gTLD-MoU

GTLD-MOU POLICY OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

NOTICE-97-01

ACTION: REQUEST FOR COMMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENT DATE: September 13, 1997

CLOSING DATE: October 13, 1997

SUBJECT: Review of Representation of Constituencies in the gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee

ADDRESSES: Electronic comments should be sent to notice-97-01@gtld-mou.org. Comments submitted can be in ASCII, Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or HTML. The original mail archive of submissions can be found at http://www.gtld-mou.org/notice-97-01/.

Written comments or comments submitted on diskette can be sent to:

gTLD-MoU/Notice-97-01
ITU
Place des Nations
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland

If further information is required on this notice, please contact poc-submit@gtld-mou.org.

A. BACKGROUND

The current gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee (POC) consists of appointments from the:

Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
Internet Society (ISOC)
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
International Trademark Association (INTA)

In addition, there are planned appointments from the:

gTLD-MoU Policy Advisory Body (elected from signatories to the gTLD-MoU - see http://www.itu.int/net-itu/gtld-mou/signat.htm)
Council of Registrars (CORE) (elected by the Council of Registrars)

The gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee believes that all gTLDs should be administered by a genuinely international body with representatives of all the significant stakeholder interests in the Internet Domain Name System (DNS). In addition, there are the following considerations

POC is only involved in DNS oversight matters, not Internet governance at large
POC needs to be representative and legitimate, thus with diversified composition
No single interest class nor entity should control POC
Terms of appointments shouldn't be so short as to undermine POC's stability
POC membership can require an extensive commitment in time and resources
As currently structured, POC membership is 14 people

In order to accomplish better representation of other significant stakeholder interests in the Internet Domain Name System, the gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee (POC) proposes that the POC be expanded by adding representatives from interest classes that are clear stakeholders in the Internet DNS and currently under-represented.

We solicit suggestions from the public regarding:

Internet DNS stakeholder interests that are under-represented in the gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee
an appropriate procedure for nominating representatives;
an appropriate procedure for selecting the representative from each class;
the length of term each representative should serve;
mandatory term limits, if any;
whether representatives should be selected from groups within a class (e.g. trade associations) or directly from the members of that class;
other considerations.

B. QUESTIONS:

1. How many people do you think can constitute a functioning Policy Oversight Committee?

[1-5 __] [5-10 __] [10-15 __] [15-20 __] [20-30 __] [Other (specify number) __]

2. Which interest classes require representation in the gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee?

End-Users [yes__] [no__]
Internet Service Providers [yes__] [no__]
Telecommunications Companies [yes__] [no__]
Public Interest Groups [yes__] [no__]
Business and Advertising Interests [yes__] [no__]
Content Providers [yes__] [no__]
Internet Technical Infrastructure Interests [yes__] [no__]
Software Suppliers [yes__] [no__]
Trademark Community/Law [yes__] [no__]
Intergovernmental Interests [yes__] [no__]
Domain Name Registrars [yes__] [no__]
Other (please specify, providing a short justification of this constituency to be represented in DNS-oversight matters) ___________________________

3. Which of the listed interest classes above do you think are under-represented in the gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee?

End-Users ___
Internet Service Providers ___
Telecommunications Companies ___
Public Interest Groups ___
Business and Advertising Interests ___
Content Providers ___
Internet Technical Infrastructure Interests ___
Software Suppliers ___
Trademark/Legal ___
Intergovernmental Interests ___
Domain Name Registrars ___
Other (please specify) ___________________________

4. For each of the interests classes you have indicated as under-represented in the gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee:

Should each representative be selected from groups within a class (e.g., trade or other associations ) or directly from members of that class?

What is the appropriate procedure for nominating representatives for each of the classes that you have indicated are under-represented?

What is the appropriate procedure for selecting representative for each of the classes that you have indicated are under-represented?

What is the length of term each representative should serve for each of the classes that you have indicated are under-represented? If desired, please include suggested mandatory term limits.

5. Please discuss below any other considerations vis-à-vis the structure of the gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee not covered in this questionnaire.

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