ICANN participation

What it is | Working Group 2 will prepare a statement encapsulating the views of the At-Large community on the future structure and governance of ICANN. This is a major area of work in ICANN at the present, known as the “Improving Institutional Confidence” process.

More than two years ago, the President’s Strategy Committee (PSC) commenced a series of consultations on how to strengthen and complete the ICANN multi-stakeholder model. In addition, the recent midterm review of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between the United States Department of Commerce and ICANN produced useful comments about ICANN’s performance and future.

More information about this process may be found: http://www.icann.org/en/jpa/iic/improving-confidence-revised.htm .

Why it is important | The subject of the working group is an important one for all of ICANN’s stakeholder communities. The output of this working group will be the first major statement of At-Large focused specifically on the subject and as such will be an important contribution to the discussion in ICANN of this subject.

Who should attend? | Summit delegates who are members of this working group as well as anyone attending the Mexico City meeting interested in the subject.

Interpretation | The session will be simultaneously interpreted into English, French, and Spanish

Remote Participation Options|

• Telephonic remote participation (English only)
• Chat between remote participants and those in the room (English, Spanish, and French)

  Chatroom: http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/summit-wg2/

Instructions on how to participate remotely may be found at this URL: https://st.icann.org/alac-docs/index.cgi?remote_participation_wg2

Summit Microsite | The At-Large Summit microsite has complete information at: http://www.atlarge.icann.org/summit.

Working Group 2 Microsite | http://www.atlarge.icann.org/summit/wg/future-en.htm.

Background on At-Large Summit Working Groups

The At-Large community was surveyed in December 2008 and January 2009 and asked to choose in order of importance from amongst 15 of the most important subjects under consideration in the ICANN community today.

Their top five choices overall are the subjects for five working groups that are tasked with drafting and coming to agreement on five statements on these important subjects during the course of the Summit.

Each Summit participant has been assigned to the working group that they selected as of most interest to them; accommodations were made to ensure regional balance and address language needs.

Background: What is the “At-Large Summit”?

The Mexico City meeting is a landmark for ICANN’s At-Large community (“At-Large” is the name used for the individual Internet user community participating in ICANN).

The whole At-Large community will be meeting together face-to-face in the ‘At-Large Summit’. Approximately 90 representatives of At-Large organisations (called “At-Large Structures”) are already confirmed. You will be able to spot them easily, as each will have a ribbon indicating their status as a Summit delegate attached to their ICANN meeting badges.

The Summit is being held 28 February through 5 March 2009 at the Mexico City Sheraton and also at the nearby Melia Mexico Reforma Hotel. All ICANN meeting attendees are invited and encouraged to attend the sessions, all of which are open to everyone.

As proposed by the At-Large community, the Summit has the following objectives:

• Develop the community’s capacity for engagement in ICANN by increasing its knowledge and understanding of the key issues confronting ICANN and ICANN’s roles and responsibilities;
• Provide an opportunity for the community to finalise and present its advice on some of the most important issues facing the ICANN community today; and last but not least,
• Highlight the successes of the community in recent years and build upon them to ensure that the interests of the world’s more than 1 billion individual Internet users are well represented in the development of Internet name and number policy.