[gnso-review-dt] Status Update of GNSO Review

[Jen Wolfe <jwolfe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear GNSO Review Working Party,

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!  I'd like to update you on 
the progress of the review and provide you with the revised schedule.

Westlake team will deliver the Working Text and staff will organize the wiki 
space on 2 January 2015. The wiki space is designed to capture the feedback and 
views from the GNSO Review Working Party and to facilitate the consolidation of 
our feedback.  We will have until 30 January to provide consolidated comments 
on the Working Text back to Westlake.  The revised schedule will ensure that we 
have time to review the Working Text, without interfering with everyone's 
holiday.

Two special meetings of the GNSO Review Working Party will be scheduled in 
January (staff will circulate calendar invites):

*         16 January 18:00 UTC -  Westlake Briefing of observations, analysis 
and recommendations

*         22 January 18:00 UTC  - Discussion, follow up Q&A with Westlake and 
formulation of consolidated comments

It will be very important to have full participation from the Working Party, 
representing the various stakeholder and constituency groups, to actively 
participate in providing feedback.  Providing comments on the Working Text 
allows the GNSO Review Working Party to offer feedback before it is publicly 
released and ensure any real or perceived inaccuracies are addressed, as well 
as begin to capture issues for further discussion as the Review process moves 
forward.  Westlake will then draft their report which will be posted for Public 
Comment at the end of February, for the GNSO as a whole, along with the rest of 
the ICANN community to provide feedback.

Please see the schedule below for further details. Key dates are also available 
on the GNSO Review wiki<https://community.icann.org/x/OJLhAg>.

For your reference, I am forwarding an email from Richard Westlake, which 
provides a brief overview of the status of the 360 Assessment survey, 
interviews conducted and overall review methodology.

If you have any questions or would like clarification on any issue related to 
the Review, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly and I will be 
happy to respond as quickly as possible to ensure any concerns are addressed 
prior to the release of the report.  I am happy to be available during upcoming 
Council meetings to answer questions and will look forward to a more detailed 
briefing with Council in Singapore.

Wishing you all a joyous holiday season and New Year!

Jen

GNSO Review: Important Dates

Working text for the GNSO Review Working Party and Staff for clarification and 
comments (distributed and posted on the wiki)

2 January 2015

GNSO Review Working Party working session #1 - Westlake Briefing

16 January 201518:00 UTC

GNSO Review Working Party working session #2 - discussion, Q&A

22 January 18:00 UTC

Consolidated comments on Working Text due to Westlake from GNSO Review Working 
Party and Staff

30 January

Updates and discussions during ICANN52

8-12 February; public session date TBD

Draft Report delivered by Westlake

20 February

Draft Report posted for public comment

27 February

Public Comment period (42 days)

27 February - 10 April

Final Report

30 April (tentative, depending on volume and nature of public comments)



Update from Richard Westlake

Dear Jen and Larisa,

Following recent questions about Westlake's review methods and individual 
interviews, I should like to highlight some points to reiterate why we consider 
that we have collected extensive, diverse, balanced and fact-based sets of 
data.  We have and will continue to apply our professional expertise and 
independent perspective to ensure a high-quality useful final report, and we 
note that many of our observations and recommendations will be a matter of  
informed subject judgment in addition to, and based largely on, our research 
findings.

1.       The GNSO Review Methodology formulated by the Structural Improvement 
Committee and used as the basis for the Request for Proposal, Westlake's 
response, and the Terms of Reference/Scope of Work consisted of three data 
collection mechanisms:

a.       360 Assessment designed to collect feedback from GNSO, other SOs/ACs, 
Board and Staff (quantitative and qualitative) - our primary and critical 
component. In addition (and outside the scope originally envisaged), following 
feedback and advice, we added the Supplementary Working Group 360 Assessment, 
to provide a greater depth of information on the WGs;
b.       Review of documents and records;
c.       Limited interviews to fill in the gaps.
(As you know, the GNSO Review Working Party has provided substantive feedback 
and guidance on the review methodology, including extensive input into the 
formulation of the 360 Assessment and Supplementary WG 360.)

2.       We and ICANN staff carried out extensive outreach and engagement 
efforts between July and October, to encourage participation in the 360 
Assessment, including two extensions to allow ample time for people to respond 
- see chart below.  These efforts resulted in 178 completed responses from a 
broad and diverse group of people by the time the 360 closed at the end of 
ICANN51.

3.       From the start, Westlake advocated for the interview component to be 
given more weight (both in our original response to the RfP and subsequently). 
This led to a modification in the original plans to enable our team to attend 
ICANN51, where we spoke to many people and attended many of the SG/C meetings, 
providing us with a first-hand view of GNSO proceedings.  We contacted an 
extensive list of relevant people - including some, but not all, SG/C chairs - 
before the LA meeting.  We successfully conducted interviews, in person and 
subsequently over the phone, with about 27 individuals to date and likely to 
total about 30.  Several people we contacted failed even to respond, despite 
several attempts and others have been unable to make time to speak to us.  
Since LA, we have again tried to contact several people with only limited 
response. Although we are at a very late stage, we still aim to speak to a few 
more people.

4.       Our team has reviewed extensive documents relating to the 
implementation of earlier review recommendations, along with other 
documentation, and has analysed records detailing the work of the GNSO.

5.       The data our team has gathered from these channels has been extensive 
and in our view sufficiently broad and diverse to support our observations, 
leading to findings and recommendations that we shall include in our Draft 
Report.  As a further opportunity for feedback, before we finalise our report, 
there will be additional opportunities for the GNSO and others to offer their 
views:

a.      The GNSO Review Working Party will review our Working Text and engage 
in a dialogue to clarify, expand and correct information, as appropriate.  We 
will be particularly interested in this group's feedback on the usefulness and 
practicality of our draft recommendations.
b.      An overview will be presented in a session at ICANN52 in February, with 
another opportunity to provide feedback.
c.      The formal Public Comment Period will open in February and the feedback 
will be considered as we prepare our Final Report.
d.      We will continue to work closely with the GNSO Review Working Party 
through the balance of the Review.

I trust that this information covers your questions about our methodology and 
any remaining concerns about our interviews.

Please contact me again if you need any additional information.

Have a good weekend!


Kind regards

Richard

Richard G A Westlake
Westlake Governance

GNSO Review Statistics

360 Assessment:



-- Main survey

152 completed responses



(250 started)

-- Supplementary survey (WG)

26 completed responses



(50 started)

Total

178 completed responses



60% completion rate

Interviews:

27 to date, likely total 30+
(Plus several other shorter informal discussions, mainly in LA)

GNSO Review Working Party meetings:

13

Engagement:



-- Announcements page views

1,709

-- Blog page views

2,957

Outreach:



-- Webinars

3

-- Update presentations

14

-- Blogs

2

-- Videos

2

-- FAQ Brochures and Post cards distributed at ICANN51

3,000



GNSO Review: Important Dates

Working text for Staff preparation

19 December 2014

Working text for the GNSO Review Working Party and Staff for clarification and 
comments (distributed and posted on the wiki)

2 January 2015

GNSO Review Working Party working session #1 - Westlake Briefing

16 January 201518:00UTC

GNSO Review Working Party working session #2 - discussion, Q&A

22 January 18:00 UTC

Consolidated comments on Working Text due to Westlake from GNSO Review Working 
Party and Staff

30 January

Updates and discussions during ICANN52

8-12 February; public session date TBD

Draft Report delivered by Westlake

20 February

Draft Report posted for public comment

27 February

Public Comment period (42 days)

27 February - 10 April

Final Report

30 April (tentative, depending on volume and nature of public comments)





jennifer c. WOLFE, esq., apr, SSBB
Founder & President, wolfe domain, a digital brand strategy advisory firm
513.746.2801
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