PDF - 260KB
Replace this text with your own.
LACRALO Meeting
(Held March 3, 2009)
Legend
Name: First name of member of group
Name L: First name plus first initial of last name if there's more than one person with the same first name.
Name?: If we think we might know who's speaking but aren't 100% sure.
Male: Unsure of who's speaking, but know it's a male.
Female: Unsure of who's speaking, but know it's a female.
Name: 52 - 0.31.06 We will identify a foreign language in square brackets with a time code for the beginning and end, so that you can quickly identify those passages. At the top of the transcript, we will advise you of the name(s) of the foreign languages you'll need to search for. For example, some transcripts may contain German, so you'll have to search for "German[ instead of |French" to find all the passages. The speaker identification is the same convention as all the others. i.e. If we know the speaker's name we'll include it, otherwise we'll put a question mark after it, or if we can't even guess, then Male, Female or SP.Interpreter. If interpreter actually translates French or German for a participant we will note it as "Interpreter". It will normally be evident from the dialogue who the interpreter is translating for. If not, we will include a note in square brackets with respect to who they are translating for.
[cuts out. Audio cuts out for less than 2 seconds. We may have missed something. We do not put this if it's just natural silence where no-one is speaking. We only put this if we can hear that there was briefly a technical problem with the phone line and/or the recording which resulted in temporary loss of sound.
cuts out 2 secs When the audio cuts out for 2 seconds or more we'll show approximately how many seconds were missed. We will most likely have missed something if it cuts out for this long.
-ation If we believe that all we missed was the beginning of a word because the audio cuts out, we will just put the end of the word that we can hear. If we are very sure from context what the whole word is, we'll just put the whole word, to make it easier for the reader. However, if the word could be a variety of different things, then we will show only the part of the word we could hear or thought we heard.
very faint - barely audible We will put this at the beginning of paragraphs where we are having a very difficult time hearing.
********************************************************************************************************
List of Participants
Aguirre, C
Altamira, M
Barzallo, JL
Bauer, R
Herlein, S
Hinds, L
Klaminski, O
Langenegger, M
Maresca, F
McKelligott, William A (guest)
Monastersky, D
Ovideo, J
Pisanty, A
Salinas, S
Samuel, C
Scartezini, V
Vargas, A
********************************************************************************************************
24 people doing microphone checks and the Adigo operator speaks a little bit
Carleton: Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s now 5 minutes past the hour.
Interpreter: 22.31
Carleton: On the business, there are a few housekeeping matters that I would wish to bring to your attention. Most of you know me... interrupted by whispering But the agenda is on... that’s a draft agenda, I remind you. If you can’t find the agenda, go to the meeting page, where the calendar is of the meeting, and you simply click on the link to the LACRALO general assembly, and that will bring up another page. From there, you can get to the Wiki.
The first order of housekeeping matter is to let you know that we have, as of the moment, 32 accredited ALSs. Yesterday, the ALAC voted to admit Setik-AGB, Internauta 25.09 Venezuela, and AUI Peru. Congratulations to all our brothers. applause So, with the addition of our friends from Venezuela, Peru and... is it Colombia? We are now 32 accredited at-large structures in the Latin America, Caribbean region.
The letters of introduction to them would have been sent on the list, and the principals would have received the letters. The other issue I would like to talk about is the issue of voting, and how it works. I believe there is widespread ignorance of how the votes really work. Every vote cast in LACRALO is a weighted vote. Every vote is a weighted vote – let me explain why. Each country has a certain percentage of the vote, and that percentage is defined in a coefficient to cover all of the possible ALSs in a country. So the more at-large structures there are in a country, the lower the weight of each vote. Is that understood?
So, for example, Guyana, with one at-large structure, has 7-plus percent of the vote. The country with the most at-large structures, each at-large structure has about 2.6 percent of the vote. It’s important to understand that.
We have sent out to the list the voting and coefficients. So those are available – they are public documents, they are on the wiki, they have been sent out on the list, so they are available. But I just wanted to remind delegates about how the votes work. Yes?
Male: Spanish 28.25
Interpreter: I understand perfectly what you’re saying about the weighting of the vote, but I believe that we have another problem, which perhaps hasn’t come up before, which is the case, or two specific cases at this table. The ISOC and Internauts, because we have Internauta Venezuela, Internauta Chile, Internauta Argentina, and those are sister organizations that belong to different countries, and the same thing happens with ISOC, ISOC. And I don’t know if that’s a point that we should consider.
Carleton: Also yes, I do believe that is an issue that is ripe for discussion. I would ask delegates, though, to see if we can take that to the list, and have a fulsome discussion on the list, and at some point further on, we take up that in consideration. That has been raised on several locations, but I truly believe that we need to discuss it fully before we get to it. Thank you.
Male: I just wanted to make the point.
Carleton: Yes, thank you sir. Yes, if you have something to say, please just come in.
Female: Spanish 29.57
Interpreter: I wanted to ask a question. What happens with the vote that comes through the Internet? Will they be accepted? And another question, what happens to the people who are not physically here, who are not present?
Carleton: There are two things, two answers, quickly. We did agree that we would allow proxy voting, and there was... you should receive a written proxy from those who are not here, who would wish to participate. To Internet voting, when we go to electronic voting for any matter, it... there is a time scheduled for the vote to be in, and the votes are tallied in just the same way as it would be tallied in a face-to-face vote. So there is no difference, it’s just the means by which you vote. The... we... our by-laws recognize that you can have electronic voting, at the choosing of the officers. I hope that answers the question.
I need to let you know about this, and I’m going to read it straight, so we get it all. To prepare for the closing session – this is from staff – we have been videotaping and taking photos of all the at-large activities. We will be videotaping three people at the end of each session today, to highlight three outcomes from the progress made in the RALO general assemblies, working groups, and thematic sessions. If you are selected to participate in the videotaping, we will need you to stay a few minutes after the session to record your comments.
We are still missing an interpreter handset from the opening session at the Sheraton on Sunday. Please re-check your bags and make sure it didn’t accidentally get tucked away. ICANN will have to pay a high cost to replace this item, therefore would appreciate your assistance to return it, if found, to any summit staff. And please, make sure you return all headsets used today.
There are four summit briefing documents available for all the RALOs at the At-Large conference desk, located just outside the At-Large summit office in Alameda 6, just outside there. If you are a member of the NARALO, you’ll find these documents in Alameda 1, meeting room. There are binders located on the materials table in the working group sessions. Please take one to place all the working group handouts and materials.
For those participating in the GNSO user meeting, lunch today at 1:00 p.m. There will be shuttle vans leaving from the Millia 33.21, front entrance, at 12:30, 12:45 and 12:55. Shuttle vans will depart from the Sheraton front entrance at 1:55, 2:15 and 2:30.
We also have a sign-in sheet. The sign in sheet should be passing around now. Where is the staff? Anyway, we have a sign-in sheet, and the sign-in sheet will be passed around. In... in an addition to the sign-in sheet, friends, we’ve had complaints from the staff that persons who were transported here to attend their ICANN business went off on sightseeing yesterday. And that has caused a great upset to the summit planners. I am very clear that we are here to do a specific business in a specific context, and I don’t mind that people go off on sightseeing, but it is within a certain time. And when LACRALO representatives are identified as not attending sessions which they were reasonably expected to be attending, that poses a problem for the summit planners.
The summit planners spent a lot of time and effort to try to get ICANN to fund the summit, and one of the outcomes was that we would have full participation of summiteers in the sessions, both in the At-Large summit, and in the general ICANN meetings. So there are a lot of edgy people walking around an taking note of what is happening, and they have been fingering LACRALO people as being missing from the sessions. So it is unfortunate that we have to talk about it at this point, but it’s important for us to understand that we’re here for a mission, and that we should not get confused about what the mission is. And our actions also impact future funding for others who might wish to participate. And it’s unfortunate that we have to talk about it, but it’s important for you to understand that this is something that staff and the summit planners are very concerned about.
The last piece of business I am going to talk about is the working group meetings thereafter. You will recall that there were thematic sessions that are planned after the G8s, and a lot of us have... are involved in those thematic sessions. I would encourage you to remember your commitments to these thematic sessions, and it would be good for you to attend them, and those of us who are not committed to a specific session, it would also be good for us to attend some session. Choose some session.
We have a chat room, as you see up there. Chat is available. It’s one way for remote participation and what’s happening here. Um... we’re going to ask Dev Annan 37.10 to be the official scribe on the chat itself. Okay?
So those were the opening remarks for housekeeping matters. Now, two big matters at hand. You see the agenda is up there? I will tell you that this is a draft agenda, draft agenda. We are going to dispense with the roll call, because the sign-in sheet will serve as the official roll call document. Ivy, do we have a sheet?
Ivy: Yeah.
Carleton: Okay, the sign-in sheet becomes the official roll call document, so we’re going to dispense with it. I know you think that... for this meeting, I’m going to ask your indulgence. I will just carry on until we get to... So the sign-in sheets are passed around.
Now we have the agenda, the draft agenda, and we are looking at the agenda, and can I ask if there are any motions to change the agenda? Are there any motions? Yes, I see Carlos.
Carlos: Spanish 39.10
Interpreter: I just Carton... I’m sorry, I can’t hear him. Oh, okay. If somebody could ask that speaker to begin again please, because I didn’t have audio. Thank you. No, no, he can say it in Spanish. Ah.
I would like to add a small summary before we start with the agenda, or rather, I would like to add something to the agenda, a small summary of the administration that we two representatives and the secretary have developed, so that we can start off from there.
Carleton: Okay, so the motion is that there is going to be a variation in the agenda to allow for a statement from our ALAC representative. Is there a second? Is there a seconder?
Raoul: I do.
Carleton: Thanks. So Raoul Bauer is officially seconding the motion. So to the agenda now, we have, just after the call to order, we have a statement from the ALAC representative. Are there any other amendments? Are there any other amendments to the agenda as it now stands? There being no additional amendments, can I have a motion for the adoption of the agenda? Can I have a motion for the adoption of the agenda?
Jose: Spanish 41.49
Interpreter: I propose that it be adopted.
Carleton: Jose Ovideo has moved for the adoption of the agenda, and it is seconded by Sergio Salinas.
I have one slight variation. We will ask inaudible 42.40 to be the rapporteur for this meeting. Without objection? No objection, so ordered.
Okay, so let’s move into the agenda now, and first item, of course, is the statement from Carlos Aguirre, who is our ALAC representative. Carlos.
Carlos: Spanish 43.18
Interpreter: Well, first, good morning to all of you, and, as Carleton said, it’s really a pleasure to be able to see you and touch you, and as Sergio was saying yesterday, behind every machine there’s a wonderful heart beating, so...
Let me tell you a bit, the idea is to tell you a bit about what has happened in the last two years, beyond the fact that some of you have actively participated in our region. Nonetheless, some others have not done so, and we’re waiting for that participation when we began our activities in 2006. I remember there were 17 ALS, in Sao Paolo there were 14, and since then, we’ve started on a road of recruitment, or to continue with the work that had begun with the interim ALAC, to get more ALSs. Today, we are very proud with the approval today of the new ALSs. As Carleton said, we are now 32, which almost brings us to 100 percent... a growth of 100 percent since the start in 2006. What this says is that participation is necessary, that people begin to be interested in these issues. However, and as we were talking about this with Raoul Bauer yesterday and the day before yesterday, and with some other colleagues, the participation should be much deeper.
So far, and perhaps because of a quality in our region, this has taken place in a framework of passions and sometimes strengths, or opposing powers, and sometimes interesting these different powers to try to find our place, and then from there to be able to set forth each person’s idea. Nonetheless, I do believe nonetheless that we really must get into more deeply ICANN’s issues. When we began this task with Carleton and Jose Ovideo, I think we unanimously agreed on the need to, in the first place, or at least during a first page, of achieving participation and engagement through the struggle that we’ve... our struggle for multi-linguism. For us, that was a requirement that was absolutely non-negotiable in a region that... where there are several languages, and we’ve been able to have almost everything translated. We continue to struggle with this, and we’ve been able to get ICANN from a budget that was $2.5 million, more or less, today the translation program has been broadened to, or increased to, almost $59 million.
And we’ve also, and when I say “we,” I mean a whole bunch of people, but we’ve also, from the pressure we’ve exerted, and also because ICANN has opened up because of this pressure, we’ve been able to have teleconferences in both languages that we can understand each other, and this is a first step.
And the second step, which we had suggested for the second stage of our region, was precisely to deepen the engagement, the participation in ALAC issues, in ICANN issues. Topics and issues that are reflected in ALAC’s webpage and ICANN’s web page, and our region also. In other words, it’s also true, and perhaps what I’m saying is a bit complicated, but it’s also true that not everything on our page is in every language, and we’re still pressuring for that, we’re still insisting on that. But I do believe that we have to double those efforts, and go further in terms of ALAC’s issues.
There are some other regions which of course participate more in specific areas, but they are saying that Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, they are saying that these areas should participate more in ICANN’s policies. And this requires greater commitment, more time, deeper analysis, so we have now embarked on the second stage, and I think we have to take responsibility for it. The passions that we are... he said it would be good to use the passions to change something, and the change should be thought about with knowledge. If we don’t know about things, we cannot change anything and we cannot discuss anything, from the basis.
I believe that we have a large... a big task before us. I think we are going through operative changes to amend. I would like to include that as a proposal, because I don’t believe we have the capacity yet. But I think that we should also have included the issue of a work plan for next year as ICANN is doing and ALAC is about to do, and we should define our goals and objectives.
We are like the region, we have grown disorderly, with a lot of passion and strength, but sometimes we do not detail the objectives. That’s all I wanted to say, unless Carleton would add something else, that’s all I have to say. You have explained everything we’ve done on this term clearly and totally.
Carleton: The challenge... I take Carlos’ point, that one of the things we need to do is to ensure that we have a work plan for the region, and that is something that needs to be done, and as he said, working involves acquiring knowledge. Knowledge of the issues, knowledge of how they might impact the people we represent, and what is possible within the remit of both LACRALO and ICANN to do about that. Those things are very specific. We need to have knowledge of the issues, we need to have knowledge of how they impact our users that we represent, and what we can do about it within the constraints imposed by ICANN. It is very important for us to understand that every single issue is an ICANN issue, if not every single issue that our users face in the region is an ICANN issue. ICANN has a very well-defined remit, and I really would insist that we educate ourselves about what the ICANN remit is, and how we interact with ICANN.
We interact with ICANN through the ALAC, and our responsibility is to empower our ALAC representatives to represent the views of the region. It has to come with a consensus. Consensus does not mean that everybody agrees, that is not what consensus means. It does not mean that everybody agrees. It means that on the balance of the facts, most of us believe that this is the best way forward. That’s what it means. It does not mean that we have to vote, it does not mean that we have to vote. It means that we discuss, we see where the discussion is going, we have a sense of what the objective is, and we ask our representatives to ALAC to represent those views. That is how we are architected, and that is how it is intended to work. As Carlos says, that can only happen with participation with the policy discussions that are taking place in ICANN. And there are lots of them.
The other thing I wish to add to what Carlos and Jose Ovideo point out is this requirement... there are lots of ways you can keep in touch and educate yourself about the issues. It starts with all of the communication channels that are available. There are lots of e-mail lists that you can sign onto. You can set up RSS feeds on websites so that if there are any changes, you can map specific issues and be informed of any change in... not just ALAC, but in ICANN generally. Because somewhere in ICANN, in the organization or on a website, in a blog or somewhere, somebody, I assure you, is talking about that issue. And one of the things that I don’t think happens as much as it should is our members actually signing up and accessing these communication channels. I would urge you to look at it. If you notice, the welcome letters that come from the staff always point out what’s available, all the lists that are available that you can access, all of the communication pathways that are available. All of those are pointed out in the welcome letter.
And I can tell you, when you do an examination of the numbers of persons who actually participate in those lists, it’s very few, okay? Carlos did remind you that we do not for the most part have as bad a situation with the language as we had in the start. That took a lot of work. I mean, Carlos and Jose Ovideo 55.28 probably don’t want to say, but LACRALO, this group, was in the forefront of the multi-lingual struggle in ICANN, and this region was the first to have translated teleconferences, when it was a big thing. This region was the first to have translated e-mail lists, when that was a big thing. This region pushed aggressively to have the principal documents of ICANN translated. It was... it started with this region, and I am personally proud of the work that we did at inception, to bring those issues to ICANN, and sensitize ICANN about the role that multilingualism will play in engendering participation.
What we are moving for now is to have more participation, because we do have tools, and we do have the capabilities extended, to participate. And that’s what I would want to add to the statements of our ALAC representatives.
Raoul: Spanish 56.48
Interpreter: To the previous intervention, I expressed some disappointment where we spent a lot of time how to do things, instead of doing them. I don’t want this to be the only sensation. I would like to make a concrete motion to thank our representatives for the work they have done during all this time, which has been very important and valuable. This opportunity that we have had to meet face-to-face has been valuable, and I would like to give a motion of approval to your organization. Despite everything we have yet to do, I think it is quite commendable.
Carlos: Thank you, Raoul. Raoul has made the motion, and I’m sure that it is accepted without objection. Thank you. Aislan 57.43
Aislan: Portuguese 57.49
Interpreter: I would like to add some things to your words, Carleton. It’s a working subject, and we would like to continue as we have had. We should continue with the same strength that was proposed by your presentation, and by Carlos, to use the same strength and to fight in favour of multilingualism. I would like for us to get together and work together, and follow up, because we cannot leave Brazil out. We started with English and we were forced to speak Spanish, which most of us in Latin America have achieved. We have a good result. Now we have to go on to Portuguese, because Portuguese is the second language in the world. There are 350 million in the United States that... in the United States, and there are 280 million who speak Portuguese in the world, and 98 percent are concentrated in Brazil. I think that this is our strength. Not only mine, but our colleagues in Brazil, like Celia Imagalinski 59.17. She would like to continue working with the staff to conquer this objective, so that we can open up to the participation of Brazil ALSs, so that they can get to know ICANN further. To add onto the words of Raoul, I agree totally, because I think that before we used to think that we couldn’t do it, and right now, we are doing things. I think this is progress. We have put the objectives into practice. I have a good vision of RALO, because while other organizations and structures within ICANN think that they can do things, instead of proposing solutions, I think that we are on our way, and we are going to meet our objectives, as you mentioned. We should make plans to meet them in the future. Thank you very much.
Carleton: Thank you, 29. Yes, Sergio.
Sergio: 35
Interpreter: In the 41 that have been going on for some time, where we could participate and penetrate into the development of policies in ICANN, it’s important we presented a motion to work in commissions of RALO, to start strengthening those issues that had to do with the things that were being expressed in ICANN. So I would like to put before this assembly’s consideration to determine who would be the commission that would have to work on this, and then start working on these issues.
Carleton: Oh, sorry. Thank you, Sergio. Sergio has again made the request that we establish commissions in LACRALO to work on specific issues. It’s an issue that has come to the list, and I would not object for it to be reprised on the list. But for the purposes of this meeting, can we belay speaking about that until the... towards the end of the meeting.
Sergio: 04
Interpreter: Agree with that.
Carleton: So now let’s move to the amendment to article four of the LACRALO operational procedures, to allow for the permanent post of Chair or President. You will see it as Chair or President. The... maybe we can send round... that’s in Spanish? Do you have the Spanish one? Yeah. Spanish. Here, here, we have some Spanish ones. You would see a couple of them, the documents...
Just to give you a little bit of background on what has happened. When LACRALO was originally assembled, put together, the... we decided at the time that there would be one permanent post in LACRALO, that was the secretariat. And the Chair for LACRALO would be elected at each general assembly, and that post would die at the end of each general assembly. That was the original proposal that was adopted by LACRALO. Andres from 53 has proposed an amendment to rule four of the operating procedures, which defines the officer class of LACRALO. It’s provided for you, it’s on the list, it’s been on the list for some time, and there’s been some discussions about it. You should have a copy of it in front of you. It should be very clear what the intent is, it should be very clear what the intent is. So I’m going to give 15 minutes at the most for any discussion, addition, comments about this proposal. It’s been around for quite some time, so we’ll get 15 minutes time to make comments on the proposal from 07, Argentina. Yes, Carlos.
Carlos: 13
Interpreter: The thing I would like to add that this... proposals, and I think they have to do with the structure that we’ve been talking about, with yourself and Jose Ovideo, regarding the increase of participation. I think that if we add people to the post of responsibility that will head the region, have also to do with a greater commitment and participation. I think that’s the idea, beyond what the text that has been suggested and that we can all correct.
Carleton: Thanks for bringing that up, because that is exactly the objective. The objective is to have one other focal person that can drive participation, and that was the understanding for the call to this amendment to rule four. Yes, Sergio? You have the floor.
Sergio: 20
Interpreter: I would like to thank the work done by Andres Piazza and to provide this to LACRALO. I would look into just one issue, and that has to do with the timing, and that we spend the time with our choosing things. Without electing, I think that the representatives should be there for one year, and in this case, we would have an election every two years, and not have them every year. That’s all.
Carleton: Let me acknowledge Sergio’s presentation. Sergio is making a motion that we should have election for president every two years. Am I correct? Okay. Yes, Jose Ovideo? You have the floor.
Jose: 24
Interpreter: Totally agree with Sergio’s proposal. I believe and I have struggled that for it be... post be for two years. Because LACRALO is not a conventional organization, and so for the first year you spend time learning about the issues, and then, the second year, you already know them, and I believe... I agree with this proposal, but I would like to also clarify that the representatives for ALAC are not elected for two years. The period is for two years. What was done is that the first representative, there was going to be one that would have a post for two years, that could be re-elected, and the other one for three years, with not the possibility of being re-elected. So that each year, there would be a new representative, but the period would be for two years. I just wanted to clarify this.
Carleton: Correct on the facts. Andres.
Andres: 30
Interpreter: Thank you, Carleton. Operatively, we had given some time to get to know the proposal, and then propose modification. I think that the proposal was not subjected to modifications. I think that modifications could be done freely in this assembly. I would like to take two minutes to read it and then propose the amendments needed, and then deal with each, one by one. And I would like to make a comment with regard to Sergio’s proposal. I believe it would be good to work in teleconferences. We’ve talked about this a lot in the teleconferences. Since we have not been able to arrive at a consensus, we decided to do it for one year, with the possibility of re-election. With Jose Ovideo said 30 can be done, but we have to adjust the next line, mentioning the possibility of re-election. For one... with one year, and re-election for two years, I think it would be... I think people would be on the post for a period. I think that we should clarify this. That’s a good idea.
Carleton: Thank you, Andres. Jose-Luis. One moment for Jose-Luis.
Andres: 13
Interpreter: Before taking the floor, I agree with Jose-Luis to read the text and to make observations, because I would like to make some comments with regard to the text.
Carleton: I’m giving the floor to you, Andres. He’s asking to read the amendment and the suggested proposal to amend the amendment.
Andres: 48
Interpreter: We can work with the text on the screen, because we have to change the wording with regard to Sergio’s proposal. What 00 was doing before, and so that we can work with clearer... On the other hand, I do consider that it would be good to do, or prudent to do, is that we should take into account, as a note to this situation, I think that in 2008 we worked on this issue in four teleconferences. I have a substantial argument why this would improve the participation in the region. I think this is desirable at this point, although I am not contributing to this new amendment to the text, but four teleconferences.
This text has been... is since a year ago, although there has been a good quantitative participation, today we are talking about modifications. I don’t want to consider this as a critique to the members of the region. I would like to speak 06 of evaluation, face to face, where we can see that the quality of the contributions as something very valuable. We’ve been working on this issue for one year, and today we can look at each other and agree quickly, and give... we can’t leave these meetings go by. So I want to stress on the value of these meetings.
Carleton: Comments? Anna? No, Silvia – I’m sorry. Silvia has the floor.
Silvia: 51
Interpreter: Thank you. I agree with Andres, in the fact that this document has been circulating for a year, and although we have talked about it very much, we didn’t write any changes on paper. Now that we’re looking at each other, we’re doing it, right now. One thing that we could have done is do it in a remote way, in the list. Sometimes we see that we can’t do this remotely. Either we don’t have the authority to do it. So I consider that, in addition to these meetings that we meet each other face to face, I think in the future we should do something... I don’t say that this would be important, but we should establish a mechanism to resolve things that have been proposed, and not have to wait for one year to meet again and to solve it then. I think it would be useful to use more online voting to move quicker, so... Because if there’s a change, a proposal, we have to wait for these face-to-face meetings. This is not going to work, and it’s not going to go quicker. We are all very excited to do right now. We’re excited to propose things, and to work on it, to put it in practice, as Raoul says, not only just talk about it. I think that... I think for the next changes to be done, I think we should implement something where we can vote to solve this online. That’s it. That’s what I wanted to say.
Carleton: Thank you, Silvia. Are there any other comments? So we have two situations. What I hear is that we should take a vote on the amendment as is, or we should take a vote as to whether or not we will amend the amendment, as proposed by Sergio Salinas. Those are the two motions that I hear from the discussion so far. Is that reasonable? Jose-Luis?
Jose-Luis: 14
Interpreter: As a matter of order, why don’t we review the document and then go on with the suggestions and changes, as Sergio said. I think that I support the motion to change it, and make things speedier. Andres had also asked to place this text on screen.
Carleton: I really have... I’m going to speak very plainly. I really have an issue, a real problem, with coming here at this time to talk about amendments to this document. I’m in the Chair, and I know that it’s probably not very political to say that, but this document has been circulated on the list for too much of forever, and I really, I really, I’m sorry, I really have a problem to talk about amendments now to this document. I can be out-voted, but I will tell you that, as Chair, I am going to propose two motions. The first motion is that we take the document as amended and go to the vote. That’s the first motion. The second motion is that we take the document that is proffered, and amend this amendment, which will involve some more talk and some more discussion, before we take the vote.
So I ask my colleagues. The first motion is, do we take the amendment as tabled to the vote?
Vanda: off mic I second that.
Carleton: It is seconded by Vanda.
Male: And the other motion, which was...?
Carleton: Do we take the amendment to amendment? Yes.
Male: Can I say, for instance... 43
Interpreter: For me, if we vote right now, the way it is, and I agree with you that it was on the list for a very long time, and no one made any comments. I remember that at some point I did make some comments, and I can’t find it here. I can find them on my computer, but we could do it like the Nom-Com elections, that even if they’re for one year, it’s a tradition that whoever’s in the Nom-Com, it lasts for two. So, in other words, it ends up being for two years. The by-law says that it’s for a term of one year, and then that would be the same thing here. But the reality, and the need to understand the entire system, means that the person actually stays for two years in the post.
So, for me, the big issue is whether the formality and reality. In other words, if we stick to formality, which I agree we should stick to, but I really think that reality is going to be that this rule is not actually going to be effective. It’s not going to be put into effect. So, if in the first year, whoever is president doesn’t have a good term, then we can get rid of him, and he won’t be there for two years.
Carleton: So, just to clarify, 25, what I’m hearing you say is that you are supporting the first motion? Carlos?
Carlos: 38
Interpreter: Well, I understood the second... the opposite, that we go with your proposal, with your motion, and that the text remain as it is. So let him clarify it.
Nataz: Spanish
Interpreter: ...that of keeping... In other words, keep the original text for one year, knowing that... with the knowledge of... that the RALO knows that the person can be renewed for another year. But that way, we do have an exit clause so that if the person doesn’t... isn’t a good leader during their first year, that we don’t have to renew him.
Carleton: Okay, 30
Wacslav: 31
Interpreter: To add to Mathias’ idea, I think that would be good to encourage participation, or greater participation, of the ALSs. And that’s it.
Carleton: Yes, Sergio?
Sergio: 56
Interpreter: I, on the contrary to what Matthias says, I think the following. Maybe I’m mistaken, but in the four years that I’ve been participating in ICANN, we have had continual or on-going electoral processes, including for very minor things. And that’s okay, because that’s part of the democratic game. But I insist that we also have to have meeting where we don’t talk about voter participation, but we have to talk about other things. If we make it clear that this is going to be every two years, then we have the peace of mind of knowing that the person whom we’re electing is the best person. Because otherwise, then we would have to be questioning our representatives for one year. And if that person doesn’t act the way we think, then we’d have to remove him and vote for somebody else, or elect somebody else.
I don’t think that’s the way it should be. Our representatives, both the Chair and the Secretaries and the ALAC representatives, they should be there for two years. We vote every two years, and meanwhile, we keep on working and growing. That’s all I have to say.
Carleton: Thank you, Sergio. I saw Victoria and Sergio. But...
Victoria: 15
Interpreter: Thank you very much. I’m going to summarize what we’re talking about, so that we can continue. In the first place, Carleton said that he’s a bit disappointed because the participation, the virtual participation of those who make up this commission during the working year is not great, it’s very small. So in other words, so that we should go through another revision, another vote on a text that was circulating for a whole year is to continue to... with this sort of lack of participation. So I think the proposal, and from what I understand, is to only... to refer to the Chair. So what I’m proposing, so that we continue with the work in this area is, to have a raised hand vote as to the votes, and if we have the necessary majority, to continue with this, and then continue with the agenda. Thank you.
Carleton: Thank you, Victoria. Sergio.
Sergio: 22
Interpreter: I believe that my experience in these few days, during this meeting, has been very tiring and disgusting. Discussion after discussion as regards procedures, and I defend democracy, but I really hate when democracy becomes bureaucracy. I think to talk about 40 hours about procedures so that then we can talk another 40 hours about how to elect a President or Chair, to then elect a Chair... I really think that’s a waste of time, and it’s very tiring. The general assembly is the decision-making agency, and the more we are, maybe yes, there’ll be more people participating, but the percentage will go down, so we have to be very careful of not losing sight of the fact that this general meeting, while it’s face-to-face, or as long as it’s face to face, it’s the one that decides policies.
And second, a Chair, what he has to move forward is work, is... If we get lost in discussing about the Chair and not the work plan, then we’re crazy. And a President who does not fulfill and... I’m sorry, I’m a bit passionate when I talk, but a President who does not fulfill with that work plan, and who doesn’t execute it transparently and effectively and respectfully should be removed from his post. And this assembly should have the power to be able to remove from a post someone who is not fulfilling his work. It’s as easy as that. In our country, there is a constitution that allows for any president or anyone who is elected to be removed. It’s one of the few countries in the world that does have a mechanism for revoking and removing an elected president. So if a country can do that, why can’t we do... why can’t we remove someone who is not fulfilling with a pre-established program that was approved by a General Assembly? That’s it.
Carleton: Thank you, Sergio. Yeah, Dev.
Dev: Yeah... point, that yes, I think definitely that we really should have worked on it on the mailing list and probably in the teleconferences, and I have to... there is something, from my personal standpoint, the amendment as is, in my personal opinion, didn’t really... I’m not seeing the value of it. However, I’m willing, if other members in the RALO want this, then fine. Because I think what really is more important is not so much this, but that all of us, all of the ALSs, work together in the issues that ICANN is facing, and that, to give in person to all these ICANN processes.
Just one quick... so, the only problem I have with this 49 is that, just a clarification on the wording of this. And we... I’m reading from the suggested amendment. If we... it says here, “The general assembly shall, to the extent possible, operate by consensus. If it... if a consensus cannot be reached, each ALS accredited in the general assembly shall be entitled to one vote, and those votes shall decide by simple majority any matter put to a vote. In the event of a tie vote, the person chairing the meeting shall have to cast their vote.” The text then goes on to say “The general assembly shall establish electing a president.” The problem with the wording here is that, the way it’s phrased, it sounds like there’s somebody else, in the event of a tie vote – the person chairing the meeting. To me, it should just say, that line, “In the event of a tie vote, the person chairing the meeting shall have the casting vote.”
That should be moved to the... well, in fact, that should even be taken out, because it’s kind of repeated at the... in the second, in a new paragraph, the new paragraph, because if we read here, “The process of the election of the 00 assembly shall take into account level of participation, leadership, commitment, and knowledge of the work of the assembly. In the event of a tie in the course of the deliberations, the president shall cast the deciding vote.” So it’s been repeated twice.
Carleton: Let me see 16. It’s saying that you could have a Chair who’s chairing the meeting who’s not the President. I know the President’s job is to chair the meeting. At any time, if you have the President not in the chair and there was a vote called, that Chair would have the casting vote. It’s not necessarily the President who chairs every meeting where a vote is called. That’s the point it’s making. So we can either take it off the second line, the second paragraph, or the first paragraph. But again, I am not going to take... right.
Male: off mic – inaudible
Carleton: No, there is one... Can I just have Vanda? Vanda has asked to intervene. Vanda.
Vanda: Yeah, my point is just to remind that the opportunity we have to be face to face is just once a year, so we should talk about the strategical issues, and much more than formal issues. Formal issues we could do more formally during our interchange of opinions by e-mails or chat. This opportunity is very rare, and we need to use that to teach strategically what we intend to have in our region. How to improve facilities that we have, how we support each other in the local effort to, you know, to develop Internet access, how to do something like that. I don’t know.
We need to talk about what we expected for our region, related to ICANN issues. What are we going to do next, what is our strategic plan? That is what our meetings are all about.
Male: Hear, hear!
Carleton: Thank you, Vanda. I am... I have given ten more minutes than I said I would to this subject for talk. I am still at the motion, the motion was seconded, was do we take the vote on the amendment? If you agree, say “Aye.”
Various: Aye, aye.
Carleton: Nay?
Various: Nay.
Carleton: Conversation, no, everyone, I’m sorry, being we’ve done ten minutes more than I said we would. No, the vote... is anyone against ...
Interpreter: Remember that if they don’t use the mic, I can’t understand.
Carleton: The motion to take the amendment as is, and go to the vote for the amendment. And I’m asking for vote on that motion. The amendment as tabled is accepted or not, that is the question. And I’m asking for the ayes.
I’m asking... thank you. Asking for the “nos.” There being no “nos,” the amendment is carried. We will now go to the vote. We are opening nominations right now for the Chair or President of LACRALO. Nominations are open for the Chair/President of LACRALO. Yes, Silvia?
Silvia: 44
Interpreter: Well, I would like to propose Sergio Salinas Porto, because I believe he is the ideal candidate, due to the fact that he was from the... he was at the beginning of the establishment of RALO in Buenos Aires. We all know him very well. We know his type of engagement, his commitment, his passionate commitment to the LACRALO, and so I propose Sergio Salina Porto as President.
Carleton: Thank you, Silvia. Silvia has proposed Sergio Salinas Porto as Chair or President of LACRALO. Is there a seconder?
Vanda seconds?
Vanda: Yeah.
Carleton: Vanda is seconding.
Jose: 35
Interpreter: I’d like to propose Matthias Altamira for the post or the position. Matthias has been involved in ICANN and in LACRALO since it was established in Buenos Aires. Matthias likewise knows what ICANN is, and he has the ability to talk in English, Spanish and French, to communicate in all three languages, and I believe this can be a great asset for us in our position.
Carleton: Thank you Jose Ovideo. Jose Ovideo is nominating Matthias Altamira as Chair/President of LACRALO. Is there a seconder? Jose Luis.
Jose: 37
Interpreter: I wanted to make... I wanted to nominate someone.
Carleton: Vanda is seconding Matthias. Okay. laughter Matthias Altamira is duly nominated. Are there any other nominations?
Jose: 05
Interpreter: I wanted to nominate Andres Piazza, who during all of this time, just like the rest of our colleagues, without demeriting any of them, has had an active participation. He has also brought a lot of passion and commitment to the group’s work and collaboration, and aside from the fact that he was the one who made the proposal, I would like to nominate him. And he also speaks both languages.
Carleton: Andres Piazza is nominated. Is there a seconder?
Aislan: Nomino.
Carleton: Seconded by Aislan. Are there any other nominations? Going once, going twice. Three times? Okay. So now we have three nominees for Chair/President of LACRALO – Sergio Salinas Porto, from 19, Argentina, Matthias Altamira from inaudible, and Andres Piazza from inaudible. So let’s move to the votes. All those...
Alejandro: 53
Interpreter: A motion to object. Oh, no... a motion to call to order. Allejandro Pisanty, I’m from the International Society in Mexico, and we’ve been alternating, Eric West and I, in representation for some... for a long time. And Gabriel Novarios on some other occasions, and we put forth on the list, and we would like to bring it up again now, that we do not continue with the vote before we know the platforms... each candidate’s platforms or agenda, and the differences between them. Instead of spending days, months, years, kilos of megabytes, spending a fortune, and our personal time in discussing procedural issues, we have wasted a lot of time when we could have had a discussion on the list with the different candidates who have wanted to run, and so that we can know their platforms, and we could have asked some questions, which, for some of us, would be... are key questions to decide who to vote for. applause
Carleton: Thank you. Carlos?
Carlos: 07
Interpreter: Yes, Alejandro, the only thing I would like to clarify is I totally agree with your position. The only thing I’d like to clarify is that we didn’t know if we were going to vote, or not, for the chairs, so... which is why... that’s why the candidates had not exposed or talked about their platforms, because we didn’t even know if we were going to have the position of Chair, that’s all.
Male: 29
Alejandro: Oh then that’s something that defines the problem that we need a solution to.
Carleton: I say this – um, the way the General Assembly rules work is very clear. The General Assembly is the highest decision making body of LACRALO. And I believe that there is no more greater decision in the organization itself than deciding who the officers are. I believe that is absolutely important, it’s critical to the organization, and therefore I really disagree that you should not have a vote on the officers of the organization, at the General Assembly, which is the highest decision-making body of the organization. I disagree in principle. I disagree agreeably, but I disagree in principle. Yes, Jose Ovideo? I’ll come back to you Alejandro?
Jose: 31
Interpreter: If I understood Alejandro’s position, I also believe that... let’s say that the term of platform is pretty broad for what we’re talking about. I do think that people should present their proposals, but, on the other hand, I think that the three people who are... who have been nominated are sufficiently well-known by those of us here. And we have an idea of who each person is, and who is the person whom we would like to vote for, to represent us. Nonetheless, I also think that we could listen for two or three minutes to each of the candidates before making a decision.
Carleton: Yes, thank you. Alejandro, and then Anna.
Alejandro: 33
Interpreter: I’m not saying... I haven’t come to the conclusion that we shouldn’t take a vote now. I’m just saying that one of the most important things I do agree that... in any organization is to elect who is going to be heading it and representing it and organizing it. But I think the conditions are not here to be able to just vote automatically. I think that we need... of course, I would very much like to find out in two or three minutes each candidate’s vision, and why I should vote for them. But I think it should be explicit, even if it’s in the rules, I think we have to leave it explicit here, what happens with the votes with organizations that are not physically present, who will not necessarily have access to knowing these platforms.
So I insist that these sorts of things are very important, and I think that yes, what Carleton said, that it’s extremely important, as I said, that the meeting or the assembly decide who is going to head it, who are going to be its representatives, organizers, leaders, and the different categories that each one is going to take on in this respect. But the greatest importance, I think, should be attributed to knowing what is this organizations idea for the future. What are its specific objectives, and that they be well defined. What is LACRALO, what are its objectives, as Vanda said? That’s it.
Carleton: Thank you, Alejandro. Anna?
Anna: 05
Interpreter: I think that we do have to give them the five minutes, and I second Alejandro, because maybe we know them personally – they’re all very nice people – but we don’t know the sphere in which they’re going to work, and I’m interested in finding out.
Carleton: Yes.
Male: 28
Interpreter: Just simply a question. In these five minutes that the candidates will be given, as far as I’ve understood, will we be able to ask questions, or will they just simply articulate their platform?
Carleton: I think we will give three to five minutes, I would say. Well, let me say this. The proposal is made that candidates be allowed to give a statement. That proposal is made, and from the sense of the room, I am thinking that that proposal is acceptable to a majority of delegates. Yes?
Various: Yes.
Carleton: Right. One moment. So I think we can adopt the proposal that each candidate be given three to five minutes to make statements. I also believe that any member who would wish to ask a question of the candidate be allowed the opportunity to ask. Is that proposal acceptable?
Various: Yes.
Vanda: Yes, but we need to limit the time for the questions.
Carleton: 53 Just Carlos first. Good.
Carlos: 03
Interpreter: I would like to propose this motion. I also think that beginning with this, we would also need to give... no, because of this, each candidate should have two or three minutes to prepare his or her presentation.
Carleton: Yes, Dev?
Dev: Now, to me, I’m not certain why... I’m going to disagree agreeably, having, you know, to do a... You know, having each of the nominees to the persons for the Chair/President. And the reasons why I say that is, in my mind, I don’t need to know the exact positions of how they feel. I mean, the fact that they are here in this RALO indicates their commitment. And, as far as I understand it, the nominated person for the Chair/President isn’t just going to be able to make decisions on our behalf. I mean, he is, but what do you have to... what he has to do is listen to... get feedback from all ALSs, and take that to any face-to-face discussions in ALAC and so forth. He is not actually going to just ignore what we say here or what we decide on and make his own decisions... his decisions on his own. Otherwise, it’s almost like saying that we just shouldn’t have this RALO. We should just have a President in this organization. That is my opinion.
So, I mean, it’s really a question... and I think all three candidates are equally suitable, to be quite honest. But the President or the Chair is supposed to be representing us, and has to interact with us, so that if there is a consensus from in the RALO regarding a particular issue, you’re supposed to take that in the face to face discussions with the ALAC, and so forth. Not, you know, do his own thing. Yeah.
Carleton: Thank you, Dev. Alejandro.
Alejandro: 25
Interpreter: I think it’s alarming that this discussion is taking place, and with the added pressure that we’re going to be voting in five minutes. Dev, one of the points that he has raised is one of the most fundamental in terms of the democratic workings of any institution, and we’re deciding if we’re going to vote, and we don’t even know if the person we’re going to be voting for is a Chairman of the Board or of the whole organization, or is he a delegate President, with a mandate... In other words, this is a Chairman who will have a very significant amount of independence, or will he be given specific instructions? And this is the debate that Dev has raised.
And afterwards, after this... in other words, we would have to decide what is the function, or the role, to see who best will fulfill it in the most effective way. And afterwards, then the rules to see whether the vote will be open or secret, whether the votes online will be... from those organizations that are not present, will those be able to... taken into account? And the rules for the debates between the candidates, and I think that even those are beginning to be clear, I think we should those... there are some details that are missing.
I mean, we have been saying they should have a few minutes to prepare their presentation, and then we should have some debating rules, some rules that those of us who are here at the meeting, we will be able to ask our questions, and find out more specifically their statements and proposals, or at least find out their opinions as regards what they haven’t included in their presentations.
And I think we can do all of this, and with the goodwill of all of us here present, I think we can do this in the next few hours, not take too long. We have two hours before lunch, and it seems to me that if right now we take a break, and we allow the three candidates, with the help of someone close to them, that they give us the debating rules and say, “I’m going to be this kind of President. I need broader powers, or I need a mandate...” Even on that basis, we can also be making our decisions. And then bring down to one or two steps the decisions that have to do with the functions of this Chairmanship.
So I think it would be very practical to take a break right now, allow all three candidates and someone that is close to each of them... that they have a second, as in duels, and then let’s say we come back in 20 minutes with a proposal, or even with an organizational form so that we can continue with the debate and then the voting.
Carleton: The proposal is we take a break. Let me just say this, before we even discuss this. The rules that define LACRALO are clear, and if you are an admitted ALS, you should know it, because that is what you agreed to in the memorandum of understanding with ICANN. And I’m going to be very straightforward about this. The rules are not controversial. They are already established. When you signed up as an ALS and you admit... you are admitted as an ALS, you should know what they are. That’s the first one.
The second one is, we have rules of procedures. The rules of procedures is what defines how this organization works. You should know this. If you do not know this, you remain to be qualified to be a member of this group. Let us be straight, and let us be clear about this.
Thirdly, the reason why we had an amendment to the amendment on the list was because we wanted to be very clear what the role of the Chair or President is. The assumption is, and I agree that you should look for the persons who you think understand what the role of the President or the Chair is, but the assumption is that those who would be standing for Chair/President would understand what their role is within the meaning of LACRALO, as represented by the rules of procedure. That is the document that defines what you do.
So I ask all of you, if you are not familiar with the rules of procedures that defines how this body operates, now is the time to take a crash course. I ask all of you, if you are not familiar with the memorandum of understanding between LACRALO and ICANN, you should take a crash course. Now is the time. I ask all of you, if you are not familiar, if you do not understand what the limits are with respect to the role of the Chair or President, as defined in this amendment, now is the time for you to clarify in your mind.
I will take the proposal that we will have a break. I don’t think that we can do it for 20 minutes, because we are well behind now, as it were. So I would recommend that we take a 15 minute break, and we come back here at exactly 10 of the hour, and we will have the statements. Is that agreed?
Various: Yes.
Carleton: No objection?
Yes, Alejandro.
Alejandro: 44
Interpreter: Asking to intervene. Carleton, I think that we should benefit from your profound knowledge of the rules. If you would express the ideas you believe are pertinent so we could adhere to the rules, and resolve the ambiguities which apparently most of the members have found within these rules.
Carleton: The rules are very clear. They are written in English and Spanish, they are available to everyone here. I... with respect, Alejandro, I am not going to second guess that these distinguished delegates do not understand these rules. That’s the first one, and that’s the rules of procedure. They are available, documented in English and in Spanish, and I’m assuming that the members do understand them.
Since I’ve had no objection or hear of anyone not understanding those rules, I am going to assume that those rules are understood.
With regard to the memorandum of understanding between LACRALO and ICANN, those are also written in English and in Spanish, and they’ve been available for more than three years. I would probably make a variance to the three new members of LACRALO, who might not be so familiar with them, but I say this – those are one of the basic requirements for membership, and I would expect that you would know them. They are also available in English and in Spanish.
With regard to the amendment of the rules, that is available in English and in Spanish. If any member does not understand what the role of the Chair is, I am perfectly willing to say, as it says here, what the role of the Chair is. The role of the Chair is to represent the region in LAC face to face meeting, and Chair the debates of the General Assembly, which is held through discussion lists, teleconferences and face to face meetings. Our rule of procedure does allow us to have a general assembly that is not face to face, which is why there is reference to those alternate means of communicating.
Male: 30
Interpreter: Thank you for your explanation. I think, in order to continue with this clarification or agreement on what the rules and procedures are with regard to the Chair post, I would like to get, in the 52 it was proposed to have a decisive vote, in case there was a tie in the deliberations. And that was exactly what was written, and, I think, that’s all I wanted to say.
Carleton: So, and we’ll come back at five of eleven. Thank you all. 30 – 2.19.00
The meeting is called to order. I would love to invite the first nominee for Chair/President to make his statement. I am calling on Matthias Altamira from 13 to make a statement.
Matthias: 13
Interpreter: Thank you very much. I thank you for the honour. Yes, I’m talking. Testing, testing, testing. Can you hear me? Thank you for the possibility and the honour of being nominated to preside over this organization. Unfortunately, after checking the issue of terms, I thought that the term began next year, and therefore I was confused because I am... and since right now I am the Nom-Com representative, and this year I have to elect a Nom-Com representative for ALAC, and then I also have a conflict of interest, a pretty significant conflict of interest, so unfortunately, and with great sorrow, I have to resign from my candidacy, and I leave it to the other two. And my sincere apologies for having mis-interpreted the terms or the times, and so maybe I can do it on another occasion. Thank you.
Carleton: That is indeed unfortunate. Matthias has withdrawn, so we’re down to two candidates. I will ask Sergio Salinas Porto to make his statement.
Sergio: 24
Interpreter: Well, well, for me it’s an honour to be a candidate, to be able to chair this LACRALO. Those who know me know of my commitment... Just a minute. So those who know me, know of my commitment to defend the rights of Internet users. They know what I’m capable of in terms of a legitimate way of thinking of how things should be thought of, from that. And a new gTLDs are a clear example of this, and the impact that this will have on the population that has the least. That you have... we had to first explain what a dot com is, and now we have to explain how you go into a different type of dot com, and perhaps this is something that really needs to be evaluated. So on the one hand, it’s good for the small and medium businesses, that they have these domain names, but on the other hand, the impact on the disadvantaged population is complicated, and that’s the sector in which we work, as a matter of fact.
As you know, I represent a group of people who are worried or concerned about the new technologies and their applications, and how this affects them. And we work on two things – to close the gap, and to defend Internet users. Those are basically the two tools that we base our work on, and that we work with. For us, this participation on these issues is of vital importance, especially when policies... global communication policies in ICANN are defined.
It’s very important, and one of the important issues today which I think has to be given more input is where Andres is, which has to do with how this technology will impact on bank users, for instance. And here we have to have a very broad view, not just of our colleague who’s here, but also to begin to look at what our position or stance is going to be regarding these issues.
I believe in participation, and that’s why, normally, I’m interested in encouraging participation, either from old or new things. I mean, working on a commission perhaps is something that is old, but undoubtedly it can make a lot of us have a firm conviction regarding certain issues which, if we take them globally, we might not have the same viewpoint. But we can, we can have definite visions regarding dot mobile and the different TLDs. I think that the final objective of Internet users should be to have... that ICANN should have a tri-partite, egalitarian governing body, to try to establish, work together with other bodies within ICANN, and although we’re the Latin American region, we’re different from Europeans, and this has to be taken into account.
We’re different from the US, culture, the Asia Pacific culture and the European and Africa. So I think, this is my presentation. I don’t know if it’s enough, but it’s what I can come up with right now, in these two minutes. Thank you very much.
Carleton: Thank you, Sergio. Um... anyone want to ask Sergio a question now, or would we wait until the following... I would suggest we wait until Andres has spoken, and then we can have a few minutes for questions.
Andres, you have the floor.
Andres: 37
Interpreter: Well, first of all, I’d like to apologize for perhaps a lack of clarity in my explanations, and the mixed feelings that I have right now. On the one hand, that Jose Luis, someone whom I’ve admired for many years professionally, and also as regards his commitment in international forums like ICANN, so I am really extremely surprised, and it makes it difficult for me to go on. These mixed feelings and these contradictions have to do with the fact that after listening to Sergio and having talked with him informally since my arrival here in Mexico, I see how strongly he feels politically. Each participation space that he participates in, I admire him, I find it very moving, I agree with a lot of what he says, I think he’s an excellent candidate, but nonetheless, on this point where... I mean, I should accept my nomination, because of one of the concerns which I have regarding the quality of the participation in the region. In these years, in the last few years since its creation, we have consolidated a group of 32 organizations, and we’ve consolidated a variety... or a representational variety that’s very important and significant, and they are people that are extremely valuable, and at the same time, we have come up short in terms of the intensity of participation, the quality and the consistency of our focus and our input.
If you see the agenda... today’s agenda, there isn’t a single specific policy development issue. There isn’t a single instance where we are trying to work towards outreach or capacity building, or the creation of capacity, even if it’s something that each of our organizations works within the reality of... We’re not using RALO the way we should. So I feel flattered by the nomination, and I believe that, as Chair, I would be able to contribute, which is why I thought about proposing, in agreement with my colleagues from Brazil and Argentina, to create a Chair.
And I saw Ivo would work within the RALO and interact with the ALS, and he created value-added, and how the quality of the participation influenced the debate and the decisions that were made. And substantially, they were much better than in our region. So from that point of view, that was the idea of creating a Chair. A Chair is a communication facilitator. He facilitates... he or she... debates. It’s interesting, because today we have a turning point, because if we have a Chair today, then there are no more excuses. So what can’t happen is that this proposal that has been on the list for a year, and we haven’t been able to capture the modifications that some of you have expressed.
So, in the face of this, what I can offer, I mean, I’m not going to make a campaign, and Alejandro would... there is no platform. I mean, I’ve only been a candidate for ten years, and I’m surprised by it. But I can say that what I can offer, as a service, because it’s nothing more than that, is work, it is a work of will, and I’m willing to give all of my dedication and passion, but I’m always... and I will do this as long as I’m not affecting in any way what I’ve been working towards so far. Those of you who know me know I’ve been involved in building bridges, facilitating consensus, in moving forward on certain issues. I did that as best as I could, and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing.
And on the other hand, my other major concern is the quality of the participation of the English speaking members of this... in this room. And this is reflected... and I’ve certainly expressed the unequal position of the Spanish speakers versus the Spanish speakers in this region. They are in an unequal situation, and you can see that in teleconferences. The quality and the volume is not the way it should be. And informal communications are mostly in Spanish, which is the only thing that we have, the informal communications. If I were the Chair, I would be committed absolutely to include our Caribbean colleagues, who have a lot to contribute, and whose vision is different from Latin America, and they are not being represented.
But, to be honest, the fact that I’m bilingual, even though my English is not impeccable, but I have to be absolutely sincere and say... and I’m honoured if I am elected Chair. I do believe that I have the conditions to be so, and that I won’t let you down. But I also... And because I’ve talked about it with Sergio, I also think he would do a good job if he were elected. So other than my mixed feelings and my contradictory feelings, I don’t think we’re facing a problem. And I think that the challenges that I have set forth here, as a... these will... they will exist, whoever you elect. Thank you again, I’m 26 years old, I feel very proud. I didn’t expect to be at this crossroads, and especially since four months ago, ALAC put its trust in me for such an important role as a liaison. And this must be the worst speech that I’ve probably made in the last few years, and I apologize for that. But I’m very moved. applause
Carleton: Thank you, Andres. The floor is now open to members to ask any questions or seek any clarifications they might wish to have. Before we take any questions, I just want to make sure that we understand. We... I have received a proxy notification from Johnny 10 of AUI Peru. And he has given his proxy to Internauta Venezuela to vote for the election of the representative to the At-Large Advisory committee at ICANN. So the proxy... I don’t know why he specifically stated just the At-Large ALAC rep, but that’s what it says here. Let me just read it in Spanish... 44
Interpreter: Dear Carleton, Secretary of RALO. I would like to express... I would like to give my proxy to Sergio, so that, in representation of the Association de Usuarious Internet du Peru, Agua Peru, he can exercise the vote of... out of Peru, for the election of representatives for the At-Large advisory committee. Sincerely, Johnnie 20.
Carleton: I’m sorry.
Interpreter: I’m moved, I’m moved, I feel very moved. I’m very excited. I’ve heard you talk in Spanish! applause
Eric: 42
Interpreter: Um, the first question that I would like, or the first comment I’d like to make is that we’ve heard both candidates, and probably it’s not clear to me, besides their emotion and their excitement, what is their specific points in terms of a working plan. Because both of them... without dismissing them, I want that to be very, very clear. They fell into the usual places, which is what the documents say a president has to do, or a Chair has to do. And what concerns me is that we continue to be sort of lost in an association that talks about procedures, rather than the content. And if we continue to think that we’re going to be spending hours and hours, and entire meetings, in discussing whether a word is the proper one or not in a text, well that’s the sort of legalistic influence, and that’s not what our users are asking for – which has to do with the involvement of the end user in ICANN, and how we’re going to do that.
So I would really request both candidates that, very specifically, independent of their emotions, that they very specifically tell us, in three points, what is their working plan?
Carleton: Just before 22 I would like to point out that the work plan... the work plan comes from the membership. It’s not the President. And this is something I’ve been struggling for a long time to... we elect leaders, but we don’t elect people who run away with the program. The work plan must come from the membership, the broad membership. It’s not just the leader. So it is good for the nominee to say what he would like to see in the work plan, but it would be certainly wrong to say that the nominee is going to have a work plan. It would be that you would like to see something in the work plan. It’s very important that we understand the distinction.
You have the floor.
Andres: 32
Interpreter: Thank you Eric, thank you Carleton. I’m sorry Eric, I thought, my stance, I had made it clear, and I’m sorry if I didn’t. But before I begin, I would like to make a specific clarification. What Carleton said, that’s exactly the way it is. There isn’t a platform, a political platform is too large or broad for what a Chair does for his or her region. It’s just a facilitating role, a coordinating role, a liaison role, a possibility of facilitating inter-relationships between the ALSs or among the ALSs. And in my case, I don’t have anything to promise, but I would have the same profile that I have maintained so far. And what I have to offer is what you know, and what I’ve said is that both Sergio and I, I think we can both do the job, which is... the good thing is that we’re going to have greater consistency as a region when we make policy proposals, and capacity building and outreach, and developing rules and policies in the region, which is something that we’re not discussing adequately.
The commitment is to facilitate this happening through mail, through mail, through informal communications, through coordinating the liaisons. I don’t know if it’s clear, if I’ve made myself clear, but I don’t think that we’re aiming for anything else. When we talk about Chair, and precisely the two people who are up for this job, we are those who informally agree to... that there should be a Chair, and to propose that that Chair dedicates him or herself to doing exactly what we’re saying, and which I’m saying right now, what a Chair should do. There is nothing else, there is no other job... anything outside of that goes beyond the mandate and the capacities of a Chair. There is no platform, there shouldn’t be one. But I’m sorry – I apologize if I wasn’t clear, perhaps my emotions got in the way.
Male: It’s okay. Thank you. 56
Interpreter: I was listening to Eric, and I agree Eric, as to the fact that perhaps we’re too emotional, but we cannot get rid of our Latin-ness. I think I did make some specific proposals, and that’s what has to do with the work with commissions within LACRALO to speed things up, and to have a personal position. Also, I think it’s important to agree with the mandate of our representatives. And I think this is a job for the Chair. He or she has to organize that our colleagues that are representing us in ALAC have a mandate, and this means that this has to be discussed, the issues have to be discussed within our RALO, and not... because we haven’t had that possibility within the list, and they end up taking up definitions, or particular definitions, because they were unable to discuss them.
And it is on this point where the Chair, I think, has a specific weight. If the Chair cannot make this happen, then we continue to be 30-something organizations here... I’m getting rid of it, because it bothers me... 30-something organizations here, and frankly, only some colleagues can define something. And this is not the problem of our colleagues, it’s our problem. So the organizational issue is important, this is important to generate participation channels, and someone who can regulate them. No, not regulate them, but channel them.
And this is the possibility that the Chairs have, to be able to do that job, that task, that is the executive task at issue. So I don’t know if I’ve been specific enough, but I’ve tried to specifically state the position. I agree with everything Andres said, but I’m adding... everything Andres said is fine, and I appreciate everything you said about me, Andres. I wasn’t as nice, and I have to say, Andres is also a very good candidate, and that either one of us, the RALO will be very well represented. That’s all I have to say.
Christian: 26
Interpreter: Question for the candidates. Can I ask a question? Simply the following. We know about the aboriginal community in Latin America, the native languages that they have, and we need to work on closing the digital gap. What would be your position, or the work you’re planning on doing, regarding incorporating these people and respecting their native languages, since they are bilingual in Spanish and whatever their native language is. What can be done to incorporate them, include them? What would be the work with the native peoples, and include them as far as multilinguism is concerned?
Andres: 30
Interpreter: Well, thank you Christian. It’s a very important issue, one of the main policy issues that we’re going to have to address, and that we haven’t. We’re lagging there, but the framework for this small instance of dialogue is not particularly the framework in which we need to discuss this. Because this is a profound and deep or important topic in which the ALSs... we need to coordinate that, perhaps coordinate it together. But each one has a different role with regard to their mission, depending on where they work. But the regional Chair definitely does not have, nor should he or she have, a specific role in facilitating one issue over the other, but rather the issues that the regions and each of the associations and the delegates... which are priorities for these. And this is a... yes, it’s a central issue, and it doesn’t mean that each one of us doesn’t have to... it doesn’t mean that we each have to know every native language in our country. But the role of the Chair is to make it easier to coordinate and to get this input that does not exist right now, so that this input can reach us, and this participation of those users, so there has to be a flow in another direction, from top to bottom, and create capabilities and communication. Because if we can’t hear something from somebody who doesn’t even know what he’s going to say or what is opinion is.
So our role is a coordinating one. Towards the bottom, as far as communication, and towards the top, as far as extracting that input. But that’s the role of the RALO. The Chair, the only thing that he or she is going to differentiate... or rather, his input is that his coordinating role within this table, and virtually, when we’re each in our offices, that we... that both our ALAC representatives have a mandate, so that when they go to the meetings, they have a mandate. And that they can represent the different constituencies, and that they have something to say at these meetings.
But simply, it’s a facilitator role. It’s like we’re talking about, within the role of the Chair, something that has to do with each individual ALS. That’s what my vision I think about it. That’s what I think about it. I’m not committed on my daily work to that, because my job is different. But I think it’s fundamental. It’s one of the policy issues, that’s all.
Sergio: 33
Interpreter: Well, I think it’s a pretty complex issue, but Internauta has taken this up, somehow or other. When we talk about bridging the gap, we... it doesn’t just mean teaching someone to use a machine. But we use other means to shorten the gap, and one of them is to explain to people what’s and INS, what’s a gTLD, what’s a ccTLD, etc. And we’ve done it through radio, Carlos Aguirre has participated on some occasions on some of the programs, and has been able to explain very very plainly, so that people can understand it, and when they listen to it and when they have to interact with companies or with governments, what it is that is being... what this is about. And we could do the same thing with the Native communities.
Andres?: 24
Interpreter: For those who use other languages that are... other than the languages that are being proposed in ICANN today, it’s first we can prepare a special group interested in translating to 37 or another language, so those communities can understand what is being talked about. In fact, there was a large work being carried on in some organizations in Latin America, with respect to inserting Native peoples to IT. And part of the work that was done was this – to explain them in a simple way what is being done in the world of Internet. That’s all.
Carleton: Yes, I’m thinking we have to close out the comments, in a minute. Um... there are just two things that I need to bring to your attention. I have two proxies from the Caribbean. The first one is from the ICT Society of Trinidad and Tobago, and it reads as follows – “On the sign in this capacity as ICTS representative, to LACRALO, I hereby appoint Carleton Samuels as a nominee of the ICTS to act for the ICTS, and on behalf of the ICT, to vote for petitions in LACRALO summit, to the same extent and with the same powers as if the undersigned were present at the said meeting.” Dated 2nd of March, 2009, by 02, who is the representative from the ICTS committee. Danny also on chat gave me some specific instructions that he wanted me to... in voting.
The second one is from the ICT for Jamaica, and it says, “I am providing an unfettered proxy to be utilized for participating and deciding all matters pertaining to the 2009 LACRALO General Assembly at Mexico City, Mexico.” And this is signed by Melody 35, who is the representative from ICT.
So I have two proxies from the Caribbean. Well, there’s a third proxy. Lance Hines, who is not here but is online, has sent his proxy to me, and let me read it. One moment. It says, “Dear Carleton, Devnet cannot attend the LACRALO General Assembly in Mexico because of reasons already discussed at length on this list, but more importantly because we have to attend the 38 steering committee meeting in Grenada as a presenter and facilitator. In view of this, the Devnet Board of Directors has authorized the LACRALO secretariat to act as our proxy for all elections conducted during the LACRALO GA. If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Lance Hines, Chairman, Devnet, Georgetown, Guyana.” And that was on February 28.
So there are three proxies... four proxies in total, delivered for this assembly. So now we move to the vote. We move to the vote. Remember, folks, we are going to need a show of hands for this vote, because the vote has to be recorded. And the rapporteur will record the votes by organization. So it’s a vote by organization – each organization is accorded one vote. And that vote is further weighted by the country from which the organization springs. Okay?
So, members of LACRALO, I put it to you. In the case for the Chair/President of the LACRALO, how do you say? Sergio Salinas Porto.
The question is, will you vote for Sergio Salinas Porto.
Vanda: off mic The individual one, the one we do want? 30
Carleton: Yes, it’s going to be recorded. It’s going to be recorded. Yes, the votes... let me repeat again. This vote is an open vote. You are voting for the organization. Each organization has one vote, one vote. So even if there are two representatives in the room, there is one vote. Okay? We have four proxies, four proxies. So when the time comes, the proxy votes will have to be stated. Understood?
And the question now is, we are going to see the votes for Sergio Salinas Porto as Chair/President for LACRALO.
Vanda: Do I vote?
Carleton: Not if you are a member of... it’s only the ALSs that can vote.
Male: 40 – not translated
Carleton: Formally. So, can I see by show of hands all those who will vote for Sergio Salinas Porto? By show of hands. And this vote is for the University of the Westerns.
Male: Can you keep it up?
Carleton: Please keep the votes up so we can identify the votes. I count seven votes. I count seven. I count eight votes. 00
Yes.
Male: Okay, I will repeat the votes that I have recorded for Sergio Salinas as President/Chair of LACRALO. I have Silvia 55, with one vote.
Silvia: Yes.
Male: Sergio Salinas, for Internauta Argentina.
Sergio: Yes.
Male: One vote. I have Analucia Sanchez, inaudible, one vote. I have Carleton Samuels, University of the West Indies, plus proxy four.
Carleton: No, the proxies are not voting now. We’re not voting for... inaudible
Male: All right. Sergio Bronstein, for Internauta Venezuela. Javier 48 for Internauta Chile. Scott Robinson for inaudible Mexico. And Christian inaudible for inaudible AJB, and Angelo Median for AQUI Colombia. Is there anybody missing? Okay, the vote is then recorded.
Carleton: Okay, now for the votes for Andres Piazza, Chair/President of LACRALO. Can we have the votes please? I should also say that Lance Hines asked me to cast the Devnet vote for Andres. Inaudible de Palma has asked me to cast the ICT for Jamaica vote, and Danny inaudible has specifically instructed to cast the vote for Andres.
Can we confirm the votes, rapporteur?
Male: 35 is abstaining.
Carleton: All right. Let me try to do that. An abstention. So I am assuming that there is no new vote, but there’s an abstention. Okay, abstentions. Can we record the abstentions. Three abstentions, four abstentions. Four abstentions.
Male: Okay, let me go through the votes. For Andres Piazza, I have Melody Palmer, Danny inaudible, Defta Lepsing, Daniel Monasterski, Omar Kaminski, Jose Luis Barzallo, Andres Piazza, Aislan Vargas, Jose Ovideo... sorry, what ALS are you representing?
Jose: 54
Male: Augustin, I’m just checking.
Carleton: Inaudible
Male: And Augustin inaudible. Am I missing somebody? I have Augustin. Nobody missing. I have abstentions from ISOC Mexico, Alejandro Pisanty, Raoul Bauer from 30 Argentina, Fernando Mariskan, thank you, and from ISOC Argentina, Monica Alvaros.
Female: 53
Male: Spanish
Female: Spanish
Male: Okay, I repeat the votes for Andres Piazza.
Interpreter: Could you repeat the votes, please, because it wasn’t clear to me.
Male: Melody Palmer, Danny inaudible, Dev inaudible, Daniel Monasterski, Omar Kaminsky, Jose Luis Barzallo, Andres Piazza, Aislan Vargas, Jose Ovideo inaudible, and Augustin Basenchuri.
Carleton: Now, the next step is that the votes have to be tallied for the right percentages. The abstained, the abstained. Let me just call it again. The rapporteur just called out the votes, as well as the abstentions. Are there any changes, any mistakes? No.
Female: No.
Carleton: So what the rapporteur will do now is place the votes in the formula, and we will announce the Chair for LACRALO.
No, I’m going to continue.
Male: 00 06.56
Carleton: While the rapporteur tallies the votes and makes the right vote count, can we move on with the agenda? Can we move on with the agenda? The next item on the agenda is the election of the secretariat for the new term, 2009 – 2011. That position is open. I will tell you all that I am not accepting nominations. Yes Carlos?
Carlos: 34
Interpreter: I have no nominate, but I believe it should be from... somebody from the Caribbean, a colleague from the Caribbean.
Male: 03
Interpreter: Carleton, you’re talking about the secretary, right? I got lost in the conversation. I agree with Carlos.
Carlos: Jose Luis.
Jose Luis: 09
Interpreter : It’s not a nomination. Well, you also have to give concessions to the benefit of the community, but since this is not a motion to talk about a region, I definitely support the motion that it be somebody from the Caribbean. Does somebody disagree?
Vargas: 45
Interpreter: I support the idea, and I would like to nominate 50, not because he’s from the Caribbean, the region, but for the work that I’ve seen, it’s four years that I’ve seen his efforts and his concern for the work. I think that he could add a lot to the region, with both his work and his efforts.
Male: Thank you, thank you Vargas, but I must respectfully decline your nomination, simply because I have a lot of work to do in this month, and I don’t think I could do any... fulfill the rules of the secretariat effectively, because the secretariat will have to be really involved in the ICANN meetings, and I cannot even keep up with the ICANN schedule of meetings, effectively. I will of course work with whoever is duly nominated.
Anna: Carleton?
Carleton: Yes, Anna?
Anna: 16
Interpreter: I would like to nominate Mexico, Eric.
Eric: Spanish
Interpreter: There is no Mexico, there is ISOC Mexico, and we are not in a position to engage in this position.
Carleton: ISOC Mexico has declined the... yes?
Female: We wait.
Female: No, let’s continue.
Female: 55
Interpreter: I nominate Assien, from Brazil. Aislan from Brazil. Because he is very interested in the language, and I believe that he would be a very good person to support us with this.
Carleton: Aislan is nominated. Do I have a second? I hear Vanda seconding. Who is this? Daniel? You’re seconding – oh, we have too many of them. Omar is seconding, Daniel is seconding...
Aislan: 37
Interpreter: I’m not from the Caribbean! That’s a remark I want to make. Brazil is just a bit lower than the Caribbean, please Vanda. It’s a bit lower than the Caribbean area.
Carleton: The nomination is seconded. The nomination is seconded, Aislan, so at this point you can only do one or two things. Thank you. One minute, Sergio. You can either wait for the vote, or refuse to serve. Yes, Sergio, you have the floor.
Sergio: 38
Interpreter: I want to nominate Jose-Luis Barzallo, even though he says no, I just want to have it put on the record that there is a candidate from the 52, in that he has been nominated to be the secretary of our RALO.
Jose: 58
Interpreter: Thank you very much for the nomination, Sergio, and thank you for considering the inaudible Community, but as I said before, in order to extend the work a bit more and benefit other regions, by now the 13 Association of Information Rights declines any position, without prejudice to our collaboration, on-going collaboration, and contribution.
Carleton: Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? There being no more nominations.... Carlos, just before we...? Yes, Carlos.
Carlos: 57
Interpreter: I would like to nominate Antonio Medina Gomez from Columbia, from Aqui Colombia. applause
Carleton: Antonio Medina for Aqui is duly nominated. Is there a seconder? Aislan is seconding, Vanda is seconding. inaudible is seconding, Omar is seconding, and... sorry. I can’t see your name. I’m sorry my friend. Oh, Christian. Yes. So you have Antonio, who is duly nominated.
Antonio: 01
Interpreter: Well, I decline the nomination. Thank you to all of you, you are very dear to me, but we presented a proposal to ICANN, and we believe that it’s going to... if approved, it’s going to demand a lot of work from us. So I think it would be better not to commit to the secretary position. We shall continue working with our respective contribution. Thank you.
Carleton: Carlos. We actually... yes, Carlos?
Carlos: 50
Interpreter: I propose that as of this... from this complicated voting system, that the person who is not elected be... that the secretary be the person who was not elected.
Carleton: Proposal. The proposal from 11 is that the person who is not elected as Chair/President of LACRALO assumes the post of secretary. The proposal is that, in the election of the Chair, the person who is not selected be automatically accorded the secretary’s position. That is the proposal. I have Alejandro, and then I have Aislan, wishing to speak. Alejandro.
Alejandro: 59
Interpreter: Thank you, Carleton. I just want to say that my only comment a few minutes ago was that we should wait for the result of that election, in order to know if the person who was not elected would also be running for secretary, or standing for secretary. But I’m not sure that making it automatic, I don’t know if that would set a good precedent.
Carleton: Jose Luis?
Jose: 38
Interpreter: Well, respectfully, with the brilliant ideas that Carlos always has, in this case I completely oppose that that system be adopted, because I think each post should have a commitment, and I think it has to be individual. And I say that respectfully. I mean, please don’t get into a fight with me.
Carleton: Can I say I happen to agree with Jose Luis Barzallo, and this is just... I’m speaking now not as the Chair of this proceeding, but as a representative from the VUWI. I agree with Jose Luis Barzallo’s statement, that what it is is a personal commitment, and therefore they ought to stand on their own, as different elections. That’s what I... Carlos, my friend.
Carlos: 32
Interpreter: Absolutely agree with Jose Luis and I completely agree with Carleton. I’m merely proposing that aside from the candidacy of Aislan, that whoever is not elected, that it should be another candidate, just like that. I mean, that if he wishes to be a candidate, that he should be one.
Carleton: I hear what you’re saying Carlos, but I really do believe that these are elections, and these are positions that require different sets of commitments, and therefore, if persons have not indicated that they’re committed to it, then we should leave it at that. At the minute, what we have is a single nomination for Aislan Vargas as secretary.
Male: 25
Carleton: Give Silvia a chance, please.
Silvia: 38
Interpreter: So probably the most sensible thing is to give Matthias a few minutes, who is breaking his brain adding up numbers and working with numbers, and let’s hope he’ll give us a result. And after we have the result, whoever loses, he can say whether he wants to be a candidate or not for secretary.
Male: 01
Interpreter: Well, I second Silvia, and I add that Carleton’s comment, although technically correct... the reason why I second Silvia is that it can become a technicality, because if we continue with the nomination, that person would be unable to be nominated, and, on the other hand, we are facing extraordinary circumstances. There have never been such important positions that haven’t been accepted.
Carleton: We really have a time factor against us here, and so we really have to get along here. So I... in my opinion, I really believe that we have to go to the vote, because we have one other position to vote, and we have to do it very quickly, okay? So, with respect, I feel that we have one duly nominated member for secretary, for the secretariat, and I think we should go to the vote.
Male: Carleton?
Carleton: Yes.
Male: 31
Interpreter: I would like to propose a motion. We have, right now, two representatives, or two candidates to be representatives with the ALAC. If the conflict of being secretary, why don’t we vote for the representatives, to gain time, and then we can do the secretary voting last. That’s my proposal. Was it clear?
Carleton: Okay. Sergio is proposing that we skip the vote for the secretariat, and move to the ALAC representative vote. We only have two candidates nominated, so that is very straightforward. Is that motion acceptable? That motion is acceptable by all. So we will suspend the voting for the secretary, for the moment, and we will move to the voting for the ALAC representative from LACRALO.
The nominations... we took nominations online, and, as you know, there are two nominees. There are two nominees. Silvia 52, from Brazil, and Lance Hines, from Guyana. Lance is online with us, and I have his proxy. He may have gone off his... he is between talk and... yeah.
So I am calling for the votes for the ALAC representative, from LACRALO.
Female: 42
Interpreter: I would like to know who is the outgoing President or Chair, because otherwise we would have Internautica representative for ALAC, and that would have to change. Now I nominate, I don’t know if this is the time, but I nominate Carlos Verra from ISOC Ecuador also for that post, as the RALO representative at ALAC. I don’t know if that’s acceptable.
Carleton: No, it would not be. We had a nomination period online, and that nomination period was up for over one month. It has expired, the nomination is closed. We move to a vote. We have a vote open. The vote is for the ALAC representative from LACRALO. There are two candidates, duly nominated. Silvia Platen Herlein, from Brazil, and Lance Hines from Devnet. I’m calling for the votes for Silvia. Those members who wish to vote for Silvia as ALAC representative, please show of hands.
Male: 55
Interpreter: A motion of order. ISOC Mexico expresses its deep concern because there has been no debate between the candidates, nor has it been possible to know their positions, despite the fact that this was asked for on the list.
Carleton: And I’m sorry again to say this. We... the list is there for anybody to ask questions. I personally made sure, not just in English, but in Spanish, that you ask questions of the candidates online. That was not done. I am very frustrated with the way we handle business in LACRALO. We do not respond, we do not say anything, we feel everything must be done face to face.
I am very sorry, we have had that position, we have done that position before. Nobody took part, there is no more time to debate, it’s time to vote. I am sorry. Yes sir.
Jose: 03
Interpreter: Five seconds, Mr. Secretary. Don’t feel frustrated... perhaps it’s just, it wasn’t necessary, and we didn’t see the questions, so let’s continue.
Carleton: Thank you, Jose Luis. We are taking a vote for the ALAC representative from LACRALO. The term begins at the end of the ICANN meeting in October of 2009. It goes for two years, it runs through the general meeting of ICANN, annual meeting of ICANN, that is, in 2011, so two years. There are two candidates, duly nominated, Silvia and Lance. Can we have the votes for Silvia, please.
Matthias: I’m just trying to get everybody.
Carleton: He’s writing very fast. Have you done everybody?
Matthias: I think I’ve got everybody. Do you want to just see?
Carleton: No, let’s read it...
Matthias: Okay, I now repeat the votes cast for Silvia Herlein. I have Silvia Herlein, Sergio Salinas, Analucia Sanchez, Sergio Bronstein, Javier 56, Scott Robinson, Daniel Monastersky, Omar Kaminsky, Christian Karchez, Jose Luis Barzolla, Andres Piazza, Aislan Vargas, Carlos...
Carlos: No.
Matthias: No? Spanish off mic in background. Oh, I’m sorry. Sorry. Jose Ovideo Sergeiro, Augustin Barsanchury, and Antonio Medina. Am I missing anybody?
Carleton: Nobody missing? Can we now have the votes for Lance Hines, from Devnet? We have the votes for Lance Hines from Devnet? Can we have the votes for Lance Hines from Devnet? I have Lance’s proxy, and I have ICT4D’s proxy, and I have Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society’s proxy.
Male: Carleton, please? It’s important.
Carleton: Yes?
Male: 45
Interpreter: This is a formal issue. The power that was given... the proxy that was given to you from Internauta Peru was special, not general. Only to vote for the Chair.
Okay, then I was confused.
Carleton: Yes, that’s all right. It was specifically for the ALAC rep, yeah. Can we have the votes?
Matthias: For Lance Hines, I have Carleton Samuels, Lance Hines, ICT4D, and Trinidad and Tobago Computer Association.
Female: Computer Society.
Matthias: Computer Society, I’m sorry. And ICTSD. Am I missing anybody?
Carleton: No.
Matthias: No.
Carleton: So those are the votes. whispers off mic
Matthias: All right.
Carleton: Ready?
Matthias: All right.
Carleton: Okay, the results of the votes are... The result of the vote is, for the Chair, 44 percent of the vote - Sergio Salinas Porto. 40 percent of the vote - Andres Piazza. 15 percent of the vote – abstained. Let me repeat. 44.4 percent of the vote – Sergio, 40.5 percent of the vote – Andres, and 15.1 percent of the vote – abstained. applause You’ve heard the votes, colleagues. So it is a great pleasure I announce to you that Sergio Salinas Porto is the Chair and President for LACRALO for the period of one year. applause Congratulations, Sergio. We’re just waiting for the vote to be tallied for the ALAC representative, and that should come momentarily.
I will move to the election of the secretary, secretariat. There is one qualified nominee. One qualified nominee – Aislan Vargas. We can take a vote. Yes?
Sergio: 41
Interpreter: Carleton, I continue to insist on my motion that now that we know that there is a Chair, and I am grateful to all of the LACRALO for having elected me, I would like to give the option to Andres Piazza, with whom... who was my... the other candidate, so that he should also have the possibility of being elected secretary.
Female: 15
Interpreter: I second the motion.
Male: 23
Interpreter: I wanted to express an opinion seconding the motion, and seconding the motion that Andres Piazza be secretary. I haven’t known him for that long, but despite this, I think he is a very committed person, and he has devoted himself to ICANN and LACRALO, and I think he is the right person for that post. That’s all.
Carleton: So the motion is on the floor that Andres Piazza is nominated to be secretary. And it is seconded. Is there any objection? There being no objection, we are going to move straight to the vote. You have accepted? Well, I would suppose so. With that, we’re moving straight to the vote. The first up, Aislan Vargas, for secretary. Those of you who would wish to vote, can we see the votes for Aislan as secretary? Antonio, you are voting for Aislan as secretary? Okay. Scott is voting for Aislan as secretary. Anna is voting for Aislan as secretary.
Matthias: Okay, I’ll repeat the votes for Aislan Vargas for secretariat, LACRALO. With Antonio Medina, for Colombia, Scott Robinson, Mexico, and Anna Sanchez, for Ecuador. Did I miss anybody?
Carleton: Now the votes for Andres Piazza, secretary. Can we see the votes? applause And I’m casting my proxies. Alejandro Pisanty, ISOC Mexico. Yes, please. Sergio.
Sergio: 21
Interpreter: I would like to say something. In both votes that have been taken today, honestly, I felt identified or identified with the candidates. I backed Sergio for loyalty, for user representatives, but I honestly think Andres would have brought the same commitment and level to the job, and commitment towards the institution and the users, and he would have brought the same as Sergio. And honestly, one really suffered by having to choose, even though I’ve known them both for not very long.
And in the case of secretary, it’s the same thing. I’ve known you both only for four days, and with Andres I’ve talked more for reasons of language, but Aislan honestly, I feel, Aislan, you were an excellent, or are an excellent candidate, and I’m happy to be here, and to see the level or degree of commitment and affection there is between us, or among us.
Carleton: May I ask for the votes again, for Andres? The rapporteur did not get all the votes. whispers off mic
Yes, Aislan?
Aislan: 42
Interpreter: I wanted to add to Sergio’s words, and from Internauta Venezuela, and to thank those who supported me. But I have a concern, which I wanted to bring up, and this is... and I think, either the Chair or the Secretary, both are important, and both have the work to do, and the same commitment has to be brought to both tasks. And I would like to really highlight Carleton’s job, because he showed an enormous amount of dedication, and he gave us a lot of time for the region and for its development. And I see in him the importance and the responsibility of being secretary, and this is why my concern and my worry is that there weren’t that many candidates for secretary. And I just wanted to say that I would give... total... my energy for LACRALO and for us, and for our union. And for our unity, because we may or may not be friends, but the most important thing is that unity towards a common aim or objective, and the mission that we have. That’s why we’re here, and that’s why I’d like to congratulate Andres. But the support that Andres had, because whatever the post, the job has to be done with a lot of will, a lot of love, and a lot of effort. And I’m sure that these individuals are going to do it the best way possible, with the support of all of us. applause
Carleton: Thank you. I am... I want to recognize the work that has been done by the secretariat. I want to make special mention of Nick Ashton-Hart, who’s not here with us. Nick unfortunately has some health issues, and has been in the hospital for the last couple of days. We’re strong for Nick. I hope that he gets better soon. But I can tell you, from day one, we’ve had a very strong advocate in this development of this region with Nick. And he has worked with us assiduously to respond to the needs at the time, were quite unique to ICANN. And he has worked very hard with us, to provide some of the things that you see here now.
The translation issue, he embraced it, when the general staff and ICANN probably didn’t think much of it. But he embraced it fully, and he was a very strong advocate for the needs of the Latin America region. I want to send our thoughts and good thoughts and prayers for Nick, and I hope you join with me in wishing him a speedy recovery, and every success.
I would like...
Male: 19
Interpreter: By acclamation. long applause
Carleton: I would also like to commend our ALAC representatives. They don’t say a lot, but I will tell you, but the way the RALO was supposed to work, oftentimes, the burden of representing the region without having direct input from the region was a major issue for them. And in the early days, to allow further participation and to get the translations going, I can tell you Carlos and Jose Ovideo worked very hard to make this happen. This was not an easy feat, and I have worked with them from inception, and I can tell you that they have been great colleagues and friends in pushing the RALO to where it is today. And Jose Ovideo, as the outgoing ALAC member, will always be my friend, and he has done a magnificent job for us. And I would hope that he would maintain his connection to the RALO.
I personally intend to maintain my connections to the RALO. The business with which we are associated here is very important for the region, and my region, sub-region, the Caribbean. It is a matter of development for us, and we have very specific needs and demands that we are going to see how far we can push them within the context of the RALO and the ICANN mission. So that is my commitment to you. My stepping away from the post does not mean that I am stepping away from the work of the RALO. It simply means that I am going to give somebody else a chance to move forward, and to extend the participation further.
So I thank you all for the support you have given me over the period, and we are here as friends, and we will remain friends, and we will move forward with this agenda.
That being the case, I feel that it is time for me to turn over to the newly elected Chair. And before I do that, I just want to tell you that we had committed to hearing from William McKelligott, from the Contractual Compliance Audit, and we need to give him a few minutes. I think he’s been here since mid-day? So I’m going to ask your forbearance to give William 15 or so minutes of your time, to hear what he has to say.
William, if you would come forward and take the floor, sir. Oh, you have slides?
Female: 10
Interpreter: Just a second, Carleton. Can I say something? Something just short? Can I say something very brief before William begins.
I agree, with respect to our representative in his personal work, as well as with respect to Nick. Something I would like to add, that since I came here and I started working, I got support from Matthias, this Matthias. So I think it would be necessary to acknowledge that he speaks Spanish, he helps me to help others at LACRALO, so I would also like to ask for applause from the field. applause
Carleton: Are we ready? Are we ready? William, you have all of 15 minutes, no more.
William: 25
Carleton: A lot less, very good. That will help. And thereafter we are going to have an intervention from the Chair, the ALAC Chair, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, and Vanda Scartezini. They wish to say a few words about the budget. Yes. Cheryl, can you go ahead?
Cheryl: starts very quiet, then covered by annoying beeping Thank you very much. And I’d be more than delighted to fill in a minute’s time. Um, we’re just doing a very small adfomercial, or advertorial, I’m not sure what I’m doing, I’m promoting... you all have cuts out 18 do you have idea how many of your voices were running through my head. It really was quite a startling moment for me, I thought you had gone to another plane. It’s just me in my head now, thank you.
Um, we will have, please, let me look for staff, Heidi, we will have this in Spanish? It’s on his way, just Vanda and I have beaten the documents here. This is... as we’ve all just got hold of it, the 2010 financial year budget, which is now out for public consultation. Hello public, we’d like you to consult. This is my ad. And I’m going to hand on to Vanda now, because she has the great competence of speaking in Spanish, and I barely manage the English language, in fact, people say I don’t. But what we’re interested in making sure that you know is that it is up until the 17th of May... March? May? That this document is now up for review and public comment. Which doesn’t just mean the ALAC makes comments. Of course it will. It doesn’t just mean that the RALO should make comments, that is up to you, but I would like to think you would. It also means that each and every one of you, as an ALS representative, can take this back, go over it with a fine tooth comb, and say, “Well, all these details we don’t have, we need. We won’t get them, but we’ll ask for them. And, most important, take 5. This is how ICANN divvies up its money and its budget. Where is it in those categories that we might want to make some suggestions? 54, might be nationalization, it might be education. But that should come from the edges. You might want to apply or say we want to do something that’s in three or four countries, as a sub-regional exercise. Totally up to you, but should you comment? Absolutely. When do you need to comment by? 17th of May – I seem to have my ends mixed up. Do we have the breakdown in here of what it costs to run at-large? No. Are we asking for it? Still. Will we get it? We live in hope and I know die of despair, but we will live in hope, also.
What you need to know before I hand on to Vanda, who will have much more intelligent things to say about the budget than I have, is that we will be organizing a purpose-built meeting, electronic meeting, with the Adobe room, where the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Operations Officer will be able to talk to you. We’ll have it fully interpreted. If you have questions, like how much does it cost for the travel, or what does a regional meeting cost, or which or whatever brought in, have those questions prepared, send them to Vanda and I. We will give them to the right people, and then they can come prepared for those questions.
What we don’t want to have happen, when we’re talking to 22, we don’t want to have them go through the budget with us. We can read... well, I try. Yeah, we will read it beforehand. We want a dialogue, to know what it is on page 32 that we want to know about. But you feed to us the questions, we’ll send them as questions with notice, and then we might just get a little bit further. Vanda, over to you.
Vanda: 47
Interpreter: The budget of ICANN... how is this budget spent, in what groups and what items and what areas do they spend it? This is described as programs, and in this program, there’s some points that makes it clear how much... where this money’s going to be spent. This is a very important thing. I didn’t have a chance to read all of this, because I just have it in my hands, but quickly, I found point 9 on page 7. We’re talking about global engagement and... on page 17... and we’re talking about increasing international participation. So where we scan each project with our eyes, the only thing we can find is the word GAC. I think that many proposals from ALAC are missing, I believe, so please take into account that we... that we have clear projects in these programs, so that part of this budget be allocated to ALS, and...
All of the proposals that we have made in these core groups during these day have... during these days have... somehow be written as a program, and clearly it should state where the efforts and budget are going to be allocated. Of course, I have to read this, and the only thing that I can say right now is something that I saw... I managed to see quickly. And another remark that I would like to make is, if you want to... if you have to... maybe 16. ...is that we’ve seen that there was a nine year growth of 27, 28 percent in ICANN, but the budget for this fiscal year that starts in July will have an expected increase of not more than 5 or 6 percent.
So, as expected, it is very important to have participation at this moment when a budget increased. Because there are more... there are a lot of people and are... sorry, don’t get it. For me, it’s clear. If you make a clear proposal, there should be a budget for that. If you do it... if you don’t do it, then it will be too late. So think about it. We will try to transform everything that was approached during these groups, then to think about other clear proposals so they be included clearly in the budget, for our works.
Is the... the deadline is May 17, and we will continue to talk about these points among us, because it is very important for the success of this group. Another thing... This... this budget includes the new TLDs. We... at the beginning of January, there will be... two percent more can be guaranteed in this budget. Oh, this does not include... excuse me, this budget does not include the new TLDs.
Cheryl: Um, just, thank you so much for indulging us with this small advomercial, or advertroal, or whatever it is they’re doing. You can imagine how important this is, that it comes in from the edges, especially in a post-Summit environment. Right? We have to keep the energy and enthusiasm up? All right, we have to keep the energy and enthusiasm up.
Let me give you an example, just before I leave you. The current budget, the one that’s... not the one we’re discussing in this document, the one we’re living, well barely, living with now. What that means, between 2009 and 2010, under travel support, that’s a small sub-section of the whole budget, is that all of the SOs, all of the support organizations, and all of the advisory committees, are treated equitably.
Now, I agree with that. We should all have exactly the same level of travel support. Couldn’t agree more. Asked for it. We got what we asked for - equitable support. But the devil is in the detail. Did they... ALAC is the smallest group – 15. Did they use ALAC as the common lowest denominator? No. The formula that will apply is, they will sponsor... Sorry, ICANN, not ‘they’, we’re part of ICANN, heavens we should be ICANN, and they should be our sub-part – but anyway, I’m sure you all agree with that.
We are allowed to ask for travel support for 50 percent of our committee, plus our nominated committee appointees. Which means we now have to decide which two ALAC members won’t join meetings. Won’t that be fun? We’ll go off and have those arguments, your work is to prevent those errors happening next time round. Okay? Because when it can happen to us at the ALAC actually 15 member travel support level, it makes me very fearful what can happen to regional support and At-Large projects. And we have to get it right, and it has to be done at the time, before 17th. Anything we can do... you’ve got the advantage of Vanda. Take advantage of Vanda. I like to take advantage of Vanda, I encourage you to do so. laughs Thank you so much, and your meeting is back on. Thanks so much Carleton. applause
Carleton: Okay, I...
Vanda: off mic – inaudible
Carleton: Yeah, I know, I’m going to remind people. Yeah, I know. I know what you’re saying. Vanda was just reminding me that the GNSO users’ meeting is going to happen now, just after 1:00, over in the Sheraton, and so those of you who... would encourage you to attend as best as possible.
Male: 23
Carleton: Sorry? We have the working groups, but I think there’s a... they start at two, I think. Yes, it’s an open session, so they start at two. Okay.
Um... can I ask William to do his presentation? And you have left 15 minutes now.
William: 56
Interpreter: Good afternoon, my name is William, William McKelligott. I can’t hear him, he doesn’t have a microphone, I’m sorry.
Good afternoon, my name is William McKelligott, I work with ICANN, I’m an auditor. I would like to thank you all for fitting me in to today’s agenda. I would like to tell you that it’s a pleasure to know you, and to have you here in Mexico City. This city has to be enjoyed with your five senses.
The team that we have in Marina del Rey in California, it’s the seat of ICANN, is headed by David 40 who’s the new senior director and Stacy Burnett, who is the director, Marco Halil Rashid, who is also here, he’s the manager of audits. I’m an auditor.
I’m going to make a brief presentation of the things we do and where we’re at, and what are the future plans. I... there’s a problem here with the format, but we basically manage the relationship with more than 950 registrars accredited with ICANN. And it’s 16 entities 19. We carry out audits. The clauses are set forth in the contracts, for the registrars and the registration entities. As you know, there’s an amendment pending with regard to accreditation, which will give us a clause to audit the registrators, which is very important.
We also aspire to communicate our plans through the reports that we publish. We have a monthly bulletin, and also we have a website. At the ICANN website, we have a 57 space, where we place information. We have a complaint system for consumers, which most of are not relevant to ICANN. Last year, we managed about 11,000 complaints, but 60 percent are not relevant to us. And we always try to refine the processes, to conform the involved parties.
If some of the recent activities of this program is that we’re improving the way that ICANN can monitor the integrity of the information of the WHOIS registry, who in Colombia, as we say, is the hot potato. We also have a plan of continued dialogue with the community, and we’ve done this recently in inaudible and Rome, and obviously we’ve done it with the groups of registrars and in the registration areas, to strengthen the work. As we said before, in the last semester, we had new add-ons to the staff. David Gisa, my boss, can tell you that.
Here is a graph that will show where the registries are located. We currently have 16 in Latin America, and I think, at the level of ICANN, we have an error, because Mexico appears in North America, which geographically is correct, but I think Mexico is present. We’re going to make this change. The registrars are in Venezuela, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Cayman Islands and the Virgin Islands.
The work schedule includes a study to define the accuracy of the WHOIS registries. We’re working with an institution called 06 from the University of Chicago, they specialize in social science and polling studies. We’re going to have a random sample to try to determine at what extent the information is inaccurate. We are carrying out a study for the... to determine the use of registration of proxy or privacy. We’re also developing a working schedule for new... and we’re designing the new scheme for the new gTLDs, and also now we’re carrying out an audit to the policy of domain transfer, and we’re doing a self-assessment. And we recently published the report of our administration of the last semester. Unfortunately, one of the challenges of ICANN is translation, to the languages of the United Nations system, but for the time being, these reports are in English. I will talk to my boss to see if I can get a copy in Spanish.
Here there’s nothing and there’s nothing. That concludes my presentation. We’re here at your service if you have any questions. My cards are up here, with all my details. I will pass them down, so you can each have one. Thank you very much for your attention.
Carleton: Thank you, William, for that short presentation. Appreciate it. Um... the cards are here, we’ll just pass them around the table. You can take one for your... here, Alejandro, you have a... Well, I’ll give you time, now.
Male: 11
Interpreter: Thank you, Carleton. I would like to make a brief comment to strengthen the extraordinary importance of this announcement and the progress made in monitoring and contractual compliance. From the beginning in ICANN, it was important to review the procedures that, without having ICANN to become an overseer of the program, for which there is no legal framework, did ICANN have the capacity to correct the deviations. In the years that I worked with this, it was truly complex, due to the resistance of companies. They thought they would register 00 business. We did register flights so that the community can have a very loud voice in favour of the application of sanctions.
All of those who are defending consumers, you know why this occurs. This... the process can be slow, because you have to give the right of audience and the due process has to be done. But we still need to stress on the importance for all of those who work in the oversight or in the interests of users, or of the companies and businesses that may be at risk. They could be at stake for the... due to abuse of... I think it should be necessary to see how we can divulge this. I think this would be one of the tasks that should go very well with Sergio’s experience, in order to start formulating a working plan for this group.
Carleton: Just before I hand over to Sergio, I wanted to answer a question that was asked of me by Scott Robinson. Scott, very concerned, he’s been telling me this every time I am in contact with Scott, and we have lots of private e-mails. He’s concerned about the work that is happening in LACRALO, and he asks me, before I go, to underscore what we think are the most important policy issues that affect LACRALO in here. And I’m expecting my friends Jose Ovideo and Carlos to chip in with me on that.
Um, there are three issues that are, I think, are very important for us to pay attention to. The first one is this new gTLD issue, and what it means for the region. It really is very important for us to take, consider and become familiar with the issues. The ICANN is proposing to create a situation where there would be possibly hundreds, if not thousands, of new generic top level domains, like adding to dot com, dot org, and so on. And some of them will come from regional, like dot Asia, which is already there, cities, dot Berlin, and so on.
It has published a guide by which those who would wish to register new domains must follow in order to become approved by ICANN. The guide itself is controversial, because there are elements in that guide that we believe are injurious to the interests of users. We have been... those of us who have been reading it and have been looking at it, we have strenuously objected. I will tell you that it’s through the three of us and Vanda, we were the ones who originally wrote the original ALAC objection to the gTLD process at Paris. We were the ones who sat down and drafted the statement that became the ALAC statement. That came from myself, Carlos, Jose Ovideo and Vanda, were chief among them that drafted that statement.
And we raised several objections. The first objection was that the way... the framework establishes a monetary value that would simply make a lot of the people from our region very difficult to establish top level domain, no matter how important you thought it was. So there was a barrier to entry based on the costs to do that. And we raised that issue.
We also raised the issue of the case of objections, the objection framework. And the terms in which people could object to a string being used as a high level domain, we took exception to that, and we are on record, because it became the ALAC statement that... about our objection.
And we also had a third issue, and the third issue was how ICANN was going to police these new top level domains, given that, right now, they’re not doing such a good job of policing the top level domains. Those were the three main reasons why we objected, and that’s on the record.
Male: 57 Well, there are more reasons, but those are the three main ones. And you can, if you will, you can read the objection, the official ALAC response to the guide. It is online, it is written in both Spanish and English. You can read it... what is expected for individuals in the comment period to go and make comments. It doesn’t matter that you make comments in Spanish – we want you to make comments in Spanish. Make comments – that’s what we’ve been asking for, because it’s the comments that determine what happens, and it’s the comments that they track to see if the region is interested in the issue. It’s very important.
The other one is the amendment to the registrar accreditation agreement. That’s a very technical issue, but it concerns what happens when you, an individual user, would register a domain. There are contracts between ICANN and the registry or registrar community, and those contracts determine really the kinds of contractual obligations that the registrar or registry community has when you, user, register a domain. You will see the term registrant being used to differentiate between those who register a domain, like carlosaguirredotcom, or those who are just users of the Internet who will just go onto Google or go onto Microsoft, or so on. We feel it is a distinction without importance. It’s a distinction without importance, because some of those same issues affect ordinary users just as well.
Now, there are issues surrounding new accreditation agreements that you should be aware of is the WHOIS data, and how that is used. Every time you register a domain, you are required to give some specific information about who you are, where you’re from, etc., etc. That’s personal data. It is a requirement. Now, there are lots of variations that have been suggested because of issues with privacy and security and so on. Yes. But you need to understand what those issues are, and you need to know where your interest lies. That’s the second one.
The third one that I think is of importance is what is happening in the GNSO restructuring. There is a GNSO restructuring that is in train right now, and the issue is the question of formulation of new constituencies in GNSO. There is a proposal to have a non-commercial users’ constituency formed. And the non-commercial users’ constituency, based on what is projected, it is not clear where the ALAC representation for the user community will end or overlap with this new constituency. That is the big issue for the at-large.
Now, there is also an issue, because if it goes through, the question of representation on the GNSO council is also important, because the proposal is for 6 seats to be shared among however many constituencies become a part of this new group, stakeholder group. It is important for you to understand that the objective of it is to increase participation, but the participation may actually impact your own representation in ALAC, and the roads by which you can make a presentation to ICANN. It’s important for you to understand that road. It’s about participation, but it’s also about power to petition. That’s the issue. Power to petition. Remember, right now you petition ICANN through ALAC. If the role of ALAC is diminished without a consequent improvement in our ability to participate in that new constituency, the role of users and the power to petition ICANN is reduced. That is the issue for the at-large.
Those three issues, I believe, are the most important ones boiling right now. There are others, but I urge you, if you do nothing else, become familiar with these issues, so that you have a clear understanding of what the implications are for the region and for the at-large in general. And I’m sure my friends on ALAC, who have been grappling with these issues for some time, would probably add some things to what I have to say.
Carlos: 40
Interpreter: Yes, I think that the issues you talked about, Carleton, are the most important. Nonetheless, I would also add the implementation of IPV6, which we’ve been discussing for a long time, and even at several meetings, there have been specific commissions to discuss this, and there have even been... or there has even been a recommendation or a part from the OECD regarding the recommendation... recommending the ministers who are part of it. The importance of implementing the IPV6 version 6, and its financial importance. There are very technical issues, as Carleton says, that you need to know in order to understand the functioning or how this works, and why it’s important for end users. That’s another topic that I would also add to the three brought up by Carleton.
And regarding the last issue that he raised, regarding... what was it? The non-commercial stakeholder group, I have been participating in the joint committee that has been studying this between... and, as you see, and ALAC, and I have to tell you that the proposal that is going around, that is one that was presented my Mr. Millard from NEUSC is very, very complicated, and it would be a good thing for each of us to take an interest in it. And we particularly... we have created a two-person commission to study this and participate in it, and we have even asked for accreditation, which we have obtained, in the NEUSC for both committees. Because as Carleton said, I think that this participation in the new GNSO structure, results in another participation in this Nom-Com stakeholder group, which we still don’t know, or we’re not sure, of how this is going to be included. Because there is even another proposal, which was presented by Sherry Preston, which defends it tooth and nail, and that’s going around, too. And I think that we need to make comments, that we should express ourselves on all of these issues. It is not easy, what Jose Ovideo was saying. It is not easy to understand the structure, it is incredibly complicated, but we’re going to have to do it, because if we’ve already taken or accepted the commitment, and we are... and all the time we are getting more and more pressure...
And Cheryl came down just now and gave us... told us something extremely important, that there is not enough money to go around, so this is also important to keep this in mind. I mean, Carleton’s three issues that he raised, that we’ve worked a lot on, the IPV6, and I don’t know if Jose Ovideo has something... another issue that he thinks is important.
Jose: 00
Interpreter: Yes, another issue, which obviously, after Carlos and Carleton, what they have said, what remains for me to say is not much, but another topic that we’ve talked about is... or that we’ve, where a lot of interest is and where we’ve put forward a position, and when the four Latin American representatives, the Caribbean and Latin American representatives, were talked about in Paris, was the one having to do... the denial, because of public order, or for public order reasons, was the denial of the channel for one of the new gTLDs. And this is also an issue that is fairly complicated, because it’s something that might sound offensive in Mexico... or rather, something that might offend in Mexico maybe doesn’t so in Venezuela, and maybe less so in China or Japan or the Congo.
So, in any case, this is an issue that we have to take into account, because it can represent restrictions, or additional restrictions for the participation of specific groups in what are the new gTLDs.
Carleton: Can I just tell the assembly here, just to close off things, that... just to bring closure to the election of officers. The election of officers, the final tally is, for the ALAC rep vote, 70.45 percent of the vote to Silvia, 29.5 percent of the vote to Lance. By this vote, Silvia is officially elected as the LACRALO representative to ALAC, applause for the term 2009 – 2011.
Moving on to the votes for the secretariat. This vote shows Andres with 77.9 percent of the vote, and Aislan with 22.1 percent of the vote. applause By this vote, Andres Piazza is elected secretariat for LACRALO, for the term 2000... from now until the next two years. applause
This is my final official statement. I will now turn over the Chairmanship of this meeting for wrap-up to the Chair/President LACRALO, Sergio Salinas Porto. applause
Sergio: 15
Interpreter: Well, as we’ve seen, I would like to thank first of all Carleton for everything he’s done today. His... during an election day, which shows also that beyond some of the differences that we might have as far as viewpoints, we still have a region that is thinking about Internet users. I think that both the individuals who have wanted to stand for election, as those who have been elected, were the best individuals and the best colleagues who are to occupy these posts today. I have absolutely no doubt that in the case of Andres Piazza, and in the case of Silvia, their work is going to be just as good as those who went before, both Carleton and Jose Ovideo.
And I think that the panorama that we are going to have to deal with this year means, or implies, a lot of work, and I know you’re going to hate me, but we’re going to have to find some kind of space where we can get together before we leave and have two meetings. One, all of us together to see certain issues about how we’re going to work on the topic, or how we’re going to work as commissions, or how we’re going to work. And another thing having to do... that I think those who were elected and those who are in their positions right now, we’re going to have to be able to meet at some point, so that we can generate new structures to see how we can organize ourselves. But it seems to me that I’m going to have to ask you for an extra effort. I know you coming to Mexico has already been a big effort, and I know it’s also a big effort, going and working hour after hour, and wandering from one commission to another, and participate and be here.
And I know that one of the things that was said here is that we have to be here. We have to be present, we have to participate. Carleton said that many of were not here, were not present at all times, and we must be here.
I think we have to show the companies, and also have to show our users, those whom we are representing, we have to show... and those who have given us mandates in each of our countries, that we are here to work. And we have to build a new Internet, or at least, help to be able to build it in a much better form than it is now.
So I don’t know how everyone’s schedule is... Carleton or Jose or Carlos, or somebody who can give me a hand, but we’re going to need to put together a schedule so we can get together, even if we don’t have a room. Some of you who speak English very well and can translate for us, for those of us who don’t, and get together either in the hotel lobby or in a cafeteria or in a square, and be able to finish this. And also, we can try to see if they can lend us a room, either here or in the Sheraton to try to get together. But it seems to me that time is running out, and we still have to do this. I don’t know, Matthias, if you could help us out with this, and try to get us a place where we can meet. We have to be able to accommodate between everyone’s different schedules from here to Thursday, and find a space where we can get together, even if only for a couple of hours, so that we can talk about and discuss certain topics.
I don’t know if you agree – do you agree? I don’t know who’s speaking. Ah. Yes, it’s obvious that everything that we’ve talked about this morning is to continue with the effort and the work, and to be... to do the real work, which we haven’t even begun today. We haven’t even started with the real work. So even if it’s a very early breakfast before the meetings start, we have to do it. We’ve done it in Puerto Rico and we didn’t have a room, and we did it right next to the water fountain in the second hotel, and with the languages that were available. So we have 15 minutes before the lunch break, and we could, in these 15 minutes, perhaps set a time, and then the logistics of where and how, we can see that later. But at least we can maybe come to a meeting as to when.
Does someone have a schedule of everybody’s activities? Is there someone who has a program?
Andres: 03
Interpreter: I was used to Carleton doing everything. Sergio, you have the floor. No? So, for all of you who have ideas or projects or proposals for the future, at least... just even write them down on a piece of paper, but let’s give those to our colleagues, so they can... as regards to what they’re doing and what they’re going to start to do, so that they can be enriched by this and have this input.
Male: 44
Interpreter: Thank you, yes, I agree with Andres and Sergio, I think it’s very important what they said, and I see progress in our region, which I... and I think that this next administration of Andres and Sergio, I think that it will be an administration of documents and work and lots of material, and it’s very important for us. I proposed a while ago, but no one was listening, of course we need an information network. We’re always going to be... we’re always going to be in training, so to speak, because that’s the way Internet is. It’s always something that’s new, and we have to be able to adapt ourselves, so there’s always... these processes are part of our lives, and will always be there, so I think that the creation of commissions is very interesting and very important in various sectors, whatever they are, because...
I’ll give you an example, to illustrate, because we talk generically a lot. Yes? Can I give you...? Carleton, did you want to say something?
Interpreters... I’m sorry, interpreters are going to have lunch. Thank you.
Carleton: So I’m... we have to wrap it up.
Male: I will speak about the translator with the government, no help.
Carleton: So, Sergio, with respect, we have to let the interpreters go, and we have to close shop. And we have to... remember, we are back here at 2:00 for the working groups?
Sergio: We have 15 minutes, no? No have?
Carleton: You don’t have. laughter They...
Sergio: We don’t have?
Carleton: No, you don’t have.
Male: 50
Carleton: I just want to say thank you so very much to the interpreters for staying with us. I appreciate it totally. applause
10 End of Audio
