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At-Large Collaboration in the New gTLD Program Outreach and Engagement Plan

High-Level Notes

Action Items 

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• At-Large Leadership noted that the ALAC and At-Large community is a good place to help with Next Round Outreach and engagement due to its vast network. 
• In the SubPro final report, the GNSO underscored the importance of creating early awareness of the program. The current plan tries to ensure as much as possible drive inclusivity. ICANN org is looking for input on the Outreach and Engagement (O&E) plan to refine the plan going forward. 
• There are 5 phases to the O&E campaign. Early awareness focussed on UA and IDNs. There was a series of mini campaigns in countries that would be interested in the Next Round and the ASP 
  • Next phase is Community level awareness. This phase involves the GSE team and community and will focus on the ASP 
  • Third phase is Strategic engagement in a formalised manner. Media and public relations will be brought into this and will focus heavily on the Next Round. This will include outreach to organizations outside of the ICANN community 
  • Fourth phase will focus on preparing applicants to submit their gTLD applications. 
  • Last phase is Post-Assessment to evaluate whether the campaign achieved its objectives to allow for course correction in the future
• The ICANN community is an important ally in identifying and engaging potential applicants. 
  • O&E materials and resources will be provide by ICANN org. There will be a website containing use cases and training modules along with a variety of other materials that can be shared. Materials will be translated into the ICANN languages 
• The overall goals of the program is to foster diversity, encourage competition, and enhance the utility of the DNS  
• Part of engagement will be to identify engagement possibilities and opportunities for potential applicants and interested organizations to participate in Next Round Program 
• ICANN org will kick off the grassroots campaign to leverage community relationships. ICANN org will launch the formal campaign in October 2024 
  • Specific milestones are listed in the timeline below
  • Target audience is registrars, civil society, business and entrepreneurs, local governments, public authorities IGOs, and Brands
• ICANN org will publish quarterly reports on the engagement activities conducted by ICANN org. The Community will be able to provide comments on gaps that may exist 
• O&E messages from ICANN org will include:
  • highlight the importance of having a New gTLD
  • showcase how brand TLD can extend brand identity 
  • having control of brand provides security protects 
  • highlight safeguard intellectual property rights in the DNS 
• Org has developed KPIs from a communications perspective
  •  includes media reach,social media engagement, speaking opportunities outside of GSE capacity-building efforts, metrics measurements (clicks, inquiries, registration for more info, etc) 
• Org has development KPIs for ASP, RSP, and the Next Round Program in general 
  • include applications received, diversity of applicant pool, number of engagement activities, etc. 
• Successful application should be a metric to measure. 
  • Org cannot guarantee the number of applications received will be successful 
  • Org wants to ensure that information provided to applicants is as complete as possible 
• Regarding ASP, it starts at the end of this year and it is clear that the on the ground people working in GSE will be a large driver in promoting the program. When will information be provided to the At-Large community?  
  • At-Large community notes that the ASP program advertisement starts in September and would like to be prepared to disseminate this information in a timely manner 
    • ICANN org team is finalizing a list of targets and plan to share this information in next 2-3 weeks. There is an opportunity to identify and collaborate on addressing gaps. GSE is eager to work with RALOs and ALSes as well. 
• ICANN org invites RALO participants and the At-Large community to participate in monthly calls regarding the Next Round Program 
• What is the fee for this upcoming round? For ASP, how much funding has been set aside for this ogramn?
  • There was a IRT presentation regarding fees prelim assessment 200k to 290k per application. ASP has not been finalized. 
• Could ICANN org elaborate on why the ten countries were chosen. What factors led them to be chosen and will those factors be impactful to the next phase of the plan?
  • ICANN org looked at quantitative and qualitative metrics such as GDP, internet penetration, infrastructure, and literacy. Also looked at the feasibility of applications from certain regions
  • There will be similarities to the list provided for the next phase but will be enhanced and may include additional countries
  • ICANN org is working with a subset of the Next Round IRT to get their input. 
• Is At-Large able to comment on GSE outreach plans or is it to be implemented as is?
  • Outreach plan will not be put out for public comment but org welcomes the feedback from the At-Large community 
  • The At-Large community emphasized the importance of having the outreach information expeditiously  
• Are there plans to support a pilot in a developing country to showcasing new gTLDs?  
  • The org will be providing case studies on how new gTLDs have been used since the last round. This information can be used as examples for other applicants to use to promote their TLDs and plan for TLD operations  
• Awareness will be important and will require additional collaboration from GE, GSE, and GAC, which will be important in getting formation to the right people within governments. There will be continued efforts for engagement and new gTLDs in Africa. GSE did not exist in 2012, Org has far more intelligence now on the needs of different regions. 
• Current fee is out of reach for most of the Africa region. In 2012, the AGB had 300+ pages - ease of entry will be needed to encourage applicants. The ASP Pro Bono services will be important to help applicants 
• ALS are well placed to undertake outreach and engagement programming 
• What can the At-Large community do to help this program? What opportunities exist within At-Large that can be utilized to promote the Next Round Program
  • More capacity building opportunities would help ALS and community leaders with disseminating information 
  • ICANN continues to collaborate with organizations to reach the potential applicants suited for this initiative
  • Lack of Business cases and awareness were noted reasons why potential applicants did not apply in previous round 
  • Coalition work could be conducted between GSE and governments, especially within smaller countries, to promote the Next Round 
  • Market analysis should be conducted to determine what areas should be targeted, especially since the market has changed significantly since the opening of the previous round 
• It will be important to reach out to active ALSes, there are a number of ALSes that are not active.   ALSs can raise awareness, build capacity for different stakeholders as we have been doing it for UA for example.  Work with ICANN on the benefits of New gTLDs. 
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Action Items 

•  ICANN org to provide Outreach and Engagement materials to ALAC leadership. Initial set of materials is being finalized and will hopefully be shared by the end of the month 

Joint Session: ALAC & SSAC

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