[ICANN]<http://www.icann.org/> News Alert https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-4-2014-08-25-en ________________________________ Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance Transition Update 25 August 2014 Latest Developments: FAQ and Community Wiki space for the Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance Process are published After receiving some questions following the posting of the Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance: Process and Next Steps on 14 August, ICANN has compiled an FAQ of items may be useful to community. These Frequently Asked Questions<https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/enhancing-accountability-faqs-2014-08-...> (FAQ) are to assist in your understanding of this process and of the ways you can participate, and will be updated to be responsive to community questions during the process. Additionally, a new Community Wiki space<https://community.icann.org/category/accountability> has been created to direct the community to the most updated information on the developments of the Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance Process. Read the full announcement here: https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-08-22-en Accountability & Governance Public Experts Group Announced Selected by ICANN's President and CEO, Fadi Chehadé, members of the Public Experts Group will be responsible for the selection of up to seven Advisors to sit on the Coordination Group to assure that best practices are brought from the larger global community. The members of the Public Experts Group are: * Mr. Brian Cute CEO of The Public Interest Registry and Chair of ICANN's first and second Accountability and Transparency Review Teams<https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/accountability-2012-02-25-en> (ATRT) * Ms. Jeanette Hofmann Director, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, in Berlin, Germany. She also conducts research at the Social Science Research Center Berlin. She represented the academic community as one of four co-chairs of the NETmundial Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance in São Paulo, Brazil, in April 2014 * Amb. Janis Karklins Latvian Ambassador. Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG); former Chairman of the Governmental Advisory Committee, GAC Liaison to the ICANN Board and co-selector of the ATRT1 * Hon. Lawrence E. Strickling NTIA Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Communication and Information of the U.S. Department of Commerce; and member of both ATRT1 and ATRT2 Read the full announcement here: https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-08-19-en</news/announcement-2014-08-19-en> Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance - Process and Next Steps ICANN received a total of 49 comments<http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-enhancing-accountability-06may14/> submitted during the 6 May - 27 June 2014 online public comment period, in addition to the comments received during the dedicated Enhancing ICANN Accountability session<http://london50.icann.org/en/schedule/thu-enhancing-accountability> held on 26 June 2014 at the ICANN 50 meeting in London. Those comments related to the development of the process have been considered in the refinement of the process. Many of the comments also addressed both issues for consideration for enhancements to ICANN accountability, or proposed solutions. Those issues and solutions are collected - without analysis - in a separate document for consideration by the community groups performing the work on Enhancing ICANN Accountability. The next steps in the process include formation of a modified ICANN Accountability Community Coordination Group as proposed in the original proposal<https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/enhancing-accountability-2014-05-06-en> on 6 May. Based on feedback received, the composition of the process has been modified to include two tracks: The revised process will have not one, but two community groups on Accountability and Governance: 1. ICANN Accountability & Governance Cross Community Group; and 2. ICANN Accountability & Governance Coordination Group. Read the full process here: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/process-next-steps-2014-08-14-en Background Last spring, when the community began its initial discussions on the task of transitioning NTIA's stewardship of the IANA Functions, the community raised the broader topic of the impact of the change on ICANN's accountability. What emerged was a commitment to launch a second process - parallel but interrelated with the IANA stewardship transition process - to do this work. During an extended public comment period from the beginning of May to the end of June, we received 49 comments, with a majority discussing the more substantive aspects of accountability, while some focused on the design of the review process itself. We took those comments relating to the development of the process, along with those from the community dialogues at the ICANN 50 meeting in London, and developed the accountability review process published today. The comments provided on issues for consideration for enhancements to ICANN accountability, or proposed solutions, are provided in a separate document for consideration by the community groups performing the work on Enhancing ICANN accountability. An important attribute of the IANA Stewardship Transition process and this ICANN Accountability & Governance Review process is that the work of each completes in time to meet the expectations of the IANA Functions Contract ending in September 2015. For information about the Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance Process, please visit the Community Wiki Page<https://community.icann.org/category/accountability>.