Public Participation Committee (PPC) Minutes 7 April 2010

PPC Attendees: Jean-Jacques Subrenat – Chair; Thomas Narten, Gonzalo Navarro, Vanda Scartezini, and Katim Touray

Staff Attendees: Doug Brent – Chief Operating Officer; Nick Ashton Hart, Samantha Eisner, Diane Schroeder, Amy Stathos and Nick Tomasso

---

The following is a summary of discussions, actions taken and actions identified:

1. Received a report from staff regarding remote participation at ICANN’s international meeting in Nairobi and improvements underway for remote participation at the upcoming international meeting in Brussels. The PPC addressed the need to have community and staff adherence to the 15 working day advance-posting deadline recently approved by the Board, including session and agenda information. The PPC also discussed the need to better address the issue of late requests for addition of sessions, as significant changes to the schedule make it difficult for participants to properly evaluate the import of attendance; and discussed the need to have a senior staff person taking responsibility for accepting late changes to the agenda, and the COO confirmed that he would play that role.
   • Actions:
     • Staff to continue work on improvements to remote participation for the Brussels meeting.
     • Staff to coordinate the use of a simultaneous distance interpretation service (the interpreters will not be physically present in the main location of the meeting) for the next PPC telephonic meeting, similar to the services currently used by the At-Large, to provide the PPC with experience and familiarity with potential technologies to facilitate broader participation within ICANN.
     • PPC members to provide staff with additional comments or suggestions on this topic via email.
2. Discussed a proposal to make an administrative change to the meeting location selection process to create objective criteria for the ICANN evaluation and selection of meeting locations and reduce reliance on the current bidding process while still retaining the principles of geographic rotation and the receipt of community proposals for meeting locations. The administrative change is recommended to allow for ICANN to select sites that can adequately support an ICANN meeting, including location and cost factors for both ICANN and participants. The PPC stressed the need to present clear criteria for the community to facilitate understanding of ICANN’s selection process.
   • Actions:
     • Staff to create a list of criteria necessary for a successful ICANN meeting location.
     • Staff to revise proposal in line with PPC comments.
     • Once the criteria are finalized and approved, staff is to post the criteria for information, and to include a reference to the forthcoming meeting consultation that will be posted for public comment.
3. Discussed the finalization of the survey on Meetings for the Next Decade that is to be posted for public comment by the end of April 2010, so that a draft report on the consultation can be published in time for discussion at the Brussels meeting.
   • Actions:
     • PPC members to provide any additional comments or edits on the survey to staff within one day.
     • Staff to finalize survey and post for public comment by 20 April 2010.
4. Discussed the creation of a calendar for additional PPC meetings for the year.
   • Actions:
     • PPC members to review the proposed calendar and point out to staff calendar or agenda conflicts, if any.
     • Staff to work with PPC chair to finalize calendar.
     • PPC members reminded staff of the import of timely receipt of committee materials in advance of PPC meetings.