ICANN Announcements

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Ask a Question Direct to the Board in Sydney

28 May 2009

An online question box where community members can ask questions directly to the ICANN Board and staff has opened today.

The question box will take questions until Wednesday 17 June in preparation for the public forum at ICANN’s international public meeting in Sydney on Thursday 25 June.

Anyone can ask up to two questions or 50 words in length. The question can cover any topic related to ICANN and its work. Answers will be provided either during the public forum or emailed and published in the weeks following the meeting.

You can find the form below as well as on the Sydney meeting website, the blog, and the public participation website.

Mexico City experience

The question box was attempted for the first time in Mexico City in March 2009 as a way to allow remote participants to ask questions directly of ICANN’s Board and staff for the Sydney meeting. It was also open to those that were attending the meeting in person but felt uncomfortable asking a question at the public microphone.

The box was very popular, eliciting 96 questions from 36 individuals. Answers to every question were then published on ICANN’s main website, the blog and the Mexico City meeting site.

Through the experience three changes have been made this time around:

  • Questions have been limited to two per person (the most that people in the physical public forum typically ask)
  • Permissible question length has been extended from 30 to 50 words to give people more room to frame a question
  • The deadline have been brought forward by a week to give staff and Board more time to go through the questions and prepare answers

Related links

Sydney question box:
http://icann.wufoo.com/forms/sydney-question-box/

Full response to Mexico City question box:
http://www.icann.org/en/participate/mexico-city-public-forum-response.htm