While I am unsure whether this is the best list for
doing so, I wanted to follow up on a point raised by
Marilyn Cade, I believe, during the last session of
the recent NCPH intersessional meeting in Washington.
Basically the policy says that all documents for
discussion at an ICANN international public meeting
must be published three weeks in advance. The policy
also contains the following regarding the agendas for
meetings:
“The document deadline applies to meeting agendas.
Meeting agendas are defined as an overview of all
public sessions taking place within the conference
venue, both in the days before the official opening
ceremony and after the final Board meeting.
That overview should include:
• a breakdown of topics to be discussed
• a list of speakers/panelists split up according
to relevant subject
• an explanation of the session’s goals and
expected outcomes
Hyperlinks to relevant documentation”
ICANN’s compliance with this policy over the years
has been erratic at best. For most meetings, most
documents are published by (or near) the three-week
advance deadline. For some meetings, important
documents do not appear until well after the deadline.
(The upcoming Singapore meeting falls into the latter
category, in my opinion.)
The point that was raised at our intersessional was
about agendas. For this upcoming meeting, the “full
schedule” was published right around the 3-week
deadline (which was January 19, I believe). But that
schedule contained nothing beyond session titles,
dates, times and venues. None of the bulleted items
above were provided for any session. (By now, some
material referenced in the bullets has been published
for some sessions.)
I don’t think this is technical concern or a matter
of nitpicking. Without advance dissemination of key
documents and meaningful scheduling information, it is
impossible to prepare effectively for these meetings;
to encourage others (especially newcomers)
to attend the meetings; or to achieve at these
meetings more than a fraction of what we should be
seeking to achieve.
I have raised this concern at several ICANN public
meetings in the past and plan to do so in appropriate
fora in Singapore. I encourage others from both sides
of our house to do so as well.
Steve Metalitz, IPC Acting President