The Board has approved a resolution authorizing ICANN Staff to continue negotiations with ICM Registry in accord with the advice received from the public (aka the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Government Advisory Committee). By the time these negotiations conclude, it will be about a year since the Board first authorized negotiations to begin. While the Board says that this does not mean that it will approve .XXX when a final agreement it presented, I find it hard to believe that they would expend such serious staff resources on a project that ultimately was going nowhere. My understanding is that .XXX already has the votes on the Board necessary to approve it. The end game is satisfying the critics that their concerns are being addressed.