The gTLD Marketplace Health Index Advisory Panel (Panel) is convened to assist ICANN staff in developing an Index to track progress on ICANN goal 2.3, "support the evolution of the domain name marketplace to be robust, stable and trusted." This Index is part of the ICANN Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Dashboard.

Background

ICANN solicited community feedback in 2015 on a set of candidate concepts for gTLD marketplace metrics focused on (a) robust competition, (b) marketplace stability, and (c) trust.

ICANN then worked with a group of community volunteers (the Advisory Panel) and an outside consultant to refine the list of potential concepts in response to public comments. The "gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta)" published for public comment in July 2016 encompassed these concepts and their current data points.

ICANN is now working to expand and refine the Index, in consultation with the Advisory Panel, based on public comments received during this most recent public comment forum.

Advisory Panel Purpose

The Panel is an advisory group to ICANN staff–this is not a policy-making body. The Panel will act as a voice of the community, but will not replace broader community consultation if and when such consultation is required.

Volunteer Expectations, Obligations

• Panel volunteers should be familiar with the global domain name marketplace.
• Panel volunteers should have a statement of interest on file with ICANN and keep that document up-to-date to ensure transparency surrounding the Panel's work and deliberations.
• Panel volunteers should be able to attend the majority of meetings (and plan to actively participate). Care will be taken to schedule meetings that are at a time that is convenient for the majority of volunteers. If needed, the Panel will adopt a rotating meeting time schedule to ensure that times are not consistently inconvenient for  volunteers due to their geographic location.
• Panel volunteers must raise issues/ask questions on specific topics as those topics are raised and within deadlines set by ICANN staff. 

Obligations of ICANN Staff

• Staff must provide regular updates to the Panel on the status of the project and conduct appropriate outreach to the Panel at critical milestones (in some cases, the broader community should also be notified).
• Staff must set clear deadlines for Panel feedback on documents and implementation plans and send documents to the Panel in a timely manner to ensure sufficient time for review.
• Staff must schedule Panel meetings in a timely manner and must distribute a meeting agenda and related materials at least 24 hours before the meeting.

Advisory Panel Procedures

• There is an assumption that the Panel will operate transparently, with a publicly archived mailing list and recordings of all Panel calls.
• The GDD project managers will run all Panel calls and meetings.
• If there is a lack of participation by Advisory Panel members, resulting in meetings being canceled and/or decisions being postponed, the GDD project manager is expected to explore and respond to possible underlying reasons for lack of participation. However, should the lack of participation be reasonably deemed to be the result of volunteers seeing no specific need to attend the calls as they are content with the direction the project is going, ICANN staff can continue with the proposed plan as long as: (i) a notice to this effect is sent to the Panel; and (ii) regular meetings are held and regular updates are provided for the public record, including on decisions being taken, on the mailing list and deadlines for input are clearly communicated.
• In the event of disagreement between ICANN staff and the Panel on the approach proposed by ICANN staff, the GDD project manager shall exercise all reasonable efforts to resolve the disagreement. Should the disagreement prove irreconcilable despite such efforts, the GDD project managers are expected to make an assessment as to the level of consensus within the Panel on whether to raise the issue with the broader community for consideration.
• Any Panel member that believes that his/her contributions are being systematically ignored or discounted or wants to appeal a decision of the Panel or GDD staff should first discuss the circumstances with GDD staff. In addition, a Panel member always has the option to involve the ombudsman (seehttps://www.icann.org/resources/pages/accountability/ombudsmanen for further details).