July and August 2013
This is a summary report of EURALO’s activities over the last month. EURALO was very active to organize and conduct its 6th General Assembly (GA) in line with the last EuroDIG in June in Lisbon (see our previous reports). So to say, EURALO came back to its roots where EURALO was founded in March 2007 in line with the then European ICANN meeting in the Portuguese capital. And our last 2013 GA was the first F2F meeting after Mexico in 2009 where a vast majority of our member ALSes could meet physically (more than 80%). An unquestionable highlight of our Lisbon GA was the participation of ICANN’s President and CEO Fadi Chehade together with Nigel Hickson, ICANN’s Vice-President Stakeholder Engagement for Europe. This offered an opportunity to discuss ICANN’s Strategic Planning for the next five years with community members.
EURALO members in Lisbon discussed and defined some thematic priorities for our regional activities. Another key topic on the agenda was how to improve in-reach and involvement in ALAC consultation procedures and policy. Besides this, the Chair and Secretariat were re-elected (the latter Yuliya Morenets in a run-off voting round following the GA). Furthermore, the EURALO Board was re-elected with some incoming new members. For more details see https://community.icann.org/display/EURALO/EURALO+Elections%2C+Selections+and+Appointments+2013
EURALO with its ALAC members participated at the last ICANN meeting in July in Durban/South Africa. And as in previous years, various members participated in the European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG) in Meissen/Germany in August and at the last ICANN-Studienkreis meeting in Pisa/Italy in September – see http://www.euro-ssig.eu/ and http://icann-studienkreis.net/
As usual, there are no monthly calls held over the summer break in July and August. EURALO restarted its regular activities with its monthly call in September.
June 2013
All EURALO efforts in June were focused on the first F2F General Assembly (GA) after several years (2009) in Lisbon again. And in close cooperation with ICANN, EURALO organized a pre-event of EuroDIG on 19 June on the “ICANN Strategy for the next five years” where Fadi Chehade (ICANN President and CEO) and Nigel Hickson (VP Europe) were key speakers.
The EURALO GA was attended by 27 members providing a quorum of almost 90 per cent. Besides the GA regulars, EURALO’s leadership had to be reselected (Wolf Ludwig for the Chair and Yuliya Morenets as the new Secretariat – what made a run-off Online vote after the GA necessary).
The thematic focus of the assembly was on “how to improve participation and members involvement in regular EURALO work and regional advice to ALAC – ICANN?” There was a vivid discussion incl. definition of five thematic priorities for EURALO. For more details see the Lisbon GA meeting minutes:
https://community.icann.org/display/EURALO/2013+EURALO+General+Assembly+-+Summary+Minutes+EN
The GA was followed by an ICANN-EURALO Outreach reception for EuroDIG participants and the local community to attract new members from the host country. The following two days EURALO members attended the 2013 EuroDIG with a packed program – see:
http://www.eurodig.org/eurodig-2013/programme
From a strategic POV, EURALO became a key driver and org. pillar of the EuroDIG process by getting more and more involved in the regional European IGF.
May 2013
EURALO priorities in May were:
- final stage of preparations for Lisbon GA (draft agenda setting, preparation for EURALO officers selection, posting of a draft Board report and other businesses);
- EuroDIG 2013 preparation process (up-dates from Sandra and Wolf as EuroDIG Secretariat);
- discussion on next steps for ALS for individual members with Roberto and Veronica as contact points in their interim capacity, or to wait for any comments from other individual members);
- preparation to ICANN Academy pilot project in Buenos Aires (and presentation of draft curriculum in Durban – Sandra, Avri);
- participation at IGF-MAG consultation and other IG events in Geneva (Avri, Bill, Veronica, Wolfgang, Yuliya);
- participation at the Stockholm Internet Forum (Yrjo);
- participation at an international seminar in Moscow “Internet Governance after WCIT-12” (Olivier, Avri, Desiree, Oksana);
- on-going discussion of the problem with ICANN geographical regions (after Roberto's report on his trip to Armenia) and different ways to deal with this problem.
April 2013
EURALO activities in April concentrated on:
- participation at the ICANN 46 meeting in Beijing (among the most important topics which were discussed where: preparation for At-Large Summit (ATLAS 2) in summer 2014 in London, the role of ALAC officers and ALSs in communication between ALAC/ICANN and local Internet communities, internationalization of ICANN, budget aspects regarding new gTLD future);
- EuroDIG outreach (F2F meeting in Beijing in line with ICANN conference, agenda setting and mobilization) -
http://www.eurodig.org/eurodig-2013/programme
- follow-up for preparations of Lisbon GA https://community.icann.org/display/EURALO/EURALO+2013+General+Assembly+Workspace\\
- next steps on ICANN Academy (F2F meeting in Beijing, survey, presentation of new ICANN on-line Educational platform -
- national events (Finnish Internet Forum - www.internetforum.fi/ , Russian Internet Governance Forum - www.rigf.ru/en/ )
March 2013
EURALO priorities in March were:
- Over the last weeks, EURALO was closely involved in the creation and launch of a Swiss IGF, the pilot event is foreseen for 19 April in Berne – see http://swiss-igf.ch/
- Next preparation steps for the Lisbon GA: after registration formalities have been accomplished the draft agenda needs to be discussed and approved at the monthly call in April – improvement of communicative tools and understanding the role of ALSs in representing end users in ICANN);
- Preparation for ICANN 46 meeting in Beijing (discussion, among other issues, the problem of suffrage and results of ICANN Academy survey);
- There seems to be some progress with the creation of a home ALS for individual members (thanks to initiatives of Wolf and Siranush with support of Roberto and Veronica);
- Further preparations for EuroDIG 2013.
February 2013
Our February activities focused on completion of the registration for the next Lisbon GA in June) and discussion of the first program outline of EuroDIG 2013 (Lisbon, 20-21 June). Registration for GA was completed by 17 February with 27 confirmed representatives of our ALSes (80% of all members). This is a good result being a challenge for a rather tough GA budget. That is why ICANN At-Large Staff needs to start with travel arrangements for registered participants ASAP.
The overarching theme for the 2013 EuroDIG is “Internet for society – how to serve the public interest?”. EuroDIG Secretariat (Sandra and Wolf) were asking for comments on the first program outline to be discussed at the 2nd Planning meeting in line with the IGF consultations (1 March) in Paris following the WSIS-10 meeting where a lot of EURALO members participate.
Some EURALO members also participated in Safer Internet Days (5 February). Sandra continues to work on the results of ICANN Academy survey. Another issue was raised by Avri and has to be discussed within EURALO before the upcoming ICANN meeting in Beijing. „At-Large suffrage request to RALOs“.
January 2013
Priorities for this month’s activity were preparations and member mobilisation for our 2013 GA and EuroDIG, as well as on-going discussion of postWCIT12 issues. In response to the chair’s circular mail and 1st reminder to the members list with announcement of the next F2F GA in line with EuroDIG 2013 in Lisbon, representatives of 15 ALSes confirmed their participation already. An enduring problem remains the lacking initiative of our individual members, who did not respond to the bylaws proposal, drafted by Wolf.
Until the deadline for submissions of topics for EuroDIG 2013 by 1st of January, the Secretariat received, reviewed, listed and compiled 55 proposals, which will be discussed by the open planning meeting on 29 January in Lisbon (with broad participation from community members, physically or remotely. See:http://www.eurodig.org/
EURALO is pleased to welcome two new member organizations / ALSes: dotHIV from Germany certified by ALAC in January, and the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (UniBIT) based in Bulgaria (ALAC vote in process). One applicant has withdrawn unfortunately.
PostWCIT12 issues at webinar:
https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/Post-WCIT+Webinar+2013-01-17
and Wolfgang Kleinwächter’s related article:
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130103_internet_governance_outlook_2013/
