On 2025-05-02 03:56, anil Jain via UA-discuss wrote:
Dear UA community members, Please recall my earlier email updating you all regarding resolution by ICANN Board praising efforts of UASG in last 10 years in ICANN82 at Seattle. In continuous to that ICANN Org has issued following blog for your information. Universal Acceptance: Aligning Resources and the Path Forward <https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/universal-acceptance-aligning-resourc...> icann.org <https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/universal-acceptance-aligning-resourc...> favicon.ico <https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/universal-acceptance-aligning-resourc...>
<https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/universal-acceptance-aligning-resourc...>
For those of you who would be glad not to click through the link, I will summarise what jumped out at me from this blog post. It is by Kurtis Lindqvist, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN. "Notably, many software developers, email service providers, businesses, and governments are now aware of UA and aiming to become UA-ready. Concurrently, ICANN has increased its staff to support technical work for this evolving dynamic.… [T]he focus [is] changing to implementation work…." "ICANN will no longer provide funding or staff support to the UASG after June 2025." [ICANN] "will work closely with the UASG on this transition, including ensuring the document library and other valuable resources remain readily available." "We plan to continue to support the UA Local Initiatives and are also looking at how the UA Ambassador program may be supported by ICANN org for technical UA training." "ICANN will continue to support UA Day, in collaboration with UNESCO, and with support from the ICANN community.… The main UA Day 2025 event <https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/register-now-apac-dns-forum-2...> will be held on 8 May in Hanoi, Vietnam." "ICANN will establish an Expert Working Group to provide guidance for ICANN's work on UA adoption. This group will include invited members and nominated representatives from Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees. Additional information will be shared within the next few weeks." Timeframe: "ICANN plans to implement several changes at the start of ICANN's 2026 fiscal year, which begins on 1 July 2025." My reaction? I am very committed to the value and importance of achieving Universal Acceptance. Shutting down UASG will not slow progress towards UA very much, because UASG has become mostly ineffective at improving UA. We spent a lot of energy on a lot of things, but improving UA was not one of them. I am grateful to the ICANN staff who have supported UASG, and I hope they find other assignments which are even more rewarding. I encourage all the UASG community members who were using UASG as their vehicle to improve the world, to keep your commitment strong, and to find different vehicles to improve the world. Your efforts still matter. And, my sleep schedule will be glad to have fewer meetings at 13:00 UTC :-). Best regards, —Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada -- --Jim DeLaHunt,jdlh@jdlh.com http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/) multilingual websites consultant, Vancouver, Canada