There is just over a week left on the public comment period for ICANN’s operating plan and budget for next year, and we have received only a few comments so far. We encourage you to provide your input on how the organization should spend its money in FY10.

Why should you bother?

Because ICANN is responsible for the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars in the interests of the Internet community and the Internet infrastructure itself.

Many times a year ICANN is asked to explain its spending decisions. Each time we point to the Strategic Plan and Operating Plan processes to explain that the community itself has significant input how ICANN spends its money and on what. For the past two years, we have followed a process that allows over four months for the public to comment on how ICANN spends the budget.

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Two-and-a-half weeks prior to the start of the Mexico City meeting, we opened an online Question Box, where community members could very simply ask questions of ICANN’s staff and Board without having to be physically present at the various public forum and speaking into a microphone.

This approach means for more effective remote participation plus increased participation from attendees who prefer not to address a room directly – something that I have consistently heard is an issue at ICANN meetings. In total , 96 questions were asked and answered – which was no small amount of work.

We’re going to repeat the whole approach for Sydney but with two main changes. For one, I’m going to put a limit on the number of questions that people can ask. The idea of the question box is that it is an online version of the public forum i.e. you don’t have to physically stand up at the microphone.

However, it is very rare that anyone gets to ask more than two questions during a public forum, and so I think it makes sense to apply the same logic to the online version. Looking at the use of the question box this time around, all but 4 of the 36 commenters asked two questions or less.

There were also a small number of people that felt the 30-word limit on the question was a little too restrictive. And so we’ll increase it to 50 words, which should give plenty of room to comment and question.

Anyway, posted below, as well as on the Mexico City website and the main ICANN website are the responses to the 96 questions. Enjoy. And feel free to comment on the process or any of the questions below.

Kieren McCarthy
General manager of public participation, ICANN

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