This monthly report concentrates on a few elements of EURALO’s activities, as an update from and announced in the January report.
EURALO members were actively involved in organizing the Safer Internet Day (SID) on 7 February in Leipzig / Germany. The 2012 SID in Leipzig was a full success with a prior video competition among students and a presentation of 30 selected videos in a local high school. The very evening there was a penal discussion organized in the city centre with participation of EURALO. More details you can find under http://www.mitteldeutsches-internetforum.de/
EURALO members actively participated in the 2nd EuroDIG preparatory meeting in line with the IGF Open Consultations and the MAG meeting in Geneva on 14 – 16 February (Avri, Bill, Desiré, Sandra, Yrjö and Wolf). This prep. meeting concentrated on the further discussion of a program outline for the EuroDIG 2012 in June in Stockholm. More details you can find under http://www.eurodig.org/
The application process for the European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG) has opened now – interested students can apply via http://www.euro-ssig.eu/
EURALO conducted its monthly call on Tuesday 21 February – more details you can see in the meeting minutes. EURALO and its ALAC members are now preparing to join the next ICANN 43 Costa Rica meeting from 11 – 16 March.
За время новогодних праздников нами было создано два новых инструмента коммуникации в целях дальнейшего расширения нашей аудитории:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Euralo/194774283951550 and
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups/European-Regional-AtLarge-Organization-4235001
что получило поддержку со стороны всего сообщества EURALO
Январская активность EURALO и очередная телеконференция (17 января) были сфокусированы на определении приоритетов для 2012 года:
Предложения EURALO на 2012 -2013 Финансовый год ICANN
Поскольку в прошлые годы наши финансовые запросы не привели к должному результату, и, поскольку в 2011 -2012 годах никакой финансовой поддержки оказано не было, EURALO не будет проводить свою Генеральную Ассамблею, а также свои «показательные выступления» в ходе 44 конференции ICANN в июне 2012 года в Европе / Праге. По договоренности с персоналом ICANN At-Large, мы решили сконцентрировать все свои усилия на подаче двух заявок:
а) на финансирование участия членов EURALO в ICANN-Studienkreis в конце августа 2012 года в Осло (Норвегия);
б) и на организацию личной встречи членов EURALO в ходе следующего EuroDIG в 2013 году (место проведения еще предстоит уточнить).
Рабочая группа по ICANN Academy
Члены EURALO активно участвуют в различных телеконференциях этой рабочей группы, для того, чтобы доработать и завершить представление проектного предложения ALAC по созданию ICANN Academy, а также по запуску ее первой пилотной версии осенью 2012 года в Торонто. Эта рабочая группа возглавляется и руководится Сандрой Хоферихтер.
Подготовительная встреча EuroDIG в Стокгольме
Члены EURALO (Сандра, Оксана, Вольф) активно участвовали 18-19 января в Подготовительной встрече EuroDIG в Стокгольме. Еще несколько членов организации представили свои предложения по повестке дня EuroDIG в процессе принятия заявок. Дальнейшие подробности процесса подготовки EuroDIG и самые важные вехи размещены на сайте http://www.eurodig.org/
Члены EURALO также активно участвуют в проведении следующего дня Безопасного Интернета в Лейпциге (и не только, больше подробностей в следующем отчете).
Члены EURALO (Макс, Аннет, Вольфганг и Вольф) также принимают участие в 5-й инициативе Google’s Co:llaboratory Internet & Society on “Human Rights and the Internet”, которая проходит с января-месяца по 12 марта в Берлине).
EURALO получило новую заявку на вступление от Австрийской ячейки Wikimedia, которая сейчас проходит стандартную процедуру рассмотрения.
Отдельные члены EURALO приняли участие в различных инициативах и действиях с целью остановить SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, в виду того, что эти законы и договоры существенно нарушают права Интернет-пользователей, в том числе и на доступ к Интернету.
EURALO продолжает планирование на 2012 год таких важных мероприятий, как EuroDIG 2012 и Генеральная Ассамблея EURALO в Стокгольме в июне 2012, плюс участие в Майсенской школе EuroSSIG (Германия, июль-месяц) и ICANN-Studienkreis в Осло/Норвегия в конце августа, а также во всех конференциях ICANN в 2012 году в Коста-Рике, Праге и Торонто.
EURALO настоятельно рекомендует ознакомиться со статьей Вольфганга Кляйнвахтера «Что ожидает Управление Интернетом в 2012 году – «холодная война» или конструктивный диалог?», которую можно найти по следующей ссылке
http://news.dot-nxt.com/2012/01/10/ig-outlook-2012-part-one
Over the seasonal holidays, we created two new communication and outreach tools on
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Euralo/194774283951550 and
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups/European-Regional-AtLarge-Organization-4235001
what found some approval in the broader EURALO community.
EURALO’s January activities and the monthly conference call (17 January) focused on the following activities and priorities for 2012:
EURALO proposals for ICANN’s Fiscal Year planning 2012-13
As our requests for previous years were not “crowned with success” and there won’t be any financial support for the current FY (2011-12), EURALO will not organize its 2012 General Assembly inline with the 44 ICANN meeting in June 2012 in Europe / Prague and cannot offer a next Showcase there. In coordination with At-Large Staff, we concentrated on submitting two new requests for a) sponsorships of EURALO members for the ICANN-Studienkreis 2012 late August in Oslo / Norway, and b) organizing a Face-to-Face GA 2013 inline with the annual EuroDIG (at a place TBC).
WG on ICANN Academy
EURALO members actively participated in various WG calls to substantiate and finalize the ALAC project proposal / initiative to create an ICANN Academy and to launch a 1st pilot in autumn 2012 in Toronto. This WG is chaired and driven by Sandra Hoferichter.
EuroDIG Preparatory meeting in Stockholm
EURALO members (Sandra, Oksana and Wolf) actively participated at the EuroDIG Preparatory meeting 18-19 January in Stockholm. Some more members submitted proposals for the next EuroDIG 12 agenda during the call period. More details on the current EuroDIG preparation process and the Milestones to Stockholm in June 2012 can be found on the Website http://www.eurodig.org/
EURALO members were actively involved in organizing the next Safer Internet Day (SID) on 7 February in Leipzig / Germany (further details in the February report).
EURALO members (Max, Annette, Wolfgang and Wolf) are participating at the 5th Initiative of Google’s Co:llaboratory Internet & Society on “Human Rights and the Internet” (January – March 12) based in Berlin.
EURALO received a new ALS application from the Wikimedia Chapter Austria which is undergoing the regular DD procedure at the moment.
Some EURALO members participated in various initiatives and networks to Stop SOPA, PIPA and ACTA because respective laws and treaties will severely violate access and user rights on the Internet.
EURALO continues in drafting its 2012 planning with foreseeable highlights like EuroDIG 2012 and GA in Stockholm (June), EuroSSIG Meissen / Germany (July) and ICANN-Studienkreis in Oslo / Norway (August) besides its participation at ALAC and 2012 ICANN meetings (Costa Rica, Prague and Toronto).
EURALO strongly recommends reading of Wolfgang Kleinwächter’s article “Internet Governance Outlook 2012: Cold War or Constructive Dialogue?”, (part 1 and 2) published at http://news.dot-nxt.com/2012/01/10/ig-outlook-2012-part-one
Our monthly activities focused on the follow-up of ALAC consultations (draft statement on geographic regions etc.) and the preparation of the last monthly call this year. Besides other call agenda items we dedicated our discussions on a wrap-up of EURALO activities, highlights / achievements and shortcomings in 2011 (participation at three ICANN meetings, ICANN-Studienkreis Budapest, EuroDIG and GA in Belgrade, EuroSSIG, Ukrainian IGF, Swiss new gTLD event etc.). Another highlight of this year was the submission of a substantiated ICANN Academy proposal to ICANN and ALAC. The increase by members was modest again this year (two ALSes from Ukraine EMP and UIA as well as TaC from France), and we are far away from reaching our standing goal of having one member per European country. After the 2011 amendments of our Bylaws we can offer equal opportunities to encourage and include individual members but we didn't follow up on the creation of an ALS (pending issue). To improve our membership record, more initiatives from ALL (not only officers and Board members) are needed, and we have to improve our presence at all sorts of IG-related events in our region (while being aware about the persistent lack of capacities and funding sources).
EURALO will start its planning for 2012 immediately after the seasonal break: preparations for EuroDIG 2012 (Stockholm), Safer Internet Day Leipzig (February), IGF open consultations Geneva (February and May), next ICANN-Studienkreis meeting 23 - 24 August in Oslo, and as a next presumable highlight, the June 44 ICANN meeting in Prague where we will probably convene our next GA and organize a EURALO Showcase. Most likely EURALO will be present at the 7th IGF in Baku / Azerbaijan again.
EURALO’s November activities and the monthly conference call (15 November) focused on the following subjects:
From the Dakar meeting EURALO was closely involved in planning, organizing and programming of the Swiss New gTLD Info day on 28 November in Bern. This event was co-organized by Swiss OFCOM, the national registry Switch, the business association EconomieSuisse and EURALO representing civil society. It was a particular challenge for EURALO being – as a sort of best practice – closely involved in such a multi-stakeholder initiative in Switzerland. This info day can be considered as a success with more than 150 participants from all parts of the country. The only weak point was the evident under-representation of civil society and net-focused groups. See: http://www.new-gtld.ch/
The presentations and video recordings from the event are available at the website now. This new gTLD info day was an excellent national outreach opportunity for EURALO to make us known among the different stakeholder groups (federal offices, reps. from cities and cantons, specialised business segments, law firms etc.). Events like this offer some potential to represent EURALO on national levels and comparable opportunities like national IGFs etc. (as it was the case twice already at the Ukrainian IGFs, EuroDIG etc.).
As a key conclusion from the recent Swiss (and German) event can be drawn: Several private and business projects seem to be well prepared for the first application round early next year (January – April 2012). But as it was mentioned by Sandra atour last monthly call (referring to the German event early November in Berlin), most of the public entities are not aware about these new gTLD options and cannot submit projects in time for the first – and narrow – application round, besides the few and well-known city/community projects like .Berlin, .Paris, .London etc. In the public sector there is still a lot of awareness raising and consultation needed to convince the decision makers about these new opportunities.
Main topics of the monthly call were:
EURALO October activities and conference call (18 October) focused on the following subjects:
Key items of EURALO's activities in Dakar:
This month's EURALO activities and teleconference call (20 September) focused on the following subjects:
Due to the usual summer break in Europe, our activities were limited to the current deadlines such as re-nomination of EURALO's NomCom representative Yrjö Länsipuro for a 2nd term and our monthly calls.
Besides this, EURALO members (Sandra, Wolfgang, Olivier and Wolf) were working on a substantiated project proposal for a ICANN Academy which is no under review by ICANN Staff and ALAC -- see:
https://community.icann.org/display/Improve/ICANN+Academy+Proposal
Please see here for Russian Version
This month's EURALO conference call and activities focused on the following subjects:
EURALO activities during the last month were determined by:
Below please find the points EURALO has worked on since the Cartagena meeting:
- 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:
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.
- 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:
- 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.
This month's EURALO conference call focused specifically on the the following subjects:
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.
EURALO's monthly conference call agenda was set-up to follow-up on the main items decided at the General Assembly in September, namely:
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.
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.
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.
ELECTIONS
Outreach Activities
-The transition caused no monthly report to be filed in that period and the current report also catches up on news for June 2010.
Discussed ALAC issues:
Outreach activities:
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. |
Discussed ALAC issues:
Outreach activities:
Discussed ALAC issues:
EURALO issues:
Outreach activities: