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Chair's Blog: Preview of March ICANN Board Workshop

1 March 2022
By
Maarten Botterman

Maarten Botterman

ICANN Board Member

Maarten Botterman is an independent strategic adviser on Internet governance and related issues with more than 25 years' experience in guiding governments and major organizations on the economic, business, and societal impacts of current and future Internet innovations and technologies. During those 25-plus years, he participated in and led more than 50 international projects and studies and published more than 80 peer-reviewed reports for governments and industry on Future Net issues with teams, including experts with advanced academic degrees from many disciplines, ranging from technology and mathematics to economics and law, and from many different countries and cultures.

Maarten was employed as Head of Unit and Senior Adviser to the Dutch Government (1987–1995) and as Scientific Officer to the Communications Technology Research program that was run by the European Commission (1995–1999). These years brought many insights about the public interest and governance aspects of the developing global, networked knowledge society. These insights were further deepened when working for RAND Corporation, setting up and running an Information Society policy practice in Europe (1999–2006), with an emphasis on policy evaluation and scenario planning. Since 2006, he has been working as an independent strategic adviser to governments and businesses in close cooperation with leading independent research institutions in Europe (including RAND Europe, TNO Netherlands, DTI Danmark, Inno France, and CIVIC Germany). Today, he is internationally recognized as a governance and future Internet expert and is a regular contributor to international Internet governance events such as the Internet Governance Forum, where he is leading the Dynamic Coalition for the Internet of Things.

Next to advising the Dutch government and the European Commission on Internet governance issues, he got deeply involved in ICANN's work as a Board member and Chairman of the Public Interest Registry (2008–2016), over time actively participating in more than 40 ICANN meetings. Having worked internationally since 1995, he has extensive experience in working with people from different national and cultural backgrounds, and is comfortable in engaging in English, German, French, and Dutch (mother tongue). He has a reputation as an independent, trustworthy, out-of-the-box thinker who is able to look at issues from several perspectives with strong awareness of the bigger picture. Having served on boards and having reported to boards, he has extensive experience with effective board governance and the responsibilities and obligations that come with a director's position on a U.S. nonprofit board. Over the years, he has been a frequent guest speaker and/or moderator, mostly at smart technology-related events.

Maarten holds an advanced degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a certified coach and has a certificate in medical-based knowledge, both of which help in better understanding of what drives people in decision-making and going through life. In addition, he has completed several board excellence trainings with internationally renowned institutions, including Harvard Business School, INSEAD, IMD, MIT, Yale School of Management, and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. His areas of interest include government, civil society, and technology.

Maarten is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board by the Nominating Committee in 2016 and served as Board Chair from 2019 until 2022. His third and final term will expire at the Annual General Meeting in 2025.

In the lead-up to ICANN73, my ICANN Board colleagues and I will meet virtually for our second Board Workshop of the year, from 3-6 March. After a productive Board Workshop in January, we will progress key work and prepare for our upcoming meetings with the Community during the ICANN73 Community Forum.

As the Board meets ahead of our first ICANN Public Meeting of the year, the central focus will be on preparing for our discussions with the Community at ICANN73. We look forward to interacting with you on how we can continue to improve our ways of working together. The Board suggested to Community groups to use our joint sessions during ICANN73 to provide input on key priorities for ICANN's work in 2022 and how we continue to work on enhancing ICANN's effectiveness and efficiency as we move from the intention of any proposed recommendations to implementation.

I want to share with you our agenda for this workshop. I look forward to engaging with you virtually on these topics and more at ICANN73 and encourage you to sign up to attend if you have not already done so here.

Thursday, 3 March 2022

Our first day will open with Matthew Shears leading the Board through an extended session focused on Strategic Outlook Trend Identification. During this time, we will collectively identify and review new and evolving trends in our ecosystem that could impact ICANN's work and our strategic plan. Then, Becky Burr will facilitate a session where the ICANN Organization will present recent trends in government and intergovernmental organization (IGO) activity that could potentially impact the management of the unique identifiers. The Board will discuss how these initiatives might interact with ICANN's work.

Friday, 4 March 2022

On Friday, we will have two key sessions to prepare for ICANN73, shepherded by James Galvin: a Policy Briefing session and a session to prepare the Board for its joint meetings with ICANN Advisory Committees, Supporting Organizations, constituency groups, and stakeholder groups. This is an important opportunity for the Board to review the questions submitted by the ICANN Community for ICANN73 so that our discussions at the meeting can be as productive as possible when we meet. The day will end with Danko Jevtović and Avri Doria leading a session dedicated to an update on the status of the recommendations identified as "pending" from the second Security, Stability, and Resiliency Review (SSR2) as well as a discussion on a proposal to defer the start of the third SSR review.

Saturday, 5 March 2022

Göran Marby will open on Saturday with a presentation on the Domain Name System (DNS) Security Threat Mitigation Program. This session will include an overview of the current community landscape in mitigating DNS abuse. Following a short break, Matthew Shears will guide the Board in continuing the prioritization exercise started at the January Board Workshop that examined the Board's FY22 Work Plan against the Strategic Plan to ensure that the Board progresses its work accordingly. Saturday will end with Becky Burr leading a session on the policy recommendations for the System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (SSAD), in preparation for the next dialogue with the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council.

Sunday, 6 March 2022

On the final day of our workshop, we will start with Avri Doria leading a session dedicated to the review of the Operational Design Phase (ODP) on the New Generic Top-Level Domain (New gTLD) Subsequent Procedures Policy recommendations. We will receive an update on the ODP project, resourcing, and first set of assumptions. The last part of the workshop will be dedicated to preparation for the ICANN73 Public Forum and Board Meeting on 10 March. As with all our Board Workshops, I will close with a feedback session where we evaluate the effectiveness of this specific Board workshop and discuss ways that we can continue to improve how we meet and work to make the best use of our time together.

As always, we will follow up after the Board Workshop with a blog to share the progress the Board made during this time together. I anticipate that much of this work will also be discussed during the ICANN73 Public Meeting, and I look forward to meeting with the Community virtually to continue our work in support of ICANN's mission together.

Authors

Maarten Botterman

Maarten Botterman

ICANN Board Member
Maarten Botterman

Maarten Botterman

ICANN Board Member

Maarten Botterman is an independent strategic adviser on Internet governance and related issues with more than 25 years' experience in guiding governments and major organizations on the economic, business, and societal impacts of current and future Internet innovations and technologies. During those 25-plus years, he participated in and led more than 50 international projects and studies and published more than 80 peer-reviewed reports for governments and industry on Future Net issues with teams, including experts with advanced academic degrees from many disciplines, ranging from technology and mathematics to economics and law, and from many different countries and cultures.

Maarten was employed as Head of Unit and Senior Adviser to the Dutch Government (1987–1995) and as Scientific Officer to the Communications Technology Research program that was run by the European Commission (1995–1999). These years brought many insights about the public interest and governance aspects of the developing global, networked knowledge society. These insights were further deepened when working for RAND Corporation, setting up and running an Information Society policy practice in Europe (1999–2006), with an emphasis on policy evaluation and scenario planning. Since 2006, he has been working as an independent strategic adviser to governments and businesses in close cooperation with leading independent research institutions in Europe (including RAND Europe, TNO Netherlands, DTI Danmark, Inno France, and CIVIC Germany). Today, he is internationally recognized as a governance and future Internet expert and is a regular contributor to international Internet governance events such as the Internet Governance Forum, where he is leading the Dynamic Coalition for the Internet of Things.

Next to advising the Dutch government and the European Commission on Internet governance issues, he got deeply involved in ICANN's work as a Board member and Chairman of the Public Interest Registry (2008–2016), over time actively participating in more than 40 ICANN meetings. Having worked internationally since 1995, he has extensive experience in working with people from different national and cultural backgrounds, and is comfortable in engaging in English, German, French, and Dutch (mother tongue). He has a reputation as an independent, trustworthy, out-of-the-box thinker who is able to look at issues from several perspectives with strong awareness of the bigger picture. Having served on boards and having reported to boards, he has extensive experience with effective board governance and the responsibilities and obligations that come with a director's position on a U.S. nonprofit board. Over the years, he has been a frequent guest speaker and/or moderator, mostly at smart technology-related events.

Maarten holds an advanced degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a certified coach and has a certificate in medical-based knowledge, both of which help in better understanding of what drives people in decision-making and going through life. In addition, he has completed several board excellence trainings with internationally renowned institutions, including Harvard Business School, INSEAD, IMD, MIT, Yale School of Management, and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. His areas of interest include government, civil society, and technology.

Maarten is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board by the Nominating Committee in 2016 and served as Board Chair from 2019 until 2022. His third and final term will expire at the Annual General Meeting in 2025.

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