2011-03-18 - Approval of the 2011-2014 Strategic Plan

What Stakeholders or others were consulted?

As part of this extensive review, ICANN conducted many community consultations that were held to receive input. These included meetings with the ccNSO Strategy and Operations Planning Group, GNSO leadership, ALAC, and RALOs (separately). During the recent Silicon Valley Board Workshop, the Board formed a working group that was to discuss strategic planning and to provide direction. This group is comprised of Steve Crocker, Bruce Tonkin, Katim Touray, Mike Silber, Ramaraj, Ray Plzak, Dennis Jennings (ret), and Jonne Soininen (ret).

What concerns or issues were raised by the community?

Following the public comment period (27 November 2010 - extended to 25 January 2011) and the continued consultations, the three areas outlined below where identified as being areas of concern that needed refinement.

1. Re-organization of objectives to: (a) distinguish areas of Influence versus Control, and (b) clarify levels of engagement.

Based on consultations with the Board Working Group, the language in the first sections of each of the focus areas was revised to amplify and clarify the role of ICANN's Influence versus Control in each of the strategic focus areas.

2. Establish more measurable objectives with: (a) clear definition of desired outcomes, and (b) a consistent evaluation model.

Performance metrics have been added to each focus area that provide measureable metrics to gauge ICANN's progress toward the strategic goals. Relevant comments were incorporated that added clarity to the Strategic Plan's various objectives. For example, one of the pillar labels was changed from" Consumer Choice, Competition and Innovation," to "Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice" to specifically align language with the Affirmation of Commitments; the "Healthy Internet Eco-System" was modified to "A Healthy Internet Governance Eco-System."

3. Revised and added additional wording for clarity.

Language in the prose sections that describes the objectives in more detail have been standardized and a set of more measurable strategic objectives were listed at the close of each section.

Are there Positive or Negative Community Impacts?

There are positive impacts because the Community will see in the updated Strategic Plan that their feedback was taken into account and thus the multi-stakeholder bottom-up decision-making model is being implemented. Secondly, the Strategic Plan is refined to incorporate strategic performance metrics in alignment with Community feedback and expectation.

This plan also includes 36 new performance metrics that ICANN will now carry forward into the Operations Planning process to link the Strategic Planning process to the Operating and Budget planning processes. ICANN will also need to develop the tracking and reporting mechanisms for these new performance metrics to provide greater transparency and accountability.

This year's planning process was planned to be a "dusting off" of the previous plan, but resulted in more substantial adjustments following extensive Community participation and feedback. In order to accommodate the information, the consultation process was adjusted accordingly, which delayed the timeline from a planned approval in Cartagena (December 2010) to the Silicon Valley meeting in San Francisco (March 2011).

Anticipating that future planning processes will result in similarly intensive engagements, the Strategic Planning cycle will be started earlier next year. That planning cycle will be published shortly.

The remainder of the annual planning cycle includes: approval of the Strategic Plan, incorporation of the Strategic Plan into the Operating Plan framework (currently in process), and finally development of the next fiscal year Budget (planned for approval in June). A framework of the proposed Operating Plan is posted and anticipates many features of this proposed Strategic Plan.

As part of ICANN's planning process, the adopted Strategic Plan guides the development of the FY12 Operating Plan and Budget. Historically, the Strategic Plan is important as it focuses the operating priorities for the Board, Staff and Community for the next three years.