The New ICANN.org Website Is Ready To Launch

The new ICANN.org website is ready and it’s official launch will be next month. You can already see it live at new.icann.org.

ICANN is due to migrate to the new site in April – but for ICANN it’s something more than just another website.

More than ever, ICANN is a global organisation, and these wider horizons, combined with its unchanging commitment to the multi-stakeholder, bottom-up model mean an increasing demand for a different toolset to drive policy and the conversations around it.

With the new ICANN website, the challenge ICANN is facing is threefold:

• Allow people to quickly understand ICANN’s work, and it’s place and role in the Internet governance ecosystem;
• To broaden the range of stakeholders involved in Internet governance issues via ICANN’s supporting organizations and advisory committees and to find ways to move those newcomers along a continuum of engagement from a position of interest to a position of involvement;
• To create a set of digital tools for the old and new stakeholders to better surface content of interest to them and to allow them to more easily engage with that content and each other.

When ICANN formally launches the site next month, they will pass the first two milestones in that process. At this stage, they are trying to make ICANN and its processes and policies more visible to current and new people. They also hope they have made content more findable and the site more navigable.

ICANN intents to make ICANNLabs live again and to address these areas with it:

• Languages and testing different modes of translation. We’re looking to add new ways of translating content to include technological and crowd-sourced translation, while retaining the skill and quality of the technical translation that our current team provides.
• The peer advisory network. Some work on this has already started, but it will undoubtedly change beyond all recognition. The problem we’re trying to address is that Internet governance is a complex world and, if we’re to get newcomers (and others) up to speed with the terminology and processes they will need help from others in the community. The peer advisory network is to try and solve the problem of how we connect those willing to share with those who need to know. Have a look at these early thoughts and let us know your ideas.
• Accessibility improvements. The accessibility of the site is non-negotiable and we want to be a role model in this area. We’ll be seeking community input and participation in this work as well.
• Pathways. One of the aims of this process is to make ICANN more attractive to newcomers, to get new people involved in the debates. And once we get these people to the ICANN site, we want to lead them into clear user journeys which direct them to the appropriate SO/AC/Constituency where they can find the work and the contacts most valuable to them.

What do you think of the new website?