[wg-c] Where we go from here

[Jonathan Weinberg <weinberg@mail.msen.com>]

	It's time to address our plan of action from here, and to chart a course
that leads to our finishing up our work and presenting a final set of
working-group recommendations (to the extent we can) to the DNSO.  (This
WG, after all, was chartered to accomplish a specific task and to generate
a specific report, not to serve as a standing DNS debating society.  Thank
God.)

	It seems to me that we should be doing three things at this time.  First,
we have to figure out exactly what needs to be done.  To the end, Rick
Wesson's suggested to me — and I agree — that we should generate a list of
requirements that need to be satisfied before new TLDs can be deployed.  At
the top of that list would be policy issues that ICANN needs to resolve.
As a first cut (I'm not trying to be exhaustive here), it seems to me that
such a list of policy issues could include the following items:

	1.  What process should ICANN use to select new gTLD registries?
	2. What minimum qualifications must a gTLD registry have?  In particular,
must it be a nonprofit entity?
	3. Must all gTLD registries operate an open SRS?  (If so, should there be
common SRS software?  How is it to be developed, and by whom?)
	4. What process should ICANN use to select new gTLD strings?  (By wording
the question this way, I don't mean to foreclose the answer urged in
Position Paper B that ICANN should leave the choice of new gTLDs to the new
registries — I'm treating that as one possible selection mode.)
	5. What characteristics must a new gTLD have?  In particular, must it have
a "charter" reflecting a specialized purpose?
	6. What rules should be in place regarding access to registrant data?
Should ICANN mandate minimum information that a registrant must provide?
If so, what should that information be?  Should it mandate the manner in
which registry or registrars in new gTLDs should make that information
available?  Should there be a centralized database?
	7. What further conditions relating to trademark-domain name issues, if
any, should be satisfied before new gTLDs are introduced?  In particular,
should ICANN postpone the introduction of new gTLDs until after completing
its deliberations on the "famous marks" issue currently before WG-B -- and,
assuming it decides in favor of new famous-mark rules, implementing those
rules?
	8. How should ICANN proceed with the initial deployment of new gTLDs? How
large should that rollout be?  (We've already reached some tentative
conclusions on this point.)

	Comments, please: What items am I leaving off?  Are there other ways to
describe these points that would be cleaner, more precise, or easier to
understand?  Once we have a clean list of the issues that need to be
addressed, we can try to hammer out some positions (or succinct
explanations of our disagreements, or explanations of why we're staying
mum) on those specific issues.  As an initial aid, I'll put together a
chart that sets out, for each of the questions in that final list, the
positions expressed in the position papers and the comments.           

	Second, I'd like to get going with a straw poll or two, since those take
time to conduct.  I'll try to post, within a couple of days, a straw poll
on the issue of special-purpose or "chartered" gTLDs: That's an issue that
got a great deal of attention on the list last month, and I expect a straw
poll would be helpful in helping us figure out where members of the list
stand.

	Third, I think it would make some sense to start putting together a
document now that explains the thinking (and sets out pros and cons) behind
the conclusions that have already gained the support of WG "rough
consensus," on the desirability of new gTLDs and the nature of the initial
rollout.  I'll try to cobble something together, drawing on language from
the various position papers rather than attempting to write anything new,
and I'll post it to the list for comments and redrafting.

	I'm hopeful that if we all pull together, we can get this job done.

Jon


Jonathan Weinberg
co-chair, WG-C
weinberg@msen.com