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I C ANN | ICANN54 BUSINESS DIGEST | DECEMBER 2015 | 1

Why a Business Digest?

This Digest is designed to serve as a non-exhaustive review of highlights of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Public Meeting relevant to a variety of businesses stakeholders affected by ICANN’s work, presented in business friendly language. Please provide feedback and comments to the ICANN business engagement team at

businessengagement@icann.org. To help businesses stay informed about ICANN’s work, Internet governance and the business

world’s participation, this Business Digest is complemented by online spaces meant to inform

and exchange ideas on an ongoing basis with interested business leaders: our website icann.org/forbusiness and the Twitter feed @ICANN4biz. You can also listen to the pre-ICANN54

webinar for business newcomers, designed to explain what happens at an ICANN public

meeting and the role of business sector constituencies, here.

Feel free to join, participate, engage, and provide feedback.

Are you new to ICANN?

Take a look at the ICANN Newcomer Program

Live the experience of the newcomers at ICANN meetings with the recordings and presentations from the ICANN54 Newcomer Sunday

Take our introductory course on our ICANN Learn: Get To Know ICANN For Business

Having a hard time with all the acronyms? Consult the ICANN Glossary to find what

they mean and their definition

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Executive Summary

The ICANN54 public meeting brought together more than 2,300 participants in Dublin, Ireland

on 18-22 October 2015. In October 2013, the first internationalized generic top-level domains (gTLDs) were introduced into the Internet. These four gTLDs were also the first delegated under the 2012 round of the

New gTLD Program. The two-year anniversary of this milestone fell on the last day of ICANN54.

The IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN Accountability discussions remained the main topic of the meeting with the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG)

and Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-

Accountability) logging almost 70 hours of meetings, including working sessions, engagement sessions and presentations to the ICANN Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory

Committees (ACs) through the week.

OTHER KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE MEETING:

ICANN54 marked the second anniversary of new gTLDs. Reviews of the program

mandated by ICANN's affirmation of commitments are well underway, and supporting organizations and advisory committees are discussing the next round.

The ICANN Global Domain Division (GDD) is analyzing data for multiple review areas,

including Program Implementation, Rights Protection Mechanisms, and Competition, Consumer Choice and Consumer Trust.

The work of the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) to create an Internet

where all domain names are treated equally keeps gaining traction. The group held an all-day workshop during the meeting and participated in several other sessions.

The ICANN Technical Engagement team is making it easier for technical and security experts to navigate the ICANN meetings’ schedule.

The ICANN Business Engagement team held a well-attended outreach session for private sector newcomers with seasoned ICANN panelists from diverse companies

such as AT&T, Google and HSBC.

Learn more about each of these topics in the sections below.

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Welcome Ceremony and President’s Opening Session

Roundup ICANN54 At the ICANN54 Opening Ceremony, Board Chair Steve Crocker began by acknowledging the community’s hard work on the IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN

Accountability processes. He also discussed the search for the next CEO and the new ICANN meeting strategy.

Niall Murphy, chairperson of the Internet Neutral Exchange Association (INEX), talked about his

association’s work with the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) of Ireland to create opportunities for foreign organizations to do business in the country.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources of Ireland, Alex White, also

took the stage to express Ireland’s support of the multistakeholder model of Internet

governance. He shared some figures about the importance of the digital economy in his

country: the digital economy represents 5% of Irish gross domestic product today, a share that is expected to rise to 10% by 2020. Additionally, with 10 of the top global ICT companies having

significant operations in Ireland, the digital economy employs over on hundred thousand

people.

In his address, ICANN’s President and CEO, Fadi Chehadé, broadly covered three topics: progress made in 2015, ICANN’s remit and responsibilities and internal preparations for

changes related to the implementation of the IANA stewardship transition.

LEARN MORE: OPENING CEREMONY Download ICANN President’s keynote presentation

ICANN New Meeting Strategy: watch the video and read some background

information about the format of future ICANN meetings

Three Layers of Digital Governance Infographic: understand ICANN’s remit and

responsibilities

Read the latest blog post on the ICANN CEO search

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IANA Stewardship Transition Discussions

Since the National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) announced its intent to transition stewardship of the IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community in March of 2014, ICANN meetings have been crucial to support the communities working on the IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN Accountability processes.

The IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) announced it has finalized its IANA Stewardship Transition proposal. Before the ICG sends the proposal to NTIA via the ICANN

Board, it will first confirm with the Cross Community Working Group to Develop an IANA

Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CWG-Stewardship) that its accountability requirements have been met by Work Stream 1 recommendations, mechanisms

enhancing ICANN accountability that must be in place or committed to within the time frame of

the IANA Stewardship Transition, currently being finalized by the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability).

On 3o November 2015, the CCWG-Accountability released its Draft Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations for consideration by its Chartering Organizations and for public

consultation. The public comment period is open until 21 December 2015.

LEARN MORE: IANA STEWARDSHIP TRANSITION AND ENHANCING ICANN ACCOUNTABILITY

For beginners: Read “Privatizing the DNS: White Paper on the IANA Stewardship

Transition” and watch the video “IANA Stewardship Processes Interrelation Animation”

Read Samantha Dickinson’s “Volume 11: An Update on IANA Stewardship

Discussions”

Public comment page for the CCWG-Accountability - Draft Proposal on Work Stream

1 Recommendations

.

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Global Domains Division

The work of the GDD is important to companies – including brands – that applied for new gTLDs and those considering applying for one in the future. Companies interested in expanding their online presences by registering names under new gTLDs will also benefit by following the work of the GDD closely.

Prior to ICANN54, Global Domains Division President Akram Atallah, covered the main activities of the division in his blog post “ICANN54: Dublin – Global Domains Division (GDD) Session

Highlights.”

If you were unable to attend the meeting, you can find out more about high-interest sessions

below.

LEARN MORE: GDD

Read “ICANN’s Global Support Center: We’re Here to Help!” to find out how ICANN

has restructured its customer service offerings.

Comment on the gTLD Marketplace Health Index Proposal.

New gTLD Program Reviews The New gTLD Program, one of the most important developments in the Internet space in recent years, continues to gain momentum. As of November 2015, over 800 new gTLDs had

been introduced, and active registrations of domain names on new gTLDs passed 10 million.

ICANN is currently focusing resources on a series of reviews to evaluate the New gTLD Program in light of its original goals. The public session at ICANN54 provided a high-level overview of

each review, covering topics such as rights protection, program implementation, security and stability, and competition, consumer trust and choice. Notable milestones to date include the publication of the revised Rights Protection Mechanisms report and the publication of the draft

New gTLD Program Implementation Review for public comment.

ICANN is currently working to appoint the team that will review the New gTLD Program in

regard to competition, consumer trust and consumer choice. LEARN MORE: NEW GTLD PROGRAM REVIEWS

For Beginners: Visit the Program Reviews page

Find relevant reports, drafts and links to public comment forums on these webpages. Participate in and support the activities that inform the development of the next round of the New gTLD Program. Full participation and input from the Internet community are key to making these reviews successful.

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Universal Acceptance Universal Acceptance is a foundational requirement for a truly multilingual Internet, one in which users around the world can navigate entirely in local languages. It is also the key to unlocking the potential of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to foster competition, consumer choice and innovation in the domain name industry. To achieve Universal

Acceptance, Internet applications and systems must treat all TLDs in a consistent manner, including new gTLDs and internationalized TLDs. The Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) is a community-based team working to share this vision for the Internet of the future with those who construct this space: coders. The group's primary objective is to help system owners and independent coders understand how Universal Acceptance will enable the next

billion users to interact and build their own spaces online.

During ICANN54, the UASG held a full-day workshop where more than 50 people participated in developing over a dozen tasks for ICANN55, which will take place in Marrakech, Morocco in

March 2016. Tasks include:

Progressing work on documentation, including development of a clear definition of Universal Acceptance readiness.

Creating models for regional, national and local Universal Acceptance initiatives.

Further establishing relationships with complimentary organizations.

Pursuing a structured evaluation process for popular website evaluation.

Developing best practice guidelines.

LEARN MORE: UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE

For Beginners: ICANN's Universal Acceptance resources page

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Tech at ICANN

There were more than 18 sessions of interest to the technical community at ICANN54. At ICANN53 in Buenos Aires, ICANN piloted a series of tutorials that explained the technologies

that impact many of the policy and business related discussions that take place during ICANN meetings. The results of the pilot were very positive and ICANN's Office of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) decided to continue this series. Four "How it Works" sessions were scheduled at

ICANN54, which covered topics such as How Internet Standards are set, How Internet

Networking works, What is the Internet Registry Protocol and How Root Servers are operated.

Other sessions of particular interest for business were Tech Day and the DNS Anti-Abuse Workshop for Businesses. For a complete list of technical session at ICANN54 read the blog post from ICANN Vice

President for Technical Engagement Adiel Akplogan “Tech@ICANN54 – Your Roadmap to

Dublin’s Technical Sessions.”

Security & Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) The SSAC is composed of 35 members appointed by the ICANN Board to advise the ICANN community and Board on matters relating to the security and integrity of the Internet’s naming

and address allocation systems.

The SSAC held a public session in Dublin, during which it provided an activities update on work completed in 2015, current and new work parties, and their recent comments on Root Zone Key Signing Key Rollover Plan (SAC073).

Since ICANN54, SSAC has published an Advisory on Registrant Protection: Best Practices for Preserving Security and Stability in the Credential Management Lifecycle (SAC074).

LEARN MORE: SSAC

SSAC landing page on the ICANN website Contains information on SSAC history and operations, membership and workings.

List of SSAC Reports and Advisories

Five Minutes with SSAC video

Follow the SSAC on social media

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DNSSEC Companies can help enhance security of the Internet by deploying Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), because these extensions are more effective when universally implemented. Registries, registrars, registrants, hosting companies, software developers,

hardware vendors, government, businesses and agencies with an Internet presence, and Internet technologists and coalitions all have responsibility for the success of this massive effort.

ICANN54 included a very popular recurring session, DNSSEC for Everybody, which aims to

demystify DNSSEC and show how you can easily and quickly deploy DNSSEC in your business. A day-long DNSSEC workshop was also organized for registries, registrars and ISPs who are

already engaged in the deployment of DNSSEC to share best practices. Videos of the morning

and afternoon session of the workshop are available on YouTube. LEARN MORE: DNSSEC

For beginners: ICANN resource page: DNSSEC – What Is It and Why Is It Important?

Verisign page on DNSSEC Adoption Benefits Useful Verisign microsite showing benefits of DNSSEC adoption for registries,

registrars, and ISPs.

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Internet Governance Landscape

The ICANN54 Internet Governance public session was organized in collaboration between the

ICANN Government Engagement team and the Cross-Constituency Working Group (CCWG) on Internet Governance. The session focused primarily on the 10-year Review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+10) and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Brazil.

IGF This year marked the 10th anniversary of the IGF, which recently took place in João Pessoa, Brazil, bringing together more than 2,400 participants from over 116 countries to discuss

Internet governance issues relating to cybersecurity, the Internet economy, inclusiveness,

diversity, human rights, critical Internet resources and others.

A number of ICANN Board Directors, community members and staff participated in IGF 2015, organizing sessions on the IANA Stewardship transition and ICANN accountability, and an

ICANN Open Forum. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), through its Business Action to Support the

Information Society (BASIS), works to mobilize business participation at the IGF, from

organizing daily business briefings, ensuring private sector representation in all the main sessions and relevant workshops to convening side meetings for business to exchange timely

perspectives with governments or stakeholders on developments. You can see the details of

their participation at IGF here.

LEARN MORE: INTERNET GOVERNANCE

For beginners: Read the report from the Strategy Panel on ICANN's Role in the

Internet Governance Ecosystem Read our blog posts “ICANN at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2015” and “The

IGF at Ten: A More Mature Space for Internet Governance Discussions” Read the ICC BASIS article “5 business messages from the Internet Governance

Forum”

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Private Sector Participation Corner Business Engagement at ICANN54 During the Dublin meeting, the business engagement team hosted a session for newcomers:

Why My Business Participates at ICANN and Yours Should Too.

This lunch panel included speakers from Blacknight Solutions, the International Trademark Association (INTA), AT&T, Google and HSBC, representing a variety of industries with different perspectives.The panelists engaged in a discussion on how and why their companies and organizations participate in ICANN and what issues are of importance to the private sector.

LEARN MORE: BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT AT ICANN

ICANN for Business Page

Get information and resources for private sector participants at ICANN and sign up to receive updates from the Global Business Engagement team using this form.

Read the latest blog post from Chris Mondini “Business Engagement and the IANA

Stewardship Transition”

Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG) Constituencies of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)

The CSG represents the views of business users and connectivity providers, including large and small business entities, business organizations, Internet connectivity providers, intellectual

property owners and intellectual property organizations; its mission is to ensure ICANN policy

and ICANN contracts are consistent with the development of an Internet that is a safe place for business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions and communications to take place, based on high levels of business, user and consumer confidence. The CSG met amongst

themselves and with the ICANN Board of Directors during ICANN54 to discuss issues that

involve ICANN consensus policies that relate to interoperability, technical reliability and/or

stable operation of the Internet or domain name system.

Commercial and Business Users Constituency (CBUC) The Commercial and Business Users Constituency (also known as the CBUC, the Business

Constituency, or BC) discussed several policy issues of interest for Internet commercial users, including the use of country and territory names as top-level domains. BC members also

discussed organizational matters like the review of their charter, the new ICANN meeting schedule and the GNSO review, as well as the IANA Stewardship transition and Enhancing ICANN Accountability processes. LEARN MORE: BC

BC Website Get more information about BC mission, membership, and meetings.

BC Newsletter October 2015 Overview of BC interest topics for the Dublin meeting.

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Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) The IPC session featured presentations from ICANN staff about contractual compliance, development and public responsibility and the new gTLD program. The group spent time discussing policy issues around the New gTLD Program, including auction proceeds, future rounds of applications, reviews, and rights protection mechanisms.

LEARN MORE: IPC

IPC Website For IPC information, position statements and news.

IPC Brochure

Overview of IPC structure, activities, and issues of interest.

Follow @IPConstituency on Twitter

Internet Service Provider & Connectivity Providers Constituency (ISPCP) The ISPCP meeting covered more technical topics during a joint meeting with the SSAC. Part of the agenda was also used to discuss the topic of Universal Acceptance and the work of the Universal Acceptance Steering Group. Other issues discussed included ICANN Accountability

and the GSNO review.

LEARN MORE: ISPCP

ISPCP Website For ISPCP mission, membership, policy resources and statements.

ISPCP Bulletin

Overview of ISPCP activities and topics of interest.

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Stay Connected and Engage

ICANN Fellowship Program

The ICANN Fellowship Program seeks participants from developing regions and countries of

the world to create a broader base of knowledgeable constituents who will become the

voice of experience in their regions. 45 fellows from 35 countries have been selected to participate in ICANN's Fellowship program at the 55th Public Meeting in Marrakech, 5-10 March 2016.

LEARN MORE: FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

Fellowship Program Resources page

Find all the information you need on the program, its alumni, fellowship rounds and

FAQs.

ICANN Fellowship Application Learn how to apply to the ICANN Fellowship Program.

The ICANN Journey

Everyone is welcome at ICANN! You don’t need to be an expert to participate. See one person’s journey from beginner to Working Group Chair on our YouTube channel.

ICANN Updates and Newsletters

Monthly update on ICANN Policy Developments

ICANN Newsletters and alerts

Follow us on social media:

Twitter: @ICANN4biz

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I C ANN | ICANN54 BUSINESS DIGEST | DECEMBER 2015 | 13

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