Dear ALAC Colleagues, Here is the follow-up draft statement for your input - comments encouraged on the wiki: <https://community.icann.org/x/1wGMAg> Urgent feedback requested. Rinalia DRAFT ALAC STATEMENT ON COMMUNITY PRIORITY EVALUATION EVALUATOR AND GUIDELINES The ALAC notes that ICANN has appointed the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as the sole new gTLD Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) panel firm and that the firm has developed a set of guidelines for CPE, which is open for stakeholder feedback from 16 August - 9 September 2013 ( http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-4-16aug13-... ). *Selection of Evaluator* We seek clarification on the following regarding the selection of the CPE panel firm: 1. Was there an open call for tender? 2. What were the selected channels for the call for tender? 3. Was the call for tender only made in the English language and targeted exclusively at the English-speaking world? 4. Were the criteria for selection published and have they changed since initial publication? 5. How many applications were considered and who made the selection decision? 6. What are the terms of the CPE service provision contract (i.e., remuneration, confidentiality clause, obligations to include certain segments of the Internet user community, etc.)? 7. Why was InterConnect Communications dropped from the CPE panel firm appointees? *Community Expertise * The ALAC has raised concerns about the sufficiency of community expertise in the CPE panel firm via our statement to the ICANN Board dated 9 August 2013 (*AL-ALAC-ST-0813-03-00-EN)*. We re-iterate our concern that the EIU may have a natural familiarity and pre-disposition toward business that may discriminate against applications emphasizing community service. We wish to stress the importance of ensuring sufficient and relevant community-related expertise among the team of evaluators conducting the CPE evaluation. We request further clarification on the EIU and its evaluation team, criteria and principles: 1. How has the EIU demonstrated its competence in evaluating proposals related to public communities? 2. How diverse is the team of EIU evaluators and how well do they match the needs of the new gTLD applications opting for CPE? 3. On “EIU evaluators are selected based on their knowledge of specific countries, regions and/or industries, as they pertain to Applications” – How would the evaluators treat applications that are global in scope and do not pertain to industries? (Example: the community of kids; the gay community). 4. On “All EIU evaluators must undergo training and be fully cognizant of all CPE requirements as listed in the Applicant Guidebook. This process will include a pilot testing process” - Who will conduct the training for the EIU evaluators? What is the level of understanding about communities among the trainers? How would understanding of what a community is be facilitated given that the Applicant Guidebook does not have a clear and agreed definition of “community”? How would the sufficiency of community expertise among the evaluators be ascertained and ensured? (Recommendation: The team of evaluators should have both a broad understanding of the Domain Name System as well as specific knowledge of the Domain Name System market in under-served communities). 5. A principle characterizing the EIU evaluation indicates that “All Applications will subsequently be reviewed by members of the core project team to verify accuracy and compliance with the AGB, and to ensure consistency of approach across all applications” – What is the recourse when these cannot be verified? *CPE Guidelines* (Awaiting community input – if any) *Additional Recommendations on the CPE* Note to the ALAC: The Community TLD Applicant Group (CTAG) is requesting for the following consideration in the CPE via a letter from the CTAG to the ICANN Vice President of gTLD Operations dated 1 August 2013. Please provide feedback on whether any of these recommendations should be included in the ALAC statement: “● Permit the expert panelists to consult with applicants for clarifications, especially when it would be significant in their grading. ● Provide a transparent result to community applicants after the CPE so they can know the criteria on which and why they did not receive the maximum score. ● Allow a community applicant that does not pass the evaluation to discuss the results with the expert panel, and allow for reconsideration by the expert panel after such discussions. ● Implement a CPE review mechanism by the NGPC for all applicants that achieved a threshold-level score in the test, but did not pass. The threshold would be determined by the NGPC.” END *Extract on the EIU from the CPE Guidelines Document as REFERENCE in reviewing the above* The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist. Through a global network of more than 900 analysts and contributors, the EIU continuously assesses political, economic, and business conditions in more than 200 countries. As the world’s leading provider of country intelligence, the EIU helps executives, governments, and institutions by providing timely, reliable, and impartial analysis. The EIU was selected as a Panel Firm for the gTLD evaluation process based on a number of criteria, including: The panel will be an internationally recognized firm or organization with significant demonstrated expertise in the evaluation and assessment of proposals in which the relationship of the proposal to a defined public or private community plays an important role. The provider must be able to convene a linguistically and culturally diverse panel capable, in the aggregate, of evaluating Applications from a wide variety of different communities. The panel must be able to exercise consistent and somewhat subjective judgment in making its evaluations in order to reach conclusions that are compelling and defensible, and The panel must be able to document the way in which it has done so in each case. The evaluation process will respect the principles of fairness, transparency, avoiding potential conflicts of interest, and non-discrimination. Consistency of approach in scoring Applications will be of particular importance. The following principles characterize the EIU evaluation process for gTLD applications: All EIU evaluators must ensure that no conflicts of interest exist. All EIU evaluators must undergo training and be fully cognizant of all CPE requirements as listed in the Applicant Guidebook. This process will include a pilot testing process. EIU evaluators are selected based on their knowledge of specific countries, regions and/or industries, as they pertain to Applications. Language skills will also considered in the selection of evaluators and the assignment of specific Applications. All applications will be evaluated and scored, in the first instance by two evaluators, working independently. All Applications will subsequently be reviewed by members of the core project team to verify accuracy and compliance with the AGB, and to ensure consistency of approach across all applications. The EIU will work closely with ICANN when questions arise and when additional information may be required to evaluate an application. The EIU will fully cooperate with ICANN’s quality control process. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ICANN At-Large Staff <staff@atlarge.icann.org> Date: Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 12:20 AM Subject: [ALAC-Announce] CALL FOR COMMENTS: ALAC Statement on the Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) Guidelines Update To: "alac-announce@atlarge-lists.icann.org" < alac-announce@atlarge-lists.icann.org> Dear All, Olivier Crépin-Leblond, Chair of the ALAC, has asked that a call for comments be made on the Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) Guidelines Update<https://community.icann.org/x/1wGMAg> that has been prepared by The Economist Intelligence Unit as well as the draft Statement. Additional information on this Statement, can be found on the At-Large Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) Guidelines Update from ICANN Workspace< https://community.icann.org/x/1wGMAg>. Please submit any comments on the workspace using the comments function by 29-August-2013 23:59 UTC. Regards, Heidi Ullrich, Silvia Vivanco, Matt Ashtiani, Gisella Gruber, Nathalie Peregrine and Julia Charvolen ICANN Policy Staff in support of ALAC E-mail: staff@atlarge.icann.org<mailto:staff@atlarge.icann.org> _______________________________________________ ALAC-Announce mailing list ALAC-Announce@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac-announce At-Large Official Site: http://www.atlarge.icann.org