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Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

STRATEGIC PLANNING CONSULTATION PROCESS FOR LUXEMBOURG

Background

ICANN has recently released its first strategic plan. Much has been learned about the planning process from that exercise. Feedback on the plan (format, use of metrics, separation of strategic and operational components) and the consultation process (timing, need for multiple languages, closer involvement of supporting organizations and advisory committees, involvement of all members and potential members of the ICANN community) were received as part of the more general consultation on the strategic plan, specific regional meetings, and during a public forum in Mar del Plata. Based on this feedback and additional knowledge regarding good planing practice in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors, staff have devised a planning process that is proposed for use in the second half of 2005 to develop the strategic plan for July 2006 – June 2010.

The key elements of this process are:

• Early consultation to establish issues that need to be addressed in the plan. This will take place at the Luxembourg meeting and subsequently through the ICANN website and potentially regional meetings. Preparation by the community for the Luxembourg consultations will be prompted through the development of thought-provoking questions prior to the meeting;
• Involvement of the ICANN Board at the beginning of the process through a strategy workshop to be held at the start of the Luxembourg meeting;
• Additional community and Board involvement throughout the process;
• Consultation in multiple languages at the Luxembourg meeting (using facilitated groupware to allow speedy collection of views from groups) and throughout the process by the distribution of working papers in multiple languages where appropriate;
• Early involvement of the supporting organizations and advisory committees in the planning process. In particular, these groups will identify their priorities for policy work, strategic issues, and anticipated implementation issues;
• A report by the President at the Luxembourg meeting to allow all members of the community to understand the current status of key initiatives;
• Ongoing involvement of supporting organizations and advisory committees in the process;
• Release of a “key priorities” document early in the process to allow feedback on the main elements of the draft plan;
• Involvement of the broader internet community through presentations on issues and proposed direction at regional and international meetings as appropriate;
• The release of a draft plan in November;
• Further multi-language consultation at the Vancouver meeting, including feedback on the strategic plan and identification of priorities for the operational plan;
• Further work with the supporting organizations and advisory committees at the Vancouver meeting to identify elements of the operational plan based on priorities developed by these groups;
• Submission of the plan to the ICANN Board in January 2006.

Details of a Proposed Consultation Process in Luxembourg

Consultation for the development of the July 2006 – June 2010 strategic plan will take place at the ICANN meeting in Luxembourg. It is suggested that the consultation process have a number of aspects:

• There will be general consultation with members of the ICANN community about the issues that they see as important for ICANN over the next five years. This consultation will be undertaken in three ways.
  • Early in the meeting, a general session will summarize and update issues not yet settled from the previous year’s planning process. Panel discussion will include ICANN Board, Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee members.
  • During the course of the meeting, a number of sessions will take place to allow individuals to make contributions. These sessions will be facilitated workshops using groupware that allows up to 25 people to contribute ideas at the one time, and then to discuss the issues that emerge. Each session will be programmed for 90 minutes. These sessions will take place in a number of languages (probably English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Arabic) with each session being run in one language. It is anticipated that there will be five English sessions, two Spanish sessions, two French sessions, one German session, one Chinese session and one Arabic session. This could be varied depending on demand. These facilitated groupware workshops will allow a far greater number of people to contribute to the process than the traditional open mike public forum. In addition, the opportunity for non-English speakers to contribute in their own language will encourage contributions from a broad cross section of the ICANN community. The focus of the sessions will be on the issues that ICANN needs to be aware of and concerned about as it prepares a plan for the next five years. The questions that will form the basis of the consultation sessions are included at the end of this document so that people can give some consideration to the issues before they arrive in Luxembourg. At registration, participants will be given the opportunity to register for one of the consultation sessions.
  • Members of the ICANN community who are not able to attend the meeting will be given the chance to contribute through a forum on the ICANN website.
• ICANN will offer consultation with the supporting organizations and advisory committee using a similar process, with sessions conducted in English. Where the supporting organization or advisory committee requests it, sessions will be run for constituency groups. In addition to obtaining views on the issues that will have an impact on ICANN over the next five years, it is hoped that the supporting organizations can provide some guidance on the policy issues that they expect to be dealing with over the next few years.
• The outputs from the general sessions and the supporting organization and advisory committee sessions will be placed in summary form in a display area in the foyer of the general meeting area and on the ICANN website. Members of the community will be able to use the forum on the website to make comments.

At the end of this consultation period, ICANN staff will prepare a summary issues paper for distribution and comment.