At-Large FY18 Budget Development Workspace

FY18 Community Additional Budget Request Timeline

Kick off and Submission Period

15/12/2016

staff@atlarge.icann.org

Opportunities exist for At-Large members to do local outreach and engagement about ICANN and ICANN policy related issues. The local activities can include  local presentations, brown bag lunch topics, local  business persons presentations i.e., Kiwanais, Rotary, Professional Women’s  University Groups, Chamber of Commerce and more. These local groups at the grassroots are looking for professional speakers on a weekly basis and rely on local experts on various topics. They open up opportunities for speaking engagements at minimum cost.

While the FY17 Additional Budget Request on this issue was not approved, there was $10,000 in GSE funding made available. The ALAC is appreciative of this.

A template was prepared and requests from the RALOs are being submitted.

The proposal is to organize and implement an effective, coordinated and sustained At-Large strategy to raise awareness of the end-user perspective and engage in targeted outreach and engagement program during the 2017 IGF to be held in Geneva 18-21 December 2017 which is a premier global event  targeting global stakeholders in the Internet Ecosystem.  The program will include awareness raising on end-user policy issues through 5 workshops, training activities and better utilize the ICANN information booth, thus heighten overall branding of At-Large and ICANN. 

This request is to provide travel support (flight, accommodation and per diem) for the new position of ALAC Liaison to the GAC. The ALAC currently receives travel support for the ALAC liaisons to the ccNSO, GNSO and SSAC (if they are not funding by other means such as receiving ALAC Member support or SSAC support). This request would like to ask that the new position of the ALAC Liaison to the GAC receive similar support in order to be able to carry out their duties and participate f2f in the GAC and ALAC meetings at ICANN Public Meetings.

This proposal envisages organizing the Asia-Pacific Regional At-Large Organization  (APRALO) General Assembly (GA) – that is, bringing together one representative from each of the APRALO ALSes, as well as a selected representative for individual members, at a single location for a combination of strategic development, policy development, capacity building and outreach and engagement. The last APRALO GA was held in London in 2014.

The proposed date and location is specifically requested to be at ICANN 60 (Meeting C) scheduled to take place 28 October - 3 November 2017 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

This request for a APRALO General Assembly is in line with the timeline for RALO General Assemblies and the next At-Large Summit as developed by the ALAC. APRALO meetings at the requested General Assembly will focus on three specific components:

1. How to better engage our ALSs – also known within ICANN as “inreach” – in a candid examination of expectations, member engagement, program execution and community adhesion, we intend to deliver a one-day workshop intended to discover what needs to be done, both by ICANN and the APRALO community, to maximize volunteer participation, increase the ability to represent the best interests of end-users, as well as increase ICANN's “on the street” relevance.

2. Policy briefings on critical ICANN issues intended to ensure that APRALO ALS

representatives are adequately informed to educate their ALS memberships, and that they

are better able to channel bottom-up end-user perspectives and ideas into the At-Large

community’s policy debates.

3. Leadership training, intended to educate APRALO ALSes about the details of ICANN processes, and develop a clear understanding of its role in the broader Internet Governance Ecosystem. As an example, the current deluge of activity surrounding the Post transition of the IANA stewardship is mainly the realm of those who can follow it practically full-time, with multiple working groups and dozens (if not hundreds) of proposals in the air. It is our experience that many in the At-Large community do not understand much of what's going on or even the relevance. Awareness of both the processes and the path from idea to policy is a critical part of advancing the public interest within ICANN.

The APRALO Leadership application for APRICOT

India SIG proposal for 2017

This request is to enable potential APRALO ambassadors from within the APRALO ranks to participate in the Asia Pacific Internet Governance Academy, to enhance the potential for local community, as well as APRALO, outreach capacity regionally.

The first academy was organized jointly by the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) and ICANN, in partnership with regional organizations such as the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC), Internet Society (ISOC), DotAsia organization, and other members of the Asia Pacific Internet community. Many of these APIGA partners are already partners of APRALO. The program aims at nurturing the next generation of Internet leaders to be the region’s voice and preparing them to participate in the global multistakeholder Internet governance ecosystem.

Global IGF 2017

Continuing further with the successful previous IGF initiatives, the APRALO Leadership Team proposes participation of 3 members of its Leadership Team at the 2017 IGF.

The specific activities that would be carried out by the three-member Outreach Delegation, jointly and individually, are:

• Participate as APRALO resource persons in different workshops. For this, the team members would be registering themselves as Resource Persons in the IGF Resource Persons' Roster.
• Collaborate and support activities of other ALAC Members
• Explore, and if possible, plan and execute an At-Large Outreach event jointly with other RALOs present at Genva and local ALSes, if any, with Universities and other institutions. The objective of such an outreach process would be to introduce At-Large (and thereby, ICANN), and to stimulate growth and participation of local end-user communities in At-Large activities.

Although there are uncertainties arising out of the approval process of Workshops at IGF, going by past history it is likely that there would be workshops being organized by APRALO members (there were two such workshops last year and one the previous year). The Outreach Delegation would support these workshops.

• Assuming we have other RALO representatives available, consider creating an At-Large 'corner' in the ICANN booth to provide information on ALAC/At-Large, its role, reach and diversity to visitors
• As in the case of 2016, hold talks with AP regional organizations for specific regional collaborative programmes

The Twelfth Meeting of the annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF), under the revised mandate, is scheduled to take place in Geneva City, Switzerland, in December 2017. IGF is an open and public forum that brings interested participants from various stakeholder groups as equals, under a multistakeholder process. IGF focuses on public policy issues relating to the Internet.

IGF's open format allows anyone interested in Internet policy to participate. Consequently, it presents a unique opportunity for outreach as well as for networking and interacting with several global communities that are otherwise difficult to contact independently.

Several members of APRALO—including some of the members of the APRALO Leadership Team—have been actively participating in IGF over the years, and have been organizing workshops on different IG-related topics.

APRALO was able to send an official delegation to IGF 2015 held at João Pessoa, Brazil and IGF 2016 in Mexico with ICANN budget support. The initiative was very successful, and the APRALO team was able to extensively interact with members of APRALO, members of the Asia-Pacific Internet Governance community, members of other RALOs, ICANN community members, and the larger IGF Community. The APRALO team also supported the APRALO members in organizing their workshops.

As of now, neither the themes for IGF 2017 nor the Call for Proposals have been published. APRALO had discussed a plan to propose a Workshops, as soon as the call for proposals is announced.

Promote ICANN’s Role and Multistakeholder approach.

A workshop organized by EURALO on the “The Public Interest”. EURALO has been at the forefront of the discussions on the Public Interest in ALAC but also in ICANN, through its working group on the Public Interest and its involvement in the ICANN-wide public interest discussions.

This workshop at the Internet Governance Forum, Chaired by Wolf Ludwig, would explore the Public Interest in ICANN’s remit and compare it with other Multistakeholder systems and the Public Interest in wider Internet Governance. Representatives from the various stakeholder groups composing the Multistakeholder ecosystem will be invited to explain their perspective. The discussion of the Public Interest in ICANN’s remit would act as a starting point for a wider debate that touches on the broader Internet Ecosystem.

EURALO requests funding for 5 EURALO members to attend the ICANN-Studienkreis to take place on 24-25 August 2017 in Stockholm. The ICANN Studienkreis ("ICANN Study group") is an open network composed of experts in the Internet industry who are dedicated to organizing high-level expert seminars on issues regarding ICANN development and internet governance. Individuals and constituencies from the private sector, government, academic institutions, the civil society and the media participate in yearly conferences organized by ICANN Studienkreis.

ICANN Studienkreis focuses 100% on ICANN topics.

The ICANN Studienkreis is essentially attended by participants in ICANN’s ecosystem and includes influential participants. ICANN’s former President and CEO Fadi Chehadé has attended past ICANN Studienkreis, as the conference is directly related to ICANN activities. ICANN’s current President and CEO Göran Marby attended last year’s ICANN’s Studienkreis. Other speakers included several ICANN senior staff, Chairs of Supporting Organisations and Advisory Committees, as well as at least two ICANN Board members per meeting. Meeting these participants is an essential part of the experience the EURALO participants will have, an opportunity they will not have as easily in other fora.

To organize and deliver the first NORTH AMERICAN SCHOOL OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE at or before the ICANN 61 in March 2018. This would be a two-day Internet Governance capacity building event to expose approximately 200 individuals from different sectors in Puerto Rico. It will consist of 10 sessions covering topics that will be surveyed early in the year 2017 to determine the most important topics to be covered.

SUMMARY:

Production of independent, factual, end-user-targeted information regarding the worldwide use and administration of domain names, as well as other components of the ICANN functions. This program will identify and and deploy creative approaches to explaining difficult Internet concepts through the use of clear, colloquial language, using non-traditional media and presented in a light – humorous, if possible – tone.

RATIONALE:

As part of an attempt to block the IANA transition in late 2016, US Senator Ted Cruz, along with political collaborators and proxies, launched a global campaign of false information, conspiracy theories, and even personal attacks on the then-CEO of ICANN. With a communications strategy aimed at policy-makers, the domain industry and technically-savvy users, ICANN was ill-equipped to counter this. While Senator Cruz’s campaign to derail the transition within Congress did not succeed, the results were far closer than expected and trust for ICANN as an organization was diminished within the end-user population. Moreover. the polarization, inaccuracies and hostility created by the campaign have subsided but not been eliminated; they could be revived at any time, and their tone can easily be repeated by actors in other countries hostile to the ICANN multi-stakeholder model.

In a society that honors free speech, ICANN cannot simply wish away or ban that which is hostile or false. The answer to malicious and false information is to confront it with utility and fact. While such confrontation will not change the minds of those attacking ICANN and multi-stakeholderism for political ends, it may succeed in reaching the billions of neutral observers who, in the absence of truth and clarity, have only heard from the fear-mongers and conspiracy theorists.

Moreover, a number of examples exist that demonstrate the ability to present complex Internet issues in clear lay language, often using humor to help convey the message. Two examples:

• “John Oliver: Net Neutrality” (June 1 2014, HBO)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU
• “Adam Conover: The Terrifying Cost of ‘Free’ Websites” (Dec 7 2016, TruTV and collegehumor.com)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pFX2P7JLwA

THE PROJECT:

Using a contest aimed at communications and visual arts students, we hope to find sources of independent, creative approaches to providing publicly-focused factual information through a variety of media (web, video podcasts, etc). An advisory committee will determine the priority topics and judge the winning proposals, a secretariat will create and publicize the contest, conduct supporting research/fact-checking, and oversee the execution and distribution of the final material.

The advisory committee is tentatively to be composed of:

• ICANN communications staff

• Expertise in video production
• Expertise in journalism
• Members of the ICANN At-Large Community
• Other expertise in Internet Governance

While the project (obviously) is counting on the support of ICANN and others, it is intentional that the media content produced as a result of the contest be independent and not official ICANN communications. Indeed, it is possible that some analysis and humor may not be totally in-line with ICANN messaging, but that is acceptable. What is most important is accuracy, relevance and understandability (and thus trustworthiness) by a maximum audience.

Global Indigenous Persons Mentorship Program

Assign Global Indigenous Fellowships

The work of Native Public Media, the proposer, includes the engagement of Tribal members into the policy-making and rulemaking processes of broadband and Internet policies.  The multi-pronged strategies of NPM include education, awareness building, and training of U.S. Tribal constituents on broadband deployment, broadband infrastructure funding, access, adoption, and use.  The participation of Fasthorse and Tinhorn in the Indigenous Fellowship program is just the beginning of greater engagement and consultation of U.S. Tribal Nations and other indigenous communities around the world in the ICANN multi-stakeholder model.  Often invisible, indigenous peoples have been at the heart of setting their own telecommunications destiny and the ICANN Fellowship opportunity supports and promotes indigenous self-determination in the Internet sphere.

In 2016, the first Indigenous Fellows, representing the North American Tribes of Hualapai, Arizona and Coure De’Alene, Idaho, attended ICANN 57 in India.  This first exposure of tribal community members to ICANN was not only eye-opening, it was life changing.  Valerie Fasthorse, is an experienced and veteran Internet Technology staffer for her Tribe (Coure De Alene) and previous to that in the U.S. armed forces.  Likewise, April Tinhorn, spent her early professional years working for the National Security Administration of the U.S. federal government and more recently as an IT specialist for Tribal clients through her personal business Tinhorn Consulting.  Both women, who may had great knowledge about Internet access, use, and adoption were able to build on that base by learning about ICANN’s Internet multi-stakeholder work that reaches across the globe directly to diverse end-users and governments. 

To make the most of the generous opportunity via ICANN, vested indigenous mentors is paramount in bridging the importance of ICANN’s work to that of indigenous communities around the world.  Mentors must be able to continue and bridge the work post ICANN Fellowship engagement if the program is to remain meaningful and relevant. 

ALS groups in Canada are thinly spread around the country. Within these groups, members are often also interacting at a distance. Under these circumstances, it becomes very hard to maintain cohesion within groups. This proposal suggests a train the trainers model of raising awareness/familiarity with videoconferencing tools to help groups communicate more effectively. For ALS to ALS communication, the Adobe Connect platform is already available to them, but apparently it is rarely used outside of ICANN scheduled meetings. For individual ALS groups, they may need to gain more familiarity with Skype, Zoom or other platforms to enable them to move information about ICANN and its activities to the edges. This proposal would begin by linking one individual from any interested ALS with a 2 hour training session during which they would learn about initiating and managing/chairing meetings using various videoconferencing tools.