February 5, 2002

Stuart Lynn
President and Chief Executive Officer

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina Del Rey, CA 90202, USA

Dear Stuart,

The Names Council, at the teleconference held on January 17, 2002, endorsed the dot Org Task Force's final report.

The Names Council hereby submits the report to the Board for approval.

The report documents:

1. Background to dot ORG report
2. Task Force members
3. Mailing List archives
4. Draft statement of policy and public comment archives - October 2, 2001
5. Final Report endorsed by theNames Council - January 17, 2002 http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20020117.NCdotorg-report.html
6. Minority report submitted by the Business Consituency http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20020205.NCdotorg-final-annexF.html
7. Public comments submitted during two week period after endorsement, 18 Jan to 1 Feb 2002 http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20020205.NCdotorg-final-annexG.html

Thank you for your time and consideration of these comments.

Respectfully,

Names Council Chair

A. Background to dot ORG report and terms of reference

On 25 May 2001 ICANN formally entered into new agreements under which the Internet's .com, .net, and .org domains will be operated for the next several years. The VeriSign, Inc. will give up control over the .org registry by the end of 2002.

For more information on the ICANN/VeriSign registry agreements, see <http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/>.

On 4 June 2001, in Stockholm, ICANN Board made the following decisions: cf. http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-04jun01.htm

Resolved [01.71] that the Board refers to the Names Council 
for its consideration the issues raised by the scheduled 
transition of the operation of the .org top-level domain from 
VeriSign to a new entity, including at least:

   (a) whether to select an existing entity to succeed VeriSign 
       as responsible for operation of the .org TLD, or to 
       establish a new entity;

   (b) the characteristics of the entity to be selected or established;

   (c) selection criteria for the entity or its organizers;

   (d) principles governing its relationship with ICANN 
       (sponsored or unsponsored TLD, term of operation, etc.); and

   (e) policies for the entity's operation of the .org top-level 
       domain (to the extent they are not to be established by the entity).

Further resolved [01.72] that the Names Council is requested 
to provide a report on its progress on the issues referred by 
resolution 01.71, including any policy recommendations it has 
developed, no later than 12 October 2001; and

Further resolved [01.73] that the report will then be posted 
for public comment in advance of ICANN's third annual meeting 
in November 2001.

Board resolution 01.71 became the terms of reference for the dot org task force.  

B. The dot Org Task Force was composed of the following members:

Milton Mueller, NCDNHC
Guillermo Carey, IPCC
Elisabeth Porteneuve, ccTLD
Grant Forsyth, BC
Cary Karp, gTLD
Ken Stubbs, Registrars
Marc Schneiders, GA representaive elected

see http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/2001.DNSO-GA-IDN-dotorgTF.html

C. Mailing list archives

The mailing list, found under Names Council Task Forces and Committees, was set up on 4 Aug 2001 with the archives in http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/nc-org/Arc00/

E-mail discussion from the GA is archived in: http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga-org/Arc00/maillist.html

D. Draft statement of policy and public comments

The Names Council dot ORG divestiture Task Force submitted a draft statement of policy (v3.3, October 2, 2001) for public comment, see:http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/council/Arc06/msg00142.html

Public comments may be found at:
http://www.dnso.org/dnso/dnsocomments/comments-dotorg/Arc01/
11 October 2001 to 16 October 2001 (closed)

Following this the final report was drafted.

E. Final Report of the dot ORG Task Force on policy advice endorsed by the Names Council of the DNSO at the teleconference meeting on January 17, 2002

(The report is short and an executive summary is not required.)

http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20020117.NCdotorg-report.html

F. The Business Constituency Minority Report

http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20020205.NCdotorg-final-annexF.html

G. Public comments submitted during two week period after endorsement, 18 Jan to 1 Feb 2002

http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20020205.NCdotorg-final-annexG.html