[wg-b] WORKING GROUP B - STATUS UPDATE

["Michael D. Palage" <mpalage@ipwarehouse.com>]

Status update.

Because of certain allegations about my attempt to hijack the Working Group
as sole co-chair, I thought it was best to delay any further actions until
the Names Counsel's next teleconference at which time they would address the
replacement of Jonathan Cohen as Name Counsel (NC) Liaison Co-Chair. The NC
is scheduled to meet this upcoming week. After they have addressed the
situation, I expect to have a revise time table available shortly. The
original time table calling for a report by Jan. 1 was in hindsight
optimistic considering the holiday and millennium celebrations.

I believe the delay in the original time table was the most prudent course
of action in light of the number of new participants that have joined the
list in the last several weeks. If you look at the majordomo logs you will
see that there are now almost 100 people in this Working Group. As for a
contemplated course of action following the Dec. 8th position paper
submission due date, I believe it would be advisable to have approximately a
30 day group comment period (i.e. until approximately the first week of
January); followed by a series of votes to identify points of consensus and
points of diversion (approximately two weeks taking us to the third week of
January); after these votes the co-chairs would prepare an Interim Report
that would take approximately two weeks; following completion of the report
it would be made available for public comment by the group and the Internet
community at large. Following this public comment it would be submitted to
the Names Counsel at around the time of the next ICANN regional meeting
during the second week of March. This is only a recommendation contingent
upon feedback from the group and consultation with the new appointed NC
Liaison Co-Chair.

On a side note, I would like to request the help of one or two volunteers to
help create/maintain a Working Group B Website. The website does not need to
be complex. It must only provide a summary of our mandate, a link to the
position papers, information on how to submit comments or join the Working
Group. I have spoken with Elizabeth the secretariat of the NC and she said
that she is able to provide the space on the DNSO web server.  I would also
like to thank Victoria Carrington who is helping me arrange the Working
Group's bio so that it can be attached to the interim report. Any person
that has not submitted a bio please do so to either Victoria
(vcarrington@shapirocohen.com)or myself. Thanks

If anyone has any comments, positive or negative, please let me know and I
will try to address your concerns.

Best regards,

Michael D. Palage.

P.S. Thank you to everyone that has submitted position papers to date. I
have been rather preoccupied drafting my own so I apologize for any delays
in answering anyone's e-mail over the past couple of weeks or over the next
couple of days. Plus my wife and I have been enjoying our first holiday with
our new son, and that sort of puts everything else into perspective. Happy
holidays.

-----Original Message-----
From:	Harald Alvestrand [mailto:Harald@Alvestrand.no]
Sent:	Saturday, December 04, 1999 9:51 PM
To:	mpalage@infonetworks.com; wg-b@dnso.org
Subject:	WG-B timeline and current status????

I was looking through the WG-B archive today, looking for the group's
current status and plans.
The newest one I found in my archive was the enclosed one.

As today is Dec 5, I don't think we're quite on track.
In particular, I don't think we can call the comment period closed when
I still can't see a Website with the position papers we need to comment on.

Michael, care to give us a status update?

                       Harald A


At 00:23 11.11.99 -0500, Michael D. Palage wrote:
>TIMELINE:
>
>Now to Nov. 17th - a three week position statement period. We have
consensus
>on mechanisms now we must put these mechanisms down on paper to look at the
>strengths and weaknesses.
>
>Nov. 17th to Dec 1st - a two week comment period.
>
>Dec 2nd through the 5th - Formulation of questionnaire/survey to identify
>points of consensus and point of contention.
>
>Dec 6th through the 10th - Voting on these issues
>
>Dec 11th through the 18th - Co-chairs prepare draft report for group
>comments
>
>Dec 19th through 26th - Comments on the draft report
>
>Dec 27th through Dec 31st -  Submission of Interim report to the Names
>Counsel

--
Harald Tveit Alvestrand, EDB Maxware, Norway
Harald.Alvestrand@edb.maxware.no