ICANN making changes to the Public Forum on 11 April in Beijing

ICANN’s 46^th Public Meeting in Beijing is just a couple days away starting on the 7th of April. The Public Forum session at ICANN meetings affords an opportunity for Board members to listen and engage the community face to face.

ICANN will make some changes to the Public Forum session in Beijing (scheduled for Thursday, 11 April), so as many community members as possible can be heard and also to encourage new members to speak freely.

The Public Forum in Beijing will include several hot topics such as the “Closed Generics”. The topic will be in the Beijing agenda as it was decided by an ICANN committee.

Here are the Public Forum changes in Beijing:

• During that portion of the Public Forum where we address a specific subject for a specific amount of time, we will have the Board member who chairs the appropriate Board committee, or the member with the greatest subject expertise, moderate that specific discussion.
• Each speaker will get two chances to address the specific issue as it is discussed.
  • Two minutes to make initial remarks (just like what occurred during the Toronto meeting).
  • Two minutes later in the queue for any possible follow-up remarks.
• Following the subject-specific portion of the session, we will have a more-relaxed open-microphone portion to discuss other business.
  • Any subject may be discussed.
  • Speakers will be limited to two two-minute opportunities.