Page History
Report of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) to the 31st ICANN Meeting New Delhi, February 10 – 15 February.
In our Los Angeles report (icann los angeles summary ), ALAC outlined not only the policy work we had undertaken and were continuing to undertake despite our transition in structure, but also reported on the 1st OneDay workshop that had been held to secure a better integrated ALAC team and to ensure our new member orientation.From what we gained that day and based largely on the greater ease of interaction and effective communication between our regional representatives and our use of the translation and interpretation tools made available by ICANN for our monthly meetings and working group activities have been able to be as productive as possible, several significant steps have been taken in late 2007, which we wish to be noted, before this report moves on to the specific outcomes and activities of this meeting.
- The finalized ALAC Internal Rules and Procedures were ADOPTED in November, 2007.
- From this set of Rules the At-Large Officers and Working Group Leaders were either elected or appointed (at large officers and working group leaders) from ALAC Members and other key Working Group Leads of Chairs were appointed from ALAC the RALO’s or ALS’s and the general At-Large community. Each of these not only using a dedicated mailing list (in addition to the public At-Large list) and Wiki space for their activities. (See at large policy working groups)
- A Wiki (SocialText) in-service training program has been undertaken by those of us who are less familiar or confident with this tool and remains available to be undertaken by others in the ALAC and the RALO structure, to optimize the effective use of this media.
- A workflow plan proposal has been created (in December2007), discussed in the interim by ALAC and accepted (at this meeting) by the RALO’s, as a way to better and more effective way to ensure our policy development and activity outcomes.
- As well as email list interaction regular meetings (archived chats) via Skype (or similar tools) in addition to teleconferencing when required is being used by Working Groups and Sub Committees, and the Officers meet in the alternate fortnight to the regular monthly ALAC meeting.
- A rotational program of regular meetings (Skype and Teleconference) is underway for RALO‘s and the Officers of the ALAC (ALAC-ExCo) has begun with the first being held with APRALO in preparation for this New Delhi Meeting.
- General communications issues have improved. Not only with ICANN’s ‘proper’ focus on the importance of translation and the provision at meeting such as this of excellent interpretation services, but also at a more basic level with the work and initiatives undertaken by the General manager of Public Participation such as technical terms glossary’s in multiple languages CD collections of important resource material from ICANN to use in our outreach and local information sharing;and most significantly with our new teleconference service provider being capable of better meeting the demanding regional connectivity, time zone and live interpretation needs (we work in English, French and when required Spanish in real time on our calls) of ALAC are being met in a far more satisfactory manner than ever before.
On Sunday (10th) we conducted the second of our One Day workshop, under the Organisational Review Working Group, (see statement below) which was attended by ALAC, RALO secretariats, other interested parties and observers. These observers included two representatives from Westlake consultancy, who have attended most, if not all of our activities and meetings, so far during in this conference and have been conducting ICANN stakeholder interviews as part of the initial stages of the external ALAC Review.
Throughout this meeting ALAC has had the opportunity to not only conduct its own meetings as listed in ourschedule where Agenda details are also found, but to be actively involved in public workshops and to meet either informally or formally as a group, for discussions with representative members from the GAC, the ccNSO, the GNSO, the NCUC and the Registrar constituency.
Statements, on At Large Activities by ALAC working groups.
Organisational Review-WG
We believe that these Organizational Development activities have enhanced the efficiency and effectiveness of the new body of ALAC/RALO/ALS and offer a sound base for further development in view of the ALAC Review now launched. We think ALAC Review and its result will contribute further enhancement of At-Large in more sustainable and effective direction that will bring better ICANN as a whole.
Going through organizational development related processes is also one of the cornerstones for both Short Term and Long – Term Objectives.ALAC/At-Large is aware that Organizational Development process is complicated and it takes long time to complete. One of the important aspects of the Organizational Development is that it is a holistic approach that allows the developments of several components. Amongst the most important ones are: data collection, data feedback and confrontation, action planning and problem solving, team-building, inter group development and evaluation and follow–up. An interim report on the outcomes of Sunday’s workshop was presented to the Board on our Tuesday meeting and a synopsis can be found (here) and a complete report will be posted on the Wiki after our participant feedback questionnaires have been collated.
Working Group Activities(Policy discussions and statements from this meeting)
This ALAC initiative to address Domain Tasting is progressing. In Los Angeles, the GNSO decided to start a PDP on the subject. A working group has been addressing the issue. Based on Wednesday's GNSO council meeting, work will proceed with the possibility of Council adopting a recommendation for a consensus policy to address tasting.
In parallel, two registries (NeuStar for .biz and Afilias for .info) have requested that ICANN approve their modification of their respective registry contracts to allow them to limit the number of free AGP drops - a measure that is expected to eliminate tasting for their domains.We look forward to the outcomes of the GNSO deliberations on this matter, and trust they will fulfil our desire to see a curtailment of domain tasting in a timely manner.
Individual user community reiterates the pressing need to timely implement internationalized domain names in both gTLD and ccTLD name space. The fast track approach to implement the IDN ccTLDs is indeed welcomed as a positive step moving forward. No challenge or difficulty shall prevent the fast track implementation, which is characteristic of non-contentiousness, from going ahead really fast, as far as it genuinely reflects the local user community's demand on native-script domain names in the specific ccTLD territory, and takes into account the stability, consistency and continuation of the registration serviceand the harmony with the long-term solution of IDN ccTLDs for the protection of the legitimate interests of the registrants (particularly individual registrants).
The ALAC working group on the registrar accreditation agreement came into the Delhi meeting after helpful meetings in Los Angeles to address an issue that many of the user community comments on the RAA were relegated to "section F" of the implementation plan. Days prior to the Delhi meeting, Danny Younger and Beau Brendler reviewed a draft of the staff response, "Summary of Synthesis Section F," and made some minor comments. We suggested that the document be released to the whole of ALAC to discuss it during the Delhi meeting but this has not yet happened. In January, Danny and Beau wrote a formal letter to the registrar constituency co-chairs, suggesting a meeting of that constituency and ALAC in Delhi, to which Jonathan Nevett of Network Solutions graciously responded. The meeting will take place Thursday afternoon marked the first time in recent history that the two groups have met to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, and we hope it is the first step in strengthening the relationship between the two groups.
WHOIShttps://st.icann.org/gnso-liaison/index.cgi?whois_policy*
The ALAC working group on WHOIS is setting the task to propose a way that suits both
privacy of data and accountability of registrants. We have set the goal of
drafting a position to be presented on the ALAC meeting in Paris on June.
For that purpose we will ask the ALS`s their thoughts and position in order
to fulfil our duty as their representatives. It is mandatory for said task
that we rely on translation of documents.
Coexistence of IPv4 and IPv6 Network and Services
The ALAC position presented at the ICANN Los Angeles meeting remains essentially unchanged. However, more information has surfaced since then. There will be a need to make sure that the two different IP networks and the services layered on top of them coexist and be interoperable. Recent information from technical experts, including the Study Group Report published by the Japanese government, suggest that majors olutions may each have significant technical, operational, economic and policy challenges.
We are aware that the operation of Internet and provisions of many services on top of IP connectivity are not under the direct purview of ICANN, however in order to minimize the confusion and instability for the users, we call for ICANN to work collaboratively with other bodies as appropriate to address the challenges at hand. It is ALAC's position that the lack of such effort will create more confusion rather than solutions.
To this end, ALAC plans to organize a series of workshops at the coming ICANN meetings and any other feasible venues and hope all stakeholders concerned to join this campaign.
RALO Activities
At this conference, the secretariats of each RALO have again met together and also been included in all other ALAC meetings and activities.Each RALO has its own dedicated Wiki space and your attention is drawn to the activities and information listed in each of these spaces and welcome subscription to any mail list they are running and involvement in their regional working groups and/or activities and outreach projects, by all interested people from the Internet User Community within (and in some cases from outside of) their region.
The following statements have been provided for inclusion in this report by some RALO’s as a sample of the feedback and activity information reporting that has been presented in session during this meeting:-
APRALO - Mr Bilal Beirm, has been appointed as our Chair (he has been Acting Chair in his capacity of Vice Chair since January) And we have opened a call for nominations for the now vacant position of Vice Chair. APRALO would like to say that in addition to the significant point of the formal signing of our MOU’s with ICANN (having worked under letters of intention for since early last year) these days at our first “official” Regional ICANN meeting, as a General Assembly, have been a massive hit. We have given our standpoint and most of our issues were discussed. Of particular note are discussions on such as the proposed ALAC summit, ICANN budget issues and reaching out with local representation, within our region.
NARALO has become active quite quickly on policy matters, most recently taking a strong and proactive stand on the domain tasting issue.
Currently we are considering a position on the JPA. Our members have also been very active in planning and promoting the ALS Summit.
