Five Year Operating Plan is a means of planning and executing portfolios of ICANN work in alignment to the strategic objectives and goals articulated in the Strategic Plan. This plan serves as a link between strategy and the one year operating plan and budget, setting out planned outcomes (key success factors), means of measuring progress (key perf [..]

A fundamental principle of ICANN's decision-making processes is that policy analysis and decisions progress from a stakeholder level (made up of directly affected parties, Internet users, companies and anyone else who wishes to participate in the process) to the ICANN Board level. The process provides the opportunity for open and equal partici [..]

An Advisory Committee is a formal advisory body made up of representatives from the Internet community to advise ICANN on a particular issue or policy area. Several are mandated by the ICANN Bylaws and others may be created as needed. Advisory committees have no legal authority to act for ICANN, but report their findings and make recommendations to [..]

The term "ecosystem" describes the natural world around us. It can be defined as the network of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment. The Internet is an ecosystem, and it is a network of organizations and communities that work together and in their roles. The Internet Ecosystem is made up of a number of [..]

An interconnected system characterized by a web of relationships among the many institutions, organizations and communities that have roles affecting the operation and use of the Internet. These relationships reflect and recognize responsibilities, roles and dependencies among the various players.

There are two versions of Internet Protocol in popular use: version 4 (IPv4) and version 6 (IPv6). IPv4 was developed in the early 1980s. It has capacity of just over four billion IP addresses, almost all of which have now been allocated to Internet service providers and users. An IPv4 address looks like this: 192.0.2.53. IPv6 is the next generat [..]

The Multistakeholder Approach is an organizational framework or structure for governance and policymaking which aims to bring together all stakeholders to collaborate and participate in the dialogue, decision-making and implementation of solutions to identified problems or goals. The Multistakeholder Model at ICANN, is comprised of a diverse set of [..]

The U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is the Executive Branch agency that is principally responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policy issues. NTIA maintains a contract with ICANN for the technical coordination of the Internet's domain name and ad [..]

The Policy Process Steering Committee (PPSC) reviews and recommends processes used within the GNSO for developing policy, including the use of Working Groups, and recommending any changes.

ICANN's Global Stakeholder Engagement team interacts with stakeholders on a regional basis, in support of the regional engagement strategies, by participating in events or contributing to greater education, awareness and understanding for stakeholders in ICANN processes. These activities may take many forms, such as conferences or workshops, s [..]