EURALO Regional FY22 Outreach and Engagement Strategic Plan
FY 20 Outreach and Engagement Strategy
(Drafted by EURALO's Task Force on ALS Engagement Chaired by Yrjö Länsipuro)
Link to location of filing: FY20 EURALO Outreach Strategic Plan
FY 19 in review
There is a growing multitude of all manner of internet-related meetings, conferences and workshops each year in Europe. Some are directly concerned with issues in ICANN’s remit, some offer a whole buffet of internet topics, many of which nevertheless have points of contact with the DNS.
EURALO members participate at many such events on their own or funded by their organizations. Funding by ICANN CROP program has dwindled in recent years. In FY 19, EURALO was able to secure three CROP slots, which were used as follows:
Event: ICANN63, Barcelona, 20. – 25.10.2018
Traveller: Sandra Hoferichter
Goals: To assist EURALO in its outreach to participants at ICANN63, including actively helping out with joint NCUC-At-Large Outreach Session,
helping out with the Fellows as well as other At-Large activity at the booth, reaching out to newcomers at the ICANN meeting, explaining the complex ICANN and At-Large ecosystem to newcomers, helping out with the EURALO Virtual General Assembly and activities of the ICANN Academy
Event: Internet Governance Forum, Paris 11. – 14.11.2018
Traveller: Natalia Filina
Goals: To represent At-Large community, particularly EURALO at the IGF. This will include presence at the booth that EURALO/At-Large are sharing with an Internet Society Special Interest Group; to actively distribute EURALO and At-Large outreach material throughout the IGF venue by targeting specific groups; to meet with current EURALO ALS representatives attending IGF in person in order to get to know them better (networking); to actively coordinate any informal meeting of European Stakeholders, in coordination with the Regional VPs for Global Stakeholder Engagement; to assist the At-Large and/or EURALO performing outreach activities both for individual and ALS member applications; to attempt to organize a speaking slot at IGF for EURALO where EURALO Engagement in ICANN activities will be presented to gain the attention of various experts in the ICANN multistakeholder development processes.
Event: EuroDIG, The Hague, 18.-20.6.2019
Traveller: Natalia Filina
Goals: To assist EURALO in its outreach to participants at ICANN65 including:
actively helping out with joint NCUC-At-Large Outreach Session; helping out with the Fellows as well as other At-Large activity at the booth; reaching out to newcomers at the ICANN meeting and explaining the complex ICANN and At-Large ecosystem to newcomers
Strategy for FY 20
Major Events
At the time of writing (early June), following major events have been identified as presenting opportunities for CROP-funded outreach in Europe during FY 20. There are three CROP slot available (ICANN meetings in FY 20 will be outside Europe).
ICANN Studienkreis, Lisbon, 7.-8.10.2019
RIPE 79, Rotterdam, 14.-18.10.2019
IGF, Berlin, 25.-29.11.2019
Re:Publica, Berlin 6.-8.5.2020
RIPE 80, Berlin, 11.-15.5.2020
RightsCon, TBC
EuroDIG, TBC, in June 2020
SeeDIG, TBC
At its meeting on 14 June, 2019, the EURALO Task Force for ALS engagement made the following selection for CROP funding:
- Re:Publica
- IGF, Berlin
- TBD: EuroDIG and SEEDIG mentioned as possibilities.
Re:Publica has grown over a decade from a small bloggers’ meeting to an major event where 25 000 visits were registered in 2019, and it has been deemed to have a great outreach potential, to be explored in close cooperation with GSE.
Many European At-Large members will no doubt take part in the IGF even on their own. However, for proper coordination of outreach work, including attendance at the EURALO booth, one person should be responsible, and thus funded by CROP.
Task Force favoured EuroDIG and SEEDIG in its discussion of the third CROP slot, but decision was deferred until the location and timing of these events has been announced, i.e. until after 2019 EuroDIG.
Procedures for selecting CROP-funded travellers should be started ASAP even though it will be a holiday period in Europe.
In selecting travellers, consideration should also be given to their potential visibility as participants in the substantive discussions of the event, as it is an element of the image that EURALO should project as competent defender of internet end-user interests.
Other events
In addition to the events mentioned above, there is going to be any number of other internet-related meetings - perhaps of sub-regional significance or thematically slightly off our mainstream – where nevertheless the existence and activities of EURALO and At Large could be advertised, if it could be done with modest costs, especially in cities where there is an active ALS (or independent members). Perhaps a survey could be made among the ALSes and independent members to find out about such events and about the possibilities and willingness of local ALS/independent members to engage in outreach activities at them. They would of course need support from RALO discretionary funds for material for distribution, displays, local travel etc.
A few examples of such events in FY 20:
- 13 International Conference on Data Protection and Artificial Intelligence (CPDP) https://www.cpdpconferences.org/, Brussels, 22.-24.1.2020
- Next Generation Internet Forum + MyData conference, https://ngiforum.eu/ Helsinki, 25.-27.9.2019
Cooperation with other European entities
EURALO has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RIPE NCC, the European Internet Registry (signed at ICANN60). It has resulted, among other things, in waiving the entry fee for EURALO members to RIPE76.
In FY 19, a new MoU was signed at the IGF in Paris with the Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR). Both parties pledged to collaborate for the promotion of Internet coordination activities in the European region.
More specifically, they will continue to encourage awareness of each other’s activities and mission, as well as jointly organizing capacity-building events and other meetings, trainings, projects of workshops related to Internet policy and governance. They will also continue to promote Internet development in the European region and an open, bottom-up, multistakeholder Internet governance model.
The existence of a EURALO-CENTR MoU raises the question of whether under its umbrella, local level cooperation could be developed between ALSes (or independent members) and the respective country code manager organization, of which there are some good examples i.e. in capacity building.
EURALOs Cooperation with the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) is of long standing, with many EURALO members actively participating in the organization and substance work of EuroDIG, which in its turn is an important window for EURALOs visibility. This fruitful cooperation can be expected to continue and to grow in FY 20 and in subsequent years.
Engaging ALSes (and independent members)
With 38 ALSes (including a non-geographic one for independent members) in 17 European countries, we are still far from the declared goal of having EURALO presence in all countries. Recruiting new ALSes is a long process, and each case requires intensive discussions where an internet-related national or local organization (e.g., an ISOC chapter, consumer or academic group) has to become convinced of the benefits it could derive from joining EURALO and At Large. However, the efforts should continue.
There may be more potential in reaching in the existing structures and engaging their members in work related to ICANN’s mission. The focus of many ALSes is on other internet-related things issues than those of concern to ICANN and At-Large. However, in most ALSes there are individuals interested – and even experts – in issues that EURALO is called upon to comment on as part of the public comments or otherwise. This was borne out by the EURALO ALS survey[1] a few years ago, and especially the response rate to many of the comment requests sent out by EURALO to selected ALSes (those who indicated interest/expertise in the topic in question).
ATLAS III will provide an opportunity to inform members of other RALOs about this EURALO practice (for which also NARALO has shown interest). However, in Montreal, we have to be able to point to its recent successes...
This means that the expertise table should be updated again and, most important of all, its existence should be remembered every time there are requests for public comments or other comment needs.
As recommended by ATLAS II: “The ALAC should work with all RALOs and ALSes to map the current expertise and interests in their membership, to identify Subject Matter Experts and facilitate policy communication.”
