NARALO Monthly Report-December 2013

 

I. NARALO Leadership changes:

During the NARALO  November monthly meeting  held in Buenos Aires, on November 20, 2013, Garth Bruen remains the NARALO  Chair.   Darlene  Thompson  is replaced by Glenn McKnight as a result of a run-off election 

Transition process needs work and discussion with staff underway for the smooth transition for  access to form letters, database of ALS and working groups

Action

Il. Input for ALAC Metrics Working group

Maureen shared the information on ALAC Metrics Working Group with all RALOs and the call for comments  Maureen Hilyard is coordinating the works on this WG.  She  is looking for NARALO feedback .  Details  at  ALAC Subcommittee on At-Large Metrics

lll November Spotlight

November had  No  spotlight  ALS

V.2 December  Spotlight

December had No spotlight  ALS

lV. Results of ATLAS II survey

 

24 out of  30  of NARALO  ALSs have  submitted their survey for ATLAS II, which will take place in London in June 2014

Details  at  ATLAS II Timeline

Completed List of Survey

Konstantin Kalaitzidis  San Franciso Bay ISOC
Dana Perry Nova Scotia Community Access Program
Sarah Alkire Youth Helping Youth Inc dba: Emerging Futures Network
Joly MacFie ISOC New York
Kerry Brown Internet Society Canada Chapter (ISOC CA)
John Levine Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail(CAUCE North America)
Louis Houle ISOC Quebec
Darlene Thompson N-CAP
Michael Snell ISOC SF(  Duplicate  for  ISOC  SF  and  Bay Area)
Garth Graham Telecommunities Canada
Chris Grundemann ISOC Colorado
Alan Skuce Pacific Community Networks Association
Evan Leibovitch Canadian Association for Open Sorce (CLUE)
Monique Chartrand Communautique
Seth Reiss The Intellectual Property & Technology Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association
Michael Maranda Association for Community Networking (AFCN)
Garth Bruen Knujon
Glenn McKnight Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities (FBSC)
Gordon  Chillicot Greater Toronto Area Linux User Group (GTALug)
Eduardo Diaz ISOC Puerto Rico
Thomas Lowenhaupt Connecting.nyc Inc.
Alan Greenberg NARALO - Unaffiliated Members
Randy Glass America@Large

 

V  Indigenous(Native  American and Native Canadian Scholarship


Vl  CROPP

The  new  pilot program  CROPP

Details  CROPP Contacts

VII. Letter to ALAC Chair On Registrar Contract Violations

The following was sent to the ALAC Chair on 13 December 2013 by the NARALO Chair:

I am requesting that the Chair take action on the attached item. To summarize a contracted party to ICANN is employing an proven invalid privacy service for its registrants. This is not my research alone but has been validated and confirmed by journalists at the Washington Post.The registrar in question has been aware of the issue for over 2 years. Because of the scale of the issue and in the interests of transparency I am requesting this be logged as an official ALAC matter with At-Large staff and be forwarded to ICANN Compliance by the ALAC Chair for investigation.

The is the text of the attached memo:

 

Subject: ICANN Registrar BizCn Bad Privacy Service

Date: December 12, 2013

To: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond, ALAC Chair, CC: At-Large Advisory Committee

From: Garth Bruen, Principal of KnujOn and NARALO Chair

Dear Olivier and Colleagues,

I am bringing a matter to your immediate attention which requires action on behalf of the community. Specifically, I am requesting that the enclosed issues be sent to ICANN Compliance by the ALAC Chair  that any responses be tracked for time and accuracy. An investigation is required with full transparency to the At-Large community. The facts are presented below.

 1. ICANN Registrar BizCn, INC (#471) Employs Invalid Privacy Scheme

The common Privacy Protection service used by BizCn is called Privacy-Protect.cn and displays the following details for Registrant, Administrator and Technical Blocks:

Name: Henry Nguyen Gong

Organization: Privacy-Protect.cn

Street: 26 Rue Jean Reboul

City: Nimes

State/Province: Languedoc-Roussillon

Postal Code: 30900

Country: fr

Phone: +33.0466583875

Email: contact@privacy-protect.cn

The domain name in the contact email address, privacy-protect.cn, cannot receive email. The following is an example of a rejection:

 

The example is from June 2011. As indicated, this is not a problem of the email address but the domain itself. As demonstrated this situation has existed continuously for at least 2 years and four months, being re-verified periodically as below:


The technical reason for this is that privacy-protect.cn does exist in the DNS, does not have an IP address or “A” record. The domain itself is on “ClientHold” meaning it is not placed in the registry, see below:


It would be impossible for the email address in any of the BizCn privacy protected domain records to receive email. The other details in the Privacy-Protect.cn records are equally as invalid, with the phone number and street address being at a minimum unreliable, at most outright false. According to the current 2009 RAA “3.3.1.8 The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and (where available) fax number of the administrative contact for the Registered Name.” These results have been confirmed a team of independent journalists at the Washington Post. 

2. Scale and Duration of Problem at BizCn

This is not an issue of a single or even a handful of domains. According to DomainTools there are 1,272 domains using the Privacy-Protect.cn through BizCn. BizCn was first notified of the issue in June 2011. To be clear this is a situation BizCn has complete control over. According to the current 2009 RAA:  “3.7.8 ... Registrar shall, upon notification by any person of an inaccuracy in the contact information associated with a Registered Name sponsored by Registrar, take reasonable steps to investigate that claimed inaccuracy. In the event Registrar learns of inaccurate contact information associated with a Registered Name it sponsors, it shall take reasonable steps to correct that inaccuracy.” This is no longer a problem of the registrants, but BizCn.

ICANN has recently issued breach notices to other registrars for “invalid registration information associated with the Privacy Protection Service” and failing to demonstrate “the Privacy Protection Service is a legal entity operating independently from the registrar.(see: http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/serad-to-villalvir-del-cid-18sep13-en.pdf)” Therefore, this is not a new or unknown problem.

I believe this situation creates safety issues  for Internet users, registrants and consumers as well as represents a threat to the stability of the domain name system. In the interests of full transparency and accountability I am requesting that ALAC take this on as a formal matter, log the complaint with At-Large staff, forward the issue to Compliance, and monitor the situation within the acceptable contractual timeframes.

Sincerely, Garth Bruen

NARALO Monthly Report-November 2013

  1. ICANN 48 in Buenos Aires, Argentia was a full week of face to face meetings including the monthly NARALO call 
  2. Initial announcement of a  Native American/Canadian scholarship alligned with the NARALO  ALS  was announced by Heidi, details and rollout is not yet  finalized 
  3. Meeting with Chris Modini, VP of North American met with  Garth, Glenn and Darlene to learn more about the  outreach efforits 
  4. As new secretariat Glenn has been working on policy and procedure document and will be posting it to the wiki in December 
  5. Outreach for  new ALS has included  Capital Area Globetrotters of  Washington and the  ISOC  Disable and Special Needs Chapter 
  6. Outreach calls to the replacement of Annalisa at the ISOC SFBay Konstantin Kalaitzidis is the replacement designate
  7. Pictures and video of the  ICANN 48 is available at FLICKR 

NARALO Monthly Report-October  2013

 

NARALO  Monthly Report- September 2013

TECHNOLOGY TASK FORCE (From Gordon Chillcott)

REPORT FOR AUGUST, 2013

The Working Group continues to use LUCID (rather than Adobe Connect) for its regular meetings.  Some newly-active members appeared and this provided an opportunity to observe any new-user difficulties with this tool.  There were some, but easily overcome.

Other conferencing tools will be evaluated:

-        an evaluation table is developed to provide some guiding criteria and to present a comparison among the tools that are tested;

-        this table is subsequently reviewed during discussions of the trials

-        attempts to keep table entries in “real” English (technical terms and acronyms minimized),

-        discussions of relevance fo some table rows,

-        trials will be scheduled as separate meetings (that is, not part of the regular monthly sessions);

-        tests were scheduled for “BlueJeans” and “ReadyTalk” for the month of August.

-        During August, the results of the “BlueJeans” trial were reviewed, preparations for “ReadyTalk” trial made – and this was evaluated late in the month.

-        Schedule for other trials in September will be prepared

 

Social Media Strategy – discussion continues:

-        questions of types and formats of content;

-        some formatting issues about content copied from sources (for example, ALAC Announce),

-        there are a number of standardized templates (such as for ALAC posts, ALAC vote results, meeting notices, etc.) and these should be updated to simplify and enhance their presentation,

-        “acronym help” or similar measure is a strong requirement,

-        responsibilities for content preparation (the idea of a 'curation group”);

-        organization of what appears where and who manages it,

-        suggestion of coordination of social media accounts with At-Large staff;

-        concerns about W3C and WCAG 2.0 compliance

 

At-Large Wiki Content will be a “place to start”, a foundation for work on the Social Media strategy.

NARALO Monthly Report - August 2013

  1. Further discussions ensued as to what should be done in tie situations.  A consensus decision was made as to what should be done in a tie situation.  Alan Greenburg with others assisting redrafted our Rules of Procedure and they were discussed in our monthly call.  All agreed.  However, in order to change our RoP, we needed to do a vote with 70% of active ALSs agreeing to the change.  This was done and our RoP has now been updated.  September will see a re-vote for the Secretariat position.

NARALO Monthly Report - July 2013

  1. This was "elections month".  Eduardo Diaz was acclaimed for another term as ALAC.  Garth Bruen won the election for chair.  Glenn McKnight and Darlene Thompson were tied for Secretariat.
  2. The tie for Secretariat brought forward a series of problems with NARALO's current Rules of Procedures.  We had absolutely no provisions to deal with a tie on any position.  Much discussion took place on the list as to what to do about this problem.  This pretty much consumed the month of July.

NARALO Monthly Report - June 2013

  1. June Monthly Call occurred as scheduled 10 June 2013
  2. Chair confirmed the nomination of Louis Houle to the NARALO NOMCOM Rep
  3. 2013 NARALO Election Workspace was posted
  4. Chair updated his SOI
  5. Glenn M. Provided a detailed NOMCOM Activity Report
  6. Gordon C. submitted a detailed report on activities by the TECHNOLOGY TASK FORCE:ACTIVITY REPORT FOR MAY, 2013: There were two meetings of the Task Force this month – one was the regularly-scheduled meeting and the other was a “special” meeting intended to be a test of a new meeting product.Regularly Scheduled Meeting – May 20, 2013 Discussions: issue of Accessibility for At-Large's web pages,will be a continuing topic of discussion,outreach to challenged communities is encouraged,some discussion of labelling schemes for document indexing   Main Topic: The Task Force has been asked (by Chris Gift) to assess the LUCID meeting tool (www.lucidmeetings.com). After some discussion, a decision to hold a LUCID-based trial meeting.  SPECIAL Meeting – May 30, 2013   This meeting was held using the LUCID meeting tool   The first part of the meeting was an exploration of the currently-available features and their use. Both the meeting leaders and the participants took part in trials of the product. The trial was largely successful. We were informed by Staff that not all features are available yet, but are coming.  Among these are: private chats -        enabled audio VOIP,  Confluence support (exporting information to Confluence, in particular) framework modification   Consensus – The Task Force will continue to hold its regular meetings using this tool for the time being and follow the progress of the updates. There was also continuing discussion on the topic of information capture from various sources for the WIKI. This resulted in a recommendation that the current effort be directed to investigating what information is to be captured and how.   Inclusion of this information on the WIKI would be studied later.

  7. Suspension of NARALO Posting Privileges for unaffiliated NARALO Member
    7.1 On 19 June 2013 the Chair requested that At-Large Staff suspend the mailing list posting privileges for "EBW" for violating the NARALO ROP specifically for "Unprofessional commentary, regardless of the general subject" and/or " Postings that are libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person.". The cited incidents which resulted in complaints occurred on  March 05 2013 and  June 18 2013. The offending remarks were removed from public record by ICANN Staff and cannot be re-posted here. An apology or the March 5 was requested at the time but ignored. This apology was requested again after the June 18 incident but was also ignored.
    7.2 The member may have his privileges restored under the following conditions: One. He apologizes for the March 05, 2013 comment to the aggrieved party, CC'ing the Chair and Secretary Two. He re-apply for unaffiliated NARALO membership following the proper procedures Three. The region review this case and reach a consensus Condition Two was nullified by the acceptance of the member as a member of an existing NARALO ALS
    7.3 This was done under the authority of the existing ROP, specifically:"The NARALO Chair is empowered to suspend or restrict a person's posting rights when the content that person has posted is inappropriate and represents a pattern of abuse. The Chair defines and determines what is inappropriate content on a case-by-case basis."
    7.4 This action was witnessed by the Secretary and approved by NARALO ALAC leadership.
    7.5 The Chair fielded questions and concerns about this situation per the ROP: "If the Chair suspends posting rights or deletes a comment or link, he will say so and explain why
  8. The Secretary requested an update of the elections WIKI
  9. The Chair requested an update of action items from Staff since we have not received the requested documents/information for:

    On 2.5 Staff: On a March 18 2013 ALAC briefing call on RAA changes staff (Margie Milam and Sam Eisner) were asked to identify ICANN's economic advisors and provide the economic study document that was the basis for changes to RAA 3.3.6 and 3.3.7, Will At-Large staff please forward this request again? According to the meeting transcript  "Pam Eisner ...  informed me that the summary on the economic advisors document will be public in about two weeks, so I will follow up with her. As soon as we see it, we’ll send it to the list." On 2.6 Staff:Please advise on the status of the request to supply ICANN's "Whistle-blower" Policy According to the meeting transcript: "ATRT has formally requested information on the Whistle-Blower Program and policy, and we are assured we will be getting it shortly." We also want to follow up with a repeat request to speak directly to the person in charge of the Aboriginal Fellowship who is I believe named Janice. 

  10. The Chair accepted an invitation to meet with Christopher Mondini in Durban and have him present at the NARALO meeting

NARALO Monthly Report - May 2013

  1. May Monthly Call occurred as scheduled 13 May 2013
  2. The Chair sent a postal letter to The Alberta Community Network Association alerting them to their potential DE-accreditation of there ALS per Paragraph 16 of our Operating Principles state that: "When an ALS representative does not vote in 3 consecutive NARALO elections or does not contribute a comment on ICANN policy through collaboration on the At-Large discussion lists in 12 consecutive months, it automatically loses its voting rights and active status within the NARALO.  The ALS should be notified of the status change and may regain its voting rights and active status if within the next 12 months it votes or participates to online discussions, otherwise the Chair will submit to ALAC a request for de-certification of that ALS."
  3. Chair signed on to an ATRT letter drafted by NARALO ALAC member Evan L.
  4. Chair notes article posted on CircleID by ALS ISCO CO Chris Grundermann
  5. Chair and Secretariat participated in ALAC Monthly Call 28 May 2013
  6. Chair participated in ICANN Outreach Call 29 May 2013
  7. Secretariat participated in the ICANN RALO Leadership call 29 May 2013
  8. Secretariat assisted with various questions pertaining to new members joining the NARALO
  9. Secretariat prepared and sent all informational e-mails in regards to the up-coming elections
  10. Secretariat participated in all ATLAS2 working group calls and subsequent work arising from same

NARALO Monthly Report - April 2013

  1. April Monthly Call was canceled as we met in person in Beijing
  2. Much of April was dedicated to preparation for the ICANN 7-11 April 2013
  3. Ahead of the meeting the Chair assisted and coordinated details for sponsored members traveling to the meeting. Much of this is documented in the Chair's Reports on Travel Assistance
  4. Staff provided this At-Large focused schedule for Beijing
  5. The Beijing At-Large meeting reports space is here, please add your updates if you attended
  6. Full List of At-Large Action Items from Beijing
  7. Chair participated in Sunday leadership meetings
  8. ALAC Meeting with the Board

    (All pictures)
  9. Chair participated in Monday At-Large sessions, this included the ALAC R3 White Paper discussion, the At-Large Capacity Building Working Group, and the
    Academy Working Group.
  10. NARALO members attended the APRALO Showcase and Reception - Celebrating APRALO'S Regional Diversity

    All pictures
  11. Chair attended Tuesday At-Large/ALAC Meetings
  12. Several NARALO members attended the ISOC Meeting in Beijing
  13. Chair attended the Regional Leadership Meeting and the WHOIS WG Meeting
  14. ICANN46 Photo Essay provided by Glenn
  15. Staff received an ALS application for ISOC Canada
  16. Glenn submitted a detailed NOMCOM report
  17. The Chair has submitted a detailed report on ICANN Compliance to the CEO but it has not yet been posted in ICANN Correspondence
  18. The May Call is scheduled for Monday 13 May

NARALO Monthly Report - March 2013

  1. March Monthly Call Occurred as scheduled 11 March 2013 - Transcript
  2. ALAC Evan posted At-Large ALAC New gTLD Metrics Task Force Report Workspace
  3. ALAC Alan posted ATRT 2 Face-to-Face Meeting
  4. ALAC Eduardo sent a report on the ccNSO Study Group on Country and Territory Names
  5. ALAC Chair Olivier submitted a formal report on WCIT
  6. The NARALO Chair participated in the ALAC Call 18 March 2013
  7. The NARALO Chair and several NARALO members attended the Outreach Webinar 18 March 2013
  8. The NARALO Chair and several NARALO members attended the ROP Call 19 March 2013
  9. The NARALO Chair along with ALAC members and At-Large officers from other regions assisted in developing comments on the proposed RAA

  10. At-Large Consultation on ccTLD Delegation and Redelegation Performance Standards Workspace was posted

  11. At-Large Revised New gTLD Registry Agreement Including Additional Public Interest Commitments Specification was posted

  12. ALAC Chair Olivier called for comments on At-Large ICANN's FY 14 Security, Stability and Resiliency Framework Workspace
  13. Glenn sent a comprehensive report on NOMCOM activities to the region
  14. An Outreach Proposal prepared by Murray with assistance from Glenn was submitted
  15. Avri has started as discussion about voting for the upcoming board seat.

NARALO Monthly Report - February 2013

  1. February Monthly Call Occurred as scheduled 11 February 2013
  2. Conducted a teleconference for the Outreach/Recruitment Subcommittee
  3. Requested 1000 English At-Large brochures on behalf of Joly M. - Note: ICANN did not have this many available.
  4. Requested that staff add Murray M. to the Outreach WG distribution list
  5. Introduced Murray M. to Cheryl LO and Sally C. as the new NARALO Outreach and Recruitment Subcommittee Chair
  6. The Chair issued an updated and detailed Travel Issues sub-report and worked diligently to address questions from the community in reference to obtaining a visa for Beijing ICANN meeting
  7. The Chair further updated the Travel issues sub-report following additional feedback and information from Travel Constituency
  8. Requested 100 At-Large brochures be shipped to Glenn M.
  9. The Chair and other NARALO members participated in the new gTLD review WG calls
  10. The Chair and other NARALO members are fully engaged on the developing objection process for the .HEALTH application

  11. The Chair and other NARALO members participated in the At-Large Whois Briefing call 20 February 2013

 

NARALO Monthly Report - January 2013

  1. January Monthly Call Occurred as scheduled 14 January 2013
  2. NARALO Operating Principle #4: The NARALO will be multilingual from its inception. Public documents will be produced in English and French.
  3. The Chair continued to follow up on Travel Assistance-related issues from the Toronto meeting, forwarding a list of open issues to staff. The Chair assisted At-Large members with China visa instructions
  4. The Chair is building a sub-report on Language, Interpretation and Translation
  5. The Chair participated in the monthly ALAC call
  6. The Chair is reviewing Compliance responses to questions issued in November
  7. The Chair recorded that Staff corrected the entry for Connecting.nyc
  8. NARALO is arranging with staff to have a RALO meeting in Beijing
  9. The Chair is monitoring new gTLD comments and objections from the community
  10. The Chair submitted the Academy Survey on behalf of NARALO
  11. Note, future ICANN meetings to be held in Durban, Buenos Aires, Singapore and London after Beijing
  12. Glenn M. and Staff followed up on the late payment for the Metis performers in Toronto, the chair requested an apology be sent
  13. Alan G. announced the final version of the the Thick WHOIS comment
  14. Alan G. noted a  Call for Volunteers: Policy Development Process
  15. Avri D. has will be speaking on At-Large voting procedures on the next NARALO call
  16. NARALO wants to acknowledge the participation of Aaran Duncan and Ken Morgan who volunteered to photograph and record our showcase event in Toronto
  17. The Chair issued official thank you letters to our NARALO sponsors for the Toronto event
  18. Olivier C-L. spoke on his experience in Dubai