Module 4 – Communication Tools | Generic Names Supporting Organization

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Members of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) and GNSO Council frequently use certain communication and collaboration tools to stay informed and conduct GNSO business.
These include the ICANN website, newsletters and social media platforms; the GNSO website, “wiki” pages, mailing lists, newsletters, social media platforms, and teleconference services; and Adobe Connect.

The ICANN website (https://www.icann.org/) is a comprehensive source of ICANN news, information and documents.
The public is invited to comment on virtually every substantial ongoing ICANN project, including its development of policies regarding the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS). ICANN lists all topics currently open for public comment on its Public Comments – Open webpage.
See Appendix 1 for a short list of useful ICANN webpages.

ICANN publishes global newsletters targeting APAC, EMEA, LAC, and NA regions on a monthly basis. Sign up for them here.
ICANN also distributes news through additional channels, including the News Alert, Public Comment announcements, and Contractual Compliance newsletters. Sign up for them here.
You can also follow ICANN on various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The GNSO website contains a wealth of information and documents regarding the GNSO. Its homepage can be found at http://gnso.icann.org/.
Two of the site’s pages most useful to Council members are the GNSO Calendar, containing a meeting schedule and past meetings’ minutes, and the GNSO Project Status List, summarizing pending projects and Working Groups (WGs).
Other useful sections include Quick Info, News, and GNSO@ICANN Meetings.
See Appendix 2 for a short list of useful GNSO webpages.

Several GNSO Policy Development Process Working Groups and a GNSO Chartered Cross Community Working Group publish newsletters periodically to keep members and the wider ICANN Community up-to-date.
GNSO has been active on Twitter. Our handle is @ICANN_GNSO. Follow us and stay tuned for the latest GNSO Council decisions and activities, as well as news in the wider ICANN community.
Video interviews of the GNSO Council leadership and members, as well as leaders in the Policy Development Process Working Groups are published regularly on the ICANN YouTube channel. You can also locate these videos on the GNSO website homepage.

A wiki is an easily edited webpage, making it an ideal tool for multiple users collaborating on a project.
The GNSO Council, most Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies and GNSO WGs use wikis to update their members, collaborate on documents and conduct other work.
The GNSO Dashboard wiki page contains links to all other GNSO wiki pages.
See Appendix 3 for a short list of useful GNSO wiki pages.

The GNSO Council and WGs each have separate ICANN mailing lists that allow group members, along with the group’s GNSO Staff, to be e-mailed simultaneously via a single e-mail address; non-members typically cannot be “subscribed to” these lists, but as these lists are publicly archived they can be viewed by non-members.
The archives of these mailing lists are public, reflecting ICANN’s commitment to transparency; they can be accessed from the GNSO Mailing List Archives webpage.

Most GNSO Council and WG meetings are held as teleconferences, using commercial teleconference-service companies under contract to ICANN.
Participants in most countries can call into a GNSO meeting with a toll-free telephone number. Participants in countries from which a toll-free number is not available may request a “dial-out” call from the GNSO Secretariat. Either way, participants incur no telephone charges.

Adobe Connect is a web-based conferencing tool. Through Adobe Connect, participants can perform meeting tasks such as following slide presentations and sharing documents.
The GNSO Council and all GNSO WGs use Adobe Connect during their meetings, along with audio over standard telephone lines (see above).
Some of the GNSO’s Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies also use Adobe Connect during their meetings, along with standard telephone connections.
To use Adobe Connect, a meeting participant, using any Internet browser and a link provided by the GNSO Secretariat, simply “enters” the dedicated Adobe Connect “room.”