24 May 2002
(fact 5 added)

The DNSO GA is going to celebrate its 3rd Birthday on 25 May 2002.

Over three years the DNSO has been working in open and transparent way, providing the place for essential public representation in debates on ICANN policies, thanks to endless efforts of many individuals.

1. The DNSO has been formed as the result of long consultation process in 1998 and 1999, cf. http://www.dnso.org/history/www.dnso.org/

   "There is no single organization that meets the exact requirements for the Domain Name Support Organization ("DNSO") specified in the Bylaws of the reconstituted Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), also known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Therefore, such an organization must be formed."

2. The structure of the Domain Name Supporting Organization of ICANN was determined in Singapore, on 4 March 1999, see "Domain Name Supporting Organization Formation Concepts at http://www.icann.org/dnso-formation.html

3. The first General Assembly of the DNSO has been held on 25 May 1999, in Berlin, cf. http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/19990527.GAberlin.html

   The first www.dnso.org server was created on 23 September 1998 on the initiative of Amadeu Abril i Abril. Until 8 June 1999 the old www.dnso.org server was kindly hosted by the International Telecommunication Union at Geneva. Subsequent to the DNSO GA in Berlin, the new www.dnso.org server was set up on 1st June 1999 at AFNIC offices in Paris, and started operations immediately. More at http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/19990606.GAberlin-dnsoreport.html

1. In August 1999 the DNSO (NC and GA) has been providing on time the WG-A report on UDRP policies for the gTLD space http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/19990804.NCwga-to-ICANN.html

2. In September-October 1999 the DNSO (NC and GA) has been electing on time 3 ICANN Board Directors http://www.dnso.org/elections/1999.DNSO-ICANN-election-result.html.

   Since then every year the DNSO (NC and GA) elects 1 ICANN Board Director. http://www.dnso.org/elections/2000.DNSO-ICANN-election-result.html. http://www.dnso.org/elections/2001.DNSO-ICANN-election-result.html.

3. In November-December 1999 the DNSO (NC and GA) has been developing the procedures for election of the GA Chair and hold the first election http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/1999.DNSO-GAchair.html

4. In 2000 the DNSO GA has been developing its working rules and procedures, and come up with Fundamentals - Membership definition, Voting Registry and two Rules for votes by the GA:

   1. Voting Rules adopted by the GA on 6 July 2000: http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/2000.GA-voting-rules.html

   2. Election Rules (Instant Runoff) adopted by the GA on 23 March 2001: http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/2001.GA-chair-election-rules-v0.2.html

5. In June 2001 the ccTLD constituency decided to withdraw from the DNSO. It was a major step in the growth of the DNSO as the forum for gTLD issues.

   The ccTLDs provide services to their "local Internet communities", developing and funding local policies, and are accountable locally. The "local Internet communities" (private and public sectors, to which government and individuals belong), develop and manage policies within a "sovereignty" of the ccTLD space.

   For the gTLDs, it is ICANN itself which has to perform the role of the "local Internet community", bring users and producers, gTLD Registrants, gTLD Registries and gTLD Registrars together, and be accountable globaly.

   The ccTLDs bring diverse and rich expertise of their "local Internet communities" policies to the DNSO and to the ICANN melting pot. But the ccTLDs do not interefere between themselves, neither can be bound by other policies that those adopted by their "local Internet communities".

6. Between June 2000 and May 2002, 2 years time, the DNSO GA voted 12 times.

   The summary of those votes (date, electorate, participation to vote, subject, URL to the full records of vote) are provided in: http://www.dnso.org/secretariat/gavotesummary.html

7. The current status of the DNSO GA Voting Registry shows 583 persons, from 54 different countries.

   The GA Voting Registry includes members from various sectors of activity (gTLD Registries, Registrars, ccTLD Managers, Business, Universities, Telecommunication Industry, Law firms, Consumers organizations) as well as individuals.

   Some ICANN Board Directors, current or former, are on the Voting Registry records.

   The IETF Chair is on the Voting Registry records.

   One may note on the Voting Registry the participation of Ms Becky Burr, who was representing the US Government and signing the first MoU with ICANN on 25 November 1998, cf. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/icann-memorandum.htm, and in the GA archives the participation of Joe Sims, who was signatory to the same MoU on behalf of ICANN newly created.

8. The DNSO archives shows a 29 months record of participation to various DNSO GA mailing lists, week by week, at http://www.dnso.org/statistics/dnsostatistics.html

   It starts with 526 different persons in January 2000. Currently 990 persons are subscribers, following debates on Domain Names related issues in ICANN process.

9. The DNSO publishes monthly statistics of www.dnso.org usage at http://www.dnso.org/webstats/

10. The current DNSO Secretariat has been chosen by the Names Council in August 2001, subsequent to the determination by the NC of its needs, the selection process and the selection criterias. The RFP of this international bid is available at http://www.dnso.org/secretariat/2001.RFP-DNSO.html.

    The new DNSO Secretariat started to operate in October 2001, and is still awaiting the signature of contract for services with ICANN, acting as legal entity for the DNSO.

    The DNSO Secretariat operates with a budget of $60,000 per year, which is approximately 2 orders of magnitude smaller than ICANN budget. All documents, agendas, minutes and Mpeg3 recordings of the NC meetings are available in archives. The comprehensive summary of the NC meetings in 2002 is provided at http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/2002.NC-calendar.html

Elisabeth Porteneuve, the first DNSO Secretary