Dear fellow councilors,

With apologies for the time it's taken me to send this last part, here is a summary of the ATRT2 report on the GNSO PDP. (I'm afraid I ran out of time to summarise the rest of the report.)

I hope this is useful.

Full text of the report is here: http://www.icann.org/en/about/aoc-review/atrt/draft-recommendations-15oct13-en.pdf

And the GNSO PDP part starts on page 59 of the report.

All the best, Maria

ATRT2 Report – section on GNSO PDP

The problem:

GNSO PDP is weak when it comes to resolving strong views and financial interests.

Background research

Staff paper on improving the PDP is in the works

Community input

Chairs and WG veterans stress need for F2F meetings, professional facilitators, Board involvement and for people were both for and against the Board issuing threats and deadlines.

Interconnect Report Findings

PDPs mostly done by North Americans and Europeans

Most active participants are paid to be there

Many participants dissatisfied with process, time it takes and feel it’s not worth while – one time only WG participation is typical

Culturally, PDP and WG process very Western culturally and English language based

ATRT2 Findings

Growing sense that professional facilitators are needed to help resolve difficult issues, although it may not suffice

Current model is based on email and conference calls, but F2F is more effective

Board deadlines sometimes used to overcome intractable differences, but it’s not clear how to ensure people negotiate within PDP in good faith.

Board is part of the problem: Board deadlined PDPs don’t always create good policy. Or Board says it wants a policy and decides its own response in the meantime, or Board nullifies outcomes of a PDP. This creates distrust that some in the PDP are not committed to it and will undermine outcome by lobbying Board or GAC.

ATRT2 Draft New Recommendations

ICANN should:

Fund facilitators and draft guidelines for when they can be used

Provide funding for more F2F meetings

Work with community to make PDP faster, to attract more people

The GAC should:

With the GNSO, find ways to input to WGs and to GNSO Council on draft PDP reports

The Board and GNSO should:

Start an initiative to increase participation from outside NA/Europe, non-English speaking, other cultures, people not funded by industry. Players

Also:

The Board should set procedures for what to do when the GNSO cannot come to a decision within the time, and state “under what conditions the Board believes it may alter PDP recommendations after formal Board acceptance”.

A step should be added to the PDP process where those unhappy with staff comment summary can respond.