APRALO Secretariat Reports 2015

November 2015 Report

1. APRALO Members participation at IGF 2015 - Two members of APRALO Leadership Team, Siranush Vardanyan (Chair) and Satish Babu (Vice-Chair) participated in the IGF 2015 in Joao Pessoa, Brasil on November 9-13 through FY16 budget request approved by ICANN Board. The participation report is in the process of finalization and will be posted soon. 

    

2. The At-Large Beta Website - During November APRALO monthly call the new At-Large Beta website was presented. The link to the website is available here: https://newatlarge.icann.org/. APRALO LT worked closely with At-Large staff to provide feedback and additional documents to be posted in APRALO space. The call for comment is open also to all AP ALSs to be posted at wiki space here: Provide Your Feedback on the Beta At-Large Website. 

   
   

3. At-Large Webinar E-Books project - The At-Large Capacity Building Working Group has been holding capacity building and update webinars for a  number of years and these are currently stored with the ICANN Community Website as recordings and transcripts. We have now moved to transforming this information into eBooks so that the same information can be accessed by anyone interested in how ICANN works and to encourage more IT-interested persons to join an At-Large Structure and participate in ICANN decision-making about the internet. Maureen Hilyard from APRALO LT team and Glenn Mcknight from NARALO prepared two e-books, which are available here for download: https://apralo2015.wordpress.com/at-large-webinar-ebooks/. 

   eBook #1: “At-Large Working Groups” which was presented by Heidi Ullrich, Senior Director for At-Large, is the first of this series.  The online version and the pdf version

   

   Heidi Ullrich At-Large Working Groups

    

    

   eBook #2: The second part to the Working Groups programme was a session on “Cross Community Working Groups (CWGs)” presented by Marika Konings, GNSO Director of Policy Development. The online version and the pdf version

    

   

    This is the call to all APRALO members to comment and provide their feedback on these e-books and what other types of e-books they would be interested to see. Please, send your comments to Maureen Hilyard at maureen.hilyard@gmail.com

          4. APRALO - APAC HUB webinar - On November 24, 2015 the next webinar was organized for APRALO members on "Missed the ICANN54 Dublin Meeting? IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN Accountability Updates". This is the fifth webinar organized                     within APRALO - APAC Hub partnership during 2015, which is the last for this year. All Webinar records, transcript are available here: Missed the ICANN54 Dublin Meeting? IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN Accountability Updates Webinar 2015-11-24. The invited speakers were: Cheryl Langdon- Orr (APRALO member), and Jia-Rong Low - Sr Director, GSE Asia 

October 2015 Report

1. APRALO Individual Membership - During APRALO monthly meeting took place at ICANN 54, in Dublin, the issue of individual membership had been discussed. The new ROP is in the process of preparation. APRALO Rules of Procedures Review 2015- Individual membership wiki space is created for comments. In the wiki space the information about how other RALOs are dealing with the same issue is posted as well. The space is open for all members of APRALO to comment.

   
   

2. NomCom appointee for ALAC - Kaili Kan, (you can read about him here: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/nomcom-bios-2015-09-25-en#kaili-kan), a new NomCom appointee for ALAC from Asia Pacific region, was introduced to APRALO members. 

   
   

3. APRALO promotional video - APRALO Leadership team prepared a new outreach video (courtesy for making the video Glenn McKnight), which can be viewed here: 

    

4. APRALO Outreach Strategy - During October monthly meeting APRALO outrach strategy for FY16 was discussed with the representatives of ICANN GSE staff from Asia Pacific, Yu-Chuang Kuek, VP and Managing Director, APAC, who provided updates on current APAC Hub-APRALO coorperation, effectiveness of webinars and future plans, updates from India were also presented. Zheng Song, Head of China also provided updates from the region. APRALO strategy is available here: APRALO strategy FY2016.docx. This is a living document and can be updated/added during the course of the year. 

   
   

5. FY17 financial requests discussions - APRALO leadership team started the discussions of requests to be submitted for FY17. During FY17 there will be one meeting in AP region and the request for holding GA will be submitted. Several other requests, including the participation at the next IGF 2016 are in the process of discussion. The deadlines for submission the financial requests to ICANN will be in Feb-March.

September 2015 Report

1. At-Large Policy Development Page - This page provides you updates on current statements, which are open for comments and we encourage APRALO ALSs to actively participate in the discussions - comment, becoming a pen holder for writing the statement, etc. You don't need to be an ALAC member to participate in the discussions, as a certified ALS you are welcome to make your voice heard.

2. APRALO outreach calendar - this calendar had been created as a result of the work of ALAC Outreach and ENgagement subcommittee and helps us to be updated on the activities your ALSs are implementing. As the discussions showed, many ALSs are doing great job and we are not aware of this. Thus, this calendar will help us first to learn about your activities, your involvement and second to inform others about outreach activities, conducted in your respective countries, as well as to identify the events, where other ALSs may participate and share their experience. The more cross posting, the more spreading the word!!! The calendar is available here: http://teamup.com/ks8f4dd46342679eea/. If you have challenges to post your events, please, send your updates to me at siranush_vardanyan@hotmail.com 
    
3. First National IGF In Armenia - On September 7-8 the first National IGF in Armenia took place with active participation of APRALO members and ICANN representatives. CROPP report will be available soon. See the updates, provided by ISOC Armenia Board member, Lianna Galstyan here: 
4. The upcoming webinar within the framework of APAC HUB and APRALO partnership - On September 29, at 05:00-06:00UTC the forth webinar will take place on New gLTD program/ccTLDs, run by APAC HUB. Please, mark your calendars for that day. The link to the webinar can be found here: New gTLD program / ccTLDs Webinar 2015-09-29

August 2015 Report

1. APRALO Outreach strategy - APRALO Strategy had been approved during ALAC Outreach and Engagement Sub Committee on August 3, 2015. RALOs' strategy wiki space is here: APRALO Outreach Strategic Plan.The APRALO strategy is available here: APRALO strategy FY2016.docx. This is a living document and can be updated/added during the course of the year. 

2. At-Large Captioning Pilot to create criteria 2015-08-19 - APRALO joined the new initiative on captioning pilot project. The pilot phase approved by ICANN board is October-December 2015. The initiative is led by NARALO and APRALO and AFRALO are involved in pilot phase. Currently the criteria for the pilot phase are being discussed. It was suggested that one of the webinars within the framework of APRALO-APAC HUB partnership to be implemented in November or December 2015 will be captioned. Staff with work with APAC HUB to conduct test prior to the webinar for captioning possibilities
   
   
3. CCWG on Enhancing ICANN Accountability - During the August call CCWD Accountability 2nd draft presentation was conducted for AP community - the presentation slides are available here: XPL_CCWG Proposal_Visual Summary_FINAL.pdf
   
   
4. New ALS Welcome Webinars - On August 12 the webinar for newly joined ALSs had been conducted. APRALO has 4 new ALSs joined recently. The presentations conducted by ALAC Chair and new ALSs, as well as recording and transcript of the meeting are available here: Formal webinar for new ALSes with RALO leaders and the ALAC Chair 2015-08-12. APRALO presentation, conducted by APRALO Vice Chair Ali AlMeshal is available here: APRALO presentation.ppt

July 2015 Report

1. APRALO Outreach strategy - APRALO Leadership team started to work on the new outreach strategy for FY16 after ICANN 53. The new strategy includes several activities planned within APRALO during FY16. APRALO welcomes the opportunities that CROPP funding allows to expand the understanding of and participation in ICANN activities by Internet users in the Asia and Pacific region. Specifically, through CROPP funding, as well as finding from additional, regional funding bodies, APRALO members will be able to participate in regional events and explain ICANN’s structure and activities, and how Internet organizations’ can participate in the development of ICANN policies and activities. As well as APRALO appreciate the partnership with APNIC and APTLD and several local opportunities for the implementation of FY16 strategy. The strategy received positive feedback from the APRALO members in Outreach Sub Committee, as well as from regional VP and stuff. The strategy is available here: APRALO strategy FY2016.docx. 

2. Individual membership in APRALO - APRALO LT started the discussions related accreditation/admission procedures for Individual members. The best practices used in EURALO and NARALO are the basis for further discussions. The topic also will be discussed during July-September period to have the planned approach to be presented at ICANN 54. The wiki space will be created and the small Task Force team will be established to continue the discussions, started during ICANN 53. The direct link to the wiki space is here: https://community.icann.org/display/APRALO/APRALO+Rules+of+Procedures+Review+2015-+Individual+membership. We encourage APRALO ALSs to provide comments/suggestions on this topic.

3. APRALO - ICANN APAC HUB PILOT FRAMEWORK - Within the framework for this cooperation APRALO and the ICANN APAC Hub are organizing a webinar “Basic DNS and DNS Ecosystem Webinar", taking place on 30 July 2015 at 05:00 UTC. 
   Invited Speaker is Steve Sheng - Director, SSAC & RSSAC Advisory Development Support, Policy Development. The draft agenda (to be updated) and call details are available at: https://community.icann.org/x/W4BCAw. ADIGO dial-in numbers: https://adigo.com/icann/. Adobe Connect (with two-way audio in English): http://icann.adobeconnect.com/apralo. If you require a dial-out please contact At-Large staff at staff@atlarge.icann.org with your preferred number.
    

June 2015 Report

1. APRALO - ICANN APAC HUB PILOT FRAMEWORK - During June monthly meeting, which took place during ICANN 53 meeting, Yu-Chuang Kuek, VP and Managing Director - APAC HUB, provided updates on the implemented activities and the works related to the upcoming webinar to be organized in July (topic is New gTLD program). 

2. One of the main issues discussed during the monthly meeting was how to encourage the current ALSs for broader participation in ICANN and APRALO activities. During previous months APRALO leadership team conducted a survey and based on the survey results several activities now are in place to provide relevant information to ALS representatives, especially the newcomers. 

3. During the June monthly meeting APRALO invited as a quest speaker Patrik Fältström, Chair of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee, ICANN, to provide the information about DNSSEC, current development and challenges. 
4. APRALO Outreach strategy - APRALO Leadership team started to work on the new outreach strategy for FY16, which is a new requirement for CROPP program. The strategy will be presented to CROPP in July before submission to any CROPP application for funding. 
5. 2015 APRALO Selections and Appointments - As a result of consensus call it was officially announced that Maureen Hilyard as ALAC member from APRALO, Satish Babu as APRALO Vice Chair and Pavan Budhani as secretariat will continue to serve another term. The details and the results are provided in the link.
   
   

May 2015 Report

1.  APRALO - ICANN APAC HUB PILOT FRAMEWORK - The next webinar planned within the framework of APRALO collaboration with APAC Hub is planned on June 4 and the topic is: Internet Governance (including ICANN and multi stakeholder model). The agenda is posted here: Internet Governance Webinar 2015-06-04. Two members of APRALO Leadership team - Maureen Hyliard and Satish Babu - will be also among the -presenters. During May APRALO LT and ICANN Staff worked on planning issues.

    

2. During APRALO May monthly call we have invited Olivier Crepin-Leblond had bee4n invited to speak about IANA transition and ICANN Accountability issues. The information provided is available here:

• CWG Stewardship Draft Proposal without annexes (v.22 April 2015)
• CWG Stewardship Draft Proposal WITH annexes (v.22 April 2015)
• CWG Stewardship Input Template in WORD format (v.22 April 2015)
• CWG Stewardship Input Template in PDF format (v.22 April 2015)
• CWG-Stewardship - Towards a Final Proposal (v3. 23 April 2015)
  
•  Cross Community Working Group (CCWG) Accountability: Initial Draft Proposal for Public Comment (11 May 2015)
  

     3. 2015 ALAC and RALO Elections, Selections and Appointments - During April and May APRALO conducted a consensus call, which was successfully completed with the selection of Maureen Hyliard as ALAC member from APRALO, Satish Babu as APRALO Vice Chair and Pavan Budhani as APRALO Secretariat to continue their serving in the same positions for the next term. Details are available here: 2015 ALAC and RALO Elections, Selections and Appointments

     4. APRALO Delegate for NomCom election is in the process. APRALO has two candidates - Gunela Astbrink from Australia and Amir Qayuum from Pakistan. In May APRALO held an official voting process. 

     5. APRALO Monthly calls time and date change - During May APRALO conducted a doodle to identify the best date and time for APRALO monthly calls. As a result of the doodle poll starting from May 2015 APRALO monthly calls will take place on the third Thursday of the month at 06:00-07:00 UTC (with the exception of F2F meetings during ICANN public meetings).

April 2015 Report

1.  APRALO - ICANN APAC HUB PILOT FRAMEWORK - Within the framework of APRALO collaboration with APAC Hub the series of webinars for APRALO members started with the first webinar, conducted on April 9, 2015. The topic was What are IDNs and what does it mean to you. The agenda of the webinar is posted in March report space. Transcription of the first webinar is available at: IDNs Webinar 2015-04-09. 

   All recording and transcripts of webinars will be provided after each webinar. At-Large staff will work on this in collaboration with APAC hub and ICANN's translation-request teams.

   During the period starting from April 2015 till December 2015 one webinar per month will be organized: The topics of the planned webinars are posted at 2015 APRALO Capacity Building Webinar Series, under Focus Ares 2: Leveraging APAC for Capacity & Capacity Building

          Based on the survey conducted among APRALO ALSs, the following topics for webinars to be conducted for end users during 2015 year has been agreed by APRALO Leadership team, APAC HUB staff and ICANN At-Large staff:

For your reference and for those who were unable to attend, the webinar recording, audio recording, transcription and presentation slides are available at the following link: https://community.icann.org/x/FyEnAw  

Questions or comments can be sent to ICANN At-Large Staff at staff@atlarge.icann.org and we would appreciate your feedback via a simple online survey (click here)  to help us better plan for the future webinars. 

We would also like to have your feedback/suggestions on what other topics you would like us to cover for our future Webinars. If you have any suggestions, please write to us at staff@atlarge.icann.org 

In addition, this page is the one-stop-shop for all APrALO-APAC Hub Capacity Building Webinar Series:  https://community.icann.org/x/NA8nAw. Please bookmark this page to follow the development of future webinars and gain Access to their recordings, transcription and presentation slides.

2. APRALO Professional Expertise Survey - The final results of the survey are available here: APRALO SURVEY RESULTS - 31 March 2015.pdf

3. APRALO Outreach Strategy

APRALO Outreach Strategy For the coming 12 months, APRALO will divide the Asia Pacific region into 5 main parts. East, West, North, South and Australasia. One representative, either from an ALS or an APRALO executive will take the lead for each region with Pavan, our Secretariat taking the lead on the overall flow of the project. The project will involve looking at the number of countries we have in each region and how many ALS’es there are in that region. Then we will start the outreach in the various regions with the help of current ALS’es and other organizations using our contacts. These could be ISOC Chapters, Universities and so on. Our overall goal is to make sure APRALO has a well balanced representation and we cover every part of the region.

March 2015 Report

1.  APRALO - ICANN APAC HUB PILOT FRAMEWORK - Within the framework of APRALO collaboration with APAC Hub the series of webinars for APRALO members will be organized. The first webinar will be organized on 9 April 2015. Time: 11:00 – 12:00 Singapore Time / 03:00 – 04:00 UTC 

   Topic: What are IDNs and what does it mean to you? In collaboration with the APRALO Capacity Building Webinar Series
   
   Agenda: Do you know that characters used in top-level domains (TLDs) extend beyond ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) including other scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Japanese and others? To determine valid TLD labels in these scripts and their variants, however, community input is very important. Join us to find out more about IDNs at our webinar session and learn how you can play a part! The proposed agenda is as follows:
   
   -      Introduction to Mr. Sarmad Hussain, IDN Program Senior Manager at ICANN
   -      What are Internationalized Domain Names?
   -      What does it mean to you?
   -      IDN Work at ICANN
   -      Sharing by APRALO representative: IDN from the Label Generation Ruleset (LGR) panel perspective (TBC)
   -      Why and how you can be involved
   -      Q&A

   * Kindly note that Universal Acceptance of IDNs will not be a focus topic at this introductory presentation.
   Questions:  Please submit questions in advance to help us better tailor the webinar to the needs of the APAC region. Send your questions and RSVP to apachub@icann.org by 3 April. We look forward to your active participation. 
   

   Feel free to share with your friends and colleagues in your community as well. 
   Adobe Connect: https://icann.adobeconnect.com/apacmtgrm 

2. APRALO Professional Expertise Survey - This survey is get to know more about our AT-Large Structures (ALSes) and their members. We realise that there is a lot of untapped potential among our ALS members and we need to find out more about you and how you might be able to more appropriately contribute to the work we do in APRALO and in ALAC. With ICANN becoming more focused on its ACCOUNTABILITY, there is an expectation that each of its sections will look at how well it is contributing to the work of the wider ICANN community. Therefore, measuring and metrics are becoming the norm and our members must be seen to be playing their part within the system in order to retain their membership. The objective of the Survey is also to determine the areas of professional expertise of RALO members as required by ATLAS II Recommendation 28: " 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". - https://community.icann.org/display/als2/Post-ATLAS+II+Activities+Workspace

The deadline - EXTENDED - is March 31st, 2015, 23:00 UTC

The Survey report as of March 25, 2015 is available here: APRALO SURVEY RESULTS - 25 March 2015.pdf 

3. ALAC Review process - The detailed information is available here: At-Large Review 2015 - 2019 (Current). ALAC review presentation was conducted by Holly Raiche during APRALO March call. The link to the presentation is here: At Large Review Presentation - Jan 2015.pdf. ALSs input is highly welcomed and appreciated.

4. CROPP Program FY15 - During February APRALO members Satish Babu and Maureen Hyliard participated in APRICOT 2015 within the framework of CROPP program. The detailed report of the participation is available here: Report to the CROPP Committee-Babu&Hilyard.pdf

The report format will be used as a template for future participation within the framework of CROPP Program.

February 2015 Report

1. ICANN 52 in Singapore, APRALO Showcase - APRALO members conducted another important event to "Celebrate Diversity" during ICANN 52. The final agenda is posted here: APRALO SHOWCASE 2015 PROGRAM. APRALO members represent 24 of around 73 countries that make up the Asia-Pacific region. Among the 6800 languages spoken around the globe, 3500 are spoken here. We are 60% of the world’s population and already make up 45% of the world’s internet users. APRALO currently has 35 ALSes with whom we encourage active participation in ICANN activities. We realise the importance of the contribution that At-Large can make to the work and eventual decision-making of our ALAC and other ICANN bodies. We realise that ultimately our ALSes can help the ICANN Board make important decisions about the coordination of the internet world. During the Showcase all invited quests participated in a number of activities, to help us celebrate the Chinese New Year.

   • Calligraphy Demonstration to help learning how to write your name in Chinese
   • All guests received local souvenirs with Chinese Zodiac Fortune Forecast for 2015
   • Testing of traditional local dumplings
   • And the unique and outstanding Dikir Barat performance by the Sekolah Menengah Sains Kubang Pasu school troupe from Malaysia.

    2.   CROPP program - APRALO members Satish Babu and Maureen Hilyard are in the process of finalizing all necessary logistics for participation at APRICOT 2015 in Japan. 

    3.   FY16 Budget requests - APRALO leadership team worked on the FY16 requests and submitted one request for participation at IGF 2015 in Brazil. Confirmation is expected in April 2015.  

    4.   APRALO - ICANN APAC HUB PILOT FRAMEWORK - During Singapore meeting the final document had been presented to all ALSs. The activities towards three major directions, identified (capacity building, language localization and outreach) had been started. Language localization WG had been established and ALSs already participate to translate some important key documents in their own languages. Topics, suggested by ALSs (in 2014 the request for topics had been sent to APRALO members and feedback received) had been collected and sent to ICANN Singapore staff for identifying speakers, time frames for the course of new webinars to be planned to be conducted in Asia Pacific region for ALSs. The final document of the pilot framework, which includes also details related to Capacity Building program info is attached: APRALO-ICANN APAC Pilot Plan Presented at ICANN52.pptx. APRALO leadership team is currently working with the staff to prioritize the topics and start the series of webinars planned for the upcoming 2015 year.

   5.    ALS engagement and Metrics - During APRALO monthly meeting in Singapore Maureen Hilyard, who is a member of Metrics WG, presented the information how the metrics will be conducted. The presentation is available here: APRALO ALS Metrics - 10 Feb 2015.pdf. 

   6.   MOU between APRALO and DotAsia - Over the years, APRALO has been very fortunate to have had within its ranks a colleague, Edmon Chung, who has partnered and sponsored our events with such regularity and generosity, that we felt it was important that we formalise our relationship with DotAsia, and continue to look at ways in which we can mutually benefit our organisations. During the APRALO Showcase in Singapore APRALO officially signed an MOU with DotAsia. The final MOU can be viewed here: dotasia apralo MOU.docx. 

   7.  APRALO Survey - APRALO Leadership team is preparing a survey to identify the expertise available in ALSs to encourage more active participation in policy development process. The survey will be sent to ALSs by the end of February. It is planned to prepare the final analysis and the future steps between February-June 2015 period. 

January 2015 Report

1. ICANN 52 in Singapore, APRALO Showcase - APRALO members worked on preparations for the Showcase. The agenda has been finalized, the invitations to the speakers had been sent and approved. The logistics with the staff had been discussed and finalized. The final agenda is posted here: APRALO SHOWCASE 2015 PROGRAM. The Showcase will take place on February 11, Wednesday, from 18:30-21:00.

    2.   CROPP program - APRALO members Satish Babu and Maureen Hilyard submitted the final request for participation at APRICOT 2015 in Japan. The discussions between the leadership team and APRALO VPs had been conducted. The support from APNIC had been received for covering the   participation fee. It was decided to include the CROPP strategy for APRALO as agenda item for Singapore F2F APRALO monthly meeting

    3.   FY16 Budget requests - During January APRALO leadership team worked on the FY16 requests and is in the process of preparing one request submission for participation at IGF 2015 in Brazil. The final document will be discussed in Singapore.  

    4.   APRALO - ICANN APAC HUB PILOT FRAMEWORK - After London meeting, together with regional VPs APRALO leadership has discussed the strategy for the future cooperation and the priority areas had been set based on the feedback and contribution provided by APRALO ALSs. The           language support team had been established and working. The updates will be presented in February.

   5.    ALS engagement and Metrics - During January with the support of staff the data on ALSs' participation during 2014 had been collected and the discussions and updates will be discussed in Singapore meeting in February. The full agenda for the next meeting in February is posted here under   APRALO monthly meeting section: At-Large Meetings - Tuesday, 10 February 2015 Workspace

   6.   MOU between APRALO and DotAsia - APRALO is working with DotAsia on signing an official MOU on collaboration to be signed during the Showcase in Singapore. The draft had been sent to DotAsia for final comments