ICANN extends call on process enhancement

*Regional manager, Africa @ ICANN, Ms Anne-Rachel Inne

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has extended the initial comment period for the second phase of the public comment process enhancements by 15 days.

ITRealms Online recalls that the initial request for comments on the second phase of the process enhancement ended Friday, September, this year.

The contact person for this call at ICANN, Filiz Yilmaz, disclosed that as an initial test of the “Reply Cycle” concept introduced within this solicitation, the comment forum on this topic has been extended for an additional 15 days.

During this “Reply” period, Yilmaz noted that contributors are asked to address only previously posted comments.

“Please do not use this extension to submit new comments about the topic. For each Reply, it will be helpful to everyone for the contributor to cite the original poster’s name, comment date, and any particular text that is pertinent,” Yilmaz said.

The official also said that at the conclusion of the reply cycle, a consolidated report will incorporate both the initial comment and subsequent reply periods.

Further, ITRealms Online recollects that ICANN staff from the Policy Development Support Department had invited comments for the purpose of this solicitation is to request community feedback concerning three of the Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT) recommendations  that affect the way ICANN publishes and manages Public Comments.

These recommendations, which comprised Phase II of the Public Comments Improvement programme tend to address, stratification, which entails categorizations topics to assist the community understand the subject matter and inform a participation decision.

On the prioritization, ICANN staff explained that it would assist community members in determining the importance or urgency of a solicitation by providing key information.

While comment circles has been structured to aid the community’s input process into an initial period for submitting new comments followed by a separate reply period during which community respondents would be able to address and rebut arguments raised in opposing parties’ previous comments.

A fourth area involving, ITRealms Online gathered has to do with the technical forum improvements is also incorporated into this solicitation.

Current status of the phase I of the public comments improvement initiative was completed effective 30 June 2011 and included completely redesigned web pages, improved navigation menus, the addition of a new Upcoming Topics page, and the development of internal Staff templates to facilitate publication and ensure presentation consistency.

The Phase II improvements including Stratification, Prioritization, Comment/Reply Cycles, and Technical Forum Improvements were targeted for implementation on or before 31 December 2011.

Hence, integral to that preparation, this public comment solicitation requests community feedback concerning planned enhancements in these four areas.

Remmy Nweke
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