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ICANN Join Debuts for the Community

5 August 2024
By
Mary Wong

Mary Wong

Vice President, Strategic Policy Management

Mary Wong joined ICANN as a Senior Policy Director in 2013 and currently serves the organization as Vice President for Strategic Community Operations, Planning and Engagement. As a member of the Policy Team, Mary's responsibilities also encompass managerial, advisory, analytical and research work related to global policy development at ICANN.

Prior to joining ICANN, Mary was a tenured professor of law at a top-ten ranked intellectual property law school in the United States, where she chaired its global partnerships program and was the founding director of its flagship applied research center. She has also been associated with the technology transactions practice group of a major international law firm, where she advised American, European and Asian clients on corporate, licensing and international transactions involving Internet, intellectual property and privacy laws and policies.

Mary is a past Chair of the International Copyright Treaties & Laws Committee of the American Bar Association (ABA) and has served on the ABA's Copyright Reform Task Force as well as in a number of other public service roles in the United States and her native Singapore.

Mary has worked in Brussels, London, New York and Singapore, and holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Laws degree from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. She is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Singapore and is a frequent speaker at academic and industry conferences around the world.

I am pleased to announce the launch of ICANN Join, a new tool that will make it easier for our community members to browse, enroll, and participate in community working groups and decision-making bodies.

The result of a multiyear cross-functional org effort stemming from the FY23 and FY24 CEO goals, ICANN Join is a centralized platform designed to allow the community to self-manage how they choose to participate at ICANN via an array of application features. Users will be able to access ICANN Join from the menu on their ICANN Account Services page, the same way they currently register for an ICANN Public Meeting, subscribe to ICANN news, and submit Public Comments.

What are some key features community members can look forward to with ICANN Join?

  • Self-managed enrollment in one place for community groups (including new enrollment, a membership change, or resignation); this will eliminate the inconvenience and confusion that often arises due to the current decentralized and unstructured enrollment systems.
  • Ability to easily update group affiliations or manage multiple email addresses in community groups.
  • Ability to manage multiple Statements of Interest (SOI) for cross-community participation.
  • Integration of an SOI requirement into the enrollment process where an SOI is mandated for participation in a community group.
  • Flexible enrollment options to accommodate both open and restricted membership in community groups.
  • Auto-publication of information documenting participation and of information that is important for accountability and transparency, such as SOIs, meeting agendas, minutes, transcripts, and recordings.
  • Staff efficiency gains in managing groups and events across the community via a common centralized system, eliminating the current need to manage duplicate systems.
  • Metrics that will enhance our understanding of how and where the community participates throughout their stakeholder journey, including how newcomers become active contributors and leaders.

What can the community expect after ICANN Join is launched?

  • After the launch of ICANN Join, the community will initially see a limited set of active community groups available for enrollment within the application. Over time, ICANN Join will gradually replace the current diverse methods by which community members are able to enroll in groups today.
  • You can expect the number of community group offerings to increase as we onboard more Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees onto the platform. Because of the large number of community groups transitioning to ICANN Join, the additional staff training required, and the subsequent changes to internal work flows and community procedures, we expect this transition process to continue through fiscal year 2025.
  • As more community groups start to become available for enrollment, and as we are able to release new features, you can expect additional announcements via our various communication channels.

Look for the ICANN Join tile to appear on your ICANN Account Services page in the coming weeks and stay tuned for further updates as we continue to work on more enhancements that will contribute to an improved user experience and more robust features.

I would like to thank Sally Costerton, our Interim President and CEO, for her vision and leadership in helping us achieve this important milestone, Andre Abed, our Interim Head of Engineering & IT, and the entire project team for the many hours of collaborative work it took to get here. We hope you will find this new application useful and a significant improvement in how you participate in the ICANN community!

Authors

Mary Wong

Mary Wong

Vice President, Strategic Policy Management
Mary Wong

Mary Wong

Vice President, Strategic Policy Management

Mary Wong joined ICANN as a Senior Policy Director in 2013 and currently serves the organization as Vice President for Strategic Community Operations, Planning and Engagement. As a member of the Policy Team, Mary's responsibilities also encompass managerial, advisory, analytical and research work related to global policy development at ICANN.

Prior to joining ICANN, Mary was a tenured professor of law at a top-ten ranked intellectual property law school in the United States, where she chaired its global partnerships program and was the founding director of its flagship applied research center. She has also been associated with the technology transactions practice group of a major international law firm, where she advised American, European and Asian clients on corporate, licensing and international transactions involving Internet, intellectual property and privacy laws and policies.

Mary is a past Chair of the International Copyright Treaties & Laws Committee of the American Bar Association (ABA) and has served on the ABA's Copyright Reform Task Force as well as in a number of other public service roles in the United States and her native Singapore.

Mary has worked in Brussels, London, New York and Singapore, and holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Laws degree from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. She is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Singapore and is a frequent speaker at academic and industry conferences around the world.

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