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Wolf Ludwig:                             Welcome Gisella; welcome Heidi, Silvia, Diego and I see Hans in the Adobe connect.  Adela, Christopher, Oksana, Sandra and Yrjo.  I crossed Christopher in the afternoon in Geneva and I crossed Olivier in Geneva as well.  And Olivier to my knowledge he took the train at 14 past seven from Geneva, so he should be close to Neuchâtel.  He actually could jump out of the train and come to our house, etc, and having the call with us.  But he needs to go to [Baker] to take his plane to back home I guess.  So he told me he is confident that the dial out to him will work and he will try his best to participate in our call. 

Yuliya Morenets:                         Good evening.  Yuliya is also here.  I’m not on the internet because I don’t have an internet connection. 

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay, welcome Yuliya.  It’s good to know that you are on the call as well. I see an exchange that Natalie, I think provided any dial out etc, so welcome on the call as well.  First of all, let me apologize for last week.  As some of you may know, I was on holidays, on Eastern holidays with my family in Croatia.  And we cut up the holidays after a week because we were drowning in the rain and in cold temperatures, just imagine the [Dalmatian] Coast with heavy rains and lousy temperatures.  And I was not back in time for having our call a week ago on Tuesday and therefore I suggested to postpone it by a week to today, anticipating that it may create some disturbances with the INET meeting in Geneva.  It was the 20^th anniversary of ISOC.  And by the way, I met quite a lot of ALAC people in Geneva.  I just got an SMS from Olivier “waiting for dial out at this number.” 

Silvia Vivanco:                           Wolf we will dial out to Olivier now.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay.  He was stating a number; I’m just trying to get it. 

Silvia Vivanco:                           Please do Wolf.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Well it was stated in the introduction – it’s 00447924789783.

Silvia Vivanco:                           Lovely, thank you very much Wolf.

Wolf Ludwig:                             And just give me a second to confirm to Olivier that he will be called.  So I just confirmed with him that he will be called immediately.  Thanks a lot for your assist. So to make it short what was the reason, and I only had the opportunity to spend today at the INET conference in Geneva.  There was quite a lot of high level representatives.  One of the closing statements in the afternoon was by Vint Cerf and as usual it was simply great to listen to Vint and his perception of things.  So for me it was a good opportunity to go there, to make a little bit of outreach for EURALO and to make a little bit of outreach for EuroDIG. 

And Olivier is still in the train and as far as I’ve seen on the list, it’s Siranush who apologizes because she was in Geneva as well and I guess she is on her way back to Armenia.   So we are not as much members as we are usually due to the circumstances I described.  But anyway, welcome to our April monthly call.  And I guess the participants of today’s call are already mentioned in the minutes on the Adobe Connect.

As you have seen, we have an updated agenda for today.  Are there any comments regarding our today’s agenda?  Yes?

Male:                                        No comment.

Wolf Ludwig:                             No comment.  Okay, so I guess we can take this proposed agenda as being accepted.  Second point on our agenda, under “standing issues,” is the review of Action Items from the 27^th of March, 2012.  The two Action Items I remember it was we started a discussion on this at the Costa Rica meeting in March and as a result of our last call we created a sort of informal spontaneous working group consisting of Yrjo, Adela and Yuliya.  And we exchanged some mails and discussing the original text we drafted.  And I sent on the 9^th of April, it was even before I left for my vacation, I sent it to At-Large staff and I got responses from Yrjo and I got another one from Adela and I think from Yuliya, and these further comments we can include on the announcement on the work space. 

                                                I simply have a question now to staff – I haven’t found any link regarding this statement. 

Heidi Ullrich:                             Sorry Wolf, this is Heidi, which statement exactly?

Wolf Ludwig:                             It was – sorry I took a cold from Croatia again.  It was the statement regarding the EURALO reflections on the definition on the consumer terms.  And there was a deadline until beginning of April to submit our comment, and therefore we were a bit, let’s say, under stress to submit this text.  And we did, as I said before, this informal consultation amongst the four of us, and the 9^th of April I sent it to Matt.

Heidi Ullrich:                             Yes.  I just put the statement in the Adobe Connect.  That statement is currently under ALAC vote and through 23:59 UTC today.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay.  Is this the one you just published on the…?

Heidi Ullrich:                             Yes.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                If I could jump in – it’s Olivier here – thank you both.  And I’m sorry if the quality is bad; I’m on a train at the moment.  Not very far from you Wolf actually. 

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yes you must be close to Neuchâtel.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                I’m around – I just passed (Inaudible) and the next stop is Neuchâtel, would you believe it.

[background conversation]

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                It’s raining though, but I can see the lake, it’s beautiful.  So to come back to this statement; it was published on the Wiki and the comments were taken and I think a small paragraph was added.  So it formed the core of our statement, of the ALAC statement, which is currently being voted and which votes will be finished tonight.  I’m not sure whether it was already submitted or it will be submitted tomorrow, but Heidi will probably know.

Heidi Ullrich:                             Yeah matt actually can update, if you like, current status of that vote, whether its reached quorum. 

Matt Ashtiani:                            The vote has in fact reached quorum and it’s passed.  The statement was submitted on the 16^th of April.  And as Heidi mentioned, the vote closes tonight at 23:59 UTC. 

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay.  I’ve just opened the link you posted on the Adobe Connect and I see our statement is included.  So just for Adela and Yuliya, if there’s any important sentence or aspect still missing here, please let me know or you can post it here on the work space.  Okay?  Any further questions regarding this point, regarding the Action Item?

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                Just to add Wolf, it’s Olivier here.  The statement has been submitted so it cannot be changed anymore.  And we voted on it.  But if EURALO wishes to amend it on its own site, then of course it can do as it wishes.  But the actual statement that has been filed in the public comment process cannot be changed anymore since it’s already been voted on. Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay.  Thanks for the clarification and good to know.  Any further questions regarding this point, the second point of our Action Items was related to our long lasting discussions regarding the upcoming Prague ICANN meeting in June.  And as you may recall, we had repeated discussions whether we would probably do something in the direction of organizing a EURALO Showcase, the traditional tent.  And as you may recall, there was quite some kind of controversy or argument going around to say if there is not funding, if this is not an inclusive thing it would be difficult again to do something like we had in Brussels two years ago, which was not a very encouraging example.

                                                To make it brief, at the end we came out via an email exchange on the list to discuss alternatives or to discuss other options then a showcase; and I think one of the ever best ideas came up by [they].  On the 22^nd of April, to my memory, I recently found a link on the ICANN Board decision introducing the At-Large as one of the key constituencies of ICANN.  And I forwarded this link to the At-Large list and there were quite a lot of feedbacks, spontaneous feedbacks from Olivier and from Wolfgang Kleinwächter, and all suggesting let’s do something, let’s do an anniversary event, birthday party, ten years of At-Large in Prague. 

And I really believe this was one of the best ideas.  And in the time between, I discussed with Olivier and not directly but my mail and with At-Large staff and we just scribbled a kind of concept for such an event.  And I, to my memory, I posted this last night on the mailing list.  And I guess most or some of you may have seen this posting, and I will come back on this point on agenda item seven, later on.  It’s a document called “EURALO Prague 44 planning ALAC Anniversary.”  So this was just among the Action Items.  I recall we had two and both of them are more or less done.

Any questions regarding the Action Items?  Then I would like to continue with agenda point three – briefing on current ALAC consultations and initiatives, materials for public comment.  And this part of the agenda was updated, thanks a lot, by ICANN staff in the meantime.  And it’s now Olivier who has the floor to give us a summary on the current consultations.  Please Olivier. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                Thank you very much Wolf.  Unfortunately I have not got the page in front of me because I don’t have internet.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay, do you want me to read it?

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                If you could please, or maybe we can just jump through them.  I know there are quite a few that are open at the time.  Most of them have actually reached now, the level of actually voting on them and are going to be submitted.  We had an extraordinary number of statements to write in this month, and there’s been good work from everyone to be able to furnish these.  Maybe we can just go through the ones which are still open for comment?

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yes.  You are quite right; most of them are at the deadline set already expired. ICANN public; Interim Report on Significantly Interested Parties for ccTLDs (country code top level domain) delegation or redelegation requests.  So all of them are done already.  Just let me have a look on the subsequent ones – recently adopted ALAC statements.  You have listed them in the agenda, and let me take as Olivier said, he has no internet access.  If there are any specific questions from your side to one of the ALAC consultations from under point A – Recently Adopted ALAC Statements, which are the six.  If there are no questions, I do not see a hand raised – then it’s part B – Statements Currently Being Reviewed by the ALAC.  It’s .com registry agreement renewal, ALAC vote closes the 25^th of April.  This is I think tomorrow. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                Yes, that’s correct.

Wolf Ludwig:                             The second one is At-Large Draft Advice letter on consumer trust, consumer choice and competition.  This is the one that to my understanding we submitted a few statements from EURALO.  ALAC vote closes the 24^th of April, this was today.  The third one is Draft ALAC statement on IDN Variant issues proposed project plan for next steps. ALAC vote closes the 27^th of April, this is end of the week on Friday.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                And the statement of course is finalized, so there’s no way to change it, but you’re very welcome to read through it in your own time.  And there’s been a lot of work done on this statement with several, well first a conference call and then also meeting in Costa Rica on this and Rinalia Abdul Rahim has done a very good job in putting a statement together on this, so really good, with the help of everyone else in the IDN Working Group.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yes and as you see, it’s quite again an impressive list of initiatives and work done by different sections of ALAC. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                By the way Wolf, I’m in Neuchâtel; should I just step off the train and come to dinner?

Wolf Ludwig:                             Oh you are invited.  Just get out of the train, take a taxi, it takes you ten minutes and there’s some good wine waiting for you. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                Tempting.  Sorry for the interruption.

Wolf Ludwig:                             No problem Olivier, but let’s say in about three days when the temperatures will raise up to 24 or more degrees, we could have a sit in our garden and it would be much more comfortable without (inaudible) there.  So everybody who is crossing by in Neuchâtel the next weeks or months etc, please be assured that you are always welcome in my home.  Okay.  Good luck for the continued part of the journey.  You are now approaching [Vienne], Olivier. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                That’s right.

Wolf Ludwig:                             You have all the ALAC consultations under agenda item three in front of you. Are there any questions for any particular issue listed in the agenda under item three?  If no questions are raised or comments are made, let me suggest to continue with the agenda to save time for the main points.  The next agenda item is point four – ALS applications update.  With the approved ALS applications it was Ecuadorian Association for Free Software; from Latin America, LACRALO, which doesn’t really concern us, is another one Internet Society of Trinidad and Tobago Chapter, Internet Society Bahrain Chapter.  These ALS applications are actually approved. 

                                                Organizations that are currently undergoing the accreditation process are some more from LACRALO, and other b.3 it’s Wikimedia Austria.  ALAC voting on the application and the regional advice was submitted, to my memory, at the 6^th of March.  And I think we can expect the voting on thins new EURALO member soon. 

                                                The other one of kind of relevance on this list is Media Education Center, NGO – awaiting regional advice from APRALO.  We’ve discussed this point.  I do not want to reopen this one. It’s from Armenia and [Narene], she expressed a clear preference to participate in EURALO, but officially for the time being they will be a part of APRALO.  Any questions regarding part four – ALS applications and current process?  I see no hands raised.  I see only [micros] on the Adobe Connect, which is a very inclusive sign. 

                                                The next agenda item is briefing on the ICANN Academy Working Group Process.  There was a working group call in the time between our last call and today’s call and I give the floor to Sandra to give us a short update on the ICANN Academy process.  Please Sandra, you have the floor.  You’re still with us?  Sandra you are muted? 

Sandra Hoferichter:                       Can you hear me now?

Wolf Ludwig:                             Now we can hear you.  Try it again.

Sandra Hoferichter:                       Okay.  My headphone is broken (inaudible)…

Wolf Ludwig:                             Your voice is a bit interrupted.  There may be a problem with the mic, but try it again.

Sandra Hoferichter:                       Okay, I will do my best.  About the ICANN Academy, at the moment the progress is as follows.  Program Committee drafted a letter to be sent out to the entire ICANN community, so all SOs and ACs, Chairs or probably vice-Chairs as well, this letter has been sent out by Olivier and I will copied in as well as Heidi and we could realize some response on this soon.  At this point some of them say some things like “yeah, that’s a great idea. Let’s do it.”  Others have still a lot of question to be answered and the time plan is that we have extended the working group by let’s say a week’s time or by the beginning of May. 

And the procedure will be that we are having At-Large or an ALAC working group where we invite others to join.  And we chose this way because it prevents us from procedural things which would actually take a lot of time.  And the invitation to an At-Large Working Group was the easiest and the modest thing to do in this regard.  So we are waiting for their response and we hope we can start with an intensive discussion at Prague in an extended working group.  And hope Prague has foreseen one public outreach meeting and afterwards, a meeting of the extended working group to reflect the comments from the public outreach meeting and to further discuss this issue.

The plan from the program committee, our plan is to finalize the curriculum.  But taking into account the responses we receive from other Chairs, we expect we have to go back into the discussions and discuss with them why we want to do this, what is the added value for such an Academy, and so on and so forth.  Yeah, that’s it for the moment.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay.  Thanks Sandra for this short briefing. Are there any spontaneous questions regarding the ICANN Academy Working Group or process?  As you may have realized…who is this?

Christopher Wilkinson:                This is Christopher.  Is Wolfgang writing the whole of the curriculum or do you have some input from other people?

Sandra Hoferichter:                       May I answer?  Wolfgang is not even part of this working group.  The curriculum was drafted by the program committee.  We submitted it then to the working group list.  We’ve received some very interesting comments on this, discussed it further in Costa Rica and draft final version is online know, which is going to be, or which was submitted to the ICANN community. 

And so no, Wolfgang did not give any input, which is not because he doesn’t want to do it or something like that, but he’s just not in this working group.  He’s in the GNSO and he’s kept apprised by this work and not in the At-Large.  But we had very good input from Avri Doria with academic experience lecturer, and this was very valuable, as well as the input from Carlos Aguirre, he’s a lecturer on the Summer School of Internet Governance, and others like Tijani or Hong.  So we have a very broad and very inclusive input.

Christopher Wilkinson:                That’s good.  I just was wondering how deep our resources are in that area.  I’ll look up the document online next week.  Thank you very much Sandra; that’s very reassuring and also means that Wolfgang doesn’t have to pile even more work onto his shoulders.

Sandra Hoferichter:                       You’re welcome.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay, thanks a lot Christopher for your comments.  And I can just more or less reaffirm what Sandra said.  At the very, very beginning, the origin when we discussed this in the very first draft stage, the original version of our draft project proposal, Wolfgang was still included at that time, but it was August last year and the original very basic project proposal was drafted by Sandra, Wolfgang and myself.  And then it was brought into At-Large and it was a broad discussion at the Dakar ICANN meeting and there was a working group created, broadly based throughout all the RALOs and afterwards so there are various inputs etc on the re-shaping of this project proposal. 

And on the budget, we had discussions on the curriculum and Wolfgang was not included at that stage anymore.  It was one of the key figures who participated in the curriculum discussions was, as Sandra said already, was Avri with many comments from Carlos and also from Tijani, from Hong etc.  And it can really be considered as a very inclusive process.  And all the details you will find on the respective Wiki page.

Christopher Wilkinson:                Okay.  That seems – I apologize for not keeping up to date on everything throughout this series, but it’s just all sometimes hard to get up to date.  I thank you and Sandra.

Wolf Ludwig:                             No problem, no problem Christopher.  I think this is part of our briefing calls to make regular updates.  And if you go to the link under agenda item four you will find the details of the At-Large ICANN Academy ad hoc Working Group with all the members listed and references to all the working documents.  Okay?  In the time between just let me come back to the point we stressed before, it’s regarding the ALS application process.  And Heidi sent me a message via Skype that there was a vote already going regarding the ALS application – hello.

[noise on line]

Heidi Ullrich:                             Apologies, we’ll be looking into that. 

Silvia Vivanco:                           Sorry we’re going to take care of that.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay. Now the “beep, beep, beep” is gone and I’ll try to continue.  It was just confirmation by Heidi that ALS application number 162 from Wikimedia Austria was approved as the vote passed in the time between.  So EURLAO has a new ALS, and the announcement will be sent on the ALAC and EURALO list shortly.  So this is just another good news that we have one more member ALS; it’s the second besides Wikimedia Chapter in Switzerland, it’s now the second Wikimedia Chapter in Europe, which is part of our membership. 

And I am quite confident that it may not be the last application, and may not be the last member from the Wikimedia community which is very active in Europe.  I’m still somehow confident that one day we may even get an application from the biggest Wikimedia Chapter, which is the German one.  But it became a quite a big organization and so it’s a good way to have outreach, to have representation in this part of the net community.        Are there further questions for this point four?

Heidi Ullrich:                             You’re now on six, you’re moving to six Wolf.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay.  ICANN Academy Working Group, we are now it’s now point six.  The EuroDIG preparation process program outline, registration and next steps.  If Sandra is still available you have the link, you have the reference to the EuroDIG website under the agenda item six, so you can have a direct look on.  The reason we put this on our monthly agenda is since there are several EURALO members who are closely involved in the EuroDIG preparation process like Sandra on the first hand, me as well in the meantime, there’s Olivier in the community, there is Yuliya who submitted a project proposal for the EuroDIG agenda next June, coming June in Stockholm.  And Yuliya is also part of the program organizing team and Yrjo is the focal point for a very important plenary in Stockholm.  That’s the reason why have this as a repeated update on the preparation process. 

                                                As we said before, we had a bottom-up approach for the programming.  Starting last year, receiving more than 70 proposals, we had several draft program outlines, and we have now a consolidated version of the Stockholm program on the website since about a week.  And the registration process for EuroDIG opened a week ago as well.  And I can only encourage all of you who can make it to Stockholm to register as soon as possible, and to care about any potential hotel bookings. Because as we have learned in the conference call yesterday, hotel situations in summer in Stockholm is not the easiest one.  So if you have any practical or whatever questions, please get back to Sandra or myself to give you any further details.  Are there any immediate questions regarding EuroDIG; Sandra you want to add something?  Yrjo you want to add something? 

Sandra Hoferichter:                       No.  I was actually just typing the problem regarding the hotel, because this is a really, really important thing.  Register as early as possible and make your hotel booking as well.  And for any other questions, I’m doing everything which belongs to the organizing stuff, all the logistical, practical issues.  And Wolf is responsible for the program development and the creation of the programs.  So there is a very clear divided path.  Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yeah thanks a lot Sandra.  This is really important and with everybody I spoke today in Geneva on this issue, I told them please register as soon as possible and please take care about your hotel booking as soon as possible, so not to face any difficulties in this respect.  I see Yrjo has his hand raised; Yrjo you have the floor please.

Yrjo Lansipuro:                           Yeah thank you Wolf. Just to add that I’ve contacted all those who put in proposals that were sort of sorting under the plenary, six digital citizenship.  So far there have been many answers that I don’t think the people focus really on this thing, so the next thing is that I’m going to call them individually one by one and start putting together the program for that plenary.  Thank you. 

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay thanks a lot Yrjo for this additional information.  and we will have a conference call with all the focal point session organizers next Thursday, this is the day after tomorrow, for plenaries and workshops and we will want an update on the situation etc, and to find out if there is any further support needed etc, or any further initiatives which need to be taken. 

Yuliya Morenets:                         May I ask you something?

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yes please.  It’s Yuliya?

Yuliya Morenets:                         Yes, I’m sorry I don’t have internet connection so I can’t raise my hand.

Wolf Ludwig:                             So I recognized your voice probably.  Go on, please go ahead.

Yuliya Morenets:                         It’s about EuroDIG actually and not really maybe what was related but concerning ICANN decisions.  I didn’t receive any information about this call for organizers or for focal points.  Will I need to be included in the call or not; or is it just for the plenary organizers is my question.

Wolf Ludwig:                             No, we had two calls – one is a plenary focal point and one is the workshop organizers.  And I have to check it on another pile on my table here, but you are listed somewhere amongst the focal points.  I think you are part of the workshop dealing with elderly people and vulnerable groups.

Yuliya Morenets:                         Yeah so we have a flash and…

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yeah and you are also a list as one of the flashes.

Yuliya Morenets:                         So it’s this Thursday actually, the call?

Wolf Ludwig:                             The call is on Thursday, but let me suggest Yuliya that I come back to you after the call, let me suggest tomorrow.

Yuliya Morenets:                         Okay great, thank you.  Sorry for jumping ground on the presentation.

Wolf Ludwig:                             No problem, you’re welcome.  Any further questions regarding agenda item six – EuroDIG preparation process?  I see no more hands raised, so let’s continue and come to the let’s say most important point of our today’s agenda, which is EURALO planning 2012, continue discussion.  As I told you already in the introduction, there are several events planned for this year.  The next step is the preparation for the next EURALO General Assembly, which is foreseen in the eve of the EuroDIG in Stockholm on the 13^th of June.  And to organize this general assembly what will be approximately a two hour event similar to the one we had in Belgrade last year. 

It’s the evening before the opening of the EuroDIG.  And the last general assembly was mostly prepared by Olivier and myself for Belgrade and I would be pleased to have some more assistants, a little bit more support for preparing the next general assembly in Stockholm.  And everybody who is interested to assist and to help is highly welcome for this part.  So no need to tell me now, you can let me know via the mailing list, the EURALO list of via direct mail. 

If you would like to help out with drafting the agenda for the general assembly, drafting the Board report that we always have to submit prior to the general assembly etc, and to discuss about the topics and priorities for this year’s general assembly.  I don’t want to go further into detail regarding the first point of general assembly, because it’s a type of routine event.  What is much more exciting is the second, the next point, the ALAC anniversary party at the ICANN 44 meeting in June in Prague.  And we have a preliminary concept for how we could shape this anniversary party, what will be a content based event. 

And you have received some drafts via the mailing list yesterday, I guess that you have seen them and you’ve had an opportunity to have looked on them and I don’t know whether you have it in front of you and if you have any questions. 

Silvia Vivanco:                           Hi, it’s Silvia.  I’ve got the bylaw [document] on the screen so far. 

Wolf Ludwig:                             Oh yes I just see it.  Thanks a lot Silvia.  It’s now on the screen, but this is the part with the slides.  And this is also a first draft I would like to discuss with you to find out what could be a common lying elements via a slide show during this event.  And this is the first scribble of a slide show, which is actually not yet the key part, the main part is basically the concept on the event itself.  It’s in the document, if the Word document I sent to EURALO 44 planning ALAC anniversary.  And there I more or less say “Let me suggest the following to create a small team”; it is still an open question – draft a basic concept for retro debate as it was suggested by Wolfgang Kleinwachter.

                                                And Wolfgang’s idea was what I appreciate a lot is having an introduction about At-Large history.  This is something I realize which is not very well known by many members of the current At-Large communities, current At-Large members, which is not very well known in the RALO community neither.  And therefore it could be good to have a consistent introduction by a very knowledgeable person.  And to me Wolfgang Kleinwachter is a walking history book on the ICANN history, and he could really deliver us an excellent introduction into the history by Andrew McLaughlin, who also played a very important role at the early stage of the At-Large history from the European side.

                                                I had a discussion today with Hong in Geneva, and Hong is also on the international level, one of the very, very old hands in the At-Large community who entered at the very beginning, almost ten years ago. On the European level there are two names, it’s Thomas [Russler] and it’s [Victoria Bacoler] who were more or less the key figures in the European level regarding the creation of At-Large structures and At-Large members representing European users at ICANN.

                                                Another member of EURALO you all know is Annette Muehlbach who was a former ALAC Chair in 2006.  And Annette was very important and decisive for the discussion on the creation of regional At-Large structures, so regional At-Large organizations.  And she was a big pushing forth in 2006 and 2007 to create EURALO.  And actually it’s thanks to Annette that I got involved in the whole process etc.  And my suggestion would be to have Annette invited and included in this panel, in this debate as well. And of course Olivier is a current ALAC Chair. 

                                                So there are four people in the concept so far, which is a working concept.  And I see Yrjo’s hand raised and Yrjo you have the floor.

Yrjo Lansipuro:                           Thank you very much.  I’m looking at this, the slides or the sort of headlines for the slides here and it looks good.  I think that it’s really good to celebrate the ten years with this retro debate.  At the same time, I’m a little bit afraid that if we just look backward we are not fulfilling our mission.  In other words, I think that somehow this look backwards could be and should be paired with a discussion on the future of the At-Large.  And of course when we have finished the At-Large improvements implementation proposals, I think that we have a good basis for that debate also in Prague.  Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Thanks a lot.

Yuliya Morenets:                         Wolf can I just say something?

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yes please, go ahead.

Yuliya Morenets:                         I wanted to also to just support the statement you just made concerning the future maybe the further steps we could have or projects we could develop.  And how can we represent better users?  So I completely agree actually about the how it was and how it can be from the future perspective.      I wanted to just support that…

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yeah okay.  I entirely agree that of course we cannot get lost in the retrospective or in the historical aspect.  So the information part of the event, I just think there may be some confusion because I got some messages from Heidi.  To be clear, if we plan such an event it will be an information part.  We start with an information part with – I’m hesitant to call it a panel.  I would like to make it in a more informal way, not really having speeches, but having four Chairs around and with one moderator doing the opening and then asking Wolfgang Kleinwachter upon introduction etc, and then asking other representatives I mentioned before for their memories and their ideas at the time etc, to find out more or less how we became what we are.  This would be the subtitle for the first part “How we Became What we Are.” 

                                                And then shifting almost quickly what is also mentioned on the slide level, visualizing an ALAC mission.  And I think getting stuck too much in history – history is interesting because it’s not known to many of the ALAC members and the RALO members but then also immediately changing what we can learn from our history and what could be the new ideas for our future.  And in this respect, I would see Olivier coming in. 

Olivier he’s a EURLAO member as well.  He’s a current ALAC Chair etc, and I would like to give the floor particularly to Oliver to describe his visions and to say “Okay now we had a very difficult history. As many of you know, At-Large was not much appreciated at ICANN at the very beginning.  There was a lot of talking from the business sector etc, from the governmental level about ALAC being a bunch of people doing holidays on behalf of ICANN blah, blah, blah.”

And I think there was a tremendous shift in perception and a tremendous shift in [gravitation] starting with an At-Large Summit in March 2009 in Mexico.  This changed the whole set of the situation.  We had our first real official recognition, also on the Board level.  And immediately, as one of the immediate consequences of the At-Large Summit was both decision in August 2009 to allocate an additional voting Board seat to At-Large.  This was a decision when Sebastien came in with the Board seat 15. 

And this development I think on the first hand as an introduction needs to be contextualized, but not doing anything really retrospective or history lost.  But then shifting immediately and then after the shift was in the Mexico Summit, it was a time when also Olivier got closely involved in At-Large.  And two years later he took over, not even two years later; one and a half years later he took over as ALAC Chair at the Cartagena meeting. 

And I think there’s a lot of discussion across this and as I said, this is a first concept and we should have more discussions on this, but I think there’s agreement that we should do something about it.  I see Adela’s hand raised on the Adobe Connect.  Adela, you have the floor.  You are also one of the old hands.

Adela Danciu:                             Hi, Adela speaking.  Thank you Wolf.  While I was thinking consistent with what the others said before and this emphasis on inclusiveness and we have the ALSes, I was thinking maybe we can also collect somehow some messages from the ALSes for this occasion.  And maybe their, let’s say vision of the future, how they see their role in the At-Large community. 

Wolf Ludwig:                             Can you repeat?  I’m not sure whether I got your point probably Adela.

Adela Danciu:                             I was thinking to try somehow to collect messages or some ideas from the At-Large structures for this occasion and to present it in our event.  This is related to this last point of the future of ALAC and what will the vision of At-Large in the future.  Did I make my idea somehow more clear now?

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yeah.  I think I may have this to do right now Adela and I think it’s actually a good idea.  So let me suggest to be part of the our team because we are running short of our time and I’m not sure whether we can discuss all the details.  There are some further points in the concept like to have a music trailer for the introduction etc, and there will be the information part and after that there will be the party part.  A cocktail party at the end and where not only At-Large, but all the ICANN community will be involved. 

There are more questions like we may get some potential sponsors for an event like this, but we need a kind of organizing group favorably for the content part and favorably for the organizational part, which will also mean contacting sponsors.  As far as I’ve learned, there is a possibility to get some funding, some support from ICANN, around $1,500 etc if we would like to have a bit more than I think if we  had the chance to get another sponsor it would be good.  I see Heidi’s hand raised in the Adobe Connect.

Heidi Ullrich:                             Thank you Wolf, this is Heidi.  Just to let you know that currently we have a two and half hour session scheduled for Monday from 16:00 to 18:30.  We were expecting the first two hours to be the information session, and then the 30 minutes between 18:00 and 18:30 to be a cocktail.  I do believe that ICANN would help that ICANN would help with the expenses of a cocktail.  Then we have also worked with Olivier and the communication staff to order dome special lanyards, purple lanyards with white text that will have text on them celebrating the ten year anniversary of At-Large and the five year anniversary of the RALOs, as well as special lapel pins celebrating the same events.  And expect those pins to be ready, at least drafts, in the next week or so, so we can show those to you.  Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                Wolf, it’s Olivier.  May I comment?

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yes please, go ahead. 

Olivier Crépin-Leblond:                Thank you.  I’m asking for the floor quickly because at the moment I’m being cut out quite a few times, and we’re just in a town, so hopefully it won’t happen.  Just to comment on earlier, I was thinking that perhaps it might be a good idea to also have several of the ALAC Chairs, the previous ALAC Chairs that have been there since the beginning.  I think that several of them will be present in Prague so it would be a good opportunity to also collect their thoughts on what their challenges were at the time. 

                                                And the second thing was also suggesting, because I’m of course interested, this is At-Large, so having all the five regions obviously that would be on whatever panel you’d put together.  Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay thanks a lot for the further comments, but as I said before, this was only a first draft of a concept, which was not yet discussed and not detailed whatsoever.  So I think the next step would be now just to decide and to create a working group dealing with the content issues, what will be the information, the content component – who should be the speakers, etc.  I wouldn’t go for too many speakers on a panel because to my experience the more speakers you have in a panel, it’s not getting necessarily more exciting.  It’s getting vaguer and vaguer.  But this we can discuss afterwards. 

And then the second part, I’m not sure Heidi as you mentioned, or as you said in your planning, two hours is quite a long time for such an information session.  And to keep the proper [content] for a two hour event is very difficult.  so I would say in between one and a half hours to one hour 45 minutes, and then to try to round up, to wrap up, and then you invite people for the party part, for the cocktail part of the event; to have between 30 and 45 minutes for the cocktail side.  But these are the details I think we now need to discuss, and as the time is pressing I think we cannot transfer this to our next monthly call.  We have to create such a group and we have to discuss this besides out regular monthly call.

So let me suggest that everybody who is willing to participate in this party on this working group to shape the event in Prague is welcome.  And I think we should have our first call of this group in 10 days, two weeks at the latest.  This is my suggestion.

Heidi Ullrich:                             Wolf, this is Heidi.  I’m sorry for not raising my hand, but we do need to have the time and the date for this event by the third of May, so we can schedule the room for that.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Well I think this is a different issue.  This follows a completely pragmatic elaborations from your side, or verifications from your time when you think from your side the best timing will be, and you suggested already I think Monday.

Heidi Ullrich:                             Yes, Monday afternoon. 

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yeah.  I think I wouldn’t have any other preference and as these are the pragmatic aspects of the organization, I think we have to rely on you.

Heidi Ullrich:                             Okay, so if I could, I think I will keep it from the time that we have now, which is two and a half hours, just in case the cocktail goes over.  So we’ll stick to that 16:00 and then whenever the content part is over then we’ll just move into the party part.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay.  I think let’s keep this time of a slot, two and a half hours.  How we share the information and the party part, this we can discuss in detail after this.

Heidi Ullrich:                             Okay, thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                             So you make the reservations within the deadlines, so then we know it will happen on Monday in the afternoon.  And we have to care about making the most attractive event out of it.  It is fine with you and please come back to me, whoever wants to participate, to contribute in this working group.  This has to be created immediately.  This is the most important Action Item in my eyes of today’s call; to put together the people.  I think Wolfgang Kleinwachter must be in this team.  I’ve contacted Annette already; Annette didn’t respond so far, what made me a little bit surprised.  So I will contact her again.   

                                                I think the newbies should be in and the oldies should be in etc, to have an appropriate balance and just to come up with a good concept for the event.  The deadline in my understanding would be to come up with a consolidated concept the next call. And we will communicate a lot of the intermediate ideas via the list, because it really needs a kind of work in the next four weeks.  Does everybody agree to this suggestion.  I see Oksana’s hand raised, but Oksana sent me a mail in between and I think Oksana did you want to discuss about another issue?  Oksana? 

Oksana Prykhodko:                      Thank you very much Wolf.  Really we would like to discuss all these issues in Ukraine, and I sent you a lot of information beforehand of this meeting.  And I would like to go understand how Ukraine can participate in all these activities.  We also would like to participate in sponsorship, and in all other events.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Oksana I’ve seen information about the situation regarding the internet, and the recent development regarding internet governance in your country.

Oksana Prykhodko:                      Yes it’s very difficult but we would like to settle all of these issues, pull them down.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Yeah.  But let me suggest that this kind of information we need to post, we need to post on the mailing list, we need to inform the EURALO members via a report on the present situation accompanied by some links to further information if they are available, other than Russian or Ukrainian.  But this is something very difficult to discuss now at this call, because we can only…

Oksana Prykhodko:                      Okay.  I will [pass this through].

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay, thank you very much.

Oksana Prykhodko:                      Thank you.

Wolf Ludwig:                             We are running short of time.  We are already 17 minutes behind our schedule.  Okay, we started five minutes after 8:00.  Are there any questions regarding our last agenda item seven, the planning of the party event?  As I indicated before, the next necessity is creating a group, picking the time for a first group call and to discuss a concept again in detail.  And as I said, I think the exchange, I put this on the list afterwards, on the EURALO list afterwards and anybody who would like to contribute or to participate in this working group is highly welcome.

                                                I noted already Adela’s interest, etc.  If others would also like to participate please let me know.  Is there anything among any other business?

Silvia Vivanco:                           Wolf, this is Silvia.  I just wanted to regulate our word from the staff to form the working group to organize the Prague event; we’ll send a reminder and emails to form the group and to have the first conference call as soon as possible.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Thanks a lot Silvia. I think that’s exactly what I wanted to have as an immediate follow up from today’s call.  Because there are only, let’s say less than two months left.  And if we really want to do something attractive and very something very well-organized, we have to take the conceptual decisions in the next two or three weeks and send to the implementation.  And I’m very optimistic and I’m very enthusiastic that we may come up with an exciting, interesting event.  Not only for our own community, but what might also be interesting for other ICANN constituencies.  Okay?  Any further questions for today regarding our today’s agenda? 

Yrjo Lansipuro:                           Not from here Wolf, thank you very much.  I think it’s time for me to call off and wish you all a nice evening.

Wolf Ludwig:                             Okay, thanks a lot for your participation and awaiting your comments and your responses regarding our further planning etc.  I wish everybody a few and excellent end of the evening.  And please to hear or review soon again.  Thanks a lot and good bye.

Heidi Ullrich:                             Thank you.  Bye-bye.

[End of Transcript]