During today’s opening ceremony of ICANN 47 in Durban, South Africa, President and CEO Fadi Chehadé announced the creation of five new ICANN Strategy Panels that will serve as an integral part of a framework for cross-community dialogue on strategic matters.

The ICANN Strategy Panels will convene subject matter experts, thought leaders and industry practitioners to support development of ICANN’s strategic and operational plans, in coordination with many other global players, and will be comprised of up to seven members including the chair for an anticipated one-year timeframe.

Designed to conduct work in critical strategic areas identified by the community, Board and staff, the ICANN Strategy Panels will build on public input being generated to inform a new, overarching vision and five-year strategic plan, and subsequent operating plan, for the organization. Advisory in nature, the ICANN Strategy Panels will report to Chehadé; will operate in a manner consistent with ICANN’s commitment to transparency and accountability; and will channel all views, guidance and advice produced into the standard community and Board processes that guide ICANN’s activities.

In its fourteen-year history, ICANN has grown to reflect a changing landscape of continued innovation, interconnectedness, and unprecedented growth in the DNS ecosystem, one that transcends groups and borders to serve the public interest. Yet, the Internet is at a critical inflection point as billions of new people are expected to join the global network in the next few years and as the nature of its usage matures dramatically. With this in mind, the ICANN Strategy Panels are expected to help catalyze transformation and advance ICANN’s role in the context of a dynamic, increasingly complex global environment.

Schedules and Operations

The ICANN Strategy Panels will conduct their activities, starting in September 2013, primarily online and through conference calls, although face-to-face meetings are expected to take place according to the needs of each panel. The ICANN Strategy Panels will also provide public updates on their progress that will be linked to ICANN’s overall strategic and operational planning activities. Dedicated ICANN executive liaisons have been assigned to and will support each of the ICANN Strategy Panels throughout the process.

Members and Objectives

The ICANN Strategy Panels will focus specifically on identifier technology innovation; ICANN’s role in the Internet organizations’ ecosystem; ICANN multistakeholder innovation; the public responsibility framework; and the role of ICANN in the future of Internet governance. Chairs who will lead the panels in their respective concentrations and who will guide the panels in their groundbreaking efforts have been identified; however, qualified individuals interested in serving as committee members are still being sought. Potential panel members need not originate directly from ICANN structures, but should have a deep understanding of and concern for the work being undertaken by ICANN, and an ability to think strategically, globally, and creatively about the challenges inherent in the ICANN Strategy Panels’ mandate. Interested individuals should send their resume/CV to the email addresses affiliated with each of the specialty areas by 29 July 2013. Members will be selected by ICANN’s President & CEO, in coordination with each ICANN Strategy Panel Chair.

Strategy Panel on Identifier Technology Innovation

Chair: Paul V. Mockapetris

Paul V. Mockapetris

Contact: itipanel@icann.org

Key Deliverables:

• Engage with the ICANN community and public on technology matters;

• Develop a technology roadmap for DNS and other identifiers; and

• Provide a technology roadmap for ICANN technical and security operations, including best practice recommendations and reference systems.

Strategy Panel on ICANN’s Role in the Internet Organizations’ Ecosystem

Chair: Vinton G. Cerf

Vinton G. Cerf

Contact: ioepanel@icann.org

Key Deliverables:

• Facilitate review of the assumptions, linkages and frameworks that underlie ICANN’s responsibilities in the current Internet ecosystem;

• Seek insights on ways to maintain and enhance ICANN’s stewardship in an evolving ecosystem; and

• Cultivate thought leadership on ways in which ICANN can serve a complex set of Internet constituencies.

Strategy Panel on ICANN Multistakeholder Innovation

Chair: Beth Simone Noveck

Beth Simone Noveck

Contact: msipanel@icann.org

Key Deliverables:

• Examine how Internet policy related to unique identifiers might be best managed in the future;

• Propose new models for broad, inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking and institutional structures to support such enhanced functions; and

• Design processes, tools and platforms that enable the global ICANN community to engage in these new forms of participatory decision-making.

Strategy Panel on the Public Responsibility Framework

Chair: Nii Quaynor

Nii Quaynor

Contact: prfpanel@icann.org

Key Deliverables:

• Propose ICANN’s role and five-year strategic objectives and milestones for promoting the global public interest vis-à-vis ICANN’s mission and core values and for building out the base of internationally diverse, knowledgeable and engaged ICANN stakeholders, especially within the developing world;

• Propose a framework for implementation of ICANN’s role, objectives and milestones for promoting the global public interest, building capacity within the ICANN community, and increasing the base of internationally diverse, knowledgeable and engaged ICANN stakeholders; and

• Provide advice on programs and initiatives that help achieve the above objectives.

Strategy Panel on the Role of ICANN in the Future of Internet Governance

Chair: TBD

TBD

Contact: figpanel@icann.org

Key Deliverables:

• Provide a set of guiding principles to ensure the successful evolution of ICANN’s transnational multistakeholder model in cooperation with national and international bodies;

• Propose a roadmap for evolving and globalizing ICANN’s role in the Internet governance ecosystem in consultation with global players; and

• In coordination with the many other global players and ICANN stakeholders, propose a framework for implementation of ICANN’s role, objectives and milestones in global Internet governance.

This announcement was sourced from :

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-15jul13-en.htm

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Christine Willett from ICANN,gave an update on the New gTLD program from the first session at ICANN’s meeting in Durban .

“As Yesterday my team has published results for through priority number 1,200 of the application. so we’ve released 1,100 initial evaluation results.

Over 1,000 applications having passed initial evaluation. we have had 13 applications identified as eligible for extended evaluation.

There have been 49 withdrawn applications out of that first 1,200 prioritized.

Two have not been approved, in part because on advice from the GAC.

Other applications are on hold and we haven’t really released results yet because they are still in an evaluation process. so we participation continuing with the initial evaluation process through the end of august and releasing the results for all 1930 initial applications in total we have had 97 applications withdraw.

Today that leads us with 883 active applications. so that’s what we’re working on.

Another significant activity since our Beijing meeting was the objection and dispute resolution work done by the dispute resolution service providers.

ICANN staff really simply shepherds and monitors the objection and dispute resolution process that is not for us to interview in those proceedings. we had a total — the community filed a total of 263 objections that were found admissible and filed.

Just in the last few days we had the first resolutions of those proceedings published. several, four of the legal rights objections were finalized and published by wipo this week.

So the objection and resolution work continues to be an active area for our providers and we are keeping a close eye on that.

As of  July 3rd we initiating the contracting process with applicants through prior to number 50 who were eligible to proceed to contracting.

So 31 applications received what we are calling a contracting information request. so they were invited to submit documentation to proceed into contracting.

So we’re working with those applicants to move towards contract signing as quickly as possible.

For those interested and who meet all of the criteria to sign registry agreements.

Our intention is to continue to fill our pipeline with contracting requests, so to invited applicants to participate in the contracting process in the coming weeks, based on the capacity of the team as well as considering all of the many other issues that are still being discussed at the present time around security and stability.

So pending the outcome of that work we will continue to invite applicants into the contracting process.

As we look ahead to extended evaluation, we do have some applicants who are eligible for extended evaluation.

We expect to expedite the timing for extended evaluation so we can move those applicants through extended evaluation in the most timely and efficient manner, hopefully by the end of the year is our plan.

“I’ve also been shepherding a number of projects around rights protection mechanisms, our trade mark clearinghouse, our URS system, uniform rapid suspension service, as well as a number of other operational support mechanisms, namely our SLA monitoring capabilities and our ebero program. i’m pleased to say those projects continue to be on time and we expect they will be operationally ready by the time we delegate the first new gtld later this summer or early fall. that would be the overall update for the program.”