The proposed OPEN Forum will be the first ALSes in Chinese-speaking at an ICANN meeting, thanks to the availability of simultaneous interpretation for Chinese (first time in ICANN history despite some unsuccessful pilots though). The Forum would enable Chinese participants to voice their views, with no more language barriers, on ICANN policies that are most relevant to the Chinese community and be a good opportunity for ICANN's global engagement project.

After consulting the community, the topic that interests the majority is the issues in new gTLD program, particularly on (a) Chinese IDN character variants (technology, delegation and management) and users' experience; (b) trademark protection measures; and (c) other application and implementation issues. [We note that ICANN might have other sessions to discuss these issues but the value of this forum is the Chinese prospective.]

Since APRALO will hold its General Assembly in Beijing, seven Chinese-speaking ALSes will be available to present specifically from the users' prospective and make sure that all the discussions are for the global public interest, not being captured by commercial interests.    

Logistically, we hope the Forum could be put into Beijing meeting general schedule. We suggest the Forum be scheduled on Monday or Thrusday in a room with the interpretation available.