First Submission by CIRA to ICANN Consultation on Meetings

["Bernard Turcotte" <bernard.turcotte@xxxxxxx>]

Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) 

 

 

 

First submission to ICANN regarding its Meeting White Paper by Susan

Crawford dated 6 November 2006

 

 

 

 

November 16, 2006

 

 

 

CIRA believes this initiative to be a good first step in dealing with the

many issues surrounding the ICANN Meetings as well as the suggestions it

made regarding the structure of ICANN meetings at the Public Forum of the

Marrakech meeting.

 

We have noted and appreciate that the schedule of the Sao Paulo meeting has

been adjusted to provide the President's Report and a Public Forum at the

beginning of the sessions. We believe these changes will benefit all

participants.

 

We find the paper produced by S. Crawford to be excellent as it concisely

and honestly presents issues, questions, problems and positions related to

this matter in plain language. The practice of providing this type of

quality document needs to become a standard for ICANN in its public

consultations if it expects to engage its communities in a true dialogue and

earn their trust.

 

Many of the subjects that are discussed in this paper are fundamentally

linked to the issues of Transparency and Accountability and as such this

consultation should probably be extended to close at the San Juan meeting so

it can benefit from the results of the Transparency and Accountability

Consultation process that is currently active and due to terminate at the

Lisbon meeting.

 

CIRA as the host of the 2003 Montreal Meeting and Main Sponsor of the 2005

Vancouver meeting looks forward to contributing to this discussion in its

next submission.

 

We are however concerned with the lack of structure and formal process

associated with this consultation process. The issues of structure and

formal process are directly linked to Transparency and Accountability and 

can have a significant negative impact on participation (such as the single

comment received on the initial Strategic Plan Consultation

http://forum.icann.org/lists/stratplan-questions/ ).

 

It is in this context that we make the following suggestions to ICANN with

respect to elaborating a formal public consultation process (many if not all

of these should be part of any Transparency and Accountability Management

Operating Principles):

 

- Adopt and publish clear standards for public consultations which include

minimum timelines, formal description of the process (including the going

forward results of the consultation), background and expectations documents,

formal announcement requirements and publication of a summary of the

results.

 

- Create a specific area within the ICANN web site where all ICANN Public

Consultations reside. This area should include all active and archived

consultations, and be structured to provide easy access to all documents

associated with a consultation as well as a clear Status indicator.

 

- For each consultation produce a process document that clearly presents

start and end dates, what issues are being considered, list all input

documents/papers/questionnaires related to the consultation, methods of

participation and list all related activities (conference calls, special

sessions, workshops ...).

 

- Provide a quality background document that clearly sets out the issues,

questions, proposals and possible impacts.

 

- Create a mailing list of people who wish to be notified directly by ICANN

of new consultations or updates to existing or closed consultations.

 

- List all submissions to the consultation.

 

- After completion of the consultation provide a summary of the inputs.

 

- Provide a Next Steps process description following the consultation.

 

This type of process would provide ICANN with an excellent framework to

encourage its communities of interest to participate in its various public

consultations.

 

Bernard Turcotte

 

President and CEO

 

Canadian Internet Registration Authority

(CIRA)