Re: [council] Impact of new gTLDs - draft letter

[Thomas Rickert <rickert@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Stéphane and Mason,
thanks for your feedback. I propose we discuss your suggestions during the call 
tomorrow. 

Thanks,
Thomas

Am 11.09.2012 um 19:27 schrieb Mason Cole:

> I agree with Stephane, particularly on the resiliency point.
> 
> 
> On Sep 11, 2012, at 9:41 AM, Stéphane Van Gelder wrote:
> 
>> Thomas,
>> 
>> My thanks to you and the group for your work on this.
>> 
>> As registrar rep, please find below some proposed edits (deletes in red and 
>> double underlined, adds in blue). Basically, I do not agree that the message 
>> the Council should be giving as that of a green light to increasing budgets. 
>> If we did decide to mention budgets in this draft, we might do so with the 
>> addition that the new gTLD program will impact ICANN's budget in a very 
>> positive way.
>> 
>> However I believe that is not our call to make at this stage and that our 
>> response should be focussed on the fact that we feel the Council's current 
>> structure is resilient enough to face these coming challenges.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Stéphane Van Gelder
>> 
>> My proposed draft:
>> 
>> Dear Bertrand,
>> 
>> the GNSO Council would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide 
>> feedback to your request for input on the impact of new gTLDs on ICANN's 
>> structure.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> As you know, the Council as well as individual SGs and Constituencies have 
>> been discussing this important subject for a long time now. It has also been 
>> a topic during face to face meetings between the GNSO Council and the Board 
>> and GAC as well as with the ccNSO. Some groups have already or will respond 
>> to the Board directly and our impression is that they are confident to have 
>> taken appropriate steps to address the upcoming challenges. 
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> As far as the Council is concerned, here will most likely be quantitative 
>> and qualitative challenges. What these will be and their size can hardly be 
>> predicted. 
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> In qualitative terms, there may be new requests to form constituencies and 
>> new stakeholder groups in both houses, some of which may be 
>> re-configurations or alignments of existing groups.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Since this is an unknown factor, the effects on the democratic and 
>> participatory process of the Council and the response to that are yet to be 
>> seen. However, we would like to highlight that ICANN is already publishing 
>> information on how to participate (see 
>> http://gnso.icann.org/en/about/participation.htm) including information on 
>> how to form a Constituency. Thus, the information and processes are 
>> available to be inclusive.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> In quantitative terms, challenges are more predictable in some aspects. For 
>> sure, there will be 
>> 
>> - more attention by the general pubic and Governments;
>> 
>> - more attendants at meetings, which has an impact on sizing the venues; 
>> 
>> - more groups that need administrative and technical support;
>> 
>> - more telephone conferences with more participants and more remote 
>> participation;
>> 
>> - more documents to be produced and read; 
>> 
>> - more decisions to be made and operationalized;
>> 
>> - more contractors that need to be managed;
>> 
>> - an increased budget to be administered; the need for ever more stringent 
>> budget management and control.
>> 
>> - more compliance issues that need to be taken care of; 
>> 
>> to name but a few areas of growth.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> While ICANN should have sufficient funds to meet these challenges, growth 
>> needs to be managed carefully. More staff and other operational resources 
>> will be needed to support the community and fulfill ICANN's mission while 
>> preserving operational excellence. 
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> These quantitative challenges require managerial responses that ICANN can 
>> prepare for. Such preparations should also encompass the increased burden on 
>> volunteers to deal with even more and potentially more complex material to 
>> work on. Processes and support schemes for volunteers should be designed to 
>> best possibly avoid volunteer fatigue.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> The unknown is what new groups will be established and what their place and 
>> role in the ICANN eco system shall be. However, additions will only lead to 
>> marginal changes that can be dealt with once they are known.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> In summary, the GNSO Council believes that the current structure is 
>> resilient to respond to the challenges to come as long as ICANN provides the 
>> resources required to accommodate an increasing number of participants / 
>> stakeholders and their respective needs.  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Thank you,
>> 
>> Stéphane van Gelder
>> 
>> GNSO Chair
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Le 11 sept. 2012 à 12:01, Thomas Rickert a écrit :
>> 
>>> All, 
>>> in preparation of this week's GNSO telco, please find below the draft 
>>> letter in response to Bertrand de La Chapelle's request for input on the 
>>> impact of new gTLDs. I would like to thank Brian Winterfeldt, Joy 
>>> Liddicoat, Osvaldo Novao, Zahid Jamil, Stéphane van Gelder, Wolf-Ulrich 
>>> Knoben and Jeff Neuman for their contributions.
>>> 
>>> I am looking forward to discussing this with you.
>>> 
>>> Best regards,
>>> Thomas
>>> 
>>> Dear Bertrand,
>>> the GNSO Council would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide 
>>> feedback to your request for input on the impact of new gTLDs on ICANN's 
>>> structure.
>>>  
>>> As you know, the Council as well as individual SGs and Constituencies have 
>>> been discussing this important subject for a long time now. It has also 
>>> been a topic during face to face meetings between the GNSO Council and the 
>>> Board and GAC as well as with the ccNSO. Some groups have already or will 
>>> respond to the Board directly and our impression is that they are confident 
>>> to have taken appropriate steps to address the upcoming challenges. 
>>>  
>>> As far as the Council is concerned, here will most likely be quantitative 
>>> and qualitative challenges. What these will be and their size can hardly be 
>>> predicted. 
>>>  
>>> In qualitative terms, there may be new requests to form constituencies and 
>>> new stakeholder groups in both houses, some of which may be 
>>> re-configurations or alignments of existing groups.
>>> 
>>> Since this is an unknown factor, the effects on the democratic and 
>>> participatory process of the Council and the response to that are yet to be 
>>> seen. However, we would like to highlight that ICANN is already publishing 
>>> information on how to participate (see 
>>> http://gnso.icann.org/en/about/participation.htm) including information on 
>>> how to form a Constituency. Thus, the information and processes are 
>>> available to be inclusive.
>>>  
>>> In quantitative terms, challenges are more predictable in some aspects. For 
>>> sure, there will be 
>>> - more attention by the general pubic and Governments;
>>> - more attendants at meetings, which has an impact on sizing the venues; 
>>> - more groups that need administrative and technical support;
>>> - more telephone conferences with more participants and more remote 
>>> participation;
>>> - more documents to be produced and read; 
>>> - more decisions to be made and operationalized;
>>> - more contractors that need to be managed;
>>> - an increased budget to be administered;
>>> - more compliance issues that need to be taken care of; 
>>> to name but a few areas of growth.
>>>  
>>> While ICANN should have sufficient funds to meet these challenges, growth 
>>> needs to be managed carefully. More staff and other operational resources 
>>> will be needed to support the community and fulfill ICANN's mission while 
>>> preserving operational excellence. 
>>>  
>>> These quantitative challenges require managerial responses that ICANN can 
>>> prepare for. Such preparations should also encompass the increased burden 
>>> on volunteers to deal with even more and potentially more complex material 
>>> to work on. Processes and support schemes for volunteers should be designed 
>>> to best possibly avoid volunteer fatigue.
>>> The unknown is what new groups will be established and what their place and 
>>> role in the ICANN eco system shall be. However, additions will only lead to 
>>> marginal changes that can be dealt with once they are known.
>>>  
>>> In summary, the GNSO Council believes that the current structure is 
>>> resilient to respond to the challenges to come as long as ICANN provides 
>>> the resources required to accommodate an increasing number of participants 
>>> / stakeholders and their respective needs.  
>>> 
>>> Thank you,
>>> Stéphane van Gelder
>>> GNSO Chair
>> 
>