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Wolf Ludwig:                          Well let me suggest that we start with our today’s agenda.  And it will be my suggestion that we make short briefings on essentials and we dedicate most of our hour time for the preparations, final preparations of the General Assembly.  Time is coming close, or getting short and I have to do some work over the weekend to prepare a draft on the bylaw modifications – I will send it to staff etc., etc.  And EURALO General Assembly is a priority over the next couple of days that we can progress.

                                                Okay, role call and apologies I see that are updated on the Adobe Connect already – people who are on the call and…

Female:                                    Hello everyone.  Yes, hello.  I’m just trying to connect to Adobe Connect please.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay, thanks a lot.  So next agenda item is review of the Action Items please have a look on this.  Wolf will post links of recent and upcoming EURALO meetings to the mailing list – I can remember that I immediately did this after the last call.  Wolf will contact Vlada with regards to logistics of the EURALO – this I have done as well.  I haven’t received any written response from Vlada so far, but I had him on a EuroDIG preparation call this afternoon and he promised to respond as soon as possible. 

                                                The third Action Item I still have to do.  This is still on my work list.  And I was informed by staff the last day that there are still some EURALO fliers available and have to be sent to me.  The minutes from the last meeting will be uploaded after this meeting and I think we can continue with today’s agenda.

The third point on the standing issues is “open public consultation” issues.  And there are four which are listed below and I would like Olivier, to ask Olivier to please a short briefing on this.  Most of them have been on the list so whoever wants to see the details can go to the PDF files and Olivier will just concentrate on a brief.  You have the floor Olivier. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Thank you very much Wolf.  Before I start on this, I was just going to ask you whether – because you mentioned the EURALO brochures and separately you also asked me about whether EURALO has a logo – do we address this now or do we address this later on in our call? 

Wolf Ludwig:                          Let us address later on our call.  I think this is rather a more technical question then something we have to sort out here during this call time.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Okay, alright.

Wolf Ludwig:                          If you agree.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Yeah sure.  It’s just to know when.  Well we’ve had a number of, a very large number of open public consultations that we have responded to and I’m particularly pleased with the amount of response that we’ve had from all of At-Large, including members of the EURALO region.  And there are only a handful of statements which are still being finalized.  In fact, actually there is just one that is being finalized.  The four that you see on the agenda are the last one’s that were filed and that were voted on and I believe the voting has finished for all of them and they were all adopted. 

Now, the last one is the response on the public comment on the Post Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group – that was a report and a working group that was led by someone from ALAC at the time – and it was Alan Greenberg who is also, and is still, our GNSO liaison.  And the comments are welcomed until the 22^nd of April.  It’s a particularly important report because it deals with the recovery of domain names when they expire. 

And as you know, some of the problems that some people face, is that the time in which the domain can still be recovered by the original registrant, or the original domain name owner, if they have forgotten to renew it is terrible between registrars and registries and it’s a bit unfair.  Because if you’re a bit unlucky you might end up with your domain being registered to a registry that does not allow much time and you will lose your domain. Although it might be an oversight and you might have gone on holiday, etc.  So it’s just a case of setting minimum requirements. 

                                                So I really encourage everyone to have a look at that final response that we have provided because there is one part which we were not too happy with and that was that the expiry time given was only eight days whilst in general the industry has allowed for about 30 days.  If we can find a way to extend this I think we definitely need to say this to the Board. 

So, comments – anything?  If you want to comment positively as well, because what we usually do when we file a comment with the Board, is to actually also have a link to the original confluence page.  It’s good to see that there is a lot of support for this.  And that’s really it.  Thank you very much. 

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay, thanks a lot Olivier for your elaborations.  Are there any questions or comments from the participants?  I’m just running back to my computer because I had to look behind my rabbit who is running through the garden.  I see no hands raised. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Now if I may add one more thing please.  This is now switching hats – so I’m switching hats from EURALO Secretary over to ALAC Chair.  I am hoping that future statements will also be written and drafted mainly by region – regional leads and people from ALSes, At-Large structures.  There is no requirement to be a member of the At-Large Advisory Committee or somebody who is – or the Chair of ALAC to write a statement; it could be anyone.  And as part of the bottom up push to the edges, I’m really hoping that we will get more, what we call pen holders, people that take responsibility to write the initial draft.  And I hope we get more from the different regions.  And definitely EURALO has got a lot of knowledge and a lot of very competent people who can do that.  So I’m looking forward to hear from volunteers.  Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Thanks Olivier.  I am very supportive about this and as we discussed two days ago in Strasbourg, I am willing to support you in this suggestion and as we know, we have on a lot of – Okay, I’m getting a call from Heidi.  So as Olivier has mentioned already there are a lot of very knowledgeable and experienced people among our members – just to mention two Patrik and Lutz on security DNSSEC issues, etc.  And whenever Olivier, we can support ALAC, please let us know and we will do our best to support you.  Any further questions regarding point three on this part of the agenda?  If not, I’m moving forward to point four. 

As you may have seen on the EURALO list, we have received two new ALS applications from our European Media Platform from Oksana and the second one is from the Ukrainian Internet Association.  Both of them are undergoing our regular due diligence procedure.  I was informed by staff last week that there are only a few final questions to be sorted out.  The due diligence is done by [Danny] and as soon as these questions are clarified some forms will be sent to us for our regional advice and I promised staff that we will respond as soon as possible.  I will announce a very short deadline for this because our interest would be to get them approved as soon as possible.  And the very best option would be a question to Olivier – I know that there is an At-Large call next Tuesday…

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          That’s right – an At-Large Advisor Committee call next Tuesday.  As far as I know, and I might be wrong, so Heidi if you hear me saying something stupid please jump in – the agenda isn’t 100% ready yet, either that or I haven’t actually read through it yet, but it will be done in the next 24 hours or…

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay.  Then I would suggest that we should foresee this agenda item for the next ALAC call.  It would be great to get them approved.  If not, then we have to do it in May.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Well I understand we are still waiting to have the feedback from the due diligence.  And Heidi, have you got anything more recent on this?

Heidi Ullrich:                          No.  So I’ll go back to our staff people and our regional liaison on where we are with that.  But the process would then require to have regional advice from EUARLO.  So it’s a little bit tight, let me see what we can do though.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay, and I promise that I will do my best to push this issue as much as I can.  Okay?  Any questions?  I see no hands raised on the…yes, please.

Oksana Prykhodko:                Thank you very much.  But I would like to know if you have any particular issues for example, with European Media Platform, because I just need the motivation for being here.  And I received a lot of questions about my website.  My website is now under construction.  And I would like to specify what are the issues?

Wolf Ludwig:                          Oksana, since you must sort out with [Danny] because he is doing the due diligence procedure.  I was not involved and Olivier, to my knowledge, was not involved so far.  We will step in when we are asked for the regional advice.  So this is a practical question you have to discuss with [Danny] and after that the region will be asked with the regional advice and I see  no reason at the moment why there should be any question or any objection.

Oksana Prykhodko:                So, I can ask [Danny] if he has any objections and questions.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Right.  Please address yourself to [Danny].

Oksana Prykhodko:                Okay, thank you very much.

Wolf Ludwig:                          You’re welcome.  Any more questions?  This is not the case – let me continue with the proposed agenda items – update on current policy issue.  We had already some info from Olivier.  Is there anything you want to add under five Oliver?

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Not for the time being, thank you Wolf.  There is nothing else.  I think we’ll be discussing many of these in the ALAC call.  Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay, thanks a lot.  And next point is recent regional EURALO meetings.  these were not really meetings organized by us, but meetings organized by other institutions or stakeholders in the region and the last one was a conference on internet freedoms at the Council of Europe last Monday and Tuesday in Strasbourg where Oliver and I and another EURALO member, Bill Drake, participated.  It was a very interesting, well attended meeting.  It was the reason why we had to postpone our monthly call from last Tuesday to today, what created a bit of hassle for the staff.  At this opportunity, I would like to thank Gisella for falling a Doodle and for organizing today’s call.

                                                The Council of Europe – the basic question was a regulatory one – do we actually, besides the principle, several principles we have regarding internet freedom or internet regulation – do we need something like an official treaty between on the state level or between states.  And there was a variety of viewpoints on it.  I cannot recall a lot of participants arguing in favor of a new international treaty. 

A lot of speakers said so far the internet, since its start, worked out without.  There was something comparable, like the cyber crime convention, which was prepared and done by the Council of Europe.  But in general people are rather hesitant to argue in favor of any new treaty for the time being.  This is in a few words a very brief summary on the discussion we had at the beginning of this week in Strasbourg. 

                                                Next event, what is on our agenda is 11 – ICANN Studienkreis meeting, what will convene in Budapest for Thursday, Friday next week.  And I was invited to represent EURALO at the Studienkreis meeting. As most of you know this was an initiative from Wolf [Kleinvect] 11 years ago co-organized by our elect member Sandra. And this is a good opportunity for making new contacts and networking and outreach.  And I hope that I will meet some new people I don’t know so far from Easter European countries because it’s in the region.  And you can be sure that I will use ICANN Studienkreis meeting for first outreach on behalf of EURALO.

                                                These are the two major events we had in our regions in our last call.  And we will also use Studienkreis meeting as the last before the EuroDIG in end of May in Belgrade which is in line with our next General Assembly. 

                                                As I told you last time, according to the inquiry I made the preference was to have this General Assembly in the eve of the EuroDIG on Sunday, late afternoon.  To pick the exact timing I wrote to Vlada a couple of questions.  Also on some other logistical issues, like remote participation, like the questions Annette raised at the last call, whether we can group the EURALO participants in one hotel, etc.  And I’m still awaiting the reply from Vlada and I will keep you updated via the list as soon as I have some more information. 

                                                Another important point regarding our next General Assembly is that I have to send out the invitations four weeks before the assembly itself.  That means the first invitation will be circulated at the beginning of next week, before I leave for Budapest, on the EURALO list.  Just to confirm the date and the venue.  I don’t know whether I can submit already the Board report until next week because I would like to have some input from other Board members or other people who are actively involved in EURALO since our last General Assembly in Vilnius. 

                                                And the most important and pressing issue is now to prepare the voting tool on the bylaw modifications.  And this is at the top of my priorities on the table to write a draft that can be used for At-Large step to create a voting tool.  Once the voting tool is created and sent, it will be back on my responsibility to mobilize as many of our members as possible because as you all know we need at least a two third majority. 

We first of all need a high quorum of participation, and I am confident that we may also receive a high portion of approval to the suggested modifications.  For me it partly seems like kid of a formality because most of the issues we are now discussing for a couple of months and we now have to reach at the end to get it done. 

                                                Those are the last preparations and I would – if you have any suggestions for the agenda of the General Assembly please let me know as soon as possible because a draft agenda what can be modified afterwards, a draft agenda will be sent out together with the invitation.  I see two hands raised on the Adobe Connect – it’s Oksana and it’s Yrjo.  You have the floor.

Oksana Prykhodko:                Me?  Yes, thank you.  But I just could not put down my raised hand but I really do have a question.  About the conference of the Council of Europe – I did not see the option for remote participation but I am really intimately interested in the proceedings for this one.  How can I get to them?

Wolf Ludwig:                          Well I can forward you the links to the conference material. 

Oksana Prykhodko:                Is there a Council of Europe website or not?

Wolf Ludwig:                          Yes the Council of Europe website, but the Council of Europe website in my opinion is not the most transparent one.  Therefore I took a note Oksana and I will send you the relevant lists after the call.

Oksana Prykhodko:                Thank you very much.  And one more question about registration of internet media.  Do you have any recommendations because if you have round the table just today in Ukraine the world (inaudible).  And we could not receive any information about the Council of Europe recommendation.  We have media, internet media, to register.  Where is it?  It’s a serious question in Ukraine.

Wolf Ludwig:                          To my knowledge according to the Council of Europe recommendations I know, and there are several recommendations on new media, the registration is not recommended simply due to the fact this could be easily abused as a means of control.

Oksana Prykhodko:                Yes.  Thank you so much.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Therefore in most of the Council of Europe countries I know registration of new media is not necessary.

Oksana Prykhodko:                Thank you.  Thank you very much.

Wolf Ludwig:                          The second hand was from Yrjo.  Yrjo, you have the floor.

Yrjo Lansipuro:                       Yes.  Thank you, Wolf.  I just wanted to share I am also coming to Budapest to the ICANN Studienkreis.  I’m moderating the final session on the Future of the Internet.  So I can, I hope I can help you with the outreach towards people who are there.  Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Great.  Thanks a lot.  And sorry, I forgot, of course I see you on the program of the Studienkreis meeting.  And unfortunately Sandra cannot be there because of the birthday of her daughter, but at least you and I, to my memory, are the two EURALO participants; besides Bill Drake who will be there as well as us.

                                                Any questions regarding the further preparations of the General Assembly?  Most of it will be done via the list.  This means there will be foreseeably much more traffic over the next two, three weeks then we had in the last time simply regarding the preparation on the bylaw voting and the circulation of material for the General Assembly.  And please also keep me updated whoever will decide to come to Belgrade.  Whoever will have the opportunity, please let me know because I also promised to At-Large staff to send a complete list of the participants. 

And it is also relevant to verify that we will have quorum in Belgrade as we had in Vilnius, but in Vilnius we somehow got it because we also, the participants who were there, they had some more votes from other member ALSes from their countries.   And I will try to organize the same procedure for Belgrade. 

                                                Any more questions regarding General Assembly?  I see Siranush’s hand.  Yes please, you have the floor.

Siranush Vardanyan:               In Belgrade for EuroDIG and please send me the information about the general Assembly and rely on me for any support you need.  I will be there and will join you.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay, I have seen you already on the list of participants of the EuroDIG.

Siranush Vardanyan:               Yes, I have already registered.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay.  Please try to make sure that you arrive in time on Sunday afternoon – that we have as many people as possible for our General Assembly.

Siranush Vardanyan:               yes, include me on the list.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Yes.  You will be included in all the upcoming information on the General Assembly.  Any further questions/comments/suggestions?  I still see two hands raised – I think it’s up on me…

Oksana Prykhodko:                No it’s my technical problem. 

Wolf Ludwig:                          It’s my problem, I forgot to finalize them.  Okay.  Let’s continue with our next point – recent and upcoming activities of ALAC and EURALO members.  There is also the ICANN Studienkreis meeting mentioned.  There is 6 Russian Internet Governance Forum in Moscow at the 12^th of May.  I don’t know who may have the opportunity to participate there.  And another recent and upcoming activity was for, or will be, the next ICANN meeting in Singapore; second half of June.  And I was informed that Jean-Jacques won’t have the possibility to go to Singapore in June and we are starting a consultation to find out who could step in to take the travel seat of Jean-Jacques. 

                                                For the other points – this is still a bit difficult at the moment because for the leadership we need to have the approval and the new voting on the General Assembly and this can be finally decided only in Belgrade, who will be the new Chair and who will be the new Secretariat. 

And I am sorry for a step I made to Heidi already but I do not really see how we could do this otherwise at the moment.  Any questions or further comments/information regarding upcoming activities?  Yes, I forgot another one – there was a German IGF I think almost two weeks ago which to the information I got, unfortunately Annette is not on the call.  This was a very constructive and successful meeting. This means more and more people in Germany from civil society, from the business sector and from governmental stakeholders who are now getting involved in this national IGF.

                                                Does anybody have any further info or questions on this?  Yes, I see Olivier’s hand raised.  Please Olivier, you have the floor.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Thank you Wolf.  I was just going to comment on the Russian IGF.  I have been invited to go so I have that I am going there and so is Oksana Prykhodko as well, who has mentioned this on the chat.  So I look forward to seeing her there.  And of course, one of the main things that I will do whilst being in the Russian IGF is to do a lot of outreach so as to try and see if we can expand and have any possibility for At-Large structures in that part of the world.  It should be great.

                                                I also have to thank (inaudible) for the invitation, who is with .ru – there is a good relation with them an certainly we have been told that there is a high importance for users to be able to have their voice in Russia.  So it’s going to be a very interesting IGF.  That’s all I have to say for the time being.  Back to you Wolf.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay.  Thanks a lot for this additional information and I am pleased that we have at least two EURALO representatives at the Russian IGF.  This might be an opportunity, again, to contact people on the ground and it would be great if we also could receive and ALS application from this country.  I see Christopher’s hand raised.  You have the floor Christopher.

Christopher Wilkinson:          Thank you Wolf.  One day somebody must explain to me how to get rid of Christopher Wilkinson two. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Well at least he has the floor at the moment.

Christopher Wilkinson:          Just a mention that on the 16^th and 17^th of June, if we’re looking that far ahead, the European Commission is organizing a Digital Agenda Assembly in Brussels. I think Olivier and Sandra and some of you already have this information, but it might be of interest to a certain number of EURALO participants.  It’s a two day conference about the whole range of Digital Agenda Policies and initiatives that are being scheduled by DG Information Society and Madame Kroes.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay, thanks a lot Christopher for this information.  In fact it is good to know that this will be one of the important events in the near future and if you need some more information on the European Commission’s Digital Agenda, just let us know.  Olivier, you have the floor again. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Thank you Wolf. I was just going to ask Christopher whether is it the first year or is it the second year that this is taking place?

Wolf Ludwig:                          To my knowledge it’s the first assembly after the Digital Agenda was launched.  This was information I got from the Swiss Government at least. 

Christopher Wilkinson:          Strictly speaking that is correct.  It is the first such major event.  And not to be confused with the future internet conferences which are more research oriented and which take place, more or less, annually in the framework of the research program.  Though to be frank, I think there’s a certain amount of overlap, but that’s not our problem; that’s up to these conference organizers.  And of course the agenda is not unfamiliar.  Different commissioners over the last five years or so have initiated different aspects of the policies and I think the major contributions from Madame Kroes and Madeline in this context is trying to bring it all together in one event.  They expect 1000 people.  So if you’re going to go register.

Wolf Ludwig:                          As soon as possible because otherwise you won’t have a chance to get in there.

Christopher Wilkinson:          Without sounding cynical I would have to say that there is a certain amount of historical repetition though the policy’s evolved.  And there is a certain amount of past and future overlap with the other manifestations of the European policies, particularly research.  But that’s inevitable in this kind of environment.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay.  Thanks a lot Christopher.  As I have seen on the left column on the Adobe Connect, there is quite a lot of information exchanged.  What I didn’t regard immediately, I didn’t see immediately, I see Olivier has forwarded the links of the Council of Europe Conference to Oksana already.  It’s available so I do not need to do this afterwards.  I see comments from Rudi – I will be there too Wolf.  You were referring to which event Rudi – to the Russian IGF?

Rudi Vansnick:                        No, about the EuroDIG in Belgrade also.  And I will be also at the European Commission General Assembly as in Belgium we selected in a workshop through a project in which we are partnered on.  And there will be most probably after Belgrade, probably the beginning of June, there will be a Belgian IGF now.  We are in the final stage of setting it up.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Yes.  And as Oksana announced on the chat – I will be in Ukrainian IGF the second and the third of September of this year.  Oksana, you have the floor now.

Oksana Prykhodko:                Yes, thank you very much.  I want to invite all of you to our Ukrainian IGF in September.  And now we are working on organizing media center or maybe training center on internet governance before our Ukrainian IGF but we have no decision on this issue just now.  But I would like to inform you about this ability.  And I have one question – Ukraine is not a member of European Union, but can I participate in European Union Digital Agenda Conference?

Wolf Ludwig:                          Well of course you can participate.  Switzerland is not a member of the European Union either and I always, there if I have the opportunity to attend European Union meetings in Brussels, it’s not limited to citizens from member states.

Oksana Prykhodko:                Okay, thank you very much.

Christopher Wilkinson:          Oksana I will send you some information about that.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Okay, please do this and I have seen Olivier’s hand – you have the floor again Olivier.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Thank you Wolf.  I was going to respond actually to Christopher with regards to the date with the Digital Agenda, which are the 16^th and 17^th of June.  The ICANN Singapore meeting starts on the 19^th of June.  So most people will arrive – no, most people that will go to eh ICANN meeting will arrive on Saturday the 18^th, which means they will most probably be flying out on the 17^th.  I find the dates which were chosen by the Director Generate in Brussels to be a little bit unfortunate to be so close to the ICANN meeting. And unfortunately I will not be able to go to Brussels because I will already be in Singapore by that time.

Christopher Wilkinson:          Well that’s completely out of my hands.

Wolf Ludwig:                          Yeah okay.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          I know Christopher, but it’s unfortunate.  I wish they looked at other major, major conferences.  I mean just a few days earlier would have been a lot better and I don’t know whether there is any means or any way to bring feedback over to the organizers for next year, but…

Christopher Wilkinson:          Andrew [Patel] is the head of the division responsible and next time I see him I’ll just note it.  But there are several staff members in DG Information Society who know all about the ICANN schedule and some of them will go to Singapore, so I cannot imagine that this was in total ignorance.  But that could be…

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:          Certainly one of the problems that the ICANN official schedule is often known to start on the Monday, while these days more and more actually happens over the weekend.  Obviously we meet on the Sunday – the GNSO meets on the Saturday – there are more meetings now starting to take place on the Saturday and so maybe that’s something they will have to take into account.  Maybe that’s something that ICANN has to take into account to think that while the official opening is on Monday, there is a lot taking place beforehand that they might wish to cover.

Christopher Wilkinson:          I will use my contacts but by all means please point this out directly to somebody like Bill Dee who you know personally, I’m sure and who should have been able to adjust this. 

Wolf Ludwig:                          Yes, this is… I think this, as Olivier said, this is worth to be noted among the Commission people we know.  Okay, thanks.  Just one more information what may be interesting for Singapore.  Have a last meeting – EURALO representatives who may go to the Singapore meeting, Hong told me that there will be an Asian IGF just a few days before the opening of the ICANN conference in Singapore.  So, just for information. 

                                                Are there any more information’s you want to exchange about regarding point eight of the agenda – recent and upcoming activities of ALAC, EURALO, ICANN, European Union or whatsoever?  If this is not the case let me ask you if there is anything for any other business.  Point nine of our today’s agenda.  I think we have exchanged quite a lot of useful information in today’s call.  If there is nothing left for today’s call let me suggest to close this call.  I am pleased that we could do it in less than one hour and regarding the upcoming Easter holidays, I think you have all deserved to have some holidays and to rest with your families over the next days.

                                                Thanks a lot everybody and as I told you at the beginning of the week, I will post more information regarding our General Assembly on our list. And of course, please comment or whatever you think will be useful.  Thanks a lot to everybody, to all the participants.  Thanks a lot to Gisella.  I have seen that Heidi has left already.  I forgot to wish her a Happy Easter holiday but I will do this in a mail afterwards.  Thanks everybody and I wish you a nice holiday.

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