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

[Mason Cole <mcole@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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
>