Evolving ICANN's Mutlistakeholder Model (MSM) process is about strengthening our open and inclusive bottom-up model of governance and policy-making. As one part of ICANN's Strategic Objective on Governance in the Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025, the aim of Evolving ICANN's MSM's is to identify the work that we need to do to ensure that ICANN's MSM is working effectively and efficiently, and serving the ICANN community, the Internet and the world well into the future. To move this work forward, a public comment proceeding was opened today for input on the issues to be addressed in an eventual Work Plan.
At ICANN65 in Marrakech, the Evolving ICANN's MSM process turned its focus to developing a Work Plan for 2021 -2025. In the first phase of Evolving ICANN's MSM, the community identified a list of issues that it believes are hampering the more effective and efficient functioning of ICANN's MSM. The Issues List was prioritized and consolidated through community input. The completed work plan will become part of the Five-Year Operating Plan.
The work plan will capture, through community input, four items:
- The issues to be addressed.
- The entity who will develop and propose a solution to the issue (e.g. Advisory Committee, Supporting Organization, community, ICANN Board, ICANN organization).
- The projected time frame when the "owner" of that task will deliver a proposed solution within the Strategic Plan's Fiscal Years 2021-2025 time frame; and
- The resources the task owner will need to develop and propose a solution to the issue.
A number of community members at ICANN65 asked how we can ensure that the Evolving ICANN's MSM Work Plan would not duplicate other, ongoing work in the community. This is an important question given the current amount of ongoing work in the community, and the clear signal from the community that resources are stretched thin and volunteer burnout is real.
The best way to avoid duplicating work is to take stock of any work already undertaken in the community that could potentially address issues identified by the community. There is no point in reinventing the wheel. Also, we need to take into account work streams that are in the process of developing potential solutions to the issues identified by community input, such as the Third Accountability and Transparency Review and the Generic Names Supporting Organization's PDP 3.0 plan.
With some thoughtful analysis and working together, the community, Board and organization can create a Work Plan that will address these issues and improve the functioning of ICANN's MSM for years to come.
To follow the discussion on this topic, please join the Evolving ICANN's MSM mailing list here and look for updates on the project on this page.