General Guidelines for Chatrooms

Please be advised that comments made in chatrooms are subject to the Expected Standards of Behaviour which are a part of the Accountability and Transparency Frameworks and Principles adopted by the Board of ICANN on 15th February 2008. These may be found at http://www.icann.org/en/accountability/frameworks-principles/community.htm#f, and are reproduced below.

Chatroom participants who behave in a manner that is clearly in breach of these standards may be removed from the chatroom without warning depending upon the seriousness of the breach as perceived by those staff attending the chatroom.

If you are excluded, asked to desist in making certain comments, and believe the exclusion or request to desist was not reasonable, you are entitled to ask the Ombudsman of ICANN to review the matter. You may find more information about the Ombudsman here: http://www.icann.org/ombudsman/.

Remote Intervention Guidelines

In order to ensure that the maximum numbers of remote participants are able to have their views expressed in a session, please be aware of the following:

1. Remote and in-room interventions are treated equally. This means, for example, that just as in-room comments or questions are generally preceded by the person stating their name and affiliation, the same is expected of remote interventions.
2. If you are in a session which does not have a form to use to submit questions, you'll want to enter your question or comment in the chatroom for the session. Please precede it with "Question" or "Statement". Don't forget to include your name and affiliation.
3. If a time limit is imposed on interventions made in person, those same limits are applicable to Remote interventions.
4. All interventions, remote and in-person, are subject to same standards of behaviour as are other interactions within ICANN's processes. You may find the Expected Standards of Behaviour at http://www.icann.org/en/accountability/frameworks-principles/community.htm#f; these are also reproduced directly below. Remote Interventions which are in breach of these standards, in the judgment of the chat attendant, will not be read out.

Accountability and Transparency Frameworks and Principles
Expected Standards of Behaviour

Those who take part in ICANN multi-stakeholder process including Board, staff and all those involved in Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee councils undertake to:

• Act in accordance with ICANN's Bylaws. In particular, participants undertake to act within the mission of ICANN and in the spirit of the values contained in the Bylaws.
• Adhere to the conflict of interest policy laid out in the Bylaws.
• Treat all members of the ICANN community equally, irrespective of nationality, gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or beliefs, disability, age, or sexual orientation; members of the ICANN community should treat each other with civility both face to face and online.
• Act in a reasonable and informed manner when participating in policy development and decision-making processes. This includes regularly attending all scheduled meetings and exercising independent judgment based solely on what is in the overall best interest of Internet users and the stability and security of the Internet's system of unique identifiers, irrespective of personal interests and the interests of the entity to which an individual might owe their appointment.
• Listen to the views of all stakeholders when considering policy issues. ICANN is a unique multi-stakeholder environment. Those who take part in the ICANN process must acknowledge the importance of all stakeholders and seek to understand their points of view.
• Work to build consensus with other stakeholders in order to find solutions to the issues that fall within the areas of ICANN's responsibility. The ICANN model is based on a bottom-up, consensus driven approach to policy development. Those who take part in the ICANN process must take responsibility for ensuring the success of the model by trying to build consensus with other participants.
• Act in accordance with ICANN policies.
• Protect the organization's assets and ensure their efficient and effective use.
• Act fairly and in good faith with other participants in the ICANN process.