[bc-gnso] GNSO Shelves New gTLD Work Due to Lack of Staff Support

[Phil Corwin <pcorwin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI--Would appreciate any additional insights from BC members who participated 
in or observed the GNSO Council meeting --



http://domainincite.com/icann-staff-swamped/



ICANN<http://domainincite.com/icann-staff-swamped/> staff 
swamped<http://domainincite.com/icann-staff-swamped/>
Kevin Murphy<http://domainincite.com/about>, January 14, 2011, 16:13:16 (UTC), 
Domain Policy<http://domainincite.com/category/domain-policy/>

ICANN’s board of directors is giving its staff and policy-making bodies more 
work than they can handle.

The GNSO Council yesterday voted to shelve board-requested work on the new top 
level domains program because no ICANN staffers have the time to help 
coordinate the project.

Last month, the board 
asked<http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-10dec10-en.htm#6> the GNSO 
and other constituencies to come up with ideas, before mid-March, about how to 
measure the consumer benefits of new TLDs after they launch.

But the Council yesterday was faced with having to suspend other policy 
development, in order to get the required staff support, so decided instead to 
defer the new work.

A senior ICANN executive at the meeting said that ICANN staff is “not an 
unlimited resource” and has “no bandwidth to keep taking these projects”.

This has apparently been an issue for over a year.

In this particular instance, the problem project comprised part of ICANN’s 
obligations under its Affirmation of Commitments with the US government, so 
it’s not trivial stuff.

As others have 
noted<http://domainnamewire.com/2010/08/13/icann-community-faces-policy-overload/>,
 sometimes the amount of policy development going on in ICANN can appear 
overwhelming to outsiders, but it seems that this problem also extends to ICANN 
internally.



Philip S. Corwin
Partner
Butera & Andrews
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20004

202-347-6875 (office)

202-347-6876 (fax)

202-255-6172 (cell)

"Luck is the residue of design." -- Branch Rickey