The Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) has organized and is holding a policy workshop, One World, One Internet? New gTLDs & Competition in a Changing Global Environment, next week in Beijing at ICANN-46.  The program, which brings together top Western and Chinese experts, will explore pressures for integration versus fragmentation of the Internet and implications for ICANN, as well as different competition and regulation perspectives as they relate to new gTLDs.

The workshop will be held on Wednesday April 10, 2013 from 13:00 to 15:00 (Beijing time, click here for your local time) in Function Room 8AB of the Beijing International Hotel. The workshop is open to everyone and is free to attend. However, for planning purposes, we ask that you please register. Interpretation and remote participation facilities will be provided by ICANN, more details are available on their website. 

Please also join us the preceding day for a NCUC Outreach Cocktail, which will be held Tuesday April 9 2013 from 18:00-19:00 in the Grand Hall Foyer B. Many thanks to our event sponsors, including CGI.br, Public Internet Registry, and the Internet Society.

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NCUC's Constituency Day meeting will be held from 9:00 − 12:30 Beijing time (UTC/GMT +8 hours) on Tuesday 9 April.  A draft agenda is accessible from https://community.icann.org/display/gnsocouncilmeetings/NCUC+Beijing+Meeting+2013-04-09. 

We will be devoting a majority of our time in the NCUC meeting to our new constituency building efforts, e.g. revamping our electronic platforms and bylaws, as well as our policy conference programming activities, finances, inreach/outreach plans, etc.  The bylaws discussion will also provide an opportunity to consider some larger questions about NCUC's mission and activities going forward.  We hope folks will decide to join us;  staff will post the remote participation information (Adobe Connect link and telephone bridge) at the http://beijing46.icann.org/node/37083 after the holidays.

Most substantive policy discussions related to the GNSO Council meeting etc. will take place in the NCSG PC and NCSG Constituency Day meetings.

The Non-Contracted Parties House (NCPH) will hold an Inter-sessional Meeting at the ICANN Headquarters in Los Angeles on 29-30th January 2013. The full agenda is available here. NCUC's newly elected Executive Committee and Chair will be attending in person.  This meeting that brings together all stakeholders that are not contracted with ICANN such as the Internet Service Providers, Commercial stakeholder Group, Non Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) and its constituencies including Non Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC), Non Profit Operational Concerns (NPOC) and others aims at addressing various concerns and offers them a voice as part of ICANN's multi-stakeholder approach. Some of the topics to be covered include:

• RAA Negotiation Briefing and Discussion
• WHOIS Initiatives Briefing and Discussion
• New gTLDs
• Internet Governance Landscape
• Community Needs
• GNSO Toolkit Phase 2
• FY14 Budget Discussion
• And others.

Remote participation will be available, dial-in information will be posted at  https://community.icann.org/display/ncph/InterSessional+-+January+2013 along with other meeting details.…

The GNSO Council formed a Working Group of interested stakeholders and Stakeholder Group / Constituency representatives, to collaborate broadly with knowledgeable individuals and organizations, in order to consider recommendations in relation to ‘thick’ Whois.

Part of the working group’s effort was to incorporate ideas and suggestions gathered from Stakeholder Groups, Constituencies. Thisis the NCUC response to this call.

Click here to download the NCUC input to thickWHois Working Group. This response was also endorsed and adopted by the NCSG.