Background

The global public interest (GPI) is central to many of ICANN’s primary governance documents - the Affirmation of Commitments, Bylaws, and Articles of Incorporation. Operationalizing the concept of the GPI remains a challenge, despite years of attempts to understand and define it within ICANN.

The ICANN Board identified the GPI as one of its 2019 operational priorities and carried it over to 2020. In September 2019, the Board published a discussion paper on a proposed GPI framework, which marked the beginning of a longer process to develop a framework as a toolkit for the ICANN community to consider the global public interest.  A community consultation was held from September to November 2019 to gather feedback from the community, and the framework was revised accordingly.

The purpose of the GPI framework is to facilitate a bottom-up multistakeholder-driven understanding of the GPI issues relevant to each Board decision. The framework is intended to reinforce the commitment to the public interest and to demonstrate how specific recommendations, advice, and public comments are in the global public interest. The framework will not change the process by which decisions are made.

Pilot

At this moment in time, considering all input received, the Board will start piloting the framework and toolkit to apply to upcoming Board decisions, at our best ability. SOs and ACs that would like to explore the framework are encouraged to try it out and document and share their experience – all on an entirely voluntary basis. The Board will identify and document relevant use cases during this pilot year, (i.e., decision on a particular issue, various viewpoints, extent to which toolkit was leveraged, gaps identified, etc.).

A report on the pilot will be produced for the community at the end of the pilot, and the Board will hold a public session with the community to share their experience of implementing the framework as part of their decision-making process.

Ongoing Community Feedback and Mechanism

Interested community groups are welcome to pilot the framework at the same time as the Board. The Board invites community members who have opted to pilot the framework in their evaluations to share their experience and comments.

Throughout the pilot year, the Board’s conversation with the community will be ongoing, and this wiki webpage will be regularly updated and will feature space for comments and suggestions about the Board's and community's experiences and feedback.

Individuals and community groups are encouraged to make use of the comment section at the bottom of this wiki space to share their thoughts and feedback about the overall process, or any other aspects of this initiative. 

Upon completion of the pilot period, the Board will post all relevant materials for public comment before reaching a decision on the proposed framework.   

Revised Proposed GPI Framework

To read the latest version of the Proposed Public Interest Framework paper, click here. 

Resources

Webinars

Two webinars were held to discuss the proposed Global Public Interest Framework with the community: 

The first webinar took place on Tuesday, 17 September 2019 at 15:00 UTC.

The second webinar took place on Thursday, 19 September at 03:00 UTC. 

18 September - 18 October 2019 Community Consultation

In reviewing the proposal, the Board is asking the ICANN community to consider the following questions for input to the Board:

• What are your thoughts on the proposed framework approach? Do you have any suggestions for how it could be improved?
• What are your thoughts on the proposed approach for decisions in the ICANN ecosystem to be accompanied by a consideration of their impact on the global public interest (as well as an explanation regarding what is meant by the GPI in the specific case)?
• How do you see this working for the Supporting Organization (SO), Advisory Committee (AC), constituency, group, review team, or cross-community working group (CCWG) to which you are contributing?

Public Session at ICANN66

The public session at ICANN66 took place on Monday, 4 November 2019. For the session recording and related materials, please visit: https://66.schedule.icann.org/meetings/1116753 

Questions?

For any questions or comments, please email gpitoolkit@icann.org.  

Proposed GPI Framework Discussion Paper 

Proposed Public Interest Framework V2.pdf (V2 dated 24 April 2020)

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View filenameProposed Public Interest Framework_4 Sep.pdfheight250 (V1 dated 4 September 2019)