SECTION: Front Cover

"The Internet Needs You!"

"APRALO"

"If you are an organization located in Asia, Australasia or the Pacific Islands and concerned with internet related issues, you can help influence the operation, growth and development of the Internet by becoming part of the Asia, Australasia and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO).

APRALO invites all interested civil society parties to join it in taking part in the decisions that shape the Internet."

Section: Did you know that...

  • APRALO is made up of more sub-regions than any other region and comprises more than 70 nations reaching from Turkey to New Zealand ?
  • APRALO is the region with the most Internet users, the most people still offline and the greatest growth potential in the coming years ?
  • You can now get a domain name in many local languages of the region (add some local script examples such as example.cn) ?
  • Due to its diversity and growth, Asia-Pacific Internet users are among the most concerned by current Internet policy discussion ?
  • DRAFT: as a member of APRALO, you have a direct impact on the direction of the international body responsible for some of the Internet's key resources ?

Section: General Information on ICANN and At-Large

About At-Large

“At-Large” is the name for the community of individual Internet users who participate in the policy development work of ICANN. Currently, more than 100 At-Large Structures representing the views of individual Internet users are active throughout the world. You can learn more about the community and its activities on the website www.atlarge.icann.org, as well as how to join and participate in building the future of the worldwide Domain Name System (DNS) and other unique identifiers which every single user of the Internet relies on every time they go online.

About ICANN

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.

Section: What is APRALO?

(KT will further review and edit draft text below)

Draft text:

APRALO encompasses all Internet end-users in Asia, Australasia and the Pacific Islands. Together with other regions, we have a direct impact on the direction of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), working to ensure that the expansion of the Internet serves the public interest. As more Internet domain names and IP addresses are required to keep pace, we advance policies and services that reduce confusion and abuse while enhancing security, accessibility and stable growth.

APRALO consists of the civil society organizations, non-profits and individuals to represent the rights of Internet users across the region, from Dubai to Christchurch. We represent their views in the bottom-up, consensus based, multi-stakeholder ICANN policy development process. And we can always benefit from new perspectives.

We are comprised of individuals and organizations that are formally recognized by ICANN as "At-Large Structures". To ensure that we represent views as diverse as our continent, we encourage individual and groups to join us. Membership is simple and free of charge.

Amongst the types of organizations that can join us are:

Professional Societies
Academic and Research Organizations
Community Networking Groups
Consumer Advocacy Groups
Internet Society Chapters
Computer User Organizations
Internet Civil Society groups

Come and work with us on improving the Internet experience for all. Previous experience with ICANN or Internet governance can be useful but is not required. Our goal is to make ICANN Internet policy understandable, transparent, and responsive to end-user needs.

Find out more at http://www.apralo.org or contact us at info@apralo.org .

SECTION: What issues are Important to APRALO

Introduction of the New Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs)

(Pavan will work with members of the .shop application on a short description on new gTLDs and a report the .shop application)
(KT will draft a text on the gTLD application for indigenous people, .indigi)

Standard text from other brochures:
Currently the Internet uses only a few top-level domains – well known "generic" ones (.com, .net, .org), lesser known TLDs (such as .travel and .info), and country-based ones (such as .cn, .pk and .nz). ICANN has started a process to greatly expand the number of TLDs. APRALO is working to ensure that this process is open, fair, protective of free expression, and accessible to communities as well as businesses. APRALO has been especially active in ensuring that the process's trademark protection is done in a manner to reduce consumer confusion while protecting legitimate free expression.

IPv4 to IPv6 Transition

The need for IPv6 implementation (DRAFT by Izumi Aizu, Izumi will also provide a shorter version for the hardcopy version)

How serious is the IPv4 address pool depletion and need for IPv6 implementation? One good description can be found from the latest report “INTERNET ADDRESSING: MEASURING DEPLOYMENT OF IPv6” published by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) this April. It says:
“IPv4 is expected to run out of previously unallocated addresses in 2012. IPv4 addresses are nearing full allocation, with just 8% of addresses remaining in March 2010. When IPv4 addresses are fully allocated, operators and service providers must support the newer version of the Internet Protocol (IPv6) in order to add additional customers or devices to their networks. Otherwise, they will need to employ complex and expensive layers of network address translation (NAT) to share scarce IPv4 addresses among multiple users and devices.”

So in two years from now, we are starting to face the shortage of IPv4 addresses, which may affect the new development of the Internet. Some of you may think, “Oh, then let’s deploy IPv6 network and migrate existing network resources to IPv6.” Sounds simple, but is it really so? Implementing IPv6 network actually means, so long as people also use existing IPv4 based network and the resources, you need to run both IPv4 and v6 network at the same time.

This if often called “dual stack” – making most devices and software ready for both IPv4 and v6 connection. For many, this requires increased resource, meaning money and manpower. The challenge is since the amount of IPv6 connection request in the early phase of IPv6 implementation is expected to be quite small, compared with that of IPv4, there are no strong incentive for commercial service providers to put extra resources.

The good news is that as IPv4-based services remain functional even after all the remaining pool of IPv4 become is consumed. And the actual amount of newly acquired IPv6 address will be not too large. Therefore, the effort to make existing v4-based services available from users on v6-based network could be relatively small in scale. The bad news is that IPv6 is not compatible with that of IPv4 in terms of linking the services on the Internet. This means that some application/services designed to function on IPv4-based network may not necessarily run on IPv6 network. Depending on the way the application software operates, some additional measures will be needed to let IPv4 services run over IPv6 networks.

While these sounds not so complicated, no one knows exactly how much it takes to make sure all application software, middleware, security and other functionalities that make the Internet available to ordinary users. What is certain, according to the Study Group report, each and every site must prepare technical work to analyze and modify, where necessary, existing IPv4-based services to accommodate IPv6-based networks. It will take time to implement all these tasks. To start early is one key. To share the best practices and to collaborate is another key, in my humble opinion.

Standard text from other brochures:
The first publicly used version of the Internet Protocol, Version 4 (IPv4), provided an addressing capability of about 4 billion addresses. With the explosive growth and worldwide proliferation of networks this resource is fast facing depletion. Since every single Internet-connected device needs a unique IP address, ensuring that the system has a way of growing in the future is important to everyone. The addressing system is transitioning to the next generation (IPv6) and APRALO is contributing to policy development that will ensure that this transition is done as efficiently and transparently as possible.__

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)

Social and Commercial Impact of IDN for Asia Pacific (by Edmon Chung)(Edmon will also provide a shorter text for the hardcopy version of the brochure)

Broad adoption of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) will have significant social impact for the Internet in Asia Pacific. IDN is as much about diversity, access, openness and equality, as it is about commercial opportunities and economic development. Because of the English alpha-numeric limitation, the interest and perceived value of domain names by brands, especially local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Asia Pacific has been low. With the introduction of IDN, businesses can express their offline identity online. Furthermore, domain name portfolio is an important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO). The majority of keywords typed into search engines in Asia Pacific are in local language. IDNs will immediately enhance the SEO rankings for businesses targeting the Asia Pacific market because the name would be able to match the search terms users are already keying in.

Some say that IDN could fracture the Internet, as some existing users would now be unable to reach certain websites. Perhaps a better way to see it is that without IDN, the Internet is very difficult to navigate for the rest of the world who do not use English as a first language. Embracing openness and an inclusive diversity is a fundamental spirit of the Internet. I believe that in the not too distant future, Internet users would take IDN for granted and would not even remember that domain names must only be in English alpha-numeric characters to begin with.

Standard text from other brochures:
The introduction of new internationalized domain names in non-ASCII characters is considered the biggest change in internet history. APRALO is involved in setting IDN policies with the At-Large community as our region has several languages which will be introduced to the domain names space, like Arabic and Chinese.

(Protecting End Users)

(Nirmol will draft this section, which focuses End User protection issues such as spam networks, pharming and phishing attacks and domain hijacking)

Standard text from other brochures:
APRALO is involved in creating formal measures to protect the rights of those who buy Internet domains, as well as the rights of Internet end-users. Our efforts deal with domain hijackers, reducing spam and ensuring the adoption of consumer-centric solutions to cyber threats. A robust and secure addressing system is a crucial component of an Internet that everyone can trust.

SECTION: From some of our members...

(Pavan will reach out to ALS reps and ask them for pictures and a short testimonial)

(add testimonials and pictures from APRALO members)

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