APRALO Policy Forum

ACTIVE Regional Hot Topics Survey (2021-2022)

Background: In 2017 and 2019, similar Hot Topics surveys were conducted for RALO members to determine topics which were they considered important for the region and for the RALO's attention. See: APRALO Hot Topics 2017 | APRALO Hot Topics 2019.  For 2021, the APRALO Policy Forum's leadership proposed to align the Regional Hot Topic Survey 2021 (HTS Project) with the APRALO Register of Skills & Interests Project (Project RoSI) in order to take advantage of the following factors and existing activities:

1.  The HTS 2021 should not be conducted in a vacuum and should take into consideration existing topics covered by the At-Large and ALAC. See: Infographic 
2.  As part of its work scope, the Project RoSI small team is conducting a review of the said topics covered by the At-Large and ALAC, examining them for currency and/or updating
3.  The At-Large OFB-WG are also closely examining ICANN's FY22-26 Operating Initiatives, work which is expected to produce recommendations on what areas and topics the At-Large and ALAC should be prioritizing
4.  All the above information are expected to be distilled within Project RoSI and will be useful input on which to then base a RALO consultation
5.  The above steps will prevent unnecessary duplication of efforts while preserving key information for RALO members' consideration  

Status:  Ongoing. HTS Project Small Team working design elements and timeline for Hot Topics Survey. Will continue into 2022. See: Infographic report

Dedicated Workspace:  APRALO Hot Topics 2021

 ACTIVE APRALO Register of Skills & Interests Project (2021-2022)

Background: Tentatively code-named "Project RoSI", this project is intended to produce a dynamic Register of Skills & Interests for APRALO.

Status: Ongoing. Project RoSI Small Team completed preliminary work on data to be presented to the RALO for consultation vide the Hot Topics Survey 2021/2022. See: Infographic report Infographic report

Dedicated Workspace:  Project RoSI Workspace

 CLOSED APRALO Statement to the Call for Public Comments to the GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Outputs for ICANN Board Consideration (22 Apr - 1 Jun 2021)

Status: SUBMITTED APRALO Statement on Subsequent Procedures Final Outputs, 1 Jun 2021  See: Submission link

Background: A Public Comment Process has been initiated to invite comments to the GNSO New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Outputs for ICANN Board Consideration. This Public Comment Process, which closes on 1 June 2021, is intended to focus on all Outputs approved by the GNSO Council, rather than the Outputs that were not approved. Those not approved are Topic 23 Closed Generics in its entirety and recommendations 35.2 and 35.4 from Topic 35 Auctions: Mechanisms of Last Resort / Private Resolution of Contention Sets.

At the Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG) call on 28 April 2021, CPWG Co-Chair Olivier Crepin-Leblond suggested that each RALO may wish to consider submitting its own statement to this Public Comment Process. It was also suggested that such a RALO statement, if any, might be based on the ALAC Advice on Subsequent Procedures, which had been developed through the CPWG deliberation process and subsequently ratified unanimously by the ALAC prior to its submission to the ICANN Board on 16 April 2021. For reference, this particular ALAC Advice is published along with translation in the other 5 UN languages as well at the CPWG work space.

At the APRALO Monthly Call of 20 May 2021, the following recommendation was adopted for APRALO to participate in and submit a statement to the referenced Public Comment Process.

The Recommendation

• That APRALO ought to submit a statement to this Public Comment Process
• That a small team of drafters be conscripted to prepare such a statement
• That the statement should:-
  
  • Endorse the ratified ALAC Advice on Subsequent Procedures of 16 April 2021 (see: ALAC Advice at https://atlarge.icann.org/advice_statements/13823)
  • Emphasize in particular the importance of the following:
    
    1. To facilitate increased adoption of Universal Acceptance (UA) & Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)
    2. To facilitate increased & equitable access by “Global South”, community / niche TLD applicants through the Applicant Support Program (ASP) & Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) and a ban on private auctions
    3. To advocate for ALAC to have automatic standing to file Community Objections (where it deems necessary)
• That the prepared statement be circulated through the APAC-Discuss mailing list by Wed 26 May 2021 for comments
• That the APRALO Leadership Team be empowered to finalize and submit the statement prior to the 1 June 2021 submission deadline

To review the drafted statement, go to: < this googledoc link > 

 PLANNING APRALO Policy Forum 2021 Jamboard 

• APRALO PF Survey 1.2021 Report & Recommendations

PLANNING The At-Large Community and DNS Abuse: An Individual User Education Campaign 

Background: During ICANN 67, the ALAC committed to a two-pronged strategy with regards to DNS Abuse. First, we would play a leadership role in promoting the necessary dialog, within the ICANN community, needed for reforms to ICANN policy, additional tools for ICANN Contract Compliance and best practices of all parties. The second prong, to which we have committed, is an education campaign, designed to alert our constituency, individual end users, to the dangers of DNS abuse and strategies to protect themselves.

It was proposed that representatives from each of the RALOs will discuss:

• Existing regional efforts already underway including available resources and lessons learned
• Additional resources (videos, flyers, etc.) that are necessary to enhance outreach on this topic
• Creative ways to get these resources in front of as many individual ends users around the world as possible
• Potential metrics to evaluate each of these efforts to allow for program assessment and refinement

Current Status: This is the follow on action, marking the first of many onward discussions, necessary to launch a large scale education campaign on DNS Abuse.

Next Steps: Each RALO to identify a representative to this discussion during ICANN69. That representative should come prepared with an understanding of what resources of which they are aware, which ones are being developed already by local organizations (ISOC, RALOs and other regional organizations) and what additional materials they believe are needed in their region. They should be prepared to brainstorm on how best to organize this effort at the regional level, once materials are identified; in other words:

• Should we identify a standard set of resources and then have the RALOs supplement them with regional flavor?
• Should this effort be parked as Capacity Building or Outreach?

The goal is to establish a group to work on this topic going forward, 

Particular Focus for APRALO: To identify one or more representatives to act as our regional liaisons to this campaign and to help collate relevant information currently available with our region as our input.

To Comment or Add to the At-Large Resource Collection, go to: APRALO Participation in At-Large DNS Abuse Education Campaign

ACTIVE Regional Hot Topics Survey 2021

Background: In 2017 and 2019, similar Hot Topics surveys were conducted for RALO members to determine topics which were they considered important for the region and for the RALO's attention. See: APRALO Hot Topics 2017 | APRALO Hot Topics 2019.  For 2021, the APRALO Policy Forum's leadership proposed to align the Regional Hot Topic Survey 2021 (HTS Project) with the APRALO Register of Skills & Interests Project (Project RoSI) in order to take advantage of the following factors and existing activities:

1.  The HTS 2021 should not be conducted in a vacuum and should take into consideration existing topics covered by the At-Large and ALAC. See: Infographic 
2.  As part of its work scope, the Project RoSI small team is conducting a review of the said topics covered by the At-Large and ALAC, examining them for currency and/or updating
3.  The At-Large OFB-WG are also closely examining ICANN's FY22-26 Operating Initiatives, work which is expected to produce recommendations on what areas and topics the At-Large and ALAC should be prioritizing
4.  All the above information are expected to be distilled within Project RoSI and will be useful input on which to then base a RALO consultation
5.  The above steps will prevent unnecessary duplication of efforts while preserving key information for RALO members' consideration  

Status:  Ongoing. HTS Project Small Team working design elements and timeline for Hot Topics Survey. Will continue into 2022. See: Infographic report

Dedicated Workspace:  APRALO Hot Topics 2021

 ACTIVE APRALO Register of Skills & Interests Project (2021)

Background: Tentatively code-named "Project RoSI", this project is intended to produce a dynamic Register of Skills & Interests for APRALO.

Status: Ongoing. Project RoSI Small Team completed preliminary work on data to be presented to the RALO for consultation vide the Hot Topics Survey 2021/2022. See: Infographic report Infographic report

Dedicated Workspace:  Project RoSI Workspace

 COMPLETED APRALO Webinar on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) (2021)

Background: At its May 2021 meeting, the GNSO Council resolved to initiate the Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs) and to approve the EPDP Team Charter. The Council agreed that an EPDP was appropriate and needed to address the topic of IDNs because policy in IDNs has been "substantially scoped previously such that extensive, pertinent background information already exists", which includes the IDN-related Outputs from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP that the Council had approved on at its February 2021 meeting. The EPDP on IDNs has been structured as a "Representative + Open" model and a call for members, participants and observers was made by the GNSO Secretariat on 3 June 2021.  At-Large Staff then issued a call for At-Large member expressions of interest for the ALAC Appointee Selection Committee to consider and to select 3 members to represent the ALAC on this EPDP.

To encourage APRALO Members (both ALS Members and Individual Members) with an interest in IDNs to respond to both the At-Large call for members and the GNSO's call for participants and observers volunteers to this EPDP on IDNs, the APRALO Policy Forum Co-Chairs Satish Babu and Justine Chew are spearheading the organization of an introductory APRALO Webinar on IDNs to help build the capacity of our RALO members to engage meaningfully in the work of this EPDP.

In service of this goal, the webinar will be held on Tuesday, 27 July 2021 at 08:00 UTC for 90 minutes and will, among other things, broadly address the following: 

• When IDNs were introduced to the Root Zone
• The landscape of IDNs in the APAC region
• Existing policies and procedures on IDNs including the Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGRs) in addressing security/confusability in IDNs
• An overview on IDN Variant TLD management (in context of the ICANN Board's 2010 resolution on need for variant management solution to be in place prior to next round of New gTLDs)
• An overview on the GNSO Subsequent Procedures policy recommendations for the next round of IDN New gTLD applications 
• Background to the EPDP on IDNs 

Status: Completed. A recording of the webinar, along with speaker presentations are available at https://community.icann.org/x/x4n8CQ