[Gnso-sc-budget] Adobe Connect being discontinued by ICANN without community consultation

[Marilyn Cade]

I have experience with both.

there is a scale issue that I am not sure I understand as discussed so far.

Supporting 60-100 users is different from supporting over 100++, and from different countries.

Not announcing a preference but asking a few questions:

-hacking is a challenge to any such service, so the challenges experienced are not necessarily the rationale to "move"
-saving $100K is not also the right reason -- witness that the ICANN Org changes to support for transcription deadlines for ICANN meetings harms the community but results in bonus payments to ICANN Org and CEO/President Fadi for making such. decision but delays availability of transcriptions of meetings to the community, thus affecting transparency and accountability
-does the service support all that is needed?
-were competitive bids accepted and evaluated?
-was the full community given a chance to define needs and then comment on services proposed?
-what is the scope and scale of support? What are the training cost to transition? How have those been factored into the transition? Will there be duplicate services during the "trial/pilot" periods?

I am not clear on the last few.

I do use both and I don't actually find Zoom quite as intuitive to use and I haven't seen the use in high numbers -- but perhaps someone else has -- e.g. 300+ users and how that might work.

I have seen circumstances where we all had to curtail use of video images so the voice could be supported. That seems to be a useful feature.

But, this doesn't address the justification and description for the change, transition costs, etc. whether there was any contract that had to be cancelled and thus had a cancellation cost [?], and why there was no real consultation with the community ahead of time.

I don't want to choose suppliers, but understanding competitive bids and rationale is a rational question to ask/or ask the Budget Committees of GNSO communities to ask.

M
Marilyn

________________________________
From: Gnso-sc-budget <gnso-sc-budget-bounces at icann.org> on behalf of Jimson Olufuye <jolufuye at kontemporary.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2019 8:37 AM
To: Ayden Férdeline; gnso-sc-budget at icann.org
Subject: Re: [Gnso-sc-budget] Adobe Connect being discontinued by ICANN without community consultation

Hi Ayden,

My organization AfICTA.africa has been using Zoom for 6 years and we find it quite user friendly, portable and stable to use; and with good pricing it may not be a bad idea for ICANN to migrate to. The BC used this during the time Adobe had a glitch and people were getting used to it when ICANN Org reverted to Adobe.

However, your point is quite clear, and I agree that there should have been some consultation with the Community before the final decision to migrate to it was made.

Cheers,

Jimson

--------- Original Message ---------
Subject: [Gnso-sc-budget] Adobe Connect being discontinued by ICANN without community consultation
From: "Ayden Férdeline" <icann at ferdeline.com>
Date: 4/4/19 11:55 am
To: "gnso-sc-budget at icann.org" <gnso-sc-budget at icann.org>

Dear all,

>From this blog post<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fnews%2Fblog%2Ftransitioning-icann-s-remote-participation-platform-to-zoom&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cb94ad289fd714b8497fe08d6b8fa6d92%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636899783047474463&sdata=gWRplt%2BKmNdKknRDbAvrCIEhhO0okha3%2BDTfO%2FfXa%2Fs%3D&reserved=0> I have become aware that ICANN org is seeking to save $100,000 a year by transitioning from Adobe Connect to Zoom.

In my experience with using Zoom, the platform's interface is not intuitive and it does not offer all of the functionality that Adobe Connect offers us. I am very disappointed by this decision, which appears to have been made with no community consultation as to the impact on the wider community, and with the rationale. That the SSAC finds it simple to use is fine, but they are not representative of the average Internet user, and for calls that will be recorded and transcribed anyway, the point about enhanced security functionality is moot.

I am concerned that this is yet another example of ICANN org seeking to save funds by harming the community, rather than looking to economise from within.

Regards,

Ayden Férdeline

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