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|display/Improve/ICANN+Academy+Proposal
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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|
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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 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.