LOS ANGELES – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it is seeking to identify a contractor to perform the research, analysis, and writing necessary to produce Study 1 of the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP).

Name collision refers to the situation where a name that is defined and used in one namespace may also appear in another. Users and applications intending to use a name in one namespace may attempt to use it in a different one, and unexpected behavior may result where the intended use of the name is not the same in both namespaces.

The ICANN Board asked the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) to study the impact of name collisions and advise the Board on their effects and possible mitigation. In response, SSAC started the NCAP effort and designed Study 1, the first of three name collision studies intended to address the Board's request.

The scope of NCAP Study 1 is larger than usual work undertaken by SSAC, so the ICANN organization's Office of the CTO (OCTO) is facilitating the work and is engaging a contractor to perform Study 1.

More details about NCAP and Study 1 can be found in a document written by SSAC entitled SSAC Proposal for the Name Collision Analysis Project (Revised by ICANN Office of the CTO).

This announcement is an update to the previously announced request for proposal. The deadline has been extended to 23:59 UTC on 3 August 2019.

Indications of interest should be emailed to NCAP-Study1-RFP@icann.org. Proposals should be electronically submitted by 23:59 UTC on 23 August 2019 using ICANN's sourcing tool. Access to the ICANN org sourcing tool may be requested via the same email.