Fouad Bajwa: Okay then, it’s already 13:02 UTC time, and I would like to start the meeting. This is Work Team B, according to the agenda, the first agenda item is the roll call, so can you see who’s online on the call, and in the Adobe?
Seth Greene: Gisella? Are you on the call? Gisella? Okay, let me see if I can just do the roll call. I believe we have Gordon, Fouad, Sandra, Cheryl, Wolf, Olivier, Carlos, and Dev on the call, and from staff, it’s Mattias and myself, and we have apologies from Michel, Yaovi, and Moataz.
Fouad Bajwa: Okay, thank you. Did Annalisa also mention something about joining the meeting?
Seth Greene: I haven’t gotten any information from her. I’ve asked them to call out to her.
Fouad Bajwa: Okay, thank you. Welcome everybody, and let’s move on to the next item, which is review action items from 26 January 2011 meeting. Dev was to write an account as relates to the Work Team B recommendations, especially Recommendation 3, which is to remove any obstacles in the ALS/RALO ALAC structure; and Darlene was to propose use of the Adobe Connect room to her ALS, and Seth was to inquire within ICANN about offering the Adobe Connect room to ALS, which he reported as done. Seth was to remove Sebastian from the membership, by his own request, which is reported to be done.
So are there any comments regarding the agenda items from anyone?
Dev Teelucksingh: This is Dev. I haven’t fully finished the summary of ALS survey questions, the ALS survey report about Recommendation 3; I’m still midway in that, so I will send that out by email to the list, hopefully by the weekend.
Fouad Bajwa: Okay, thank you so much Dev, and welcome home. Okay, are there any other comments? If not, let’s move on to the other agenda items for today. Number three item is open Adobe Connect rooms for ALS’s, I don’t suppose we have Darlene on the call yet? Darlene, are you on the call?
Okay, Darlene was meant to share two responses from ALS’s, and there’s a section for IT to get questions, that is the path it prefers to use, and whether it will be used only during calls. So I think, Seth, you’re the best person to share some information on this for us?
Seth Greene: Certainly, Fouad, thanks. Again, as you said, we don’t know what Darlene’s responses are going to be from her ALS’s, however Heidi and I were chatting more about information from IT yesterday regarding this. They said that it’s relatively, on the one hand it’s a relatively simple matter, they certainly are able to do this. So we do have the cooperation of IT for this.
On the other hand, they did – not really on the other hand, but in addition, did want to know some of the general, the answers to some general questions. They did want to know, as I’ve listed there, what the AC rooms were going to be used for, the frequency of use, whether they were only going to be used during actual calls.
In talking to them, in my own talking to them, they said it would be fine if they just knew general aggregate answers for all of the ALS’s as a whole, rather than individually, as they had originally wanted to know. So once we actually have specific ALS’s, whether we start with one of Darlene’s, or whatever, we can just tell them some approximate answers.
Heidi’s thought was even though they were originally talking in terms of one Adobe Connect room, Heidi thought they would be fine with at least one Adobe Connect room for each region. So we’ll have to see what type of demand there is, but this is something they wanted to go ahead and start as soon as we give them the specifics of at least who the members of each room would be.
Fouad Bajwa: I think that once we have a considerable amount of regional representatives from the various RALOs on today’s call, I think we can request more discussion by everyone on the list, just to start the discussion, I think this would be a thing we can take back to all the RALOs, we can present it, since the chairs of the RALOs are not here, we can present them to the chairs of the RALOs. It’s just a possible way to go about this, towards like a dedicated room for each RALO, which would be information which would be circulated to the ALS’s, and then scheduled to go for a possible ALS meeting. I think from APRALO, I would declare that Cheryl can share her thoughts on this. We also have Olivier, who shared his thoughts on this, and so forth. So please, the floor is open for discussion.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: In answer to the macro question, this work group, penned by me, has already provided exact text to satisfy its boring little questions, and we wrote that down. It was a very simple, we will be using AC rooms in pursuit of the tasks outlined with proper requirements for an ALS to further its work for ICANN. In terms of frequencies and bookings, we hadn’t gone too far into those details.
If it’s going to be one AC room per region, fair enough, then that lack of generosity should be noted and the regional leadership should manage one of the bookings systems work. But we also need to link this with the uses of our Wiki, as well. We’ve already provided the opportunity for the ALS to have the Wiki with the interaction with all the system will allow, then I’m sure there’s a macro that allows for a simple booking system that says “Between 14:00 UTC and 15:30 UTC, ALS XYZ will be using rooms one to five.”
Fouad Bajwa: That’s a way, I think the best way to clear it. We can have a number of rooms definitely, and obviously for my own role, in the APRALO, I can be lead as part of the suggesting the inreach and outreach activities. Any other ideas or suggestions from the other participants of this meeting?
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: I was just wondering if those rooms would be kept open all the time or if we would have to book them in advance, and then we would be able to open them. I believe that it’s probably better for them to be open all the time, because it’s important for whoever was not able to participate to be able to review what was said. As long as the room stays open, you can log in at any time and have a look at what was said in there, and then I’m not sure, maybe there’s a technical limitation to this. Would Seth be able to help us on this?
Fouad Bajwa: Seth, please. Seth, are you there?
Seth Greene: I’m sorry, I was muted. Sorry about that. I don’t actually know the answer to that, Olivier, but I’ll get back to IT and let the group know.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay, thank you.
Fouad Bajwa: Cheryl?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thanks for that question, Olivier. That goes back to my somewhat snide, and deliberately snide comment about the lack of generosity. If it is going to be the extraordinarily generously offered one AC room per region, then leaving it open has both limitations and advantages.
I think the original concept when we were chatting it about here was to have an open AC room that certainly ALS’s could utilize at their whim, providing it was within the broader requirements of activities in their ICANN based policy development group. It seems to me like this may have been budget required on how do we control it. If it’s not open rooms, it’ll be rooms that can be booked. I suggest that every ALS region and ISOC structure takes the generosity that ISOC has using the Sysco room – and we’ll do what we can despite you, rather than with you. And yes, you may quote me.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you, Cheryl. Seth, would you like to comment on that?
Seth Greene: Fouad, I apologize, I wasn’t able to hear Cheryl, unfortunately. If you can just summarize briefly for me, I’d appreciate it.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Pretty simple, Seth. Tell IT that unless it’s going to be open and usable rooms, rooms that people can access if they want to, and that these rooms are going to be able to be used as our cause. And people who are not in ALAC can log in and see what’s happening in a particular meeting, if they’re going to be limited – and we can understand why they’d be limited - by one per region, then it’s pretty well useless.
And if it is going to be closed and only open when meetings are actually, at least the ALS’s which are At-Large structures that are also ISOC chapters can say “Thanks, but no thanks.” At least some parts of the internet infrastructure and internet system in general want to support interaction, which appears to be unlike the way this is heading with ICANN.
Seth Greene: Understood, Cheryl. Sorry.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I try to be as polite as I can be. I’m very tempted to say less polite things.
Seth Greene: I’m glad I interrupted you then. Pardon me, Cheryl, I was just going to say that yes, I’m happy to tell them that, and I will also try to extract from them a commitment, or at least speaking in terms of as soon as there’s any demand whatsoever, an AC room per ALS rather than per RALO.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: They need to be open.
Seth Greene: Right, I understand. That will be where I start with them.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Which staff person wants to be interacted with and annoyed 24/7?
Seth Greene: Not me.
Fouad Bajwa: Okay, does anyone else have comments on this topic? If not, Seth, I would like to suggest that we take note of this discussion, and certain key parts as part of the recommendations. And unless there are no comments, I can move on to the next agenda item. Dev, would you like to say something?
Dev Teelucksingh: Yes, thanks Chair. I get the clarification, if we make the request between ALS’s, we are simply just offering them the possible use of the Adobe Connect room for use by the ALS. ICANN is not offering the telephone support. I’m just clarifying that. In other words, there’s not going to be any Adego to help facilitate the actual ALS meeting, in using the Adobe connect room. Is that correct?
Fouad Bajwa: Seth, would you like to intervene?
Seth Greene: Yes, that’s the first time, I believe, that suggestion has come up in this Work Team. Obviously I can’t speak for the Work Team, but that sounds to me like a very useful suggestion. Perhaps that’s part of the expanded proposal that the Work Team would like to add, and if you would like to, I’d be happy to talk to IT about that. I don’t know what the expense would be, I think it’s certainly more than an Adobe Connect room.
Dev Teelucksingh: I just wanted to absolutely clarify, I’m certain some of the ALS’s might have the wrong – especially those who have been participating in the monthly calls and so on, they might have the wrong impression. I mean, if we’re not offering that, we just need to state that explicitly in our request, and when we offer the ALS’s the possible use of the Adobe Connect room; this does not mean the telephone support that happens in a monthly conference call. You know, to just say words to that effect.
Seth Greene: Got it, Dev.
Dev Teelucksingh: Okay.
Fouad Bajwa: Thanks for bringing that up, I don’t think that’s part of our mission. Do we have any other comments before we move to the next agenda item?
Number four. Okay, moving up to agenda item number four, which is Dev apprising everybody how ALS relates to WT B’s recommendations, especially Recommendation 3, to remove any obstacles in the ALS or the ALAC structure. I know Dev, you’ve already shared this document is under work right now, but still if you would like to share some comments about it so far, please.
Dev Teelucksingh: Okay. I would like to point out one more question regarding the survey that probably goes directly to Recommendation 3, and that’s question number 13, which is “What are the most important limitations to ALS participation?” The majority of ALS’s responded with three important limitations.
One was the amount of time commitment by the At-Large structure, the policy documents are too technical and require too much time to read, there are not enough knowledgeable members in the At-Large structure; and so this goes back now to the engagement aspect that this Work Team is looking at.
So one of the recommendations is that, again, that ICANN, ALAC, and At-Large should coordinate efforts to make available more accessible material explaining the background behind ICANN, ALAC, DNS, and so forth, and relates to policy work. Because to allow the ALS’s and the individual members within the ALS to educate themselves at their own pace, this I think has been reinforced recently. As you know, there was an announcement that the last IPv4 blocks were allocated, and the IPv6 FAQ which was generated by the At-Large summit, and that was actually linked by ICANN in their press release regarding this announcement.
It’s just that – I still think it’s very, very hard for ALS’s and I have to say, even ourselves, to really find information that is easy to pass on. To say “Hey, for more information about the background behind this issue, see here.” You know, we still have to really – we still have to really organize our Confluence page so it will break out into all the different topic areas, like what is the DNS, what is the beginners guide to the domain name system? That type of stuff.
So that’s really one of the key other questions that directly talks to Recommendation 3. I’ll try to send out something by the end of the weekend on that.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you, Dev. I think it is important information, the first item is the time constraints of At-Large, and the second item, policy documents, relates to communication. This is something which even I felt when I joined in the activities of APRALO, and communications during the meetings that I recommended whenever we have ICANN staff there should be a layman summary on each policy document in ICANN.
Maybe this has an element of ICANN level support and a little At-Large support, I think I look at it as something which may require a bit of effort on our part as well, like we were looking at issues of technology that are under our purview. Maybe a possible volunteer team from ALAC to look into the documents which are coming down from ICANN to ALAC, so a summary can be included, maybe staff, I don’t know – this will be an issue for discussion. I would like to open up the floor other business as well. Are they any suggestions to what Dev shared, the floor is open for discussion.
Gordon Chillcott: Fouad, this is Gordon. This isn’t directly related, but something that Dev said at our last meeting kind of woke me up a bit, so I took a proposal back to my ALS with regard to the problem of communication between ICANN and ALAC and various ALS’s, because it’s a two way communication, and that kind of bothered me a bit. In the survey, and correct me if I’m wrong on this, the largest single method of communication that was being used by the ALS’s was mailing list. That’s true in our case too, and almost pathologically, a mailing list is really very active.
Dev mentioned last time that the use of a tool like Posterus would enable us to sort of syndicate the notices both to the ALS’s. In our case, and I spent a long time looking at this, the best way to syndicate would be up to the mailing list, which I can tell you from experience, there’s generally a fair amount of comment within our ALS.
The recommendation that I put out to our people was that toward the end of the comment period, all the comments which turned up on the mailing list, and there would be a large number, would be condensed into a report saying basically these are the three views, the four views, this is the consensus, these are the arguments for and against, and get that back.
That seemed to be the only reasonable way of doing it. Believe me, you do not want to see all the comments that turn up on our mailing list. This, by the way, means that the document that is presented to our ALS needs to be readable, fairly readily, because there’s an awful lot of traffic that goes back and forth on the mailing list and the people who control it spend a lot of time reading this, they can’t afford to spend a significant amount of time trying to digest what the document is intending to tell them. So the idea of a reasonably easy to read summary is, I think, an excellent one.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you, Gordon, do you think utilizing Confluence pages and taking comments through Confluence, and then sharing the link through the mailing list for Confluence would be a good idea?
Gordon Chillcott: Providing a link to the Confluence page to our mailing list is probably a good idea, because as they read, most of the people would probably bookmark that site and keep it on hand. Yeah, what I’m thinking is engage more members of our ALS with what’s going on in ICANN, so that’s kind of provide information. On the other hand, attempting to not flood ICANN with the massive amount of comment and commentary that will probably end up on our mailing list.
Fouad Bajwa: I’d like to thank you, Gordon. Cheryl?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thanks, Fouad. Just following up on what Gordon has said, but also picking up on your point, Fouad. I think what we’ve come to time and time again is the specific need for aggregation tools. Having ALS space discussion, then being aggregated in some form and it can be a comment or similar on Wikis or surveys or whatever it is that’s appropriate, and then coming back into the aggregated system.
It is the ideal, it’s where we need to get to an end point, but the other thing we need to remember is we need more unified communications. We can put something together, as I say, for example as Gordon is saying Posterus; and bring individuals’ attention to a link via Twitter feeds or any other mechanism which they’re subscribing to.
But to take them to a space that allows them to interact with background materials, and a lot of the materials that are made available just aren’t adequate because they aren’t well advertised, and they allow individuals to start putting in their yes’s, no’s, and maybes on things in terms of policy development. I guess what we need to be pretty careful of here is that as we develop these tools, that they are clearly identified as At-Large structure input. In other words, the fact that this is coming from the At-Large and being facilitated by ALAC is clear and undeniable. Otherwise we’ll perhaps clear up our own work in this service in terms of recognition.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you, Cheryl. I see this issue, I think the most pressing issue that we’re having relates to policy work, and I see a lot of contribution coming in, delegated by the Chair and working on this in APRALO, with regards to the policy in APRALO.
This is a really key issue at the moment, and something that I hope – I don’t solve problems with tools, I find solutions, which may be a small process and then use the tool to facilitate solving it. And with regards to that, I don’t know can work, would having somehow – so if ALAC posts a policy document, that can appear on the RALO pages, and if we do implement the ALS pages per our recommendation, it would appear on the ALS pages as well.
There is a possibility that we could consolidate all those comments onto a single Confluence page for RALOs and ALAC both. That’s an idea, we’ve been doing something similar in the past, and I think it might just be workable. I’m sure that people – I’m sure it can come out to be in the short span of time, and that’s why I’m going to pass over to both Dev, and Olivier can follow up.
Dev Teelucksingh: Just a follow up what Gordon and Cheryl said. I think email is still important, but I think by having it easily expandable to whatever ALS members uses Twitter or Facebook or whatever, it just becomes more widespread. The beauty of tools like Posterus is that you can use this, it is different than sending an email: it updates the web page, it updates the Facebook, Twitter, and also you can forward it to your email list.
We’ve got still making it accessible, and I agree with you, the material has to be accessible. I think sometimes when the announcement goes out, you have to put in some explanation, why should you care about a specific policy, because I’m just using the strategic plan, for example.
When the strategic plan goes out for comment, I try to put in my explanation when I post it on the LACRALO list, for example, the reason why you should care about this is if you want ICANN to possibly fund any projects, it has to tie into the strategic plan, so therefore if it’s not in the strategic plan, then it won’t be funded. So that’s why – you have to give a little background to say this is why you should really read this and comment on it, because it does affect you in this manner. So that’s all I wanted to say.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you, Dev, for the update on that. That is very, very valued. Of course, I think there tends to be- This is really interesting, our recommendation about technology group and the use of social media tools in the implementation. It remains the fact that these processes are going to be running parallel and there’s going to be interplay between them, for each possible solution. This is where we are headed, this actually- It trickles down to the RALO/ALS inreach and outreach activities as well.
So I’m definitely going to suggest that we take a note on this, a critical note on this, this fact because the three items you shared, I think the policy documents and the comments processes becomes primary for us. And then the time commitment issue, we can do that more like a social banner, and I’m going to give the floor to Olivier, and earlier Cheryl gave us a green sign of approval. Olivier?
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you, Chair. I’d just like to comment on Gordon’s commentary, with regards to having an enormous amount of ALS input. I think it’s a great thing to have that and sending the aggregation of all this information should be done by the RALO. I’m afraid – or the RALO leadership, should I say. And I’m afraid this might cause more work for the RALO leadership, but what we’re dealing with here is the grass root from the ALS’s which eventually end up as an ALAC statement, and I think that’s an excellent thing to have happen. Thank you.
Fouad Bajwa: I’d like to also request – I also have something on the Adobe Connect chat room. Sandra, would you like to speak up and possibly share your situation, please?
Sandra Hoferichter: I’m just reading Cheryl’s message. Fouad, could you repeat the question, please?
Fouad Bajwa: I saw what you were sharing on the chat room, would you like to share what you’re talking about?
Sandra Hoferichter: This is a platform which is new for me too, and we are going to use this platform for the next (Eurodeck) meeting, to comment on the program. So in our case it could be a comment platform to decide or to discuss on various policy issues. I have no idea how good this will work, we will see this during the next two weeks; it looks good and I think it could work. By the way, it was developed by Diplofoundation. I think some people of you know this foundation. Thank you, Fouad.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you for sharing that here, Sandra. I think this is a great foundational tool being used for this, it’s been done by a couple of universities together, and it’s a text community. I think this is a feature which we do already have within the Confluence. Your point is well taken as well, a great example, it’s also a good example to find possible features for the group. Currently, Seth, would you like to give sort of your views with what’s been done so far with this subject, please?
Seth Greene: Certainly, Fouad. Thank you. Basically to me it sounds as though there are definitely a group of tools that this Work Team wants to be proposing the use of. One of our overarching umbrella concerns though is accessibility, of course, so I think that as a next step, as you move into actually – on this agenda, as you move into agenda item five, whoever is assigned the communication/collaboration tool proposals simply has to make that crystal clear and really do perhaps some vetting of the various tools that have been considered.
Whether that’s actually done in the field, so to speak, by testing them out… I’m not sure that level of attention is needed, but based on the discussions that we’ve had, perhaps put them in a hierarchy that indicates this Work Team’s priorities regarding the proposals of the communication tool. So I think actually, it probably leads directly to the next agenda item.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you so much for your input on this, Seth. At the same time I’d also like---while you were speaking I was also thinking of the comments the founder had made and the comments so far, for me on the chat. I’m also going to take note of the chat to be charted as part of the discussion on this item, between Olivier, Cheryl, Dev, Gordon and Sandra.
What I took was that where we stand currently with technology and tools either totally converges or consolidates. Everything you have can come into one screen and show you every single call which means that I can gather things from so many places and put them in one screen respective of this technology being used, basically the foundation platform, and then presenting them through something where everyone gathers around.
For a small example, and as you have said an issue, and this is part of agenda item number five, but it’s food for thought - the RSS. The RSS controls information from across everywhere. Using something like Planet like Dev suggested and Cheryl has also suggested in the past, about use of (Clusters) which consolidates all of these social methods across the web into one single space, or project message, transferring a message from the source to all of the other recipients.
So I think that for my statements as a personal comment that consolidation wouldn’t be an issue. Motivation would be an issue, like Dev mentioned, when motivation to get everyone to participate remains tone of the biggest challenges. Before I…
Olivier Crepin-LeBlond: Have we lost Fouad?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I was wondering exactly that, yes.
Olivier Crepin-LeBlond: Hello, Fouad?
Seth Greene: They’ve just told us that he’s dropped, yes, but they’re getting him back right now. He’s going to be back right now, I’m told.
Fouad Bajwa: Sorry there, can you hear me all?
Seth Greene: Fouad, I’m sorry your call dropped right in your…
Fouad Bajwa: Yeah, I guess something happened in my internet connection, I have no idea why. Okay, I was talking about the agenda item. If there are any more comments we can take them in two minutes otherwise we can move on to agenda item number five. Any comments on item four? Wolf, would you like to share the question you’re sharing on the chat?
Wolf Ludwig: Yes, I’m following this discussion with a lot of curiosity and I’m trying to reflect some comparable cases of my experience working with volunteer communities. Most of the cases I can remember, I must admit, technical tools can be extremely helpful but they are mostly not fundamental. I think first of all you need a spirited community to participate and actively contribute to discussions and consultation practices.
For better mobilization of our ALS’s I can only talk about the European context. I think other factors would be much more important than technical tools we would offer them. Even if we would offer them the most sophisticated technical tools I’m not sure that this would basically improve the situation and if this would provide more input from our ALS’s. I’m just asking these questions.
Fouad Bajwa: Wolf, your comment is very valid. What I suggest, what my motivation is at the moment, is consolidation of what is existing already and to try to get everyone to at least look with motivation of these, to look at tools to see what is happening with ICANN and ALAC around in other areas. This is true, normally tools---the closer we are to consolidating all of this information, to bring it into one presentable place, a modern channel I think, is very convenient pertaining to modernality.
We are going to scare people off, trust me. If I am not a technical person I---even TLD intimidates me, personally speaking, so your comment is very well taken. Cheryl’s mic was dropped – I think we can get a call out to see.
Seth Greene: Yes.
Fouad Bajwa: I just wanted to take more time on this point because it touched three important aspects that Dev had mentioned and he’ll be showing something more in detail in a document later in the week. So I’m going to move onto agenda item number five.
Wolf Ludwig: Fouad? Sorry, I raised my hand again. May I make just one more comment?
Fouad Bajwa: Yes, please.
Wolf Ludwig: I highly agree again with what Olivier mentioned and noted before. I think it’s a question of process and in this process I think the RALO chairs have a very important moderation and encouragement role to play and I think it’s on them to collect and ask for inputs from their community to put them together and to forward it to the At-Large community. I think all the leaders have a crucial role to play in this mission process and I see much more social interaction in this process than technical components because so far I’m quite satisfied with the work space we have at the moment.
It’s useful, it’s rather easy to work with, and I remember when we made the announcement at the EURALO that this new workspace was available now, that people who want to work with it just need to write a mail to Mattias and then they get there entrance; so far, to my memory, it was only one of our ALS representatives that asked for this opportunity. I’m not sure having a new tool that having a new tool more of our members will jump on it and really use it. Thanks.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you, Wolf, for your comments again. It’s not that I’m purposely not trying to hear objections, really your comments are being heard and I take that as important input in the issue that we’re trying to tackle at the moment. Are there any more comments? Unless there are any comments---this is a continued core item, even for discussion of the mailing list. As Dev documented there will be more discussion on this. I’m going to move on to agenda item number five which is Work Team B’s proposals for ALAC, the addition of IDNs in the Cartagena review as part of the Work Team D proposals in the relevant stage, and selection of next steps for turning that proposal to ALAC. I’m going to request, since I don’t have Annalisa with me, I’m going to request Seth to take lead on this and facilitate us to the process.
Seth Greene: I’m sorry, Fouad, would you just repeat that? There is a lot of noise on my line.
Fouad Bajwa: Okay, can you hear me now?
Seth Greene: Yes, I can make it out, you were saying you’d like me to facilitate in what way?
Fouad Bajwa: To take over agenda item four.
Seth Greene: Certainly. I think that the way to proceed, probably, and I’ve spoken with some of the other Work Team coaches, is of course this is a task for Work Team members at the very heart of making the decisions about and creating the proposals for the ALAC. Perhaps, if you agree, after the meeting you and I and perhaps we can get Annalisa involved, can decide who in the Work Team to reach out to for number five. Would that be consistent with what you’re saying?
Fouad Bajwa: I think for starting on this we could follow that way but we’ll have to keep the whole group informed in the direction in which we’re moving on this.
Seth Greene: Certainly, sure. I can start by---any additional ideas that the Work Team has seriously considered since Cartagena is something that I can certainly go through the minutes and add to the proposals page. That’s relatively easy of course, and would already reflect the interest of the Work Team. Beyond that, perhaps we could reach out to people.
Fouad Bajwa: Okay, I’d like to put this question out to you, if you would like to comment or have any objection. I have Cheryl taking the lead for the region. Cheryl?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you, Fouad. This is one of those matters where I think one of the recommendations from the Work Team should include not so much a new-standing committee to advise the ALAC, but a repurposed use of an existing---well, it’s not really a standing committee but it is a standing committee; it’s our standing committee of the ALAC, it’s the regional secretariat’s list and their activities.
I think perhaps what we should be recommending to the ALAC to do is to formalize with an appropriate cross-regional grouping. This is where I think the regional secretariat would be a starting point, they may not be the end point but where we have a continuing open dialogue in the communication channel to ensure that our tool use and the assistiveness of our communication goes out from ICANN and back into ICANN is the best it can be to meet the needs and usage pattern of tools at the end.
I’m pretty keen to have that as a firm recommendation. ALAC’s role, in my totally unbiased view, is to facilitate and make magic happen at the ALAC ends. Its job as an Advisory Committee to the Board of ICANN and expand into specific roles in post-development would be a [break in audio] in ICANN is quite clear, but what it needs to do is to make sure that its mechanisms are not meaning that 15 or 20 people are giving some sage-like counsel wisdom imparting their personal views but representation from as many of the internet end-users as possible coming to the system.
So I’d like to have some form of languaging recommendation to codify that need and see that at this stage while we have an ALS/RALO/ALAC structure that we have a formalization of some standing mechanism that allows us to deliver that triple-layer cake and ensure that happens. The reason I’m saying that is that what we all want to do is get it as far toward the end-user as possible but what we want to make sure of is that the Advisory Committee to the ICANN Board is a necessary part to the internet group otherwise we have the reversion to the well, we’ve built it, ICANN’s built it, it’s got public comment mechanisms.
They will come--or more to the point they will not come--and if Joe Blogs, or Fred Murks or Mary Smith want to have input into policy they can somehow know that it’s on and have their input. So if they make sure there’s a very proactive mechanism to make contact with ALAC. That’s it from me.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you, Cheryl, you put it as it should have been and I think---Seth, would you like to comment on this?
Seth Greene: Thank you, Fouad. I simply would say that I, as a staff member, fully agree with what Cheryl said and I think it very much feeds into what Wolf’s concern was regarding motivation versus simply the availability of technology. So, yes, I was busy writing as Cheryl was speaking, thanks.
Fouad Bajwa: Thank you, and I’d like to suggest that if you do work with Cheryl and we can build up that possible language that we require in there, in our work proposals and possibly share that at the next meeting. This is one of the notable items that I would suggest should find its place in the documentation. Does any else have comments on the discussion so far regarding this agenda item? Anyone? Okay, getting the command for this back to Seth to move on with the item. Seth?
Seth Greene: I’m sorry, Fouad, I didn’t quite hear what you said, I apologize.
Fouad Bajwa: I just said you can move on with the other parts of this agenda item.
Seth Greene: Certainly. as far as I’m concerned, absolutely. I take it by the silence that I again misheard your request, Fouad, I apologize.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Next item.
Seth Greene: Thank you, Cheryl. Any other business you were referring to Fouad? Hello? Can anyone hear me? Thank you.
Fouad Bajwa: Can you hear me now?
Seth Greene: Yes, I can hear you.
Fouad Bajwa: I was just referring to is their anything else you’d like to add to agenda item number five?
Seth Greene: I’m sorry, no, thank you very much. I think that if everyone agrees with the way that it’s been discussed we can go forward. I’d be happy to go ahead and make sure that our potential proposal list includes that we’ve discussed since Cartagena and then I will get in contact with you, Fouad, and you and Annalisa can see how to proceed from there.
Fouad Bajwa: Okay, thank you for those comments. I am going to move towards closing special agenda item number five and move into agenda item number six, which is any other business. So far, from I’ve gathered, is that we may be having face-to-face meetings in San Francisco. Seth, would you like to share anything on that?
Seth Greene: If I may, I’d just like to say that I think that it’s fairly definite that each of the Work Teams, including B, will be having a face-to-face meeting. The individual Work Team meetings occur after the Sunday session in which the Work Teams will be making and discussing their proposals with both the community and ALAC, and before the final wrap-up meeting.
So during this face-to-face meeting of Work Team B you’ll have time to go over and integrate any feedback that’s gotten and incorporate it into whatever presentations and discussions will be needed in the wrap up as well as incorporate it into what the recommendations in Cheryl’s--Olivier’s--report to the Board will be. Pardon me, Olivier. So, yes, we’ll be having that meeting at that point in San Francisco.
Fouad Bajwa: Okay, thank you on that, Seth. At the moment there is nothing else up for discussion unless someone would like to point out something in the items I may have missed. Is there any other discussion, anyone would like to make some comments or something?
Okay, now we can close agenda item number six and move on to confirmation of the next meeting time which is going to be on the 23rd of February at 1300 UTC. Just a small comment for Seth to note, I’ll be travelling in Europe from the 19th for (inaudible 1:04:40) activities, so I will probably---I will try to be there, and if I do make it I will probably make it through Skype or so. Just in case, because I have to transition through three or four countries, I might not make the meeting but I will trust Annalisa to be present so this is an advance notice.
Seth Greene: Yes, I understand, Fouad, thank you. I also see in the chat that Wolf won’t be able to make it also.
Fouad Bajwa: Yeah, because the (inaudible 1:05:15) has become too critical and too way out of hand, I guess. Okay, so for any other comments regarding the meeting, feel free to contact Seth if something comes up and you’re not able to attend. So for agenda item number seven, I’d like to thank everyone for staying in for the extra ten minutes I’ve taken today. I wanted to really get input on items number four and five from everyone and I feel that we’re going to a more consolidated stage in our recommendation and proposal activity.
Unless anyone wants to make any further comment I would like to see towards ending today’s call. Any comments from anyone?
Okay, thank you so much everyone. Thank you for taking the time to stay in this meeting. I wish you good day, good night, good evening, wherever you are, and morning of course, and I look forward to the next call. Thank you Seth, Olivier, Sandra, Cheryl, Wolf, Gordon, Dev, and thanks to Carlos. Thanks so much everyone.
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