The Commercial Business Users Constituency, also called the Business Constituency or BC is the voice of commercial Internet users within ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. These are the companies that use the unique identifiers that ICANN coordinates or manages.

The  (BC) represents the position and interests of small, medium, large, multinational enterprises and trade/professional business associations within  ICANN’s gNSO policy development process, and also expresses consensus views on ICANN governance issues and activities according the consensus views of the BC’s membership.

BC membership is  approximately 60 members, including trade/professional associations, whose membership reaches over 50,000 companies from many countries.

BC ONBOARDING {DRAFT} VERSION 1.

COMMUNITY ONBOARDING PILOT PROGRAM REPORT FROM PARTICIPANTS OF THE BUSINESS CONSTITUENCY.

BACKGROUND

The onboarding pilot program [Pilot]was derived from a project called “Stakeholders Journey” which Christopher Mondini the Vice President, Stakeholders Engagement NA and Global Business Engagement undertook in 2015 to design an initiative where newcomers would be encouraged to become more deeply engaged in ICANN’s community, thus bringing in a continuous supply of talents required to inject new vigor into ongoing community work within ICANN.  A major element of the Onboarding Pilot is the development of onboarding materials identified, supported and enhanced by the participants for their group, and then brought back to their community to use to encourage and ease the transition of new members into active engagement within their constituency of choice.

“The Community Mentorship Program matches experienced community members with those new within their respective ICANN Community Groups. This pilot builds capacity with each ICANN stakeholder group, encourages skill set and knowledge sharing and cultivates a self-sustaining mentor structure of new generations of volunteers and leaders. This is part of a larger effort across ICANN to map and support the Stakeholder Journey, targeting individuals between newcomer and leadership stages of the multi-stakeholder model.

Initially, as this is a pilot, one experienced BC member was invited to join the Pilot as a Mentor, and one Mentee. Upon the joining of a new BC member from CASA region and expressed interest, a second Mentee from the BC was added.

 

Benefits and Challenges of the BC Membership Recruitment

The BC has long had an Outreach Committee, composed of volunteers both from developed and developing countries that have been working collaboratively to engage in Outreach and Awareness. The Outreach committee has never been tasked with actual Membership Recruitment but does such informally, relying on the existing newsletter [developed each quarter, under the direction of the VP, Operations and Finance, Jimson Olufuye, and the information on the updated BC website [bizconst.org] and other initiatives that the Outreach Committee develops.

As a business user constituency, a first challenge is to establish an understanding of what the mission and purpose of the BC@ICANN focuses on, and then to help new members engage not only in the BC’s priorities at ICANN, but areas of ICANN governance, as provided for in the BC overall mission.

This section describes some of the challenges encountered in the overall challenge of bringing a higher level of diverse participants into ICANN’s BC, supporting their incorporation into BC and ICANN activities, and retaining these newer members.

with many points of entry to ICANN: mailing lists, ICANN newsletters, regional meetings due to ICANN Meeting rotation, Fellowships or NextGen programs, and connections from other conferences – each person comes in with different knowledge and experience for starting their journey to engagement in ICANN.

developing an onboarding method consistent for all but with flexibility for each different community, especially as business users are typically quite unfamiliar with ICANN and its influence on key issues that affect them.

Developing easy to use capacity building through short briefs, or online briefings to help to build awareness and understanding, and support deepening skill sets.

customization of ICANN’s resources to make same more useable by business users, while also supporting the development of BC specific activities and materials that are available, easy to access, update, utilize.

Continued expansion of new incoming members in the BC to contribute to implement /execute programs alongside many experienced volunteers who may be already over-taxed.

community interest then trust in this process will benefit from the success of the Pilot, not only individually for each participating community/constituency, but also as it helps to contribute to well informed participations in broader ICANN activities.

A FOCUS ON THE HISTORY OF THE BUSINESS CONSTITUENCY:

Brief on the BC

The Commercial Business Users Constituency, also called the Business Constituency or BC is the voice of commercial Internet users within ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. These are the companies that use the unique identifiers that ICANN coordinates or manages. The  (BC) represents the position and interests of small, medium, large, multinational enterprises and trade/professional business associations within  ICANN’s gNSO policy development process, and also expresses consensus views on ICANN governance issues and activities according the consensus views of the BC’s membership. BC membership is  approximately 60 members, with a significant number of trade/professional associations, whose membership reaches over 50,000 companies, and indirectly over 1.5 million; and earlier survey of BC members indicated that approximately 88% of these members are small and medium enterprises (SMEs),from many different countries, and reaching all five ICANN regions. It is one of the three Constituencies under the Commercial Stakeholders Group (CSG) in the Non-Contracted Parties House under ICANN's GNSO. It was set forth by the ICANN Bylaws.

The BC was one of the original constituencies formed in the GNSO. Some of those who helped to draft the bylaws of the DNSO [now the GNSO], were part of the bottom up group that launched the original BC, after the GNSO was invited by the ICANN Board/Chair in Singapore, at the first meeting of ICANN, to ‘self-organize’. Collaborative discussions led to the segregation of commercial businesses into three groups: Intellectual Property, ISPCP, and business users. Those interested in the BC met during the next ICANN meeting in Berlin and began drafting a Charter. Ultimately, the BC moved very quickly to elect three BC councilors and took a very active role in the DNSO Policy Council.  During 2002, the BC in consultation with several of the ccTLD managers agreed to support the creation of a separate cons, and to change the name of the DNSO to the gNSO, contributing significantly to the update of the bylaws and purpose of the gNSO policy Council.

In 2008, after a Review of the GNSO Policy Council and GNSO, there was a restructuring of the organizational structure of the constituencies of the GNSO.  While there was strong resistance by the BC, ISPCP, and IPC to the top down mandated creation of “houses”, ultimately, the Board insisted on the changes, and all constituencies, including the BC began the process of trying to adjust to the new organizational structure. Thus, today at ICANN, there is a Contracted Party House and a Non-Contracted Party House in the GNSO Policy Council and in the GNSO.  A schematic of the Non-Contracted Party House organizational structure and officers can be found in the BC’s quarterly newsletter, available on bizconst.org.  This chart also describes the Contracted Party House, and includes the current ICANN Board Members.

The BC is part of the Commercial Stakeholder Group [CSG] and in that role, meets with the ISPCP and IPC on certain matters. However, the Charter drafted for the CSG, with significant input from the BC, insists that the CSG be a very light and non-policy oriented structure, so that all constituencies can speak for themselves. The CSG then meets informally and as needed on certain issues that are more cross cutting, which has recently been formalized into an “intercessional” once a year meeting with the Senior staff and the Board member elected to the ICANN Board by the Non-Commercial Stakeholder House.  Other collaborations include the election of a vice chair of the gNSO Policy Council from the non-contracted party house, contributing to the election of the Policy Council Chair, and jointly electing a single Board member to the ICANN Board of Directors.

From the beginning, the businesses who founded the BC established a core focus on ICANN stability and accountability, as business users rely on a stable and secure Internet and e-commerce experience, one that serves their users and customers on a global basis.  Thus, the BC has always focused deeply on gelds policy development but also on the governance of the gNSO Policy Council; improvements on engagement between the ICANN Board and the BC and others, establishing positive exchanges with the GAC, the ALAC, and participating actively in initiatives developed by ICANN to strengthen outreach and engagement.

MISSION:

The mission of the Business Constituency is to ensure that:

• the Constituency fully represents the views of the Internet business user community,
• ICANN policy positions are consistent with the development of business via an Internet that is stable, secure and reliable while promoting consumer confidence,
• ICANN policy positions derive from broad stakeholder participation in a common forum for suppliers and users.

 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (Ex-Comm):

The Executive Committee [ExComm] comprised of 6 individuals, are elected for one year terms, with re election possible for multiple terms.  The ExComm is tasked with fulfilling the Constituency mission via administrative supervision and co-ordination. In addition to four elected officers, the two elected gNSO policy councilors also are members of the ExComm.

• Chair: Andrew Mark, United States
• Vice Chair Policy Coordination: Steve Del Bianco, United States
• Vice Chair Finance & Operations: Jimson Olufuye, Nigeria
• CSG Representative: Barbara Wanner, United States
• GNSO Councilor: Philip Corwin, United States
• GNSO Councilor: Susan Kawaguchi, United States

 

BC Community Onboarding Pilot Members

The Community Onboarding Pilot Program participants for the Business Constituency is comprised of Marilyn Cade, mentor, and two mentees:  Lawrence Olawale-Roberts, Nigeria and Omar Ansari Mansoor, Afghanistan,

                                                    

Marilyn Cade                                    Lawrence Olawale-Roberts                Omar Mansoor Ansari

 

1, Marilyn Cade (Mentor):

 

Bio: CEO and Principal of a micro enterprise -- ICT Strategies, mCADE llc, where I focus on the nexus of Internet governance and ICT policy issues on a global basis. I advise, and in some cases represent corporations and trade associations at global ICT related events and at IGOs, where Internet governance and related issues are underway. ICT Strategies also undertakes a significant amount of interaction and participation in the developing countries that is on an unreimbursed basis in advancing awareness of Internet governance. I was instrumental in engaging the business sector to be engaged in the process which created ICANN, and have been actively engaged with ICANN since before its inception. Ms. Cade established ICT Strategies in 2005, following a distinguished career in technology and related policy issues within AT&T, and a ten year career in state government and NGOs.

 Year joined the BC: Before its Inception

Native Country: United States of America

Company / Affiliation: mCADE llc

BC Leadership Positions: Cade has been member of the ICANN and Internet broader community for well over 20 years. She served as a GNSO policy Councilor; chaired the BC for three consequent one year terms, was then elected as the CSG rep, as a continuing part of the Excomm of the Commercial Stakeholder Group(CSG). In the past, she served on the ICANN Nominating Committee on behalf of the BC. She also chaired the first WHOIS Task Force and Transfers Working group.  For three years, she was an appointee to the ICANN President’s Strategy Group (PSC), a bottom up consultation process within ICANN that led to the support by the ICANN community for the Affirmation of Commitments.

Working Group(s): Cross Community Working Group on IG (CCWG IG)

Other ICANN & IGF Affiliation: Executive of IGF-USA, IGFSA and IGF MAG member in the last 3 years. For two years, she served as the substantive coordinator to the IGF-NRIs to increase the engagement of the NRIs in the IGF, and substantively grow the number of new NRIs.  She is also a member of the ICANN Budget Working Group.

 

2, Lawrence Olawale-Roberts:

 

Bio: Lawrence is the Founder and CEO of MicroBoss Technologies a premier Internet Service and technology solutions company in Abuja, Nigeria. The company aims at becoming one of the largest leading technology services company globally, whilst satisfying the most advanced and demanding client needs in the African Sub-Region. He served as the Special Assistant to the Commissioner representing the South West zone of Nigeria on the FRC under the Presidency from 2010 to 2014, just after a short stint as the operations manager of a mid-sized Oil servicing company, Webb Energy. Now a Business executive, ICT technocrat, Innovation and incubation evangelist, he represents a voice for Business of African Descent at Internet Governance Forums and public events. He is a ICANN Fellow.  He is an active member of the BC where he serves on a number of committee and working groups.

Year joined the BC: November 2015

Native Country: Nigeria

Company / Affiliation: MicroBoss Technologies

BC Leadership Positions: Outreach Committee Member

Working Group(s): GNSO-SCI,GNSO Review Working Party, Next-Gen RDS, CCWG-Accountability WS2 and CCWG-New gTLD Auction Proceeds working group member

Other ICANN & IGF Affiliation: Active participant in the Nigerian IGF, IGFSA and an ISOC member.

3, Omar Mansoor Ansari:

Bio: Omar has been the Director of The Founder Institute since January 2014; it is the world's largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program, and he has held that position since January 2014. He has also been the President of the technology firm TechNation since January 2010. Ansari is quite involved with the tech community of Afghanistan, and holds many other positions including being Chairman of The National ICT Alliance of Afghanistan, a consortium of ICT players in the private sector, civil society and academia, since May 2007; a Board Director of World Information Technology and Services Alliance, a consortium of ICT members from over 82 countries, since October 2012; the Founder of TechWomen Afghanistan, a platform aimed at increasing women's participation in society through the use of ICTs, since May 2012; and the Cofounder and Board Director of Open Source Alliance of Central Asia, a consortium of Central Asian and South Asian Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) users and developers, since October 2011.

Year joined the BC: 2015

Native Country: Afghanistan

Company / Affiliation: TechNation

BC Leadership Positions:

Working Group(s):

Other ICANN & IGF Affiliation: Executive of Afghan IGF, Member of IGFSA and IGF MAG member. More recently, Omar is engaged in coordinating the launch of the IGF-Afghanistan.

Who can become a BC Member?

Registered companies or trade association or sole proprietors can apply to join the Business Constituency. The BC maintains an online application form which the applicant fills out and submits to info-bc@icann.org, This is received by the BC Credentials Committee – appointed by the BC Execomm and composed BC members in good standing from at least two regions, and supported by the BC Secretariat.   In addition to explaining interest in joining the BC and the business user focus, applicants are asked to indicate what membership tier they are applying for.

The membership tiers for the BC are shown below:

 

Note:  A number of companies from developing countries pay 30% of the annual fee, to support the growth of participation and as a result of a recommendation by the Outreach Committee and supported by the full BC membership.

 

The Benefits of Membership

• The BC maintains two emails lists, and an archive of past list exchanges and transcripts. Members are added to both BC e-mail lists to learn about and debate on issues
• The BC organizes monthly virtual meetings/with a significant focus on current gTLD policy issues before the GNSO Policy Council and open public comments where the BC often submits consensus comments.
• The BC also organizes a limited number of closed meetings of the constituency and at physical meetings coincident with ICANN global meetings, to focus on internal decision making, or collaboration with other entities, meeting with the board members elected by the GNSO.
• BC members in good standing can volunteer to lead as issue managers on specific topics
• And represent the BC in working groups, including both internal to the BC, such as the Credentials Committee and external, such as the CCWGs of ICANN, or the Reviews, etc.  
• How are Decisions Made on Policy Positions:
• The BC uses small informal groups of members to develop draft positions for BC official input to the GNSO Policy Council positions, or to the ICANN Public Comment process.  A call for volunteers typically identifies 2-3 BC members who act as rapporteurs to do a first draft, which is then circulated for member comments. All comments are posted to the full BC list, or if there is a sub list, it is open to all BC members to observe and comment. Rapporteurs/lead drafters then focus on incorporating the comments, striving to develop a consensus position. In policy areas, the BC strives to make decisions to develop positions by consensus, and often several iterations are required to achieve that consensus. IF at least 10% of the members object to a proposed position, there is a provision for voting.  It is also possible to decide to include a minority statement.  BC members are required to support a BC official position when they speak officially as a BC member but any member can post individual comments into open public comments or at the Public Forum, as long as they do not speak as the BC. They are asked to merely identify themselves as whatever company or association, not even referencing that they are a BC member, to avoid any confusion.   
• The official spokesperson for the BC is designated as the Chair, who can delegate to another officer, and on GNSO policy positions, often the V.Chair of the BC for Policy Development may be the official speaker at a Public Forum.  

 

VOTING IN THE BC AND USE OF WEIGHTED VOTING ON POLICY AND ELECTIONS FOR OFFICERS, ETC. :

• The BC maintains a tiered voting approach, giving more votes to the BC members that pay higher dues, whether this is for policy positions, elections, or other appointments.  The BC Secretariat conducts all elections, and only for the officer elections, is she supported by the ICANN staff as returning officer. For other BC elections, she is supported by the Vice Chair of Policy and Administration.  Votes are confidential, and only results are published. Even when there is only one candidate for a position, the BC has historically conducted a vote of support, no support, and abstain. Abstentions are counted as no votes.
• Candidates are nominated by peers or can self-nominate for elected positions. All candidates must be in good standing in terms of being current in payment of dues.  They are asked to submit a Candidate’s Statement and the BC Secretariat organizes a Candidates’ call so that members can submit questions and ask real time questions of any candidate, to inform their voting decision. These questions are publicly posted, and the calls are transcribed and posted to the BC private list.

BC Outreach and Onboarding Initiatives

The Business Constituency has created programs and raised initiatives to attract new members to its fold and appears keen at improving diversity within the constituency, opening more channels for attracting new members and providing additional resources to its members and the community for outreach and active engagement of volunteers.

Such initiatives include:

        i.            Offering a discount of up to 70% in membership dues for intending and participating members from developing nations across 3 different membership tiers. This incentive helps to eliminate the barrier of cost that hitherto was of great concern to interested companies from benefitting nations.

      ii.            Providing a matching grant in its annual budget to compliment the ICANN budget to the BC applicable for outreach through CROPP or other avenues that are organized by the Outreach Committee, with full support of the full BC membership.  By also contributing BC funds drawn from membership fees, the BC demonstrates that injecting new members into its fold is a priority.

    iii.            Providing travel support to business leaders with potentials of become members of the BC asides to understudy the constituency during a public meeting and contribute to the ongoing discuss within the community.

    iv.            Encouraging member participation in Global Internet Governance events and in regions where BC members reside and operate in also of strong interest to the BC’s membership. Many BC members are actively engaged in their national or regional IGF or in the global IGF each year and participate in the CCWG-IG and work to help to provide guidance to the Board and staff about broader IG issues that are of impact to ICANN’s success and integrity.

      v.            Publishing a quarterly newsletter that seeks to promote visibility of the BC’s policy work but also highlights outreach, and provide a schematic [updated frequently] that shows the organizational structure of the GNSO, and the elected officers and councilors of the GNSO’s constituencies, as well as the full Board of ICANN.

    vi.            Members are also encouraged to write articles on such events to be published in the periodic newsletter of the BC and regularly invited to discuss outcomes from such events on the mailing list of the BC.

Recently the BC responded to comments made in respect to amendments proposed in its new charter. This statement formed part of the release: “The BC prides itself on its continued commitment to increase diversity, especially geographic diversity. Among our general membership and within the BC leadership we have made significant efforts to expand representation from regions around the world, including outreach to SMEs and businesses from regions historically under-represented in ICANN.  We have made much progress, and we embrace outreach as an ongoing priority of our constituency. Within the BC, many regions and languages are represented.  And many BC businesses work around the world in multiple geographies and languages. Our goal is to represent businesses large and small, and reflect the depth and regional diversity of the global business community.”

At present, the BC has a part time Secretariat, who support updates to the website and supports the virtual meetings and face to face meetings, prepares minutes of meetings, and publishes the transcripts to the members list. She also supports the Vice Chairs and Chair as her time permits. [The Secretariat is supported by ICANN funding, but is limited in the hours available.]   

The BC also collaborates with the ISPCP and IPC on a networking event, often a breakfast with another ICANN group during the face to face meetings. During ICANN58, this will a reception organized by the CSG with the GAC. Business attendees who are identified as BC member candidates are usually invited as guests.

The BC meetings face to face at ICANN meeting are open and BC members are encouraged to invite new incoming business attendees  and to also participate in the ICANN’s Global Stakeholder Engage

 

Enhancing and Building on BC Existing Materials and Resources

Building upon the existing BC Outreach and Website materials, the BC Mentoring pilot participants have also begun collaboration on ideas for strengthening the existing BC approach to onboarding: 

We propose to develop an updated clear benefit statement about membership in the BC and publicize via the website, testimonial statements from numerous BC members, posted with rotating photo shots on the website and published on a rotating basis on the back page of the BC quarterly newsletter, focused on showcasing why companies and associations should join the BC or follow its work and activities. By this initiative we also propose to do the following;

1. Continue and strengthen the use of existing channels within ICANN in Fellowship outreach to relevant business attendees,
2. Collaborate closely  with the stakeholder engagement teams regionally, as well as during ICANN’s three meetings
3. Invite mini – 3-4 sentence endorsements as reference from companies or associations currently participating in the BC – while showcasing on the BC website, also ask each member to post a statement on their membership communications, highlighting why they are a member of the BC@ICANN and highlighting two issues they follow that benefits their members, thus reaching associations wide networks
4. Establish a social media strategy and provide a one page guideline to promote the BC via tweeting, or other postings to social media to enable any BC member to tweet to advance visibility of the BC’s meetings and activities.
5. Maintain an active presence at the Newcomers’ booth at every ICANN meeting, ensuring that the BC not only use the booth as a point to distribute the newsletters, but possibly other factsheets/materials promoting the BC’s activities. Establish a spreadsheet that is maintained by the BC Secretariat, where interested business users  but also tracks the matrix of companies and individuals interested in learning more about the BC at the ICANN Newcomers booth, the Fellowship attendees, and through identifying new business attendees at ICANN.
6. Highlight the visibility of the membership criteria and application process, including publishing an expected timeline from submission to processing applications, tracked and reported on quarterly, by the Credentials Committee, posted on the BC website and referenced in the initial BC application, with the email to send any inquiries for status to. 
7. Develop a welcome pack for new members to include a welcome email from the Chair of the BC including a link to Frequently Asked Questions in an attachment; a guide to engaging actively within the BC, a quick guide to navigating the new BC website [this might benefit from a personal invitation from the BC Secretariat to a 30 minute Skype call to provide an orientation to the website, and usual processes/activities during ICANN meetings face to face [e.g. explain the usual calendar of BC meetings that typically take place at ICANN]. This package should include links to the BC newsletter and archives.
8. Institutionalize a process for welcoming new members and have them introduce themselves via email, teleconference or face to face at the first available opportunity, with a view to allowing existing members volunteer to mentor them where they find fit. Such guidance into the community’s work would allow new members to quickly find areas of interest in the BC and in ICANN.
9. Simplified information on a 2 pager or brochure could be developed, translated and widely circulated. Topics for print could include;
   1. 10 Things to know about ICANN Business Constituency - FAQ
   2. How Business Users engage in ICANN via the BC
   3. Guide to engaging in the BC: A Policy Development Brief that highlights some of
   4. the topics the BC has filed public comments on, and affected the outcome

 

Who does the BC interact most consistently at ICANN?

-its membership

-CSG constituencies during on site events and discussions

-GAC

-Board

-ICANN senior and policy staff

Note:  CSG Networking and informational exchange events have been held with the GAC, ICANN staff, ALAC, ccNSO, and NCSG.

Resources available on the BC@ICANN website:

The BC website can be found at www.bizconst.org. On this website you will find the following resources:

-BC Charter: required reading for all BC applicants and BC members, as it governs such things as mission, elections, development of policy positions, etc.

-CSG Charter: advisory to read. It explains that the power of the CSG constituencies is retained at the constituency level

-Election procedures for GNSO Policy Councilors, Executive Committee members, appointments /elections of Credential Committee, Nominating Committee, etc.

-archive of the announcements of BC meetings, including agenda, attached documents, both virtual meetings and face to face

-budget of the BC

-list of formal correspondence sent to the BC Board

-Meet the BC document

-list of current BC members, affiliations, category of membership

 

DRAFT DEVELOPED COLLABORATIVELY BY THE BC MENTOR PARTICIPANTS:

Marilyn Cade, USA

Lawrence Olawale-Roberts, Nigeria/Africa

Omar Mansoor Ansari, Afghanistan/CASA

 

Note: The BC has undertaken an extensive internal consultation on changes to its Charter, which have been published for public comment. The BC Charter proposed changes received a limited number of comments, and the BC prepared a response to address all