by Kieren McCarthy on April 10, 2009
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
by Kieren McCarthy on February 11, 2009
As explained in an earlier post, we have created an online question box for Mexico City public forums. That question box is embedded into this post so you can respond simply and directly from the ICANN blog.
The box should appear below (you may have to click on “[read the rest]“). If you have trouble viewing the box, you can access it directly on the web using this URL: http://icann.wufoo.com/forms/mexico-city-question-box/.
by Kieren McCarthy on February 11, 2009
If you were at the Cairo meeting, you will know that there was no small degree of irritation about the time that was available for the traditional open mic session on the Thursday.
If people are really keen, I can explain why that came about, but perhaps more importantly, we have ensured that there is plenty of time available at the Mexico City meeting next month for “public forum”.
In fact, there is four-and-a-half hours dedicated forum time: 90 minutes on the Monday solely covering the Applicant Guidebook; 30 minutes at the end of the Joint ACSO meeting; and two-and-a-half hours open-mic time on the Thursday.
Click here to visit the online question box
Just to be clear: this is more open-mic time than at any ICANN meeting since Vancouver in 2005, and that meeting was marked out as being where both the dotcom contract and the .xxx application were discussed. We are also starting to separate out the delivery of reports (AC/SO chairs, staff and Board Committees) from “public forum” time, meaning open microphone time. That means that open microphone time is not dependent on anything else and stands alone as dedicated time.
by Kieren McCarthy on November 2, 2008
We’re always trying to improve the quality of remote participation at ICANN meetings and tomorrow in Cairo will see a first trial of the most interactive session we have ever run.
The SSAC meeting at 11.15am local time, Monday 3 November, will be run over Adobe’s Connect software and by clicking on a simple link, in one window in your browser you should be able to:
* Watch live video of the meeting
* Hear the meeting
* Read real-time text scribing
* View the presenter’s slides as he/she goes through them
* Ask questions online, and
* Send chat messages to others online
by Kieren McCarthy on September 10, 2008
Above is a screengrab of the ICANN front page. You’ll notice that it’s slightly different. The changes are explained briefly below, but we’d like to take this opportunity to ask people to think about the future of the website - it’s overall look and it’s overall functioning.
by Kieren McCarthy on August 27, 2008
ICANN is becoming a more multilingual organization and in doing so has spent a year, with some expert help and plenty of useful feedback from the community, developing and implementing a translation programme.
We have now reached the stage where we need someone with sufficient expertise and experience to be able to oversee that programme as ICANN moves to making translation a part of its everyday processes and systems.
by Kieren McCarthy on August 25, 2008
As part of the Improving Institutional Confidence in ICANN consultation, we are holding a series of regional consultative meetings where the documents created by the President’s Strategy Committee (PSC) are outlined and attendees are given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback.
The first of these occurred last week in Montevideo at the LACNIC meeting; the second will take place in a few hours in Christchurch, New Zealand at the APNIC conference. At 1.30pm local time, for an hour and a half, in Hall C of the Christchurch Convention Centre, the issue of vital changes to be made to the ICANN model will be addressed (see below for info on other timezones).
by Kieren McCarthy on July 23, 2008
The July edition of the ICANN magazine is out, emailed to subscribers and available for review online.
Each issue covers the latest news and events, plus outlines how you can interact with the organization. This month, alongside the usual policy rundown, compliance summary, Board meeting precis, public comment digest, and blog complendium, is a briefing note for the recent Paris meeting and some early details about the Cairo meeting.
by Kieren McCarthy on July 7, 2008
The short video above was created to showcase the possibilities that now exist to communicate across languages using video and the latest transcription/translation technology.
It is open to all so that they might be able to translate the message in your language through DotSub’s easy-to-use interface. Just click here to try it out.
by Kieren McCarthy on May 21, 2008
Oggi ICANN ha attivato un sondaggio online in 11 lingue, compreso l’inglese, per agevolare la comprensione delle modalità di utilizzo, da parte della community, dei materiali disponibili in più lingue. Inoltre il sondaggio aiuterà ICANN a capire come migliorare l’accesso in più lingue alle attività dell’organizzazione.
Il sondaggio costituisce, inoltre, la base di riferimento del processo di consultazione pubblica che riguarda la bozza del Programma di traduzione ICANN . Obiettivo del programma è fornire a tutti coloro che non parlano correntemente l’inglese un livello di influenza e di partecipazione all’attività di ICANN pari a quello di chi parla correntemente l’inglese.
