About ICANN LabsICANN Labs is working to increase digital engagement with special focus on newcomers to the ICANN community, by making it easier to move from general awareness to a full and active membership. The digital platforms that emerge from ICANN Labs will help deliver information to bigger and more geographically spread groups and will lead towards a reconceptualization of ICANN.org. This will broaden and deepen ICANN’s engagement with existing and new stakeholders from around the world.Initially, ICANN Labs will launch experiments focused on four initial tracks ... Each of the four track teams (Communications, Education, Conversation and Discovery) will showcase beta versions of proposed digital tools and assets and then seek community feedback. Using that feedback we will improve, or abandon certain tools then re-introduce improved versions. The process will continue in that cycle until we have new and useful tools that meet the community’s needs.ICANN LabsICANNL ID-616332f3-2609-4fbf-8feb-13761ad20fdcICANN CommunityWe encourage everyone in the ICANN community to take our prototypes for a spin and provide feedback in the Journal comments sections or via Twitter at @ICANNLabs. If you are interested in providing more in-depth feedback, let us know and we will schedule a one-on-one interview. Contact us at icannlabs@neo.comTo increase digital engagement with special focus on newcomers to the ICANN community, by making it easier to move from general awareness to a full and active membership. ID-005d2eff-dc11-4863-9c98-bde1df96f748Public ExperimentationWe believe that experimenting with new ideas publicly, in a way that encourages our constituents to participate in regular feedback cycles. FeedbackLearningThis will allow us to learn faster as we build the next version of ICANN's digital engagement platform.Lean Product DevelopmentAnd what is lean product development? ICANN Labs is incorporating “agile software development” and “lean startup” approaches to develop the products. This means that: Work with community: We’ll continually gather qualitative and quantitative feedback from real users of the product, and use that learning to drive rapid improvements and necessary changes in strategy. Core teams: We’ll work in small, cross-functional teams that bring business, design and engineering together into one group. Test assumptions: We’ll view ideas as hypotheses to be proven, rather than requirements to be built. Validate ideas: We’ll try to create what are called “minimum viable products" (MVPs). An MVP is the smallest experience you can put in a customer’s hands that helps you learn and validate (or invalidate) an idea. Scale up: We’ll scale up our engineering rigor as our belief in the product increases, but we don’t over-engineer when an idea is still speculative.Agile Software DevelopmentCommunicationIncrease awareness and participation in Internet policy discussion. ID-dda267ea-199c-4440-9d1e-b2611fb1376a1How can ICANN drive increased awareness and participation in Internet policy discussion by exploring new models for content creation, growth and distribution?EducationIncrease knowledge about ICANN, its process, and its constituents. ID-156c78db-ae80-47c9-bc66-9869139931ae2How can ICANN leverage new online learning models to increase knowledge about ICANN the organization, its process, and its constituents?ConversationFacilitate discussion and collaboration around policy development. ID-991f5252-db1a-414e-a0fc-f12d0ab1b34a3How ICANN facilitates deeper discussion and collaboration around policy development, which could extend to ICANN’s public comment process?Discovery & PersonalizationRecommend relevant policy news, discussion, and education resources. ID-92aec33b-431a-462c-b90b-a054ca490eda4Given the diverse interests and needs of its community, how can ICANN recommend relevant policy news, discussion, and education resources?2013-12-27http://labs.icann.org/en/aboutOwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net