APRALO Trip Proposal 4

https://www.internetsociety.org/events/asia-internet-symposium

(current year’s site will come up shortly)

The main goal of attending the ISOC Asia Regional Internet Symposium is to establish contacts with the Internet Governance community in Myanmar, particularly end-user community, with the immediate objective of inviting them to become associated with APRALO. Eventually, it is expected that these contacts will result in one or more ALSes as well as one or more individual members from Myanmar.

Myanmar is one of the large countries (in terms of population) in Asia-Pacific where APRALO has no members (the others being Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand). It is a country that is rapidly transforming itself after decades of military rule, and this may be a good time to establish contacts with them.

A secondary objective is to identify ISOC Chapter Leaders from the other countries where we do not have members. Since this is a meeting of ISOC Leaders from the region, there is an opportunity to establish linkages with all countries where APRLAO lacks a footprint.

The third objective is to introduce the APRALO community to the ISOC Community through a talks/presentations during the Asia Regional Internet Symposium. This will be organized through the ISOC regional leadership.

In summary, the expected outcomes include Outreach, Recruitment, Presentations as well as Knowledge Sharing, all of which tie into the APRALO Strategic Plan objectives. 

Note: Given the ongoing Rohingya conflict in Myanmar, there is a possibility of postponement of the programme or a change of venue. In either case, the basic objectives of the trip will not change, as the Myanmar-based delegation will be available at the new venue as well, and APRALO's outreach objectives can still be achieved.