Re: [council] Managing the run-up to ICANN meetings

[Stéphane Van Gelder <stephane.vangelder@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Thomas.

Yes, let's try and discuss in Prague.

Stéphane Van Gelder
Directeur Général / General manager
INDOM Group NBT France
----------------
Head of Domain Operations
Group NBT

Le 6 juin 2012 à 22:08, Thomas Rickert a écrit :

> 
> Stéphane,
> thanks for sharing your thoughts and also for the article that contains 
> various points that help stimulate a discussion.
> 
> I guess this is not off topic, but most relevant - at least I am suffering 
> from the bulk of information. 
> 
> There is a risk of the quality of our work being affected by this and factors 
> such as this do not make it particularly attractive for members of the 
> community to participate. 
> Also, the reputation of the organisation as such may suffer when the outside 
> world considers it unlikely that decision-makers are fully aware of all 
> information that is the basis for a discussion. 
> 
> If there is time for us to discuss this f2f in Prague, we should do that. You 
> say that ICANN does not properly manage the release of documents. But, who is 
> ICANN - aren't we part of the problem if we do not come up with constructive 
> proposals as a community how things can be improved?
> 
> Best,
> Thomas
> 
> 
> 
> Am 06.06.2012 um 12:24 schrieb Stéphane Van Gelder:
> 
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> In the interest of full transparency, I wanted to inform you of a Circle ID 
>> article that I wrote: 
>> http://www.circleid.com/posts/20120605_icann_gets_crazy_again/
>> 
>> You've heard me speak of the potential for volunteer burn-out many times in 
>> the past. You've also heard me moan about the lack of pre-planning on 
>> document roll out by ICANN. This post is also voicing my opinion that the 
>> current trend is making it difficult for volunteer bodies like ours to 
>> adequately look at all issues when making policy.
>> 
>> In actual fact, my main worry is with the Board. I am told that they get 
>> about 3 times the volume of documents to read in the run-up to ICANN 
>> meetings that we as community members get. So does that mean we're asking 
>> Board members to get to grips with so much reports and briefings and 
>> documents, and then expecting them to make quality decisions? If that's the 
>> case, I think we are asking too much of them.
>> 
>> I note with interest a couple of the comments posted in response to this 
>> article. Avri's comments, for example, rightly point out that some of these 
>> reports do not require us to read every single page. However, I do think 
>> that is an insider's POV, and one that is deeply involved with ICANN like 
>> Avri is and has her depth of knowledge of the issues. I would wager that 
>> with so much going on, most of us need to read a full report just to remind 
>> ourselves of the subject matter's past history.
>> 
>> I was also interested to read Kieren's comments, because I think he hits the 
>> nail on the head when he says that because there is a 15-day deadline for 
>> document publication, everything tends to come out on that deadline. I agree 
>> with him that if we are able to plan ahead more and better pre-plan, we 
>> would not end up with more than 700 pages of reading to do before we all 
>> congregate for what remains the most important item on the ICANN yearly 
>> calendar: the ICANN meeting. After all, it is in these face-to-face meetings 
>> that a lot of the crucial ICANN decisions get shaped, if not taken, so it is 
>> important that they are based on people having had sufficient time to take 
>> in and digest the documents that provide the context for them.
>> 
>> I hope you do not feel this email is off topic. I think this is at the heart 
>> of what we do at ICANN, which is to constantly strive to do the best we can 
>> when weighing the issues that we deal with at ICANN.
>> 
>> I would love to hear your views on this, not just as a Council, but also as 
>> individual ICANN volunteers who all have to face the same problems that are 
>> being described here: that of what bandwidth you have available to deal with 
>> ICANN-related stuff in a way which you feel does credit to the organization 
>> and what it is tasked with doing.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Stéphane Van Gelder
>> Directeur Général / General manager
>> INDOM Group NBT France
>> ----------------
>> Head of Domain Operations
>> Group NBT
>> 
>> 
> 
>