WT B MEETING MINUTES: 09 FEBRUARY 2011
Participants: Fouad Bajwa, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Gordon Chillcott, Baudouin Schombe, Dev Anand Teelucksingh, Darlene A. Thompson, Sandra Hoferichter, Sébastien Bachollet, Wolf Ludwig, Carlos Aguirre
Apologies: Yaovi Atohoun, Michel Tchonang, Moataz Shaarawy
Absent: Annalisa Roger, Antonio Medina Gómez, Gareth Shearman
Staff: Seth Greene, Matthias Langenegger
STANDING AGENDA ITEMS
1. Roll call – 2 min.
2. Review of AIs from 26 January meeting – Co-Chairs; 5 min
a) Dev to write summary of how the ALS Survey relates to WT B’s recommendations, especially Rec. 3 (remove any obstacles in ALS-RALO-ALAC structure).
- In progress. Dev will sent to WT B list by weekend.
b) Darlene to propose the use of an AC Room to her ALS.
- Done. See agenda item below.
c) Heidi to inquire within ICANN about how it would offer an AC Room to an ALS.
- Done. See agenda item below.
d) Seth to remove Sebastien from the membership and mailing list of WT B.
- Done.
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
3. AC Rooms for ALSes – Co-Chairs, 10 min
- Response from Darlene’s two ALSes
- Answers to IT’s aggregate questions: AC Room purpose, frequency of use, and whether will be used only during calls.
Darlene’s report on her conversation with her ALS: Darlene believes that her ALS would be interested in using an Adobe Connect Room for meetings and volunteered it as one of the early testers.
Heidi's report on her conversation w/ IT: IT says creating an AC Room(s) for the ALSes is possible (Heidi expects IT to offer one Room to each RALO). However, IT wants a general, aggregate idea of what the ALSes would use it for, how often they’d use it, and whether they'd only use it during calls.
Regarding IT’s request from information on the ALSes’ use of the AC Rooms:
- In the ALAC’s final reporting on Improvements, it’s only necessary to say that the ALSes will be using this and other tools to fulfill the requirements of being an ALS (can actually quote from Bylaws).
- However, it seems reasonable to give IT a more specific explanation in order to help it tailor the tools and how it recommends using them to the ALSes’ needs.
For the rollout, IT might give each RALO one AC Room. However, if that number does not increase in the face of greater need:
- The RALOs should manage the “booking” of the room; and
- The ALAC should comment on IT’s lack of generosity in its final reporting.
It would be best if AC Rooms were accessible at all times, so ALSes could log in and read material.
>> AI: Seth to check with ICANN IT regarding specifics of offering AC Rooms to ALSes.
Question for WT B to consider in the future: Do we want to offer Adigo telephone conferencing services, along with the AC Rooms, to the ALSes?
4. Dev’s write-up regarding how ALS Survey relates to WT B’s recs, especially but not exclusively Rec 3 (remove any obstacles in ALS-RALO-ALAC structure) – Dev, 10 min
- See ALS Survey Analysis: Draft report (Dec 2010)
- See ALS Survey Analysis: Presentation (June 2010).
Dev’s actual write-up is still a work-in-progress.
>> AI: Dev to complete write-up regarding how the ALS Survey relates to WT B’s recommendations, especially but not exclusively Rec. 3 (remove any obstacles in ALS-RALO-ALAC structure).
However, Dev lead the following discussion.
We have already discussed some ALS Survey questions to related to WT B’s Rec. 3 (remove any obstacles to existing ALS-RALO-ALAC structure). There is one more question, which we have not yet discussed, that applies to it: Question # 13, which asks what the most important limitations have been for the ALSes.
The ALSes’ most significant limitations have been:
- Time commitment required from ALSes
- Documents (from ICANN, RALOs, ALAC, etc.) are too technical
- Not enough knowledgeable members in the ALSes.
From these limitations, the following recommendations can be derived:
- ALAC, RALOs, ICANN, etc. should make more accessible material available regarding policy issues and work
- ALAC, RALOs, ICANN, etc. should make the available background material more accessible
- ALAC, RALOs, ICANN, etc. should hold specific background meetings during the 3-4 major ICANN Meetings every year.
- For this, would need ICANN and ALAC support.
- For this, would need ICANN and ALAC support.
At-Large also needs more unified and well-advertised communication.
Making material more accessible:
- Policy material: Perhaps could be implemented by having a volunteer team from At-Large and/or staff review documents related to policy issues coming up and, if necessary, make them more accessible.
- Everything should include summaries.
- Dev: Also, all e-mails, announcements, etc. should include a “why should you care” or “how this affects you” statement. The motivation to do this is an issue.
- We should try to coax the RALO leadership to consolidate and aggregate the grassroots input from ALSes.
Using technology to consolidate different information into one place:
- Gordon has been discussing this issue with his ALS.
- Dev: Given the importance of e-mail, we should expand it so that, automatically, all communication platforms (Confluence pages, Twitter, etc.) are updated by e-mails. This is the point of some of the tools, like Posterous, that we’ve been discussing.
- Fouad: RSS is another tool that consolidates communications.
- Fouad: In ARRALO, they are working on having communication tools integrated with Confluence, so the tools appear on the RALO page and then on the individual ALS pages.
- This might be a workable idea for all the RALOs and ALSes.
- Sandra: There is tool/platform developed by the DiploFoundation that can be used for this purpose, but I don’t know how well it works.
- Again, we should try to coax the RALO leadership to consolidate and aggregate the grassroots input from ALSes.
- Also, must not overwhelm the ALSes with new technology.
Wolf: However, must motivate our ALSes and community members to use these new technological tools. Motivation is more important than the number of new tools. Technical tools are helpful but not fundamental. Need the spirit in the community to actively participate, to mobilize our ALSes. And there is a large role to be played here by the RALO leadership. This is more an issue of the need for social interaction than for more technology.
5. WT B’s proposals for ALAC – Co-Chairs, 20 min
- Addition of ideas since Cartagena
- Review of WT B Proposals in Development page
- Selection and conversion into proposals for ALAC
Cheryl: WT B’s proposals should include:
- As a start, the repurposing of our existing committees, such as the Secretariats’ list.
- Recommendation to the ALAC that it formalize the mechanisms to review our communication tools (within ICANN and within At-Large), using a cross-regional group to do so.
- That way, many opinions from the edges will guide the choice of tools; this should be very useful since we’re trying to get the edges to use these tools.
- But also keep the ALAC in the process – to continue motivating the use of these tools. We do not want these tools, once available, to go unused.
- This is an important point for our final reporting.
- This is an important point for our final reporting.
6. Any other business -- Co-Chairs; 5 min
No other business was introduced.
7. Confirmation of next meeting time: Wed, 23 Feb, at 13:00 UTC – 5 min, Co-Chairs
This time for the next meeting was confirmed.
And the meeting was adjourned.
