[ALAC] Reconfiguring the URS?

[Alan Greenberg]

The following message is from the GNSO Council 
list and has generated a lot of reaction.

To summarize: Apparently the potential providers 
of the URS (Universal Rapid Suspension System) 
have said that the described process cannot be 
done for the expected price (or even a fair 
amount higher) in the time-frame required. Some 
on the GNSO (and I) find it unusual that there 
was not at least a heads-up that this rework 
needed to be redone, and that the only formal 
indication of it was in a minor item in the 
proposed budget. And many feel that the proposed 
way of addressing the problem is unusual, to say the least.

For a more complete summary of my views on this, 
see (including one from me - see my comment to 
the GNSO Council list at 
http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg12997.html.

Alan

>From: "Neuman, Jeff" <Jeff.Neuman at neustar.us>
>To: "council at gnso.icann.org" <council at gnso.icann.org>
>Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 14:09:09 -0400
>Subject: [council] Reconfiguring the URS?
>
>All,
>
>Thanks to Phil Corwin for catching this, but 
>buried in the new budget document 
>(<http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/op-budget-fy13-01may12-en.htm>http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/op-budget-fy13-01may12-en.htm) 
>just put out for comment is a note on 
>“reconfiguring” the URS.  Excerpt provided 
>below.   I guess they could not find any URS 
>providers that could do it for the costs that 
>they had projected, so ICANN is holding 2 
>summits to work on a new model.  My question for 
>the Council, is whether this is really a policy 
>issue that should be referred back to the GNSO 
>Community as opposed to having  ICANN on its own 
>resolving after holding 2 summits.  Given the 
>controversy around this over the past few years, 
>any tweaks to the URS should probably go back to the community in my opinion.
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) – $175K
>At present there is a significant gap between 
>the features specified for the URS procedure and 
>the desired cost. In order to bridge this gap we 
>will: hold two summit sessions to reconfigure 
>the URS to arrive at a lower cost model (one 
>session in FY12 budget and another in this FY13 
>plan), conduct a process to develop and finalize 
>URS Model in consultation with current UDRP 
>providers and community members; and conduct RFP 
>based on URS Model and select URS providers. The 
>goal is have a URS program in place and 
>providers contracted and onboard by June 2013.
>
>Jeffrey J. Neuman
>Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Business Affairs
>21575 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling, VA 20166
>Office: +1.571.434.5772  Mobile: 
>+1.202.549.5079  Fax: +1.703.738.7965 / 
><mailto:jeff.neuman at neustar.biz>jeff.neuman at neustar.biz  / www.neustar.biz