Discussion Notes 25 January 2010
Participants: Fouad Bajwa, Charles Mok, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, William Tibben, Siranush Vardanyan , Pavan Budhrani, Edmon Chung
Guests: Dev Anand Teelucksingh, Olivier Crépin-Leblond
Apologies: Holly Raiche, Vivek Anand
Staff: Matthias Langenegger
Review of summary minutes and action item from the last meeting
The summary minutes from the last call were adopted.
APRALO announcements
Hong: I suggest that we start the election cycle for the Chair position immediately after San Francisco. The term for the Chair period will start on 1 July 2011 and end on 30 June 2013. The new Chair should be seated in time to attend the Jordan meeting.
Fouad and Charles agreed.
APRALO face-to-face meeting in San Francisco in March
Staff: The APRALO meeting in San Francisco is currently scheduled on Tuesday, 15 March at 1700 local time (00:00 UTC/Hong Kong, Beijing: 16 March at 0800). However, the meeting time is subject to changes as the San Francisco meeting schedule evolves.
Update on Regional Policy Work plan
Dev Anand gave a presentation of the updated PAD flowchart as developed by Improvements WT D.
The first chart outlines the proposed activities of At-Large before a public consultation is published:
https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/2951129/At-Large,+ALAC+activities+before+policy+is+published_ver+3.pdf|download/attachments/2951129/At-Large,+ALAC+activities+before+policy+is+published_ver+3.pdf|
The second document outlines how At-Large/ALAC will look at the public consultations. It provides clear instructions how At-Large/ALAC will approach public consultations:
https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/2951129/New+ALACAt-Large+PAD+flowchart+(Dec+2010)_ver+6.pdf|download/attachments/2951129/New+ALACAt-Large+PAD+flowchart+%28Dec+2010%29_ver+6.pdf|
Charles: Thanks Dev. I think it is a very good approach to coordinate the regional efforts. The challenge will be to integrate the different regions and get the input from the bottom up.
Edmon: We might want to look at existing comments to a public consultation and draft our comment in light of comments already made. How would this be integrated in the process?
Dev: That's an interesting point. It will be a challenge as it has to happen quickly. One approach would be for the ALAC to comment directly to the Board in relation to an existing comment.
Edmon: I wonder whether there is a mechanism to implement this in the existing process.
Charles: We were looking at ways to prioritize our policy work. Right now, there are three pressing consultations. I hope we will be able to get a draft out on the IDN fast track in the next few days. Are there any volunteers? Edmon?
AI: Edmon will provide a draft APRALO Statement on the IDN fast track consultation in the next days.
APRALO Input to Work Team C SWOT Analysis
Oliver provided an introduction to the WT C SWOT analysis. The goal of WT C is to provide cost models for the At-Large activities and part of this exercise includes a SWOT analyses. Each RALO has an individual wiki page where it can provide input into the SWOT. We encourage that one person per region holds the pen and collects the regional input. It is up to you whether you want all ALSes to provide input directly or whether you want to select one person to collect input.
Hong: I suggest that the ALSes comment on the bottom of the page and the person holding the pen will then collect those comments.
Fouad Bajwa and Cheryl Langdon-Orr represent APRALO in WT C.
AI: Fouad will send an email to the APRALO mailing list encouraging them to provide input to the SWOT analysis, collect the APRALO input and post it under: https://community.icann.org/display/Improve/APRALO+input+into+WT+C+SWOT+analyses|display/Improve/APRALO+input+into+WT+C+SWOT+analyses||
APRALO Budget Requests for Financial Year 2011/12
Hong: We have been asked to appoint a budget liaison. I would like to propose Charles Mok.
Charles Mok was unanimously appointed as the APRALO budget liaison.
Hong: Charles will collect the APRALO budget requests for FY 11/12. The Jordan meeting in June is what comes to my mind.
CLO: The Jordan meeting is still in FY 10/11. However, we should think about the global and regional IGFs.
Charles: I will also send out an email to the mailing list to see whether there are additional proposals.
AI: Charles will send an email to the mailing list on the FY12 budget requests, follow up with Cheryl and submit the budget request templates to the ALAC on behalf of APRALO on 25 January.
Hong: We should also think of a GA in the next fiscal years. That's something we should request.
Olivier: I think the ALAC should push for one GA for every region. However, I encourage you to look more at issues that are specific to this region.
Review APRALO Position on Geographic Region Interim Report
Siranush: According to ICANN, Armenia is in APRALO. However, according to many others like the UN and others, it is part of Europe. There were some confusions about this in previous years.
Olivier: It is always difficult to divide the world into five regions, especially as many wear different hats in different circumstances. We will have a EURALO call later today to discuss this in detail. However, the comments we are looking at this time should be specifically on the Interim Report. The Geo regions WG has extensively worked on this issue and we are asked to comment on their report.
Hong: Unfortunately, the call will be at 0300 a.m. my time.
Olivier: The earth is round, unfortunately.
Hong: Fouad has made interesting comments on the Middle East.
Fouad: The Middle East is sort of a single language entity. The Internet in the Arab states are predominantly in Arabic and they are strongly linked to each other. The UN recognizes this and treats the Arab region as a separate cultural and linguistic region. This is just an observation, not a suggestion.
Cheryl: If the region would like to raise this issue, we should put it forward in writing. I sent out an introduction some time ago. If you are in support of this proposal, I think we do need to get the support from the ALSes affected and get their input first.
Hong: The Arabic Knowledge Group was our first ALS but we have not heard from them in a long time.
William: We have similar concerns in the Pacific Islands region and drafted a document.
AI: William will send the document on the Pacific Island region to Staff for distribution to the APAC discussion list.
Update on Outreach & In-reach
Fouad: Improvements WT B is now about to make recommendations on outreach/in-reach. There are several recommendations that are currently being discussed, among them, individual RALO membership and several social network tools, permanent Adobe Connect rooms and developing independent RALO translations mechanisms.
Updates from the ALAC members and liaisons
Cheryl: We have not had an ALAC call since the last APRALO call. However, it looks like we will make important progress on the ALAC budget requests today and also there will be a JAS call later today where we will further look at new gTLD applications from least developed countries.
AI: Fouad will reach out to the AKSM representative and the AKSM Board and ask them to provide input to the geo regions input.
Cheryl: I wonder whether we should send out a mid-monthly call to our ALS to send updates from their organizations.
Hong: Good point. And please also bring the APRALO flyer to the ISOC meetings.
The meeting was then adjourned.
Action Items
