The Real Test

So I'm Executive Officer and VP Corporate Affairs for ICANN and I'm tasked with improving our communications amongst other things. In another forum Keiren McCarthy says: 'the real test will come in whether the ICANN staff start using it (this remote site). ICANN is still in under-fire mode (although it has started relaxing a little following the JPA) and the staff have a slight bunker mentality. I just hope that they start interacting with the community and in return the community gives them a fair hearing. If the site can solve one problem that wouldn

I don't agree

I do not and was not agreeing that the ICANN staff have a bunker mentality.

Bunker mentality and being too defensive

I agree that sometimes ICANN staff appear to have a bunker mentality. This leads to people being defensive even when they are not being attacked.

As a journalist, my reflex action is to start digging if an interviewee starts defending a position that has not been attacked. It leads one to suspect that she might be hiding something.

Steven Lang
Highway Africa News Agency

I agree

Yes Joi that was my point too. Agree about the worth of it all which is why I asked Keiren to set this up. And here I am responding when I should be listening carefully to the ALAC/Board discussion which is where I am.

Me too

Yes. Me too. Parallel processing FTW or FTL depending on your perspective. I suppose that's another blog topic.

Bunker mentality

I agree about the bunker mentality and agree that it will make it easier if people are "nice". However, I think we need to be sober about this and realize that our words will be used against us, but that is the nature of debate and dialog and it's through this kind of interaction that we build trust and enhance our ability to communicate.

I am very sympathetic about the amount of time and energy required to engage, but I think it's generally worth it and would like to encourage it in any way that I can.

A few notes...

As a board member, I think this is great. It's a great start.

A few notes... I think we should have "chatrooms" and "blog" linked from the top page. Currently, it's hard to find these two important views of this site.

Chatrooms and blogs

Joichi,

I have got the chats and chatrooms higher up on the left, and have brought up blog posts above Comments on the left as well, making it more visible.

I have also added a Chatrooms section with links on the "Webcast" page. Is this now clear enough from your perspective?

I'm keen to keep as few links in the grey bar at the top as possible, and since there are not that many people yet using the chatrooms, I'd rather keep it off the top. (Of course, it could be that the fact it's not at the top is the reason that they're not being used.)

But let's try this format for the moment. I can change it again later if it's deemed not to work so well.

chatrooms and blogs

OK. Is there any chance to make the titles of those sidebar blocks clickable so they send you to the top page of these sections? Maybe that would help. I guess as a blogger/chat fiend, I just have a personal sense of priority on these sections. ;-)