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June 2011

Please see here for Russian Version

This month's EURALO conference call and activities focused on the following subjects:

  • Approval by ALAC (following EURALO’s advice) of the two EURALO ALS applications from European Media Platform and The Ukrainian Internet Association, which brings the total number of EURALO ALSes up to 29 (with 26 active);
  • Discussion of the recent ICANN Singapore meeting. Historical Board’s decision to pass the new gTLD program orbits ICANN not only in the sense of new technical and economical opportunities, but creates new communicational channels between ICANN and community. ALAC has to play a special role in this process;
  • Another subject of discussion in Singapore was the role of GAC and its coordination with ICANN Board and ALAC, and then Board’s decision on Vertical Integration and JAS WG process, especially on applicant support;
  • NomCom decision in Singapore (with participation of Yrjö) was reported and results will be announced shortly;
  • The problem of non-active ALSes was discussed at the RALO Secretariats’ meeting in Singapore. Within EURALO, there are three ALSes (Slovenian Consumer Association, KEPKA in Greece and Ynternet.org, Switzerland), which do not respond to any EURALO activity since 2007. Wolf proposed a seven-step procedure to decertify non-active ALSes (i. a. because of problems with quorum requirements);
  • One of the main results of the recent EURALO Belgrade General Assembly (8 participants physically present and 2 remote participants) was the intended creation of an ALS for individual members, and now it is necessary to form a WG to draft the bylaws for this ALS besides other preparatory steps;
  • EuroDIG (with 4th edition in Belgrade and next 5th in Stockholm) becomes a popular and recognised forum, but there is the goal and requirement to consolidate EuroDIG’s structure and make EuroDIG procedures more reliable. Wolf joined Sandra in the EuroDIG Secretariat, and a lot of EURALO members participate in EuroDIG activities. Another European event – Digital Agenda General Assembly, which took place in Brussels 16-17 June, was attended by Christopher;
  • Recent and upcoming activities of ALAC and EURALO members:
    • Internet meeting in India, 28 June (Sébastien, Olivier);
    • EuroSSIG, 24-30 July, Meissen, Germany (Sandra, Wolf, others);
    • IGF-UA, 2-3 September, Kiev, Ukraine (Oksana, Olivier, Wolf, others).

April 2011

EURALO activities during the last month were determined by:

  • Several European ALAC representatives and members participated in various ALAC consultation and policy issues.
  • EURALO members (Olivier Crepin-Leblond, Bill Drake, Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Wolf Ludwig) participated at the Council of Europe’s conference on Internet Freedom – From principles to global treaty law on 18-19 April in Strasbourg.
    * EURALO members (Yrjö Länsipuro, Bill Drake, Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Wolf Ludwig) participated at the 11th Meeting of the ICANN Studienkreis
 28-29 April 2011 in Budapest.
  • Some EURALO members (Sandra Hoferichter, Wolf Ludwig, Olivier Crepin-Leblond) are closely involved in the organisation of the 4th European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) at the end of May in Belgrade.
  • EURALO is preparing an Online voting tool together with At-Large Staff for preparing its Bylaw modifications (such as including individual members etc.) for the next General Assembly (GA) which will be convened at 29 May in Belgrade in the eve of the EuroDIG. Programming and reporting for the GA is under preparation as well.

EURALO San Francisco Report March 2011

Below please find the points EURALO has worked on since the Cartagena meeting:

  • EURALO continued its engagement in the four Work Teams for At-Large improvements and work is progressing. The Work Teams met in San Francisco again to present results.
  • EURALO members contributed actively throughout the At-Large policy development processes, submitting regional comments to issues such as ICANN’s Geographic Regions etc.
  • EURALO submitted budget requests for the Fiscal Year planning 2012-13, all intended to increase visibility, participation and outreach.
  • Several members of EURALO participate in preparation and programming of the next EuroDIG end of May in Belgrade. The annual EuroDIG becomes the major event for EURALO for outreach and networking. We have been active in the development of further outreach proposals that have become part of ALAC's submission to ICANN (training and empowerment).
  • We encouraged ALAC to support the ISOC statement on politically motivated Internet disruption in Egypt.

February 2011

- Policy

The Board - GAC meeting is fast approaching at the end of the month, and several EURALO members will be physically present in Brussels as observers. It is the aim for those members to speak to both Board and GAC members, and comment on the process taking place, bringing direct input from At-Large and from EURALO to the meeting participants.

An open Skype Chat has been set-up to bring direct input from RALOs to the ALAC Chair, who also only has observer status. This will also allow for a discussion among At-Large members to take place simultaneously, with online remote listening facilities being supplied by ICANN. All ALS members wishing to be part of the Skype Chat should email the EURALO Chair, Wolf Ludwig, or Olivier Crépin-Leblond, EURALO Secretariat, in order to be "invited" into the Skype Chat.

In February, EURALO Board members were involved in outreach activities such as:

- Rudi Vansnick (ISOC Belgium) participated in an ICANN-related Internet Governance conference in Tirana/Albania using the opportunity to encourage ALS applications from the country;

- the ALAC Chair and current EURALO secretariat, * *Olivier Crepin-Leblond, participated in an IG-related conference in Kiev/Ukraine and encouraged local groups to apply for a EURALO membership - with a prompt submission;

- the EURALO Chair intended to participate in the annual DomainPulse conference (comprising Austria, Germany and Switzerland) hold in Vienna for outreach initiatives. Due to the fact that EURALO has no earmarked travel funds for such events (if we are not invited by the organizers), we had to cancel our participation.

EURALO members (Bill Drake, Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Sandra Hoferichter and Wolf Ludwig) will participate in the next IGF Consultations end of February in Geneva what will be combined with the next preparation meeting (core team) for the EuroDIG 2011 end of May in Belgrade -- where the next EURALO GA will be held at the same time.

- Process

This month has seen EURALO input in the ALAC Budget planning process for the FY12 Budget which was then passed on to ICANN Finance.

EURALO's input into the process can be found on:https://community.icann.org/display/alacpolicydev/At-Large+FY12+Budget+Development+Workspace+-+2011

It consisted primarily of proposals for two projects:

  • A EURALO General Assembly (GA) in 2012: bringing all of the European At-Large Structures together, in conjunction with the next ICANN meeting in Europe (June 2012)
  • Regional Outreach and EURODIG 2012: representation of EURALO at this conference by at least 3 EURALO members

EURALO is eagerly awaiting feedback from ICANN finance on the outcome of its input.

- WT-C SWOT / At-Large Improvements process

Several EURALO members have studied the current SWOT tables which EURALO was asked to comment on; most were satisfied that no further information needed to be entered and that the information contained was already very comprehensive.

- Finance & Budget sub-committee

Rudi Vansnick was appointed as the second EURALO representative on the ALAC Finance and Budget sub-committee. He will bring a regional, non-ALAC point of view to the work performed by this committee.

January 2011

- Process

This month, EURALO returned to pursuing its internal process and structural improvements which it had suspended prior to the Cartagena meeting due to more prioritised issues such as the selection process for an At-Large Selected ICANN Board Director.

EURALO's conference call agendas for December 2010 and January 2011 were set-up to follow-up on the main items of discussion which had been suspended, namely:

It was decided that these issues will be given final approval by the EURALO Board at the General Assembly (GA) taking place in Belgrade, Serbia. It is worth noting that on the subject of individual membership in EURALO, Option B was favoured by call.

- Policy

EURALO's input was welcomed by the ALAC for its drafting of its statement on ICANN's Draft Strategic Plan. It re-iterated its support for:

  • a general assembly (GA) of all European ALSes to be funded and held in conjunction with a regional ICANN meeting
  • an At-Large Summit for all ALSes

- Cartagena Meeting

In December, the EURALO Chair and Secretary, as well as members of ALAC from the EURALO region attended the ICANN annual general meeting in Cartagena. It is both the Chair's and Secretary's view that this was possibly one of the most successful meetings we have had so far.

Sébastien Bachollet was selected as the Board Director for seat 15. Since he had been previously nominated to be an ALAC representative, by  the Nominating Committee, and in the view of not collecting several seats (maximising the participation by Europeans), he stood down from this post.

An alternative candidate, Jean-Jacques Subrenat, was presented by NomCom and he has accepted the position.

Finally, Olivier Crépin-Leblond, currently assuming EURALO's Secretariat, was selected at ALAC's new Chair for this year.

November 2010

This month's EURALO conference call focused specifically on the the following subjects:

  • support for Evan Leibovitch's email (gTLD working group) that the joint ALAC-GAC-GNSO comments on Rec6 (The ineptly called "Morality and Public Order - MAPO/MOPO) have not been considered in the current (final) applicant guidebook (AGv4). This is widely seen by At Large as a major failure in the bottom-up process. As a result, an email was sent by Wolf Ludwig to support Evan Leibovitch's email. This subject is likely to be debated in Cartagena.
  • a call was made for more volunteers to get involved with the process of the Public Consultations for which ALAC will be preparing statements - volunteers welcome!
  • an update about the At-Large Board Director Selection Process, reminding ALSes that the vote would soon open, with a choice between the three candidates selected by the BCEC, since the EURALO petitions for Avri Doria and Jean-Jacques Subrenat were not followed by at least two other RALOs:
    • Sébastien Bachollet
    • Pierre Dandjinou
    • Alan Greenberg

All European At Large Structures will need to vote before 18:00 UTC on Thursday 25 November 2010, in time for Wolf Ludwig to cast his vote before the 23:59 UTC deadline in the voting process. All At Large Structures were urged to review the candidate community forum pages on the confluence WIKI to aid them in their choice of vote.

It is worth noting that the new voting schedule was agreed after a EURALO email to ALAC (see previous monthly report) to ask for a less tight schedule in order to allow enough time for ALSes to study the candidate's profiles and make their choice. ALAC convened and extraordinary meeting of the At Large Board Selection Design Team (ABSdt) which agreed by consensus to extend the originally scheduled deadlines. This successful textbook bottom-up process was triggered by the concern voiced by some ALSes in the October 2010 EURALO monthly conference call, and the new schedule is therefore seen to be an improvement on the original.

  • Kurt Pritz then kindly joined the EURALO monthly conference call to present ICANN’s Strategic Plan Development. Community members were able to discover this plan, and ask questions. Kurt voiced his wish to receive more comments from everyone prior to the ICANN Cartagena meeting.
  • With a very busy schedule in Cartagena, it was decided that the next EURALO monthly call will not take place during the ICANN meeting, but after it.
  • Other subjects such as bylaw modifications to include individual members, have been moved to the next EURALO monthly call.

October 2010

EURALO's monthly conference call agenda was set-up to follow-up on the main items decided at the General Assembly in September, namely:

  • EURALO Position on Community WG Report on Implementation of GNSO New gTLD Rec 6

But a more pressing subject was first Review mechanism for ALS involvement in the upcoming At-Large Board Director selection.

This subject ended up taking all of the time of the entire conference call since it became immediately apparent that it was the most important issue to be addressed immediately. With the meeting seriously over-running its allocated time, it was decided that a letter be written to Cheryl Langdon-Orr, the ALAC Chair, to summarize the concerns which EURALO has with the current election schedule.

Our concerns were namely that since EURALO wished to poll its members during the election process of an At Large Elected Board Director, the proposed timing was likely to be rushed and might not allow such a EURALO process (possible candidate petition, poll, and then possibly several rounds of election polling) to take place satisfactorily. EURALO recognises that ALSes, our volunteers, need time to make decisions if they need to consult their membership, and the current election process was seen to be slightly short to allow for the leeway required in such processes. Only if enough time is given to EURALO members can EURALO's Chair vote in the election process with full conviction that he has the support of ALSes - as a matter of credibility to our members.

The letter was written and sent to the EURALO discussion list for collecting feedback. It was then amended according to the feedback received, and sent by email to Cheryl Langdon-Orr, ALAC and a copy to the At-Large Board Selection design team (ABSdt). A response was awaited at the time of writing this monthly report.

EURALO Position on Community WG Report on Implementation of GNSO New gTLD Rec6

Whilst there was no time in the monthly EURALO conference call to treat this subject, several EURALO volunteers took part in an At Large conference call, where their input was taken into account. As a reminder, the At Large position was to support the GNSO New gTLD Rec6 report.

September 2010

 A EURALO General Assembly took place at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Wednesday 15 September 2010 from 18:00 - 20:00 local time. It was attended in person by representatives from 10 ALSes, and remotely by representative from two ALSes.
 ICANN Staff attended the meeting remotely.

 The GA took place immediately after a EURODIG meeting and therefore had the pleasure of the presence of several guests, including some from potential EURALO ALS applicants: Yuliya Morenets (Together Against Cybercrime, France), Oksana Prykhodko (European Media Platform, Ukraine) and Tetiana Popova (Ukrainian Internet Association). Many other guests were present too.

 Remote participation was possible by using the Webex System used throughout the IGF. Whilst it is acknowledged that technical intricacies made remote participation challenging (the interfacing of a face to face meeting with public address microphone system, with Webex, as well as an Adigo line is technically challenging), especially due to the fact that the room's acoustics were far from adequate, eventually most technical problems were overcome.

 The following action items stemmed out of the meeting:

   - ICANN Budget

 EURALO will submit a proposal to the ICANN budget process to ask for travel funding for the next EURALO meeting which will be held in conjunction with the ICANN European meeting.

A note will be added to the EURALO budget, that printing material costs should be covered by ICANN.
 

  - Review of EURALO By-laws and needs for revision

There have recently been many enquires to members of the EURALO Board about individuals being able to join EURALO. So far, individual members do not hold voting rights, but have taken part in working groups and on the Board, on a case by case basis. A solution is sought so as to be able to grow the EURALO region membership.
 Evan Leibovitch very kindly gave a short remote presentation explaining the NARALO rules pertaining to unaffiliated members. We have named this "Option A".
 Another option is option B:

 OPTION A: Formally create a new membership category for unaffiliated members
 OPTION B: Create a new ALS within the current structure that serves as the home to unaffiliated members

The EURALO leadership will submit a proposal in writing for possible Bylaw changes to the regional members. In addition, The proposed changes will include provisions to include unaffiliated members and also review the term limits for Board members. They will also look into a possible alignment of all EURALO elections. These discussions will soon be opened within EURALO, with an outcome and decisions due to take place at the ICANN Cartagena Meeting in December 2010.
 

  - EURALO ALAC Election

 Sandra Hoferichter was unanimously endorsed by the EURALO members present in the meeting. Congratulations to Sandra!
 
 

 - EURALO Board Elections

 Yjrö Länsipuro was unanimously elected to the EURALO Board by the members of EURALO. Congratulations to Yjrö!
 

  - At Large elected Board Director Process

 In accordance with Article VI, Section 4 of the ICANN Bylaws http://www.icann.org/en/general/bylaws.htm#VI , Sébastien Bachollet asked to be replaced in all the discussion and actions taking place in the ALAC in relation to the At-Large Board Director election. Olivier Crépin-Leblond volunteered to replace Sébastien in all the discussion and actions taking place in the ALAC in relation to the At-Large Board Director election.

August 2010

  • The EURALO Board is preparing for a virtual General Assembly (GA) to take place during the IGF in Vilnius, Lituania. This will be a GA taking place as a conference call, with local participants already in Vilnius participating in person in a meeting room. The time/date for this, is currently set to Wednesday 15 September 2010 from 17:00 - 19:30, with the exact venue still to be confirmed. All At Large Structure (ALS) leaders who will be going to Vilnius are encouraged to come and take an active part in the GA.
  • According to EURALO’s by-laws a General Assembly has to be convened once a year. EURALO was created in March 07 in Lisbon. Board elections were conducted in May 07, June 08 partly and March 09 (Mexico-City). With no possibility of having a GA during the ICANN Brussels meeting, and no likelihood of funding for a GA in Cartagena, a Vilnius GA was seen as a compromise solution for this year. A Draft Agenda has been put together, and will soon be posted to the EURALO Web site. Among the EURALO GA's agenda items, Evan Leibovitch (NARALO) has been invited to join the GA to explain NARALO's proposals to include individual members. This is an avenue which the EURALO Board is also considering - and it will be a main discussion point at the GA.

ELECTIONS

  • Yjrö Länsipuro has been voted to represent EURALO on the ICANN Nominating Committee 2011.
  • The nomination period for candidates to the ALAC seat is open and several candidates have been suggested so far.
  • Similarly, EURALO has also opened a nomination period for the At Large Board Director selection process. Whilst it is understood that all applicants for the At Large Board Director need to have filed a Statement of Interest (SOI) with the Board Candidate Evaluation Committee (BCEC), the EURALO nominations for petition are being prepared in advance in case some of the candidates are not selected by the BCEC. It is understood that the nominations would also have to echo nominations in other RALOs - the threshold being the support of at least three RALOs for a petition to be valid. The process is explained in the relevant At Large Board Director selection process Web pages. The end of the nomination period stands to be 6th September 2010.

Outreach Activities

  • It is hoped that our presence in Vilnius for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be put to good use to strengthen the link to current ALSes present, as well as outreach to organizations wishing to join EURALO.

July 2010

  • Olivier was appointed for the remainder of the EURALO Secretariat position by consensus during the Brussels EURALO meeting, in replacement of Dessi. EURALO thanks Dessi for her great contribution during her term and wishes her well in her future endeavours, whilst hoping that she will still actively take part in EURALO work.

-The transition caused no monthly report to be filed in that period and the current report also catches up on news for June 2010.

  • Discussions on individual EURALO membership are still under way, with a consensus that individual membership should be implemented in EURALO but no clear way to do it yet.
  • A EURALO General Assembly (GA) will take place in September during the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Vilnius, Lithuania. This will be an "E-GA", that is, a GA taking place as a teleconference call, with EURALO participants already in Vilnius for the IGF, present physically in a meeting room. This is because EURALO has not been given any budget by ICANN for a GA, so all people who will be present physically will be there on their own budget. The IGF brings together many people from the At Large population so it is hoped that many ALSes will be present in Vilnius. The GA is likely to last three hours. Its details and agenda will be worked out in August.
  • There was good participation at the EURALO Showcase event in Brussels and we had many high quality speakers. Deputy Director-General, Information Society and Media Directorate-General of the European Commission Antti Peltomaki was the keynote speaker. We thank him and all of the other speakers for their participation. The event was a real success to raise awareness of EURALO and At Large. Although no immediate new ALS application have been received so far, we are hopeful that this will change in Vilnius.
  • Outreach is being focused on Eastern European, Southern European and Northern European areas to increase the number of ALSes in these regions. Gender balance is also emphasized - it is understood that EURALO needs more diversity.
  • European RALO in-reach was pursued, with a good regional response to the ALS survey: over 50% of ALSes responded. However, some ALSes did not participate. There is a concern that some European ALSes do not participate much once they have registered, and EURALO is trying to bring them back "in the loop". At last resort, a mechanism for "de-certification" might need to be examined. This will be discussed in further detail in the near future. The results of the survey have been published as a Powerpoint presentation which has been posted on the EURALO Web site.
  • Last, but not least, EURALO officially endorses the AFRALO Statement on the suggested Bylaw modifications to add an At-Large Board Director.

March 2010

Discussed ALAC issues:

  • Participation in ALAC Statements prepared for the following consultations: Proposed Framework for the Fiscal Year 2011 Operating Plan and Budget - as discussed in Nairobi, Wolf posted a proposal and summary of activities, including the preparation of the EURALO Showcase; the General Assembly in Brussels and Outreach in Latvia in September.
  • Patrick worked with Carlton and Adam on the draft ALAC Statement on WHOIS Accuracy. In conclusion, the procedure was not transparent enough, but the outcome is good.
  • With regard to IDNs, there is not much we can say on that as Europeans, it is mostly related to non-latin scripts, and 3-letter character scripts (generally scripts that are not alphabetical). Only 4 ccTLDs are on the IDN fast track, which is not enough.
  • At-Large Board Selection process – there has been a briefing on the work of the ABSdt group and further information on the ABCEC. A WG has been created to communicate the importance of the process to the European ALSes and to engage them into the selection process.
  • Olivier has been forwarded to replace Dessi for the Brussels Meeting.

Outreach activities:

  • Preparations for the Brussels EURALO Showcase. A Brussels Showcase working group has been created to focus on the organization of the event.

March 2010

EURALO Report Nairobi

Since the ICANN meeting in Seoul EURALO conducted its regular monthly phone conferences (November 09 – February 10) with participation of its ALAC and some Board members. At the end of January EURALO participated at the ICANN Studienkreis meeting in Barcelona. Our ALAC members were actively involved in the development of the ALAC Board member selection process.
At the beginning of the year, EURALO defined priorities for its 2010 planning and outreach activities such as: Participation at the 3rd EuroDIG in Madrid (April), regional consultation for the ALAC Board member selection process, preparation of our next GA at ICANN’s next meeting in Brussels (June), participation at the next IGF in Latvia (September). We hope that these priorities will be supported and necessary budget allocations provided by ICANN.

February 2010

Discussed ALAC issues:

  • ALAC Statement on the New Consumers Constituency Petition and Charter - we have two EURALO ALS from the Consumers constituency, one from Greece and one from Slovenia. Unfortunately, after they become part of EURALO, they never participated in any EURALO activities.
  • Volunteer Review team member - EURALO have already passed two names – Christopher Wilkinson and Jeanette Hoffman. There has been a proposal that the ALAC Chair should be on the Board too.
  • NomCom selected ALAC member for EURALO – EURALO comes with two names – Lutz Donnerhacke and Sebastien Bachollet. More candidates are strongly encouraged, especially aiming at regional and gender diversity.
  • EURALO has been briefed on the development of the At-Large Selection Board Process
  • Preparation of Nairobi Meeting - EURALO is quite committed to participate to the Nairobi meeting, our ALAC representatives are asked to forward this to ALAC.

Outreach activities:

  • EURALO representatives participated at the IGF open consultations in Geneva. Olivier has been suggested as an expert from EURALO for the next EURODIG.

December 2009

Discussed ALAC issues:

  • WHOIS-Privacy services - the issue of WHOIS privacy will be discussed on a regional level in the coming months in order to develop an At-Large position on WHOIS.
  • *ICANN Strategic Plan 2010 - 2013 -* Sebastien's suggestion on one ALS per country should be included in EURALO's/ALAC's contribution to the Strategic Planning. All EURALO members participate in the survey linked to the strategic plan and send in comments to the list until mid-January.
  • *At-Large Director Process -* The issue will be discussed on the mailing list and further discussed during the January 2010 call. The discussion will continue on wiki workspace on the EURALO webpage where the different positions and arguments on the At-Large Director Selection process can be discussed.
  • Nairobi preparations-- Olivier Crepin-Leblond has been suggested as a good candidate due to his excellent work to be awarded with the travel funding, that the secretary of EURALO will not be able to use and participate for the Nairobi meeting.

EURALO issues:

  • EURALO will start discussing the participation of Individual Internet Users, taking as an example the constitution of the issue in NARALO founding documents. This discussion should lead to a decision and framing before the GA in Brussels.

Outreach activities:

  • Rudi Vansnick officially represented EURALO at the Consumer Rights Directive Forum in Brussels on the 8th of December. At-Large and EURALO Flyers has been distributed.
  • On 14th December Olivier Crepin-Leblond took part in the Nominet Government Consultation event at Apex City of London.

November 2009

  • EURALO members took part in the2009 IGF in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Number of ICANN related issues have been discussed during the meeting, feedback will follow from the participants.
  • EURALO Leaflet has been finalized and printed. The leaflet has been developed as additional material, representative for the regional specifics and activities and is intended to be used together with the At-Large brochure and is aimed at motivating target organizations in joining EURALO. EURALO brochure is availabe for the other regions to modify and reuse athttps://st.icann.org/euralo/index.cgi?euralo_flyer.
  • In November Europe and the whole world celebrated the 20th Anniversary of fall of Berlin wall and the following democratic processes in the former Eastern block. Heise.de published an article on the topic by the NomCom's Chair Wolfgang Kleinwaechterhttp://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/31/31019/1.html
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