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QUESTIONSSACGACRrSGNCSGBCGNSORRSACBOARD
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1What relative importance does your SO/AC/group give to these seven dimensions of diversity?In its discussions on the topic of Diversity, the SSAC has concluded that all of the elements of diversity identified by the CCWG-A are of varying importance to its role, namely “to advise the ICANN community and Board on matters relating to the security and integrity of the Internet’s naming and address allocation systems”. In the following chart, the SSAC defines its terminology as follows : Primary Importance: Elements of diversity that are of greatest relevance to the SSAC role and that are to be considered before any other elements - F Secondary Importance: Elements of diversity that are of significant relevance to the SSAC role and that may be considered after those elements of primary importance have been taken into account - A, B, C, G Lesser Relevance: Elements of diversity that are of little relevance to the SSAC role and that are unlikely to be taken into account - D, EWhile the GAC seeks to respect regional diversity in its leadership positions consistent with its Operating Principles, the GAC is not structured to develop advice or make decisions along regional lines or constitutency groups. GAC representatives are appointed by member governments and observers based on a range of considerations, including skill set deemed relevant by the government/organization.; With respect to enriching the GAC membership and participation, it should be noted that we normally reach out to unrepresented governments and intergovernmental organizations and that those governments and organizations nominate/appoint their GAC representatives/observers (i.e. we reach out taking into account various diversity aspects,including geographic diversity and the need for particular expertise); Yet when GAC nominates members to other bodies within ICANN, special attention is given to A., B., C.. (i.e. diversity in Geographic/regional representation and gender); Also when voting for candidates for GAC leadership team, members consider, to the extent possible, the same diversity aspects A., B. C.. (i.e. diversity in Geographic/regional representation and gender); The GAC attaches great value to linguistic diversity. In the conduct of our own meetings interpretation in the six UN languages and Portuguese is provided as a means to foster greater participation and engagement by all members and observers. In addition, the GAC has suggested in a number of diverse instances that more attention should be given by ICANN to this aspect of diversity, e.g. when issuing important information to the community, holding public consultations, etc.The Registrar Stakeholder Group (“RrSG”) supports the need for diverse representation with the ICANN community. That said, membership within the RrSG is limited to ICANN-accredited registrars. As a result, the RrSG’s ability to diversify its membership is limited to the geographical/regional representation present within the registrars who have received accreditation from ICANN. Participation by member personnel is also limited in gender, age, physical disability, and diversity of skills to the extent those issues are represented within its member registrars. Fostering diversity is incredibly important to the NCSG. We have integrated diversity into all aspects of our work, and seek to create unique experiences for all of our members that take into account their unique characteristics, perspectives, and skills. We are also very reflective and regularly seek to do outreach with communities who are otherwise under-represented in our work. The Business Constituency (BC) strongly supports the need to increase diverse representation within the ICANN Community. The above, non-exhaustive list of elements of diversity cover areas that the BC believes is important in building an inclusive Community with a varied range of perspectives, cultural influences, skills, viewpoints and backgrounds. Specifically, of the seven dimensions of diversity, the BC is mostly concerned about geographic / regional representation, gender and skills diversities. Though its primary language of business is English, yet a number of members are multi-lingual and do meet such needs especially in BC Newsletter translation to French, Spanish and Portuguese.. gave an overview od how the GNSO is structured The independent root server operator organizations, the root zone management partner organizations and reciprocating bodies determine their representatives to RSSAC. Therefore, the RSSAC is structurally limited in its consideration of these seven dimensions of diversityThe Board’s primary concern is skill, quality and adherence to ICANN’s values and mission. The Board supports diversity inclusive of, but not limited to, the dimensions listed, and believes everyone should be treated with respect. ………………. However, with the exception of the mandate in the bylaws for specific geographic diversity, achievement of specific diversity targets is secondary to the primary concerns noted above. ----------------------------------------------------------With respect to the ICANN Ecosystem overall, people of diverse backgrounds are welcome and we support an ICANN culture inclusive of, but not limited to, the dimensions listed. Further, we believe such dimensions should not be used in any way as a basis for discrimination.
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2What, if any, additional dimensions of diversity are important to your SO/AC/group?Secondary Importance: Career background (eg public service, private sector, academia, law enforcement) Time involved in ICANN ; Lesser Relenance: Education, Sexual orientationInclusive participation; Diversity in views; Developing, developed; underserved, considering also different aspects like infrastructure, capacity, access, among others.Varying Business Models. The registrar community represents a variety of registrar business models (e.g., wholesale registrars, retail registrars, and brand protection registrars, vertically integrated registrars/registries (including brand TLDs)) which may lead to a diversity of views or approaches to registrar operations and ICANN policy development. Varying Resources. Registrar businesses vary in size and personnel resources. This may impact a registrar’s bandwidth to contribute to the ICANN community through GNSO Policy Development Process (PDP) working groups, Implementation Review Teams (IRT), and other elected or volunteer positions in the community. At times, the RrSG has faced challenges with members’ capacity to engage in elected positions as well as the multiple of PDPs, IRTs, and other volunteer work. We consider sexual orientation to be a form of diversity, and one which the ICANN community as a whole needs to do a better job of respecting. Similarly, for those from the least developed countries, we need more representation from those in less urban, more rural communities. Since the NCSG accepts individuals and organizations as members, its membership reflects a vibrant mix of diverse backgrounds, expertise, interests and work experience.Varying Types of Businesses. The Business Constituency (BC) represents the voice of commercial Internet users within ICANN. The Business Constituency’s membership represents all business and commercial users of the Internet including a variety of different business models such as ISPs, content providers, et cetera. The Business Constituency recognizes that the Internet impacts all business users, and strives to include and represent a diversity of viewpoints on the many ICANN issues in which we actively engage. Varying Sizes of Businesses. The Business Constituency’s members vary in size, revenues, and resources. A high emphasis is placed on making sure that all members have an equal opportunity to contribute to our work, to actively participate, and to ensure that their concerns are heard and addressed on key issues. We continue to reach out and grow business participation within the ICANN Community at all levels. In this regard, BC is specifically interested in entity size as a form of diversity dimension with respect to small and large companies diversities. Varying Viewpoints. Because the Business Constituency enjoys a variety of business types, we believe it is important that the ICANN Community remain inclusive of divergent viewpoints. This diversity of views fosters growth among ICANN as a whole, and we actively seek businesses from varying cultures, developed and developing nations.RSSAC states that the various aspects of diversity of root server operations are strengths of the overall system. The diversity in the following areas help strengthen the root server system: 1) diversity in funding models, 2) diversity in operational models, and 3) diversity in governance structures. In RSSAC024: Key Technical Elements of Potential Root Operators[1], the RSSAC also considers seven points of diversity relevant to the evaluation of technical elements in a potential evaluation process of root server operator organizations. These points include: 1) geographic diversity[2], 2) network provider diversity, 3) network hardware diversity, 4) server diversity, 5) operating system diversity, 6) application diversity, and 7) human diversity. People of diverse backgrounds are welcome and we support an inclusive board culture. The more diverse the Board, the more perspectives that can be brought into Board deliberations, which increases the assurance that our policies reflect respect for the views of our diverse community. However, as noted above, the Board’s primary concern regarding board members is skill, quality and adherence to ICANN’s values and mission.
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3How, if at all, does your SO/AC/group measure and track diversity issues related to its work?The SSAC’s main focus is on measuring the aspect of diversity that is of primary importance to its role, namely Diverse Skills. This element is measured in a number of ways: a. The SSAC maintains a Skills Survey proforma which identifies the skills which are needed for SSAC to perform its role ,
b. SSAC Members complete a Skills Survey on a regular basis c. SSAC Support Staff aggregate data about the skills of SSAC Members d. The SSAC Membership Committee uses data from the Skills Survey to assess
skills gaps which may be filled by potential new Members		This question needs metrics to be responded. Apart from information about attendance GAC does not measure these elements.The RrSG does not measure or track diversity issues within its work. The NCSG monitors diversity issues at the stakeholder group and constituency level, because of the varied and different memberships that each attract. The NCSG includes geographical and diversity diversity requirements on its charter for leadership positions, for example NCSG charter provision for the representation of NCSG to GNSO council (6 councillors) requires no more of 2 councillors from the same geographic region and no fewer than 2 councillors of any gender. Membership lists are public and include information such as the member’s country of residence. The NCUC takes diversity very seriously, and has an outreach committee tasked with systematically identifying those members who are less engaged in our work to try to understand why. The NCUC also has a mentorship programme which aims to upskill members who may otherwise face structural barriers to participation. We have members in leadership roles who take a keen interest in monitoring regional diversity, and conduct our outreach events and webinars in multiple languages. Diversity of regional leadership at NCUC is by design and it is incorporated in the constituencies’ bylaws to have a regionally diverse Executive Committee with an executive committee member from each region as defined by ICANN. The BC invests its own funds (US$42,250 between FY14-FY17) in addition to support from ICANN org to grow its membership diversity across geographic areas and business sizes through vigorous outreach engagement activities. Since 2014, we have continued to track and measure our performance in this area and the result is impressive -- diversity improvement from 22% in 2014 to 37% in 2017 in the above mentioned metric areas. Based on its definition and understanding of technical and operational diversity, the RSSAC encourages root server operator organizations to track and measure “the stability of the operation of the root server system.”[1] This is at the core of RSSAC002. Furthermore, the RSSAC affirms its position in RSSAC001 that “diversity of approach is desirable in the root server system.”[2] Eleven of the twelve root server operator organization publish this data on http://root-servers.org/. With respect to the diversity of the Board as an entity, the community is responsible for considering the geographic diversity of the Board across geographic regions, and are also charged with considerations of cultural diversity and meeting an aggregate skillset amongst Board members. ICANN organization measures and tracks this information as well. ----------------------------------------------------------The Board requests and receives information on diversity from ICANN organization and other parts of the ICANN Community in order to study, discuss, monitor over time and make decisions and/or recommendations about diversity, when appropriate, on behalf of the ICANN Community and the ICANN Ecosystem overall. One such example of this is the Board’s role in discussing with the community whether Specific Review teams are sufficiently diverse, or raising this issue in other ICANN processes.
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4 How, if at all, does your SO/AC/group seek to promote diversity in its membership, its active participation, and its leadership?The SSAC is a small group whose Members have technical and non-technical expertise relevant to its role (Diverse Skills). Typically, the SSAC numbers between 30 and 40 Members and there are only 3 formally recognized Leadership Roles: SSAC Chair, SSAC Vice-Chair, and SSAC Liaison to the ICANN Board. However, there are other opportunities for SSAC Members to volunteer to lead work parties or to represent the SSAC in other fora within ICANN. Such leadership or representation is usually done by individuals volunteering and, if necessary, a vote being conducted to select the representative. SSAC members are self-nominated and the SSAC does not issue a formal call for nominees given the work involved in processing applications. As a result it is hard to specifically address diversity gaps through that process. When considering applications, the SSAC seeks in the first instance to maximize its diversity of expertise and in the second instance to factor other diversity considerations into its decision-making. Additionally, for SSAC Members to achieve the necessary levels of expertise to contribute to the group, they would normally be quite well-established in their careers and this has implications for the age distribution of the group.
The diversity to be found within the SSAC’s three main leadership roles is highly dependent on the diversity of composition of the SSAC itself, but even more, it is dependent on the availability and willingness of members to step up to these roles.		Membership: GAC reaches out to unrepresented countries and intergovernmental organizations; Inclusive participation: GAC encourages participation by members representing different regions, cultures, languages, gender, views and having the required skills,knowledge or experience; and considers the same aspects when nominating GAC members to external bodies; Leadership: GAC Operating Principles state that. to the extent possible, the Vice-Chairs should appropriately reflect the geographic and development diversity of the membershipGeographical/Regional Representation. While the RrSG supports the need for diversity in its membership, membership is limited to ICANN-accredited registrars, which limits its ability to recruit from these regions. The geographical/regional representation of ICANN-accredited registrars is weakest in the LAC and AF regions, and RrSG membership reflects that, with only 4 members from LAC and 3 from AF. Since ICANN54, the RrSG has worked with the ICANN registrar liaison for the AP region to perform outreach to non-members registrars. At ICANN57, the RrSG and ICANN hosted a welcome lunch for non-members registrars from China and another for non-members registrars from India. The purpose of these lunches was to provide information and answer questions about the RrSG and participation within the ICANN community. The RrSG intends to continue this outreach at appropriate ICANN meetings. Language. Language is also a limitation for registrars located where English is not the primary language. In an effort to better support its nine members from China, the RrSG worked with ICANN to provide Chinese translation services during its constituency day meetings beginning at ICANN57. In addition, the RrSG Charter has been translated into Chinese. The RrSG will continue to work with ICANN to improve translation services to try to better meet the needs of its members.Our leaders make every effort to increase participation from members in geographic regions and communities (both urban and rural) that are otherwise under-represented in our community. We also seek to have, and have achieved, gender parity in leadership roles. Additionally, the vast diversity of age creates a stable balance rich with experience and maturity. We have also a diversity of viewpoints with members from across the ideological spectrum. The Business Constituency considers diversity to be a priority when recruiting members, encouraging participation, and building our leadership. To date, we have focused on increasing our representation from the global South through Outreach events over the past few years, and this effort has been successful. Over 20% of our membership represents African and Asian nations, and we are working to increase this number. We most recently have new members from Latin America, Africa, and India, and we continue to make gender diversity a key focus. In recent meetings we have noticed that approximately half of the participating representatives are women. There are several ways in which we encourage our members to actively participate, from our email lists, telephone conferences, physical meetings, appointment of issue managers on key topics, and bridges of information flow with other GNSO constituencies. We believe these types of engagement help us to fulfill our mission to ensure that ICANN policy positions are consistent with the development of business via an Internet that is stable, secure, and reliable while promoting consumer confidence globally.RSSAC Caucus membership is open to the global technical community – inclusive of all aspects of diversity – with the requisite technical backgroundThe Board’s ability to do this is, again, limited and not at all direct since the Board has no influence over who is chosen to serve on the Board. The Board can and does discuss Board membership diversity as a Board and with members of the Community responsible for appointing Board members as appropriate. The Board also regularly asks the CEO to report on diversity within ICANN organization, and this information is provided by ICANN organization to the Board in response to this request, so the Board has an ongoing current picture of diversity within ICANN organization. ----------------------------------------------------------The Board can and does make diversity recommendations to ICANN organization and the ICANN Community when appropriate and/or deemed by the Board to be necessary. ICANN also promotes and supports regional and local events in many parts of the world, seeking proactively the participation of more people in ICANN policy development processes and others ways of interaction, involvement and engagement. Board members often participate in these events, engaging with the local and regional community members and encouraging them to participate.
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5What, if any, educational and informational initiatives does your SO/AC/group pursue to promote diversity awareness?The SSAC does not have any formal educational initiatives related to diversity, but did conduct a Diversity Brainstorming Session during the 2016 SSAC Workshop and agreed to a set of outcomes which are reflected in the previous answers. Outreach activities; HLGM (invitation of non-GAC members); Material for new comers (also considered on new website); Capacity building workshops; Chair interviews / public speeches; Collaboration with ICANN stakeholder engagement teams; Collaboration with ICANN regional staff at a regional and national levelTranslation. The RrSG has advocated with ICANN for the need to translate public comment materials and other communications to the UN languages supported by ICANN to help engage members who are not native English speakers. Newcomer Education. The RrSG would also like to acknowledge that the learning curve when first joining the ICANN community is quite high. The enormity and complexity of work that is taking place within the ICANN community at any given moment can be overwhelming to a new comer. The RrSG has participated in ICANN’s newcomer program. The RrSG leadership has worked informally to mentor newcomers and is hoping to implement a more formal mentorship program in the coming year to better support newcomers.We do our outreach and engagement at the constituency-level, for the most part, but where there are mutual benefits we do it at the Stakeholder Group-level as well. We circulate invitations for diversity in relevant community networking events on our mailing list, and our members have both participated in events seeking to boost community diversity and have conducted recruitment sessions at those events to bring new voices into our community The NCUC has its own travel support programme which is distinct from from the ICANN fellowship programme and made possible by external donors. This allows the NCUC to bring new voices to ICANN meetings. Translation. The Business Constituency has made resources available to support the translation of key documents to assist in engaging members who are not native English speakers. Newcomer Education. The Business Constituency understand that the learning curve when joining the ICANN Community can be steep. In order to help educate new members on the breadth and complexity of the issues that we engage on, we have worked closely with new members to help to mentor them and equip them to be active participants. Several of our new members have moved on to become active leaders on our Executive Committee. BC Newsletter. The Business Constituency also publishes a newsletter to concide with every ICANN Public Meeting aimed at educating a broad range of our current and potential new members. Meet the BC. The BC publishes a pamphlet providing information about its diverse membership to illustrate its appeal to all qualified to be a member of the BC. BC Factsheet. This is an educational material to explain ICANN acronyms to newcomers and as handy reference for existing members. Bizconst.org website. The BC maintains bizconst.org to provide the latest information about its activities, membership, and policy positions. ICANN Business Briefings. The Business Constituency also coordinates closely with ICANN to participate in business briefings aimed at increasing diverse participation, particularly from developing and least developed nations.The RSSAC has more flexibility to promote diversity awareness in the RSSAC Caucus, through the RSSAC Caucus Membership Committee. The RSSAC established the RSSAC Caucus Membership Committee to ensure that the RSSAC Caucus has a high-functioning and healthy body of technical experts in DNS root name service. To this end, the RSSAC Caucus Membership Committee has been tasked with conducting outreach efforts in relevant forums (ICANN, IETF, DNS OARC meetings, etc.) to broaden and diversify the membership of the RSSAC Caucus. The Board’s onboarding training highlights the diversity of the ICANN Community and the reasons why this diversity is important. Board members are also encouraged to consider diversity issues as part of their ongoing training. The Board requests diversity information from ICANN organization and the Community groups to maintain its ongoing discussion on diversity on the Board and in the ICANN Community. ----------------------------------------------------------The Board can and does recommend and/or approve educational and informational initiatives for ICANN organization to carry out on behalf of the ICANN Community and the ICANN Ecosystem overall.
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6What, if any, formal or informal practices or written or unwritten policies are pursued in your SO/AC/group to promote diversity?The SSAC Membership Committee follows an unwritten policy to promote diversity by taking into consideration diversity aspects of secondary importance in a situation where diversity aspects of primary importance are met. There are no formal practices or written policies to promote diversity. The SSAC has committed to reviewing its existing Skills Survey to consider adding additional aspects of diversity.Same as 4Apart from the above, the RrSG implemented a travel funding request process that seeks to provide travel support to registrars who may not otherwise be able to attend ICANN meetings but are actively contributing to work within the community. It is the practice of the NCSG to ensure diversity in our appointments to leadership roles, Review teams, and in the allocation of resources, starting by encouraging a more diverse pool of candidates from its membership. There are also unofficial thematic messaging channels conducted by members which helps the quick exchange of ideas and supports newcomers who may have language barriers and less familiarity with ICANN. The Business Constituency through special budget request for leadership development provides travel support for diverse participants who may not otherwise be able to attend the global ICANN meetings. We also actively encourage diverse participants to apply for leadership positions and become otherwise engaged with the ICANN Community at large. In addition, the BC charter provides for regional diversity in the composition of its leadership positions. The RSSAC does not pursue any formal or informal practices or written or unwritten policies to explicitly promote diversity. However, the RSSAC Caucus Membership Committee considers several points[1] when reviewing applicants for the RSSAC Caucus. These include DNS community experience, DNS knowledge, and commitment to participateOne aspect of promotion of diversity is supporting the ICANN community in developing new tools to combat behaviors that might keep people from participating in ICANN work. For example, the Board requested action from ICANN organization with respect to the development of an Anti-Harassment policy in 2016. ICANN organization worked on this at the Board’s request, and the Board approved this policy at ICANN58 in March 2017, following a public comment period during which the Community provided input into the policy. The policy can be found here: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/community-anti-harassment-policy-2017-03-24-en
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7You are also welcome to append any additional general comments on the topic of diversity. The SSAC supports the work of the CCWG-Accountability Diversity Sub-Group in seeking to understand, measure and promote diversity but also recognizes that diversity issues will vary greatly across the many and varied groups within ICANN. The significant differences between the various ICANN SO/AC/Groups cannot be accommodated by a “one size fits all” approach and the SSAC encourages a flexible and realistic approach.The RrSG acknowledges that language barriers, cultural differences, and time zone issues remain a major challenge for some registrar representatives to participate in the ICANN community, and it seeks to do what it can to address those issues to improve diversity of participation. Participation throughout ICANN is mediated by the communication platform and tools which are used. These instruments work well in many industrialised countries, but less effectively in those with less stable Internet connections. We have members in Iran unable to participate in calls because of US sanctions against Iran, which results in Iranians being geoblocked from accessing the Adobe Connect platform, and ICANN staff being unable to dial out to Iran. We have members in Ghana and other countries who can participate via the audio bridge (but not through Adobe Connect because of unreliable Internet connections), who are disadvantaged because they cannot see the documents being discussed that everyone else has in front of them. We need, organisation and community-wide, a better platform which everyone can access. It is imperative to bring new participants into the ICANN community in order to do the policy development and review work that confronts us. New participants will help relieve “volunteer burn-out” among those doing the work at ICANN today, and will strengthen ICANN’s legitimacy across the world.
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