Generic Names Supporting Organization

Overview
The Generic Names Supporting Organization or GNSO is an ICANN organization made up of smaller constituency groups, including the Registries Stakeholder Group, the Registrars Stakeholder Group, the Commercial Stakeholder Group (made up of Commercial Business Users, Intellectual Property, and Internet Service Providers), and the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (made up of Non-Commercial Users and Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns). The GNSO council has 23 members, with 3 members from the Registries Stakeholder Group, 3 members from the Registrars Stakeholder Group, and 6 from both the Non-Commercial and Commercial Stakeholder Groups. ICANN's Nominating Committee and observers from other ICANN groups fill the remaining council positions. It replaced the Domain Name Supporting Organization in 2003.

Functions
According to ICANN's Bylaws, the GNSO was created to be a "policy-development body...which shall be responsible for developing and recommending to the ICANN Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains."
 * View a list of GNSO Upcoming Projects
 * See GNSO-recommended consensus policies
 * A few notable GNSO consensus polices are the UDRP, AGP Limits Policy, Whois Data Reminder Policy, and the Expired Registration Recovery Policy.

Policy Development Procedure
The GNSO follows a general policy development procedure timeline:
 * 1) The issue is identified, its scope is determined, and a report is requested.
 * 2) The report is issued and a drafting team is put together to develop a working group charter.
 * 3) The working group is created and eventually compiles a working group report, including recommendations for action.
 * 4) The GNSO council will then vote on the working groups' recommendations and decide whether to proceed with the policy development process.
 * 5) If approved, the council then sends the report and recommendations to the ICANN Board. If the ICANN Board approves it, the policy will become a consensus policy.
 * See a more in depth graphic representation of the GNSO's Policy Development Timeline

Working Groups

 * As stated above, during GNSO policy development procedure, working groups are formed in order to gain a deeper understanding of the topic, its relative scope, and finally to give a recommendation on whether ICANN can or should have a policy on the topic. Working groups can also be used for research and review purposes outside of the direct policy development process. Some examples of working groups are the Fast Flux Working Group (FFWG) and the Registration Abuse Policies Working Group (RAPWG).
 * View a list of Completed Working Groups and Projects
 * View a list of Active Working Groups and Projects

Additional Resources

 * Read ICANN's Bylaws for the GNSO
 * Visit the GNSO's website
 * See GNSO Working Documents

Related Articles

 * Fast Flux
 * Fake Renewal Notices
 * UDRP
 * AGP Limits Policy
 * Whois Data Reminder Policy
 * Expired Registration Recovery Policy.