ICANN Announcements

Read ICANN Announcements to stay informed of the latest policymaking activities, regional events, and more.

GNSO Review 360 Assessment: Participate and Make Your Voice Heard!

5 August 2014

In addition to the U.N. six languages, this content is also available in

Participate in the GNSO Review 360 Assessment!

The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) serves an important function – it is responsible for developing and recommending to the ICANN Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains.

The GNSO Review is part of ICANN's commitment to continuous improvement, accountability and transparency. It uses mechanisms and measures to maintain public confidence in the viability, reliability and accountability of ICANN.

ICANN's Bylaws1 require that its structures, including the GNSO, be reviewed on a five-year cycle. The purpose of the review is to evaluate organizational effectiveness of the GNSO, acknowledge areas that are working well, identify areas that need improvement and affect needed changes.

The quality, validity and acceptance of the GNSO Review and the resulting improvements depend on relevant and useful feedback from a diverse and representative group of people. This is the cornerstone of ICANN's bottom-up multistakeholder model.

The 360 Assessment, a new component within the organizational reviews, is designed to gather data for an independent examiner, Westlake Governance, to use in the review process and may also inform GNSO self-improvement efforts.

The 360 Assessment is an easy-to-use online tool for the GNSO community, other ICANN structures and community members, the Board and staff to provide valuable feedback to the independent examiner.

To participate in this survey and make your voice heard, please click here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNSOREVIEW360SURVEY.

The 360 Assessment will be live from 4-August-2014 23:59 UTC to 17-October-2014 23:59 UTC.

Translated versions of the survey are available below.

To contact the Independent Examiner with any questions or comments, please email Westlake Governance at the following email address: gnsoreview@westlakegovernance.com.

Informational Webinars

We will hold two webinars to provide an overview of what the 360 Assessment is, how to participate and how it fits into the GNSO Review process, on the following dates:

Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2014 Time: 19:00-19:30 UTC (time converter: http://goo.gl/kJvuIm)
Date: Wednesday, 13 August 2014 Time: 14:00-14:30 UTC (time converter: http://goo.gl/UNDIsl)

The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones.

The webinar will be recorded and available for those who may not be able to join the sessions.

For additional information on these webinars, please click here.

Additional Information – GNSO Review 2014

Participation Opportunities

  Interested SOs/ACs Interested Individuals
GNSO Review Working Party
360 Assessment Participate in the 360 Assessment https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNSOREVIEW360SURVEY Participate in the 360 Assessment https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNSOREVIEW360SURVEY
Independent Examiner Provide feedback to Westlake Governance gnsoreview@westlakegovernance.com Provide feedback to Westlake Governance gnsoreview@westlakegovernance.com
Public Comment Public comment period in November 2014-January 2015 Public comment period in November 2014-January 2015
Structural Improvements Committee Provide feedback here Provide feedback here
Staff Provide feedback – larisa.gurnick@icann.org or matt.ashtiani@icann.org Provide feedback – larisa.gurnick@icann.org or matt.ashtiani@icann.org
The Domain Name Industry: Value Chain

For users wishing to view the survey before completing it, a copy of the English version of the survey can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking here [PDF, 1.03 MB].


1 Article X of ICANN Bylaws provides further detail. ICANN's Bylaws require that its structures, including the GNSO, be reviewed on a five-year cycle. According to the Bylaws, the goal of the review is "to determine (i) whether that organization has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure, and (ii) if so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness."