The NCUC had a lively and productive set of meetings in Capetown December 2. We had direct meetings with ICANN CEO Paul Twomey, Vice President for Policy Development Support Paul Verhoef, Board member Michael Palage, and the newly appointed Ombudsman Frank Fowlie. We also held an important joint meeting with the At Large leadership which proposed new forms of cooperation. At its business meeting in the morning, the constituency tried to identify key issues and priorities for the next year. It was agreed that the most important issue to focus on will be ICANN supervision and accountability. This includes the U.S. Department of Commerce's attempt to cut ICANN loose from its supervision MoU in 2006, but also the WSIS/WGIG processes, which may set up alternative arrangements for legitimizing and supervising ICANN. NCUC Chair Milton Mueller emphasized that the constituency needs to have clearly defined and well thought-out positions on this problem. As an action item, the group agreed to make a submission to the WGIG on process and policy regarding ICANN. This process will be used to develop and publicize a position. There was some discussion as to whether this should be a joint submisson with the At Large Advisory Committee (see discussion of joint ALAC-NCUC meeting below). The meeting spent some time discussing and updating WHOIS policy. A GNSO Task Force developed two recommendations that will be sent out for public comment. One would require "conspicuous notice" to domain name registrants of the data privacy implications of the WHOIS. (See http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois-notification-30nov04.pdf) The second defines a procedure for reconciling conflicts between national privacy laws and the WHOIS data display reqwuirements of the ICANN accreditation contract. (See http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois-tf-conflict-30nov04.pdf) The second TF recommendation ran into two forms of trouble. First, the registrars, whose representatives on the task force agreed to the procedure and in fact were defining forces in it, proved to be unable to unify around it due to rather petty competitive concerns. More disturbingly, perhaps, was that ICANN's staff registered objections to it. Apparently the ICANN General Counsel and/or staff, who were present on the conference calls developing the procedure, failed to listen to what was going on and now finds themselves "surprised." Worse, the General Counsel, and Verhoef, rather than taking the propsoal under advisement and issuing a purely legal opinion, has expressed opinions about the merit of the policy, claiming that it could be "gamed" by registrars - an opinion which is plainly false, and which suggests that they have not carefully read the proposal. The constituency did not get the results of its election from ICANNN staff yet, but since all offices were uncontested it was assumed that Robin Gross will be the new GNSO Council representative and that the new Executive committee will look like this: Chair: Milton Mueller North America: Frannie Wellings Europe: Iliya Nickelt Africa: Olivier Nzepa Latin America: Caroline Chaves Asia-Pacific: Norbert Klein Frannie Wellings pointed out that the NCUC needs to improve its web site. More current information must be maintained, and if possible a redesign conducted. The Chair promised to initiate a redesign but noted that regular updates are time-consuming and he lacks the support to do it many times. Robin Gross agreed to supply regular updates on GNSO Council meetings. The constituency will recruit new members at the Africa Electronic Privacy and Public Voice Symposium on December 6 in Capetown. A further message with accounts of our discussions with Verhoef, Twomey and Fowlie will follow. This report is my own and has not been reviewed by other participants. Others who attended are welcome to add or correct these comments. --MM