Public Comments Data Analysis (Jan 2010-Dec 2012)

After one full year of experience with the Public Comments enhancements introduced as part of the ATRT Recommendations, staff has undertaken an analysis to determine what can be learned based upon actual community usage and participation patterns.

The study period selected was all Closed Public Comments Forums from 1 January 2010 through 31 December 2012 (3 years). The data collection process involved harvesting information from each of 212 Public Comments Forums archived on ICANN.org and building an Excel workbook for subsequent analysis. Once the data was available in spreadsheet form, various statistical calculations were prepared along with graphs/charts that would serve to highlight trends and patterns.

If you would like to provide feedback about any aspect of this study, please use the <Comment> section at the bottom of this page.

Report Contents:

Section 1 presents an Overview of the research scope and methodology.
Section 2 outlines the four (4) ATRT Recommendations specifically related to ICANN Public Comments.
Sections 3 and 4 present detailed findings that may be useful as input to those who will continue working to improve the Public Comments capability within ICANN.
Finally, Section 5 summarizes those findings that relate specifically to the ATRT Recommendations discussed in Section 2.

Due to the length of the report, the individual sections (5) have been separated into separate PDFs (see tabs below) for those who wish to read the material online via the Wiki page.

Alternatively, the complete report link is Public Comments-Data Analysis Report (May 2013-FINAL).pdf:

If your Internet browser supports online PDF viewing, you may be able to click the link, which will open the document in a new window/tab; or
Right-click the link and save the document to your local computer for offline reading.

Online Report Sections (PDF)

Tips about reading PDF documents online:

Depending upon your Internet connection, you may find that viewing PDF documents online is sluggish and/or unreliable. In that case, we recommend that you download the report (see above link) to your local computer for offline reading.
If you have sufficient bandwidth available and elect to read the report online, the following steps may be helpful:
1. Choose the section (tab) you wish to read from those presented below;
2. Select the page within the section (§1 & 2 only have one page each) at the bottom center of the form;
3. Click the <Full Screen> icon at the bottom far right of the form;
4. When you have finished reading the page, hit ESC on your keyboard (usually top left) and, then, return to Step 1 or 2, as applicable, and continue...

You may need to click the <Refresh> button (bottom right), occasionally, if a particular page does not render immediately.