Having completed the first term of the second ICANN Policy Development Accelerator class, I am eager to share my experience and encourage other newer ICANN community members to take advantage of this valuable opportunity to learn more about ICANN policy development.
The Basics:
As the name says, the goal of the program is to accelerate the learning process on important policy topics and build connections between newcomers and experienced ICANN community members. The Accelerator is offered yearly, with each class divided into two distinct terms. The first term of each class focuses on a specific policy topic. Participants improve their knowledge about the topic through self-paced learning modules and interactive group discussions with subject matter experts.
My Experience:
In the opening session, we received an overview of ICANN policy development and the benefits of the Accelerator. We also had the chance to engage with ICANN community members directly involved in the launch of the Applicant Support Program (ASP), our specific policy topic, and explored the history of the ASP in the 2012 round of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in four modules. This was followed by Accelerator sessions in which we discussed ICANN and its history, the introduction of new gTLDs, and the creation of the ASP.
I particularly appreciated that our conversations included the personal experiences of guest speakers from the ICANN community. Avri Doria, Tracy Hackshaw, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Edmon Chung, Jonathan Zuck, Rafik Dammak, and Bolutife Adisa all shared their unique perspectives on the ASP. I learned a lot from their remarks and always felt welcome to ask for clarifications or to share my thoughts. Our first term ended with a practical assignment on how to write a Public Comment submission.
The second term is a series of live workshops based on ICANN Learn courses and is underway now. I look forward to learning how I can actively contribute to policy and advice development.
I would like to thank the dedicated ICANN organization Policy Development Support team for supporting us and the Accelerator. Devan Reed, Christian Wheeler, and Daniel Gluck did a great job planning the sessions and made it easy for speakers and participants to connect. I highly recommend the Accelerator to anyone interested in better understanding ICANN policy development, and encourage newer ICANN community members to apply to the next class when it is announced.