[nc-whois] Clarification of the term "administrative work"
Hello
All,
The
term "administrative" work in the GNSO Council motion was perhaps in hindsight a
bit cryptic.
In
simple terms the WHOIS task force carried out a great deal of analysis of WHOIS
issues over 2 years. The Task Force produced a set of consensus
recommendations that went on to become the first outputs of the new GNSO to be
approved by the ICANN Board. This was an important step forward in
establishing the GNSO and ICANN as an effective policy development
body.
At the
meeting in Rio, members of the WHOIS task force (Marilyn Cade, Tony Harris, and
Thomas Roessler) requested that the WHOIS task force members be able to use
GNSO resources (ie the mailing list and support from the GNSO
secretariat) to complete some documentation (the "administrative work")
that captures some of the work of the WHOIS task force on issues where consensus
was not able to be developed. The purpose of this documentation, as
I understand it, is to take advantage of the expertise of the current WHOIS task
force members to capture knowledge on other WHOIS issues that will serve as
reference material in future policy work. For example the
documentation created on the privacy issue is being used as one of the inputs
into the staff manager's report on privacy. The GNSO Council is thankful that
the task force members are willing to stay on a little longer to ensure that the
knowledge gained over the past 2 years is captured. In a way it is similar
to a software engineering project, when after the project is delivered, project
staff could spend a couple of weeks creating any additional
documentation before the team members move onto other
projects.
The
exact nature of the "administrative work" or documentation is for the task force
as a whole to decide. It is up to individual task force members as to
whether they are willing to contribute to this work, but good documentation of
any policy issues are of value to the GNSO as a whole.
Note
the present WHOIS task force is not creating any new consensus policy
recommendations, so in that respect the work is complete. Any new policy
development will be subject to the GNSO policy development process, and new task
forces will be formed as necessary. I hope that current members of the
WHOIS task force will be able to contribute to future policy initiatives of the
GNSO council that relate to WHOIS issues.
As the
GNSO motion specifies, the WHOIS task force mailing list will be closed on 1 May
2003. Individual members of the task force can of course continue to
collaborate using their own resources (e.g create their own mailing lists) in
the development of any documents for consideration by the GNSO (not just the
GNSO Council) as a whole. The more important issues are discussed
within the GNSO the more likely we are to create effective
policy.
Once
again, I would like to thank the WHOIS task force members for their voluntary
work. You are now all WHOIS experts!
Regards,
Bruce
Tonkin
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