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Mention ICANN in Internet circles and you will always find a multitude of views of what the organization should do, needs to do, and should have done; how it has to change, and why; and what it needs to focus on.

Well, the time has come to make those views known and to try to persuade the rest of the community that they represent the best step forward. ICANN is running a special consultation called "Improving Institutional Confidence". It comprises of three main documents, developed by the President's Strategy Committee (PSC) from input received through the Midterm Review of the Joint Project Agreement, and the other consultations the PSC has held over the years.

Those documents outline a range of suggested changes and alterations to the ICANN model of decision-making.

Everything is available online in multiple languages, and revised versions of the documents will this week go out to a second public comment period, to which you are all, of course, encouraged to respond.

It is not just an online consultation, however. We are running a number of regional consultative meetings across the globe to let you provide your input in person. There has already been one meeting at a Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC) conference in Montevideo in August, and a second took place at the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) meeting in Christchurch, also last month.

The next meeting is next week in Geneva, the day before the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) preparatory meeting. It will be held at 8am on Monday 15 September at the Hotel Royal on Rue de Lausanne. And another will be held in Washington on Wednesday 1 October at the National Press Club. If you can come, please register online. Staff and PSC members will be there and you will be able to provide your input directly and in person.

All the information you could need on these meetings and the Improving Institutional Confidence Consultation (IIC) consultation itself is available.

Please do get involved. And if you have any questions, either contact me, or email iic@icann.org.

Cheers, and I hope to see you all there

By Kieren McCarthy, Internet consultant, journalist and author. Visit the blog maintained by Kieren McCarthy here.

Related topics: Registry Services, ICANN, Internet Governance, Policy & Regulation, Top-Level Domains