World Wide Alliance of Top Level Domain-names

Communiqué from Carthage meeting

Communiqué of the World Wide Alliance of ccTLD Managers meetings in Carthage, Tunisia
26-28 October 2003

28 October 2003

ccTLD Managers representing approximately 50 Country Code Top Level Domains met at Carthage, Tunisia on June 26 to June 28 2003. A list of attendees, the agenda and presentations can be seen at http://www.wwtld.org/meetings/participants/ccTLD-participants-2003carthage.html, and http://www.wwtld.org/.

Our grateful thanks go to Prof Faryel Mouria - Beji and Lamia Chaffai and the staff of Agence Tunisienne d'Internet for organising the hosting and other arrangements for ICANN's final meeting of 2003.

We congratulate the members of AfTLD on their first General Assembly meeting, held in Carthage this week. We look forward to increasing cooperation between all the regional ccTLD organisations.

We thank Pierre Ouedraogo (.bf) for chairing the ccTLD and AfTLD meetings, and his efforts to keep the ccTLD family together.

Further Progress towards a ccNSO

1. Peter Dengate Thrush (.nz) of the ccTLD Administrative Committee gave a presentation regarding the background to the formation of the ccNSO and the bylaws adopted by the ICANN Board in Montreal. Stephan Welzel (.de) gave a legal analysis of the ICANN Bylaws as they relate to members of the ccNSO.

2. ccTLDs felt that the current text of the ccNSO Bylaw needs further consideration, and in all likelihood amendments to make the ccNSO as inclusive as possible.

3. The ccTLDs concluded more time for a detailed review and formulation of textual Bylaw revisions is needed. The ccTLDs renewed their commitment to private sector self regulation, within the ICANN process.

4. The ccNSO launching group held a meeting of the approved ccNSO applicants that was open to all ccTLDS. At the meeting Chris Disspain (.au), gave an update on the ccNSO formation progress to date (30 members so far), Glen de Saint Géry (GNSO Secretariat) gave a presentation on election logistics, and Nigel Roberts (.gg) and Olivier Guillard (.fr) gave presentations about electoral methods to prepare for the election of the first ccNSO Council. In addition, Peter Dengate Thrush, on behalf of the ccNSO launching group made initial proposals for amendments of the Bylaws.
   IANA Function

5. Dr Paul Twomey and ICANN Staff made a presentation of the IANA.s Process for Root Management requests and confirmed the work in progress to improve those processes.

6. Notably IANA's new workflow software system should allow some online, secure automatic changes to the IANA ccTLD database. http://www.iana.org/root-management.htm

   ISO3166 Maintenance Agency

7. Willie Black (.uk) explain the role of the ISO3166 Maintenance Agency and gave an update on the current status of "CS" code element (formerly assigned to Czechoslovakia, proposed for re-use by Serbia and Montenegro). Elisabeth Porteneuve (.fr) give an update from the ISO3166/MA Secretary on the possible amendments to rules governing ISO's country code standard the ISO 3166/MA to lengthen the period of non-use before re-assignment of ISO3166-1 codes.

   Whois session with GNSO Council representatives

8. A useful and fruitful information session was held at which some ccTLD managers briefed the GNSO representatives about whois implementations and data protection law in various countries.

   GAC Principles

9. The ccTLDs welcomed the opportunity to send representatives to a session with the GAC ccTLD Working Group, to start the consultation on the forthcoming revision of the GAC ccTLD Principles.

   Presentations by other Registries and the Arabic ccTLD Organisation

10. Presentations were given concerning the history and organisation of the management of the .ke, .sd, .sn and.za registries from Africa and by the .ht registry from the Caribbean. These presentations stimulated very interesting discussions. A report was received concerning the Arabic ccTLD Organisation, in formation.

    IDN Status, Wildcards, VoIP and ENUM

11. Dr Young Eum Lee (.kr) provided an update to members concerning IDNS. Geoff Sisson (.uk) and John Klensin made presentations on Wildcards. Hiro Hotta (.jp) and Paul Kane (.ac) gave an update on VoIP and ENUM

    WSIS Geneva 2003 / Tunis 2005

12. The ccTLDs recognised the importance of the two phases of the World Summit on Information Society in Geneva in December 2003 and in Tunis in 2005. It was agreed that ccTLDs should continue their common efforts to make their country delegations more aware of the benefits of the current bottom up, self regulating and stable technical coordination of the Internet.

    The ccTLD Secretariat

13. After presentations from Elisabeth Porteneuve (.fr), Nigel Roberts (.gg) and Peter Dengate Thrush (.nz), the ccTLD members present expressed their support for an impartial ccTLD Secretariat that is able to cover ccTLD's needs such as meetings, website and ccNSO.

Thursday, 30 October 2003