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Cooperation agreement between CITEL and ICANN
During the course of 2007,
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers,
and CITEL, the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, completed
the process of signing a Cooperation Agreement. Although both
organizations have a long history of cordial communications, this
agreement settles ground for a more stable way to interact with each
other, particularly in terms of information sharing and reciprocate
participation in meetings.
For ICANN, cooperation with
CITEL means providing information about its responsibilities, how to
participate in its policy development processes, as well as partnering
with CITEL on workshops of mutual areas of interest, and/or attend
respective meetings or workshops.
In the annex of the Cooperation
Agreement between ICANN and CITEL there are three areas of mutual
interest where collaboration is anticipated: 1) discussions related to
the Internet’s systems of unique identifiers; 2) discussions related
to the operational stability, reliability,
security, and global interoperability of the Internet; and 3)
discussions reflecting the functional, geographic, and cultural
diversity of the Internet.
CITEL’s Permanent Consultative
Committee I (PCC.I on “Telecommunications”), has historically held
discussions on issues cross-cutting ICANN’s mission and therefore is
expected to be the place where most of the interactions between CITEL
and ICANN will take place.
About ICANN
ICANN is an internationally
organized, non-profit organization that has responsibility for
coordinating, at the overall level, the global Internet's systems of
unique identifiers. Among its core functions are: a) allocation of IP
addresses; b) management of the generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD)
Top-Level Domain Name System (DNS); c) assignment of autonomous system
("AS"), protocol port and parameter numbers; d) coordination of the
DNS root name server system.
As a private-public partnership,
ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the
Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation
of global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate
to its core functions through bottom-up, consensus-based processes.
New gTLDs
One of the most important
discussions that are currently taking place within ICANN this year is
the
introduction of new generic Top Level Domains (such as .com, .info,
.biz, etc). Historically, new gTLDs have been added to the domain name
system (DNS) based on proposals that were solicited by ICANN during
specific application periods. Two such application processes, one in
2000 and another in
2003, have been already executed by ICANN. At present, ICANN has
completed policy development work and
transitioning towards implementation plans for a third new gTLD
application period. One of the milestones of the implementation plan
is to develop a “Request for Proposals” (RFP) – the document
soliciting applications for new gTLDs to be introduced into the root
server system.
The RFP for new gTLDs is expected
to be launched during 2008 and will incorporate: technical criteria,
business & financial criteria, identifying DNS stability issues
associated with establishing a gTLD string, a methodology for
identifying and resolving conflicts among confusingly similar strings,
how to address an objectionable string (whether the objection is based
upon infringement of rights, or misappropriation of a community label),
defining process for resolving contention between identical applicants,
among other issues.
ICANN firmly believes that the
evolution of the namespace toward enhanced diversity of services and
service providers must be planned and managed effectively to preserve
the security, stability, reliability, and global interoperability of
the Internet. The intended result with the new application process is
to achieve a straightforward, fair, and efficient mechanism for
introducing and allocating new gTLDs.
IDNs
Another hot topic on ICANN’s
agenda for 2008 is the deployment of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names represented by
local language characters. Such domain names could contain letters or
characters from non-ASCII scripts (for example, Arabic or Chinese).
Many efforts are ongoing in ICANN to make IDN’s available, not only at
second level (the name registered by the user) but also modalities for
including IDN’s as part of the future new gTLD application process.
A set of
IDN Guidelines has been developed for the implementation of IDNs
since 2003. Compliance with these guidelines has been a requirement
for gTLD registry operators and a recommendation for ccTLD registry
operators. The guidelines are subject to on-going review and revision
based on the experience gained by TLD registries. Also, there are
ongoing
discussions about the selection of IDN country codes (ccTLD labels)
paralleling the ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes. A
current process for the introduction of a small limited number of
IDN ccTLDs includes a timeline to be finalized by July 2008. A study
to identify DNS security issues associated with the deployment of IDN
TLDs has also been initiated. Finally, on October 2007, eleven
evaluation-purpose IDN TLDs (called the
.test program) were inserted into the root zone and propagation
was initiated to the 13 root servers.
Conclusion
ICANN is very happy to strengthen
ties with CITEL by means of the Cooperation Agreement just signed and
offers CITEL Members with information related to the areas of mutual
interest expressed in the Annex of the agreement. We look forward to
meet you in any of the three
ICANN meetings throughout the year or at one of the PCC.1 Meetings.
Pablo
Hinojosa
Regional Manager
ICANN
[email protected]
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Cooperation Agreement
between CITEL and ICANN: settling grounds for fruitful interactions
