About Institutional Confidence and Involvement of Small and Medium Businesses in ICANN

["Fernando G. Guerrero" <FGuerrero@xxxxxxxxxx>]

To the ICANN Board,

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Paris ICANN meeting. As the 
owner of a small company that depends on the Internet for every aspect of its 
operation, I take great interest in the key issues before ICANN, and look 
forward to increasing my participation in the process.

I particularly appreciate the decision to hold a series of special sessions 
aimed at addressing the needs and concerns of business participants like myself 
who are new to the ICANN process. Although I am not an ICANN insider, these 
issues are no less important to me and other executives like me. Indeed, small 
businesses like mine are often the first to feel the impact of Internet policy 
changes, and as such have a vested interest in ensuring that those policies 
respect the needs and concerns of private enterprises. I hope this will be the 
first of many efforts by ICANN to include a broader cross-section of the 
business community.

With that in mind, I would like to offer a couple of recommendations to make 
this experience more useful to members of the business community who, like 
myself, are relative newcomers to the ICANN process.

First, while I appreciate the opportunity to learn about ongoing ICANN 
consultations, I believe it is even more important that ICANN hear from myself 
and other small business executives about our concerns regarding the Internet's 
addressing system. To that end, I would recommend that future sessions include 
less exposition by ICANN and encourage greater dialogue with business 
participants regarding their needs and concerns. I am sure that the business 
and Internet community at large would greatly benefit from the input of 
business executives in this process, instead of just being told about what is 
going to happen.

It is also extremely important that ICANN tell us exactly how we can 
participate in the process. It may not be the best use of our limited time for 
ICANN to tell business participants about decisions it has already made, or 
processes it has already set in motion. Rather, it would be extremely 
worthwhile for ICANN to inform us of ongoing decision-making processes, and 
provide a means to offer our direct input. If the goal of these sessions is to 
increase business participation -- as I believe it should be -- we must be 
provided with the tools to make our participation meaningful.

I would also recommend making the agendas of future business sessions with as 
much lead time as possible prior to the event. Had this session been anywhere 
other than a major European capital, I would not have been able to come on such 
short notice. Also, to encourage more meaningful participation from business I 
would strongly recommend providing considerably more detailed agendas for 
sessions, including possible discussion points and supporting documents.

I believe this increased focus on business participation is the right path for 
ICANN. Business drives innovation, growth and usage of the global Internet. 
Businesses like mine are in touch with the needs of users and should play a 
role in guiding policy development for the Internet's addressing system. I urge 
ICANN to build on the good idea represented by the Paris business sessions to 
create a forum that truly encourages meaningful business participation in the 
process.

Sincerely,



Fernando G. Guerrero
Managing Partner, Chief Executive Officer
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