Abstract
Information within ICANN flows swiftly due to its inimitable governance model, which demands staff of a large number to keep track of. Recent issues, among other things, of the impacts made to the display of WHOIS data by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in EU law, ICANN Five-Year Strategic Plan (2021-2025), and the reservation of Geographic Names in the Second Round of New gTLDs have been given intensive discussions with divergent but proactive stances and voices raised not only between national governments but also from business constituencies, IPR communities, end users’ groups.
The consolidation of the inputs from all the above-mentioned stakeholders will proceed to relevant Internet policies under ICANN’s Policy Development Process (PDP) and be summited to Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) for consideration. The process, however, would end up in a lengthy and circular reasoning by ICANN Borad and move onward into the inevitable policy implementation should the GAC advices not be adopted. To avoid such limbo, there is an acute understanding within GAC that only with actual participation and assertive stances during the policy development process can constitute an unshakable act for governments.
This research program focuses on the provision of assistance on Entrusting Entity’s involvement in GAC-related Internet governance issues, participation in ICANN’s Policy Development Process, clarification and analysis of issues relative to our government, and suggestions for formal statements. These active efforts and responses are believed to enable the Entrusting Entity to get closely aligned with the ever-changing global trends, and meanwhile prepare our government for the drafting of correlating strategies on political or regulatory side.
The scope of this research program can be defined within the following aspects: (1) researches on the management of key Internet resources, (2) assistance to the involvement in public policy discussions taking place in ICANN meetings, (3) the conduct of broadly collecting opinions from national governments and Internet communities, (4) the provision of suggestions on relative policies in order to declare our government’s positions without delay, and (5) the planning of reactions towards impacts made to our government and the relevant policies and alternative measures according to changes in the international environment.
During the contract period, thirty(30) topic researches assigned by Entrusting Entity were accomplished, and the administrative workload of Entrusting Entity were distinctively reduced with the deployment of one residence staff, who sorted and browsed e-mails received via GAC mailing list and updated the latest development on a daily basis, helped collect and translate relative materials for the preparation of statement strategies, and assisted with the arrangement of sessions for attendance. Further, through the in-person observation and recording in the three(3) ICANN annuals held in 2019: ICANN64 Kobe Meeting, ICANN65 Marrakesh Meeting, and ICANN66 Montréal Meeeting, primary issues within GAC and ICANN were followed and analyzed in an in-depth manner, and catagorized into the observation of ICANN and GAC’s status quo, the development of GAC’s annual issues, and the work progress of GAC working groups.
Several pieces of advice were proposed as our government’s major observation indicators in 2020, according to this research program: (1) GAC’s role and future interaction with ICANN, (2) the application dispute and its result of the delegation of geographic name “.AMAZON” as a reference to the protection of geographic names relative to our government, (3) subsequent procedures of future rounds of New gTLDs as a reference to our government’s potential actions, (4) DNS abuse as a reference to cyber security, and our officials’ involvement as a member of Public Safety Working Group (PSWG), (5) non-public WHOIS data as a reference to the protection of nationals’ right to making data disclosure request, along with the development of Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) technology, (6) the final governance model of Root Server System (RSS), (7) the enhancement of our government’s engagement in Registries, Registrars, and their relative agreements with ICANN as the capacity building of our officials’ grasp of industry know-how, and (8) ICANN Five-Year Strategic Plan as a reference to the better understanding of ICANN’s development.
From the above mentioned, it is concluded that:
- Limited manpower prevents the continuous participation in view of the complicated contexts reflected in the international meetings.
In view of ICANN’s quick information flows and its inimitable governance model, and with the aim of equipping the participants from our government fully with the background information and aguring points, developments of relative issues and statements beneficial to our government are prepared and drafted to establish the knowledge for discussions before each ICANN meeting. During the ICANN meeting period, administrative assistance is provided whenever necessary (including the attendance support at short notice and the consolidation of meeting materials.) After the meeting and during the interval, participants are helped to sort out the meeting minutes to develop the following actions and advices. Above efforts are diverse and heavy, which is difficult for Entrusting Entity to accomplish and react in time under such limited manpower.
- Our government can seize the chances for statement making due to the fast-developing issues.
In the recent two(2) years, ICANN is faced with challenges internally and externally posed by the opening of New gTLDs, IANA transition, the launch of GDPR, internal anticipation (ICANN Five-Year Strategic Plan) and so on. Due to GAC’s role as one of the Advisory Committees, ICANN is obliged to submit all of its resolutions to GAC for consideration or inform it. As a GAC member, our government is granted with a great chance for participation or understanding the relative process and content.
- Return the profession to the professionals, allowing the government officials to entirely engaged in meeting sessions.
The investment of appropriate resources will help those long-term participants from our government build the capacity of a quick grasp of discussed issues and cultivate the ability to join in active discussion, with an aim of fostering the capability of staying sensible of issues related to our government as wel as making proper responses in a timely manner. This research program enables participants from our government to engage in the international Internet governance model with better efficiency, faster responses, and actual representation, with the prospect of making our government one of the most proactive members regarding the development of Internet communities and governance.
