Minutes | Meeting of the Technical Committee of the Board (BTC) | 25 June 2024

Board Member and Liaison Attendees: Christian Kaufmann (Chair), Chris Buckridge, Nico Caballero, Edmon Chung, James Galvin, and Patricio Poblete

Board Members with Apologies: Harald Alvestrand, Alan Barrett, West Hardaker

ICANN Organization Attendees: Adiel Akplogan (VP, Technical Engagement), Franco Carrasco (Board Operations Manager), Matt Larson (VP, Research), and Sarah Zagha (Counsel)

The following is a summary of discussions, actions taken, and actions identified:

• Approval of Pending Meeting's Reports – The Committee was informed that the Preliminary Report for the 28 May 2024 meeting had been circulated, and that approval of this Preliminary Report was pending. The Committee approved the 28 May 2024 Preliminary Report during this meeting.
• Action Item Review – The Chair established the agenda for the meeting. There was one open action item discussed.
  • Action Item: ICANN org (OCTO) to research the development of ICP-3 and determine whether ICP-3 should be updated, and if so, how it should be updated, and by who (e.g. ICANN org staff) in light of alternate namespaces is open. Once ICANN org presents its findings to the Committee, the Committee will assess whether to add alternate namespaces as a standing agenda item (with regular or periodic updates) in future Committee meetings.
• The BTC and DNS Abuse – James Galvin provided the Committee with a brief history on the Board Caucus on DNS Abuse, and informed the Committee that this Board Caucus currently is winding down and will be dissolved. The Committee discussed whether it should be the technical successor to the topic of DNS Abuse (a topic that is a strategic objective and operational priority for the ICANN Board). The Chair proposed that the Committee's discussion of DNS Abuse be limited to the technical aspects of DNS Abuse, as this would seem to align with the Committee Charter. Members of the Committee agreed with limiting the scope of the Committee's discussion on DNS Abuse.
  • Action Item #1: ICANN org (OCTO) to provide the Committee with a response to whether the technical aspects of DNS Abuse falls under its remit under the BTC Charter.
  • Action Item #2: James Galvin to provide the Committee with a summary of where the Board Caucus on DNS Abuse has left off its work, and a suggestion of what the future discussions of DNS Abuse by the Committee looks like. After discussing this summary, the Committee will decide how to scope the topic of DNS Abuse, and how often to discuss the topic during Committee meetings.
• SSAC Offer to Work on Alternative Namespaces – James Galvin informed the Committee that the SSAC leadership has offered support in helping to answer any questions the Committee and the ICANN Board may have on the topic of alternate namespaces. For example, it was suggested that the SSAC can provide surveys to, and take temperature gauges of, the broader community questions that the Committee or the ICANN Board have on the topic. After some discussion with the Committee, the Chair suggested the Committee shelf the SSAC's offer until after the Committee has reviewed/discussed ICANN org's feasibility assessment on SAC 124 and the NCAP Study 2's recommendations (which is pending).
• Updates From Technical Liaisons
  • SSAC (James Galvin): The Committee was provided with several updates. First, it was noted that the SSAC is developing what is calling a 'safe cyber campaign,' which will consist, in part, of messaging to the community based on previous advice the SSAC has developed regarding improving security on the internet. Next, the Committee was reminded that the SSAC is going to have evergreen topics, and that there are five of them: (i) DNS Abuse; (ii) DNSSEC; (iii) Next Round of New gTLDs; (iv) New namespaces; (v) Internet governance (as it relates to Security, Stability and Resiliency). Regarding the DNSSEC evergreen topic, it was noted that there is a new work item under development which is re‑examining the role of DNSSEC in the future of the internet. Regarding the Internet governance evergreen topic, it was noted there is a new work item under development which is examining DNS filtering in a broad context to examine, in part, the use of DNS filtering by governments. Regarding the Next Round of New gTLDs evergreen topic, a potential new work topic was discussed – the stability and security issues of open-source software. Finally, the Committee was informed that the SSAC will be having its annual workshop in September 2024.
  • RSSAC (Wes Hardaker): Committee member Wes Hardaker was not in attendance, with apologies. Updates (if any) will be discussed at the next Committee meeting.
  • IETF (James Galvin): It was reported that the next IETF meeting (IETF 120) will be held in Vancouver in July 2024.
• Any Other Business – It was noted that the Board Paper on reserving .INTERNAL for private-use applications (which states that the Committee recommends that the Board reserve the string .INTERNAL permanently from delegation in the DNS root zone) had been approved by the Committee unanimously online.

The Chair called the meeting to a close.