ICANN releases interim report on regional review

THE Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) ahead of the international meeting in Brussels, Belgium this month, has released the draft of the community-wide Geographic Regions Review Working Group (WGGR).

Policy analyst at ICANN, Mr. Robert Hoggarth said that the draft document could be found on the Socialtext Wiki page of the working group.

ITRealms Online recalls that the working group was formed by the ICANN board, to study and review the issues related to the definition of the ICANN geographic regions, by way of consulting with community stakeholders to develop and submit proposals to the board so as to resolve any problematic issues relating to the current definition of its geographic regions.

According to him, the first phase of the work tagged “Initial Report” in July of 2009 identified various applications and functions to which “ICANN Geographic Regions” are currently applied by existing ICANN structures via its geographic diversity among volunteer leaders.

He also said that it briefly documented other regional structures used within ICANN but not defined in the Bylaws and documented a number of potential “matters” that working group members from the ALAC, ASO, ccNSO, GAC and GNSO; thought should be covered during the Working Group’s subsequent investigations.

On the second phase, he said that WGGR effort has been to produce an Interim Report that builds on the foundation of the Initial Report and begins to focus on General Principles, Specific Considerations and some of the critical issues (“Matters”) that it will address in its Final Report document. In its present form, the draft document addresses two particular areas: (1) a review of the underlying objectives and general principles of geographic regions; and (2) identification of specific matters to be addressed in the Final Report.

He pointed out that members of WGGR were determined that additional community input would substantially enhance preparation the Interim Report.

So, draft Version 5 of the Interim Report, he said, is still a work-in-progress and is being formally provided to the community solely for discussion purposes and in order that WGGR members would have the option to discuss its contents with their respective communities - as well as the general ICANN community - during the Brussels meeting next month. Previous drafts of the Interim Report have been made regularly available on the Working Documents page of the WGGR wiki site.

“That wiki page is set up to accept community comments and such comments about the Interim Report and the WGGR’s work in general are welcomed and will be shared with and viewed by WGGR members. Of course, a full Public Comment Forum will be opened for community comments on the Interim Report document when it is published,” he explained.

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