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Board Consideration of the Auction Proceeds Report

22 December 2020
By
Maarten Botterman

Maarten Botterman

ICANN Board Member

Maarten Botterman is an independent strategic adviser on Internet governance and related issues with more than 25 years' experience in guiding governments and major organizations on the economic, business, and societal impacts of current and future Internet innovations and technologies. During those 25-plus years, he participated in and led more than 50 international projects and studies and published more than 80 peer-reviewed reports for governments and industry on Future Net issues with teams, including experts with advanced academic degrees from many disciplines, ranging from technology and mathematics to economics and law, and from many different countries and cultures.

Maarten was employed as Head of Unit and Senior Adviser to the Dutch Government (1987–1995) and as Scientific Officer to the Communications Technology Research program that was run by the European Commission (1995–1999). These years brought many insights about the public interest and governance aspects of the developing global, networked knowledge society. These insights were further deepened when working for RAND Corporation, setting up and running an Information Society policy practice in Europe (1999–2006), with an emphasis on policy evaluation and scenario planning. Since 2006, he has been working as an independent strategic adviser to governments and businesses in close cooperation with leading independent research institutions in Europe (including RAND Europe, TNO Netherlands, DTI Danmark, Inno France, and CIVIC Germany). Today, he is internationally recognized as a governance and future Internet expert and is a regular contributor to international Internet governance events such as the Internet Governance Forum, where he is leading the Dynamic Coalition for the Internet of Things.

Next to advising the Dutch government and the European Commission on Internet governance issues, he got deeply involved in ICANN's work as a Board member and Chairman of the Public Interest Registry (2008–2016), over time actively participating in more than 40 ICANN meetings. Having worked internationally since 1995, he has extensive experience in working with people from different national and cultural backgrounds, and is comfortable in engaging in English, German, French, and Dutch (mother tongue). He has a reputation as an independent, trustworthy, out-of-the-box thinker who is able to look at issues from several perspectives with strong awareness of the bigger picture. Having served on boards and having reported to boards, he has extensive experience with effective board governance and the responsibilities and obligations that come with a director's position on a U.S. nonprofit board. Over the years, he has been a frequent guest speaker and/or moderator, mostly at smart technology-related events.

Maarten holds an advanced degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a certified coach and has a certificate in medical-based knowledge, both of which help in better understanding of what drives people in decision-making and going through life. In addition, he has completed several board excellence trainings with internationally renowned institutions, including Harvard Business School, INSEAD, IMD, MIT, Yale School of Management, and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. His areas of interest include government, civil society, and technology.

Maarten is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board by the Nominating Committee in 2016 and served as Board Chair from 2019 until 2022. His third and final term will expire at the Annual General Meeting in 2025.

The Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP), formed in January 2017, was tasked with developing a proposal on the mechanism to allocate the proceeds generated from auctions of last resort used to resolve string contention in the New gTLD Program. The CCWG-AP submitted its Final Report to the ICANN Board for its consideration in September 2020 following review by its Chartering Organizations.

On behalf of the Board, I wish to congratulate the CCWG-AP on reaching this important milestone and thank the group’s leadership, members, and participants, who worked diligently to develop this important report. This demonstrates the strength of the multistakeholder model in action.

Given the significance of this work, I want to highlight the key elements of this proposal and update the community on next steps in the Board’s consideration of the report and recommendations.

The CCWG-AP Final Report

The Final Report includes 12 recommendations for the Board’s consideration, along with implementation guidance and related materials. The scope of the group’s work focused on the processes that will be developed in distributing the auction proceeds, not on approving specific uses or projects for allocation.

The Report recommends that the Board choose between two different mechanisms as a vehicle for the next stage in this work:

  • Mechanism A: A department dedicated to the allocation of auction proceeds is created within the ICANN organization.
  • Mechanism B: A department dedicated to the allocation of auction proceeds is created within the ICANN organization and works in collaboration with an existing non-profit.

Regardless of the mechanism chosen, the CCWG recommends several universal characteristics. These include ensuring that funds are released in tranches over a period of years, that processes are in place to ensure proceeds are used in a manner consistent with ICANN’s mission, and that the ICANN Board has legal and fiduciary oversight responsibility. A key component of the recommendations includes the establishment of an independent panel of grant-making experts who will be responsible for evaluating and selecting project applications.

Board Consideration

Now that the Board has received the Final Report, it must carefully consider the recommendations. This is the first time that the Board is considering recommendations of this nature. There is no precedent or roadmap. The Board requires additional information from ICANN org to fully understand the implications of the recommendations, as well as the differences between the proposed mechanisms.

The areas identified as key information needed to support the Board’s review of the report include:

  1. Role and responsibilities of the ICANN Board in the proposed process.
  2. Public interest considerations and service to the stated rationale for the use of the auction proceeds.
  3. Transparency to, and involvement of the community in the process.
  4. Risk identification and mitigation.
  5. Operational needs, including needed expertise and estimated resources.
  6. Process considerations, such as managing conflicts of interests, assuring ICANN’s mission is upheld, and building appropriate review and auditing functions.

At the Board’s request, ICANN org will work to answer these questions and provide additional feasibility information as part of an operational design phase over the coming months. This will inform the Board’s consideration of the Final Report.

The eventual distribution of auction proceeds presents an exceptional opportunity to make a difference in the Internet ecosystem and positively impact people across the globe in furtherance of ICANN’s mission. Along with my Board colleagues, I look forward to receiving the output of this design phase so that we can review the report formally and will continue to update the community as this work progresses towards the implementation phase of the advice given. The Board will review these recommendations and options carefully and transparently, so that next steps can be made toward the eventual distribution of the proceeds to the right recipients in an open and accountable way, in line with ICANN’s mission.

 

Authors

Maarten Botterman

Maarten Botterman

ICANN Board Member
Maarten Botterman

Maarten Botterman

ICANN Board Member

Maarten Botterman is an independent strategic adviser on Internet governance and related issues with more than 25 years' experience in guiding governments and major organizations on the economic, business, and societal impacts of current and future Internet innovations and technologies. During those 25-plus years, he participated in and led more than 50 international projects and studies and published more than 80 peer-reviewed reports for governments and industry on Future Net issues with teams, including experts with advanced academic degrees from many disciplines, ranging from technology and mathematics to economics and law, and from many different countries and cultures.

Maarten was employed as Head of Unit and Senior Adviser to the Dutch Government (1987–1995) and as Scientific Officer to the Communications Technology Research program that was run by the European Commission (1995–1999). These years brought many insights about the public interest and governance aspects of the developing global, networked knowledge society. These insights were further deepened when working for RAND Corporation, setting up and running an Information Society policy practice in Europe (1999–2006), with an emphasis on policy evaluation and scenario planning. Since 2006, he has been working as an independent strategic adviser to governments and businesses in close cooperation with leading independent research institutions in Europe (including RAND Europe, TNO Netherlands, DTI Danmark, Inno France, and CIVIC Germany). Today, he is internationally recognized as a governance and future Internet expert and is a regular contributor to international Internet governance events such as the Internet Governance Forum, where he is leading the Dynamic Coalition for the Internet of Things.

Next to advising the Dutch government and the European Commission on Internet governance issues, he got deeply involved in ICANN's work as a Board member and Chairman of the Public Interest Registry (2008–2016), over time actively participating in more than 40 ICANN meetings. Having worked internationally since 1995, he has extensive experience in working with people from different national and cultural backgrounds, and is comfortable in engaging in English, German, French, and Dutch (mother tongue). He has a reputation as an independent, trustworthy, out-of-the-box thinker who is able to look at issues from several perspectives with strong awareness of the bigger picture. Having served on boards and having reported to boards, he has extensive experience with effective board governance and the responsibilities and obligations that come with a director's position on a U.S. nonprofit board. Over the years, he has been a frequent guest speaker and/or moderator, mostly at smart technology-related events.

Maarten holds an advanced degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a certified coach and has a certificate in medical-based knowledge, both of which help in better understanding of what drives people in decision-making and going through life. In addition, he has completed several board excellence trainings with internationally renowned institutions, including Harvard Business School, INSEAD, IMD, MIT, Yale School of Management, and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. His areas of interest include government, civil society, and technology.

Maarten is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board by the Nominating Committee in 2016 and served as Board Chair from 2019 until 2022. His third and final term will expire at the Annual General Meeting in 2025.

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