No single entity runs the Internet. Government, business, academia, technical community, civil society, and individual users all play different roles in Internet governance across national, regional, and global sphere.

The Internet ecosystem is governed through a layered model that segregates and characterizes different functions of the Internet and its applications. There are different ways to look at those layers. For example, ICANN’s recent infographic illustrates the three layers of the ecosystem, from top to bottom: 1) economic and societal layer, 2) logical infrastructure layer, and 3) physical infrastructure layer.

Solutions to issues in each layer include policies, best practices, standards, and specifications. Together, stakeholder experts develop, apply, and influence those solutions that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.

What does ICANN do?

Within this ecosystem, ICANN plays a limited, yet unique and critical role -- it coordinates the administration of the Internet’s logistical infrastructure layer that delivers ‘One Internet’ for the world through three sets of unique identifiers: 1) domain names, 2) Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and 3) protocol parameters. These unique identifiers enable your computer to reliable find and connect to other devices, things, or information sources on the Internet no matter where you are physically located in the world. That is how the tens of thousands of networks appear and operate as one Internet.

Regarding domain names, ICANN directly draws up contracts with registries and runs an accreditation system for registrars. Regarding IP addresses, ICANN coordinates policy with the five regional Internet registries (RIRs) for allocating and assigning these unique numerical identifiers. Regarding protocol parameters, ICANN works closely with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to maintain and administer them. In sum, ICANN does not run the system directly but plays a central, administrative role in concert with technical operation community actors, ensuring the security, stability, resiliency, and integrity of this critical layer.

To keep pace with the dynamic technologies and rapid innovation on the Internet, ICANN also facilitates the process of policy development that will enable technical changes to how the unique identifiers are run. Policy development is a fundamental part of ICANN’s mission.

Unlike the traditional, top-down government models, ICANN’s policy development uses a “bottom-up, consensus-driven, multistakeholder model”. It is “bottom-up” because any member of the global Internet community can raise issues and bring them to ICANN’s attention; “consensus-driven” because ICANN provides mechanisms to encourage discussion of diverse opinions and to facilitate agreement on action strategies for solving commonly perceived problems; and “multistakeholder” because ICANN brings together and gives voices to public sector, private sector, technical experts, civil society, and individual users in an inclusive manner. This model mimics the very nature of the Internet -- borderless and open to all.

How is ICANN organized?

ICANN is organized in three pillars -- Community, Board of Directors (Board), and Staff. Comprised of stakeholder parties representing various interests, Community develop and influence policies through their input, discussion, and advocacy for their point of view. Board reviews the policy development outcomes and make final decisions whether to approve or reject them. Staff provide the Community administrative and substantive support in the policy development and ultimately implements Board approve policies.

Community

The ICANN Community mainly consists of three Supporting Organizations (SOs) that develop topic-specific policies, as well as four Advisory Committees (ACs) that provide advice on those policies and the wider ICANN activities.

The three SOs are:

Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) - developing policies on generic top-level domains (gTLDs) by bringing together registries, registrars, businesses, intellectual property interest organizations, Internet service providers, communications providers, and non-commercial interest organizations and users. Many of the GNSO policies have direct impact on registries that have contractual relationship with ICANN and registrars accredited by ICANN.
Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) - develops policies on Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) by bringing together organizations that manage ccTLDs.
Address Supporting Organization (ASO) - develops policies on IP addresses through the Number Resource Organization (NRO), the coordinating body for the five RIRs.

Developing policies that directly impact the Internet’s unique identifiers, these three SOs follow their distinct and complex procedures, namely the Policy Development Process (PDP). The ICANN Bylaws set forth PDPs used in the GNSO and the ccNSO. Regarding ASO, it has Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN that sets out its PDP.

The four ACs are:

At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) - provides advice on the activities and policies of ICANN as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users (its roles and membership structure will be elaborated in later sections)
Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) - provides advice on the activities and policies of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, especially in instances where ICANN’s activities and policies interact with national laws, international agreements, and public policy matters. GAC members are formally recognized representatives of national governments, distinct economies, and intergovernmental organizations.
Security & Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) - Advises on the security and integrity of the Internet’s naming and addressing system. Members are appointed by the Board.
Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) - Advises on the operation, administration, security and integrity of the Internet’s root server system. Members are appointed by the Board and represent the world’s 13 core root server operators.

In terms of scope and mechanism, these four ACs provide advice in different manners. For example, the GAC publishes the GAC Communique during ICANN International Meetings as a substantive form of advice to the Board. SSAC and RSSAC identify specific topics of interests and produce detailed reports, comments, and/or advisories less than 10 times a year. The ALAC advises on ICANN matters broadly and frequently (to be elaborated on later sections).

In addition to the SOs and ACs, Technical Liaison Group (TLG) is also part of the Community. Comprised of members of organizations that devise the basic protocols for Internet technologies (e.g. ETSI, ITU-T, W3C, IAB), it works to connect the Board with needed sources of technical advice.

Another interesting part of the Community is the Nominating Committee (NomCom). It is an independent group of Community volunteers selected from SOs and ACs that work together to identify future members in the Board, GNSO Council, ccNSO Council, and ALAC.

Board

The Board consists of 21 members, among whom 16 are the voting Directors and 5 are the non-voting Liaisons.

The 16 voting Directors consist of:

2 from the GNSO
2 from the ccNSO
2 from the ASO
1 from the ALAC
8 selected by the NomCom
ICANN President & CEO

The 5 non-voting Liaisons are appointed by the following groups:

GAC
SSAC
RSSAC
TLG
IETF

As the Board members are selected from the various Community groups, they can be considered as part of the Community. However, the Board members act as “free agents”, do not represent the organizations that appoint them, but have an obligation to serve the best interest of ICANN and of the public good. Hence, they are usually treated separately from the Community.

What are the roles of the ALAC?

The ALAC is the primary organizational home in ICANN for individual Internet users. Under the ICANN Bylaws, the roles of the ALAC are to:

Consider and provide advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users. This includes policies created through SOs, as well as ICANN operations and many other issues for which community input and advice is appropriate;
Play an important part in ICANN’s accountability mechanisms;
Coordinate some of ICANN’s outreach and engagement efforts to individual Internet users.

The range of individual Internet users, whose interests that the ALAC represents, is quite broad. They include registrants (people who hold domain names), consumers, and the billions of average web users and visitors.

While ICANN is a technical organization with a focused mandate, its bottom-up, consensus-driven, multistakeholder model gives the ALAC a unique position to play -- average users that don’t have vested business interests, political interests, or even technical backgrounds can also have a voice to influence the evolution of the critical logistical infrastructure layer of the Internet. Such position is rare to find in other international organizations in the world.

What is the difference between the ALAC and the At-Large Community?

The ALAC itself has a limited set of members (to be elaborated in the next section) and the Internet user community that it has emerged from is much bigger and wider. That community is the At-Large Community.

Spanning the globe, more than 225 volunteer groups -- referred to as At-Large Structures (ALSes) -- form the basis of the At-Large Community. ALSes can be Internet Society (ISOC) chapters, consumer groups, groups supporting software methodologies (such as open source), and groups supporting end-user training and development (particularly in developing regions). Their sizes vary -- some have only a handful of members, and some have hundreds of thousands! ALSes conduct a wide variety of activities not necessarily related to domain names, IP addresses, or protocol parameter. Nonetheless, they applied and have been accredited as ALSes due to their shared interests in engaging with ICANN and shared passion in working to ensure that the Internet continues to serve the global public interests. In addition, the community also has a growing number of public-minded individual members unaffiliated to any ALSes.

The ALSes and unaffiliated individual members are united into five Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs) based on their ICANN geographic regions, namely:

AFRALO: Africa
APRALO: Asia, Australasian, and Pacific Islands (accept individual members)
EURALO: Europe (accept individual members)
LACRALO: Latin America, and the Caribbean Islands
NARALO: North America (accept individual members)

Besides the grouping purposes, RALOs act as information conduits and facilitators by disseminating information from ICANN, helping their ALSes and individual members get involved, and channeling the regional user point of view to ICANN. Furthermore, through a bottom-up, open mechanism, each RALO appoints two members of the ALAC, the part of global At-Large community most deeply engaged in ICANN and in the unique advisory position to advocate for the interests of individual Internet users.

How is the ALAC structured?

The ALAC consists of Members and Appointees. Selected from current ALAC Members, the ALAC Leadership Team (ALT) plays a central management role. In addition, the ALAC and the wider At-Large Community also select a Director to serve on the ICANN Board. To view the overall structure of the At-Large Community, including the composition of the ALAC: https://community.icann.org/x/sYpCAw.

Members

Serving on behalf of the At-Large Community by acting for the good of the entire Community, the ALAC Members commit substantial time as volunteers to fulfill the roles of the ALAC expressed in ICANN Bylaws. With a deep understanding of the potential impact of ICANN decisions on the global Internet-using community, ALAC Members provide leadership and champion the end-user voices in ICANN policy development and other activities.

There are 15 ALAC Members, who have the voting power within the ALAC:

2 from AFRALO
2 from APRALO
2 from EURALO
2 from LACRALO
2 from NARALO
5 selected by the NomCom (1 from each ICANN region)

Appointees

Acting on behalf of the ALAC to various bodies within or outside of ICANN, ALAC Appointees are responsible for communicating ALAC positions to those groups and for reporting their activities and actions that may be of interest to the ALAC. Appointees can be ALAC Members or non ALAC Members. Regardless, they must have sufficient knowledge of the ALAC, the At-Large Community, and any other group or subject related to their appointment. Appointees do not have voting power within the ALAC or their appointed groups. The exception is that if they are also current ALAC Members, they can still exercise their voting power within the ALAC.

Currently, the following Appointees bear the title as Liaisons. Each Liaison serves in this capacity to only one of the following ICANN bodies at a time:

ccNSO
CSC
GAC
GNSO
SSAC

The Appointees that do not bear the Liaison title can represent the ALAC in one or multiple bodies as permitted by their rules. Some of those bodies include:

ICANN Cross Community Working Group to Develop an IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CCWG-IANA): https://community.icann.org/x/37fhAg
ICANN Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability): https://community.icann.org/x/ogDxAg
ICANN Cross Community Working Group on Internet Governance (CCWG-IG): https://community.icann.org/x/kyWfAg
IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) (outside ICANN): http://www.ianacg.org/
ICANN IDN Implementation Guidelines Experts Working Group

ALAC Leadership Team

In a narrower sense, the ALAC is a regionally balanced group comprised of 5 current ALAC Members, one per ICANN region. They hold the following leadership positions within the ALAC:

1 Chair
1-2 Vice Chair(s) (the number to be set at the discretion of the Chair)
2-3 untitled ALT Members

By extension, the ALT emcompasses the ALAC Liaisons to the ccNSO, GAC, GNSO, and SSAC, as well as past ALAC Chairs who do not necessarily hold ALAC Member positions at present. These additional members also serve as the current Chair’s advisors.

The ALT members support and collaborate with the Chair in the overall management of the ALAC, ensuring the ALAC can focus on the most appropriate issues with minimum of administrative overhead. The ALAC may, from time to time, assign specific responsibilities or tasks to the ALT. For example, due to urgency or confidentiality (e.g. selection of ALAC Appointees requiring complex criteria evaluation or in a controversial circumstance), the ALT is empowered to make substantive decisions with due consideration of regional issues on the part of the ALAC; in such case, the ALAC will then ‘ratify’ (to be explained in later section) such decisions as soon as practical. The ALT, especially the Chair and Vice-Chair(s) take on a much heavier workload than the other untitled ALAC Members.

Board Director

Previsouly, the ALAC appointed a non-voting Liaison to the ICANN Board. That position was abolished in 2010 as a result of the first organization review of the ALAC and that change was reflected in ICANN’s Bylaws. Since then, the ALAC and wider At-Large Community is able to select a member to assume the fully voting Director position on the ICANN Board.

While this Board Director acts as a “free agent” and does not represent the ALAC or the wider At-Large Community, he or she has an obligation to serve the best interest of ICANN and of the public good.

Due to those considerations, the candidates nominated for this position must meet specified criteria and qualifications, and the final candidate is selected a structured process. Check out the At-Large Board Director Selection Home to explore more: https://community.icann.org/x/6Q2MAg

The first ALAC/At-Large selected Director is Sébastien Bachollet, who served on the Board from December 2010 to October 2014. The second and the current ALAC/At-Large selected Board Director is Rinalia Abdul Rahim, who assumed the position in October 2014.

How the ALAC Leaders and Appointees are selected?

Curious about how the selection/election process of ALAC Chair, ALT Members, ALAC Appointees, and the ALAC/At-Large Selected Board Director, as well as their requirements and responsibilities? Read Section B and Section D in the ALAC Rules of Procedures: https://community.icann.org/x/kIYi

What does the ALAC do?

In accordance with ICANN’s Bylaw, the ALAC has the duty to understand, represent, and advocate for the best interest of Internet end users worldwide. To fulfill this duty, the ALAC focuses on two general areas of work: 1) advice development, and 2) organizational building.

Advice Development

While the ALAC does not develop policies directly, it works to publicize, analyze, and provide advice on proposed ICANN policies and decisions that accurately reflect the views and needs of individual Internet users at regional and global levels.

Not just limited to the TLDs related policies created through the formal PDPs in the SOs, the ALAC comments and advises on the work deliverables and decisions from ICANN Community, Board, and Staff in a wide range of topics, ranging from ICANN operational and strategic planning to the organizational review of other SOs/ACs. For a full list of topics that ALAC advice covers, check out: https://newatlarge.icann.org/topics/summary

ICANN Public Comment proceeding is a main channel for the ALAC to provide advice. In addition, the ALAC also provides advice through other methods, such as responding to the input request from other communities’ working groups, writing reports/analysis or sending correspondents on issues with end user impacts, and working collaboratively with other community groups to submit joint advice to the ICANN Board.

ICANN Public Comment

Public Comment is a vital element in ICANN's decision-making process whereby everyone is given an opportunity to comment on topic-specific reports, proposals, recommendations, and PDP related deliverables initiated by the ICANN Community and Staff Departments.

Each Public Comment provides links to relevant announcement, key document, reference sources, and the comment forum. To see an example, check out ICANN’s Public Comment landing page: https://www.icann.org/public-comments.

Each Public Comment solicitation is open for at least 40 days. During this period, any individual or organization, both internal and external to ICANN, can submit comments. After the comment period closes, ICANN Staff produces the Staff Summary Report that compiles and synthesizes the comments received for the originators to evaluate and incorporate in the final product.

The ALAC has been actively participating in the Public Comment proceedings by submitting ALAC Policy Advice Statements in response to given topics.

How ALAC Policy Advice Statements are developed?

When a new Public Comment opens, the ALAC will come to a consensus on determining if the ALAC should write a Statement on this topic via consultations with subject-matter experts within At-Large on mailing lists, Skype chat groups, and teleconferences of the ALAC, RALOs, and relevant At-Large Working Groups (those will be covered in later sections).

If the ALAC believes that a Statement is necessary, the ALAC works to identify an individual or a group of individuals responsible for writing an initial draft Statement in response to the Public Comment. Those individuals are called penholders. While a penholder can be any member in the wider At-Large Community or even ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC, ALAC Members and Appointees frequently draft Statements due to their knowledge, experience, and leadership role in representing the interests of Internet users within ICANN.

Once the initial draft is completed, it is posted to the Confluence Wiki workspace -- a web-based platform for collaborative work -- and the Call for Comments period begins, during which the whole At-Large Community is invited to comment on the draft. At-Large members usually provide their inputs using the commenting function in the workspace. Once this internal commenting period ends, penholder(s) consider and incorporate inputs received, finalize the draft, and post it to the workspace again.

Next, the 15 ALAC Members hold a ratification vote to determine whether the final draft should be approved and submitted to the Public Comment as a formal ALAC Policy Advice Statement. This ratification vote is usually conducted electronically via BigPulse, but it can also happen during ALAC’s monthly teleconferences and face-to-face sessions in ICANN meetings. If at least 5 ALAC members cast non-abstaining vote, and if the number of votes in favor of ratifying the Statement is higher than the number of votes against, the Statement will be deemed ratified and submitted to ICANN Public Comment.

Due to the interests of time, the ALAC sometimes submits a Statement with ratification pending so that the ALAC advice is taken into consideration before the Public Comment period closes. To be sure, the ALAC will not submit a Statement if it is not sufficiently confident that it will reach consensus and pass ratification.

ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC usually works with the ALAC to shepherd the policy advice development process, manage the internal timeline, and support community members in using the Confluence wiki workspace and the BigPulse poll. The work pipeline is published on the At-Large Policy Advice Development Page on Confluence wiki, where each Public Comment has its own workspace: https://community.icann.org/x/bwFO.

Since 2003, the ALAC has developed and submitted over 300 Policy Advice Statements covering a wide range of topics. You can search and read them here: https://newatlarge.icann.org/policy-summary.

ALAC Advice Not Strictly Related to ICANN Public Comment

ICANN Public Comment proceeding is not the only opportunity for the ALAC to provide advice. The ALAC responds to the input requests from GNSO Working Groups and comments on their questionnaires or issue-scoping reports via informal channels. The ALAC also identifies issues important to end users -- such as the Public Interest Commitments topic in the New gTLDs application round -- and submits ‘unsolicited’ advice to the ICANN Board.

In those circumstances, the ALAC advice does not always take the form of the Policy Advice Statement. It can be short-form correspondence sent by the ALAC Chair on behalf of the ALAC. It can also be long-form documents, such as the White Paper on Future Challenges “Making ICANN Relevant, Responsive and Respected” and the Second At-Large Summit (ATLAS II) Declaration.

ALAC’s Interactions with other Community Groups

The ALAC does not develop advice in isolation. It interacts with other parts of ICANN Community, especially the policy-making entities within ICANN, to understand the latest policy development activities in detail and provide targeted advice related to the interests of end users.

As part of this effort, the ALAC has formally appointed Liaisons to the ccNSO, GAC, GNSO, and SSAC, as well as Representatives in Cross Community Working groups, who act as the voice of the ALAC. Besides those formal appointments, many ALAC Members and Appointees actively participate in the PDP and non-PDP working groups in the GNSO in their individual capacity. By gaining experience, insights, and influence, those ALAC Members and Appointees will be able to communicate policy matters back to the wider At-Large Community effectively and develop informed positions. As a result of such interactions, the ALAC can even push for the creation of policy. One example is the GNSO PDP on Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery (PEDNR) – the ALAC identified this topic of interest and requested the GNSO Council to initiate this PDP.

Oftentimes, the ALAC also joins forces with other community groups to address topics of shared interests. For instance, the ALAC and the GAC submitted to the ICANN Board joint Statements on the Applicant Support Program for the new gTLDs application round. To address the insufficiency of the Public Interest Commitments – a mechanism for ICANN to hold registries accountable for protecting the public interests in their new gTLD applications – the ALAC collaborated with the GNSO’s Business Constituency, proposed an alternative mechanism (the mandatory “Public Advisory Boards”), and launched a Public Comment for an ICANN community-wide discussion.

Further Notes on the Difference Between the ALAC and the At-Large Community

The advice development role of the ALAC gives the ALAC certain power and capability that the RALOs, ALSes, and individual members in the wider At-Large Community don’t have. As described in the previous sections, the ALAC is empowered to initiate a Public Comment proceeding and to request the GNSO to initiate a PDP. The formal Advice from the ALAC to the ICANN Board, Staff departments, and other community groups also carries a heavier weight.

Nonetheless, the ALAC cannot provide advice singlehandedly without getting inputs from the wider At-Large Community. Hence, ALAC Members and Appointees are required to speak to the RALOs about their latest policy advice development work and actively solicit feedback for the Policy Advice Statements.

Organizational Building

As ICANN manages the logistical infrastructure layer of the Internet Governance Ecosystem and the policy topics that it deals with are quite technical and niche, the ALAC plays an important role in making sure that ALSes and individual members are in touch with ICANN’s core mission and value, contribute to ICANN activities and policy developments, and provide sustainable flow of end user volunteers into the multistakehoder model of ICANN. These are the important goals for organizational building.

Organizational building encompasses a variety of areas, such as:

Capacity building
Outreach and engagement
Operational matters

A lot of organizational building related work is done through At-Large working groups, which are established by the ALAC. ALAC Members and Appointees often chair in those working groups, while RALOs provide volunteers.

Capacity Building

The ALAC works with RALOs to develop and maintain on-going information and education programs regarding ICANN and its work. This will help newcomers and inexperienced members in the wider At-Large Community to acquire necessary knowledge and skills to engage in ICANN and to contribute to the ALAC policy advice development activities.

Several At-Large working groups are dedicated to teaching and training, such as the Capacity Building Working Group that has organized a series of webinars on various topics, ranging from the IANA Functions’ Stewardship Transition to the Security and Stability of the Internet.

Outreach and Engagement

The ALAC collaborates with RALOs to promote outreach and engagement activities in the community of individual Internet users and establish an outreach strategy about ICANN issues in each RALO's Region. The goal is to get new blood into the At-Large Community and develop a sustainable flow of individual Internet user volunteers.

Several At-Large working groups exert efforts in this area, such as the Outreach and Engagement Subcommittee, CROP Review Team, Technology Taskforce, and Social Media Working Group .

Apart from those working groups, the ALAC collaborates with RALO leaders in organizing special events with an outreach and engagement focus, such as the RALO General Assemblies and At-Large Summit, during which representatives of At-Large Structures in the region or around the world meet face-to-face to learn about ICANN, discuss Internet issues important to end users, and network among each other.

Operational Matters

The ALAC also attends to a multitude of operational matters, including:

ALS accreditation – The process in which the 15 ALAC Members cast vote to accredit an organization as an At-Large Structure.
Meeting planning – Select topics for and help plan meeting schedules of ALAC, RALO, At-Large working group sessions during ICANN International Meetings.
Budget request review – Review proposals from RALOs for outreach, engagement, or capacity building related projects and their requests for budget allocations.
Selection of members – Evaluate and confirm candidates selected from the wider At-Large Community for certain positions that represent the ALAC, such as the Delegates to the NomCom, ALAC representatives to ICANN Cross Community Working Groups, etc.
Organizational review – Lead the process for the formal review of the At-Large Community effectiveness.

Where does the ALAC do its work?

The ALAC has the duty to keep the wider At-Large Community of Individual Internet users informed about its advice development and organizational building related work, as well as the significant news and PDP items from ICANN. To do that, it has established processes that showcase their ongoing work in a transparent manner and enable two-way communication between members of At-Large Structures and those involved in ICANN decision-making, so interested individuals can share their views on pending issues.

There are a variety of methods for the ALAC to carry out its work, including:

ALAC Meetings
Emails
Confluence Community wiki
Voting
Instant messaging

ALAC Meetings

ALAC conduct meetings regularly to discuss advice development and organizational building related matters based on the agenda set by the ALAC Chair. Those meetings include the monthly teleconference using Adobe Connect and the series of face-to-face sessions held during the triennial ICANN International Meetings. Most face-to face meetings may also have teleconference capabilities for those who cannot attend in person. Sometimes, the ALAC Chair can call an urgent or special meeting on a short notice. Besides those meetings, the ALT also holds its separate meetings on a bi-monthly basis.

For transparency and communications purposes, almost most all ALAC and ALT meetings are open to the public and anyone internal or external to the At-Large Community can attend. All ALAC meetings are recorded with transcripts provided. They are published on their respective Confluence wiki workspace by the ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC.

ALAC meetings require a quorum to start. For a meeting to be quorate, more than 50% of the sitting ALAC Members must be present, face-to-face, telephonically, or by other means explicitly

approved by the ALAC. Hence, it is a requirement for the ALAC members to attend and actively participate in those meetings; if they cannot make it, they are required to send apologies.

One of the reasons for requiring the quorum is that sometimes motions are conducted during ALAC meetings. Any formal action of the ALAC will be in the form of a Motion. Such formal action may be initiated at an ALAC meeting or electronically by any ALAC Member and seconded by any other ALAC Member.

To keep track of ALAC meeting schedules: https://community.icann.org/x/_pQi.
To keep track of ALT meeting schedules: https://community.icann.org/x/noAi.
ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC also sends out meeting schedule announcement and participation information via the ALAC-announce mailing list.

Adobe Connect

Online Adobe Connect rooms provide a single user interface that participants can use to instant message each other, review the meeting agenda and documents, follow presentations and raise their hands in order to make comments.

For some meetings, it is possible to use the Adobe Connect room to listen to the meeting’s

audio, rather than using the available telephone bridge. However, many ALAC calls are simultaneously interpreted into more than one language, and at present it is not possible to choose different language channels through Adobe Connect.

The URL to the Adobe Connect room for any given At-Large meeting is located on the

meeting’s wiki page that also contains the meeting’s agenda.

Further information on Adobe Connect, including a visual “quick start” guide, video tutorials

and an FAQ section can be found at: https://community.icann.org/x/DD9-Ag. Another introduction video on Adobe Connect can be found at https://seminars.adobeconnect.com/_a227210/participatemeeting/.

Emails

E-mail is a prime communication technology used by the ALAC. The ALAC and the wider At-Large Community have a variety of e-mail mailing lists to allow easy communications amongst ALAC Members, Appointees, working group members, RALOs, and grassroots At-Large members. They are used to discuss policy and operational matters.

Most At-Large mailing lists are archived and viewable by the public. Some of them have limitation with regard to subscriber criteria.

The three mailing lists below are specifically set up for ALAC Members and Appointees:

ALAC - alac@atlarge-lists.icann.org: includes current and past ALAC Members, Liaisons, RALO Officers, ALAC/At-Large Selected Board Director;
ALAC-Internal - alac-internal@atlarge-lists.icann.org: includes current ALAC Members, Liaisons, RALO Officers, ALAC/At-Large Selected Board Director;
ALT – alac-excom@atlarge-lists.icann.org (likely to change): includes current ALAC Leadership Team members, Liaisons, ALAC/At-Large Selected Board Directors, and past ALAC Chairs.

Other mailing lists that members of the ALAC subscribe to include:

ALAC-Announce - alac-announce@atlarge-lists.icann.org: This mailing list is used to distribute significant news and announcement from ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC and the ALAC Chair to the At-Large Community. Only ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC and the ALAC Chair can publish on this list.
Mailing lists of the RALOs: Each RALO has its own mailing list and ALAC Members and Appointees are required to be subscribed to them based on their respective regions.
At-Large Worldwide – atlarge@atlarge-lists.icann.org: This is the mailing list for the worldwide At-Large Community.

There are several other mailing lists used by the wider At-Large Community, including mailing lists of active At-Large working groups. For more information: https://community.icann.org/x/LpvbAQ.

Confluence Wiki Workspace

Confluence wiki is a web-based platform that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, via a web browser, using a simplified markup language or text editor.

The ALAC often uses the Confluence Wiki for document collaboration, especially for drafting Policy Advice Statements and soliciting comments from the wider At-Large Community. Another popular use of the Confluence is to reference the meeting agendas, recordings, and transcripts posted by ICANN Staff.

Have never used Confluence wiki before? The At-Large Wiki Guide is available in the six UN languages at: https://community.icann.org/x/v4Cv.

Below are the Confluence wiki workspaces often visited by ALAC members:

At-Large Dashboard: https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge.
At-Large Policy Advice Development Page: https://community.icann.org/x/bwFO
ALAC Dashboard: https://community.icann.org/x/ppEi
ALT Dashboard: https://community.icann.org/x/noAi

Vote and Consensus

Vote is an important method for the ALAC to make decisions. The ALAC conducts formal votes on many things, including:

Election of the ALAC Chair and ALT Members (if there are contested candidates)
Confirmation of ALAC NomCom Delegates selected by RALOs
Accreditation and removal of an ALS
Adoption / ratification of ALAC Policy Advice Statements

Vote can take place during ALAC teleconferences and face-to-face meetings. Votes held outside of formal meetings may be carried out using any method approved by the ALAC which may include:

specialized web-based voting systems called BigPulse (ALAC Members are provided with Vote Credentials to access the electronic poll to cast their votes)
e-mail, via Approved Distribution Lists; and
telephone with ICANN Staff, the ALAC Chair or as otherwise specified by the ALAC Chair.

As a rule of thumb, ALAC votes on named individuals, whether in an election, appointment, recall or disciplinary action, will be held by secret ballot and the details of individual ALAC Member ballots must not be revealed. ALAC votes on non-personnel related matters, such as ALS accreditation and ALAC Policy Advice Statement ratification, are completely transparent.

Besides the formal voting, consensus calls are often conducted as another decision-making mechanism. A Consensus decision is one supported by an overwhelming percentage of the ALAC, but need not be unanimous. The ALAC Chair shall rule as to whether or not a Consensus has been reached. As a “rule of thumb”, Consensus is no less than 80% of the

sitting ALAC Members.

Any ALAC Member who does not support a Consensus position may request that their disagreement be noted in the records of the meeting. A well, any ALAC Member may request that a formal vote be used instead of a Consensus Call.

An ALAC Member who cannot be present for a vote, either cast in person or electronically, may arrange to have his/her vote cast by another ALAC Member according to rules governing Proxies.

To read more about the vote and consensus related procedures, read section ‘12. Decision of the ALAC’ in the ALAC Rules of Procedure: https://community.icann.org/x/kIYi.

Instant Messaging

Skype is the the most popular instant messaging tools among ALAC Members, Appointees, and the members of the wider At-Large Community to communicate. There are several Skype chat groups, including:

ICANN At-Large - Includes 100 members worldwide;
ALAC (private group) - Includes current ALAC members, ALAC Liaisons to the ccNSO, GAC, GNSO, SSAC, and formal ALAC Chairs;
ALAC Leadership Team (private group) - Includes current ALT members, ALAC Liaisons to the ccNSO, GAC, GNSO, SSAC, and formal ALAC Chairs;
New ALS Helpline - Provides new ALS representatives opportunities to ask ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC any question and seek assistance;
NARALO Chat - chat group for NARALO members.

If you want to get in touch with any At-Large member via Skype, or to join any Skype chat group that is open to the entire At-Large Community, contact ICANN Policy Staff in support of the ALAC for details staff@atlarge.icann.org.

ALAC Members & Liaisons

Please note: https://atlarge.icann.org/alac/explore-profiles (to be updated on Friday, 3 November 2017)

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Key

ALAC Onboarding

What is the Internet Governance Ecosystem?

Further Reading

What does ICANN do?

Further Reading

How is ICANN organized?

Community

Board

Further Reading

What are the roles of the ALAC?

What is the difference between the ALAC and the At-Large Community?

Further Reading

How is the ALAC structured?

Members

Appointees

ALAC Leadership Team

Board Director

How the ALAC Leaders and Appointees are selected?

Further Reading

What does the ALAC do?

Advice Development

ICANN Public Comment

How ALAC Policy Advice Statements are developed?

ALAC Advice Not Strictly Related to ICANN Public Comment

ALAC’s Interactions with other Community Groups

Further Notes on the Difference Between the ALAC and the At-Large Community

Organizational Building

Capacity Building

Outreach and Engagement

Operational Matters

Where does the ALAC do its work?

ALAC Meetings

Adobe Connect

Emails

Confluence Wiki Workspace

Vote and Consensus

Instant Messaging

Suggested Readings

ALAC Members & Liaisons