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ARIN Policy Engagement Survey Part 2: Community Platforms

Introduction

The ARIN Advisory Council is interested in exploring the possibility of adopting an online community platform in order to enhance the experience of Internet community members in pursuit of policy development. Whereas the Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) requires of community members to send an email to a large number of recipients (which can have a cooling effect on participation), an online platform could invite more nuanced and precise discussion into particular policies by those most interested, while also sparing the inboxes of community members who may be more interested in other policies. This brief survey will gauge community feedback in relation to 3 focus areas:

1. Policy Development Process (PDP Principles
2. Reporting results back to PPML and Policy Meetings
3. Platform Requirements
Section 1: PDP Principles

The ARIN Policy Development Process outlines a set of goals and principles as well as procedures to ensure that ARIN adopts well considered policies which have strong support from the Internet Community. In particular, Section 1.5 specifies communication and discussion methodologies including the well understood Public Policy Mailing List (PPML) and Public Policy Meetings (twice annual meetings). The methodology also extends to lesser know methodologies of Public Policy Feedback and Public Policy Consultations. The essential principles present across these methodologies is that input to the discussion of policies which is public and attributable to its author is considered relevant.

Please indicate your level of agreement to the following statements:
1.The adoption of an online community platform is compatible with the PDP principles mentioned above.
2.Any online community platform would need to be visible to the public.
3.Users of an online community platform would need to be registered with their personal name rather than pseudonyms or aliases.
Section 2: Reporting results back to PPML and Policy Meetings

Because many community members are accustomed to engaging in policy development through PPML and Meetings today, one set of implementation details which the Advisory Council would like to address is how correspondence on an online platform is reported back to the mailing list and the policy meetings. The Advisory Council imagines reporting on the discussions at Public Policy Meetings as it would report on PPML discussions. The main set of questions remaining revolves around how best to manage the discussions between an online community platform and PPML.

Please indicate your level of agreement to the following statements:
4.As long as the discussions taking place on the online platform are public, on cross-posting to PPML is necessary.
5.Policy Shepherds or staff should ensure that correspondence on online community platforms are periodically reported back to PPML.
6.Online community platforms should mainly be used to handle more contentious and nuanced discussions.
7.Please provide any other feedback you have in relation to how you believe the policy discussions taking place in an online platform should be reported to PPML.
Section 3: Platform Requirements

The Advisory Council wishes to include input of the Internet community to validate and refine the platform requirements.

Please indicate your level of agreement to the following statements:
8.The platform should support channels and/or other hierarchical structure to allow for easy to follow organized discussion around each policy.
9.The platform should support simple emoji reactions to each comment and reply in the discussion to signal basic agreement or disagreement.
10.Emoji reactions to comments should be attributable to individual users.
11.Edits should be limited in order to avoid significant changes to the meaning of comments which could have already garnered reactions.
12.Please provide any other feedback you have in relation to the required functions of an online platform.