subsequent Procedures Operational Design Phase). Joanna Kulesza, Vice Chair of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) also provided further insights on DNS abuse and on the advancement of the multi-stakeholder model. In addition, Rudy Nolde, representative of the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of Germany, welcomed the proactive initiation of the contract DNS abuse negotiations by the contracted parties with ICANN.
From a further perspective, a primary topic covered by Philippe Fouquart from the Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG) and Chair of the ISPCP was that of “closed generics”. In addition, a core feature highlighted by Tatiana Tropina from the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) was that of the establishment of the ccNSO Abuse Standing Committee. Finally, the Senior Systems Architect, Michael Bauland, homed in on the topic of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).
In wrapping up the readout, Thomas Rickert provided a brief update on the Network and Information Security (NIS2) Directive. Rickert emphasized how important it is for “ICANN to engage in sufficient liaison with the national government representatives in order to ensure that there is a minimal fragmentation and a simple baseline regulation”.
The complete readout summary is available for download here.
Here you can get to watch the video of the full ICANN76 readout.
