Interpreter: Okay, the French side seems to be starting with Tijani. They evidently are able to hear each other now. Fatimata is now speaking. There was a bit of problem hearing Fatimata, but she’s trying to speak. They’re talking about an action item, which consists -- they’re going to point three, and then she’s cutting out again. I do seem to be able to hear Tijani, but Tijani’s not hearing Fatimata.
And there is somebody on this line, on the English line that is banging something, or is not mute, so can you please mute your phones, unless you’re speaking? Now we’re talking about open public discussion from Tijani. There’s a lady speaking, she’s not clear, unfortunately. I think it may be Fatimata. They’re talking about the various public consultations, and connections regarding the Advisory At-Large Board. They’re talking about a coasting, this is Tijani,
Tijani Ben Jemaa: -- and the development of the At-Large policy and the consultation involving ICANN, who is preparing statements to be presented. So ICANN FY12 regarding stability and with – there’s also the ICANN process for handling requests for removal --
Interpreter: -- and I believe I heard ownership, and it’s probably on your screen.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: And then there’s FY12 draft operating plan and budget, and I am responsible for preparing the draft of that. So these are the various statements that are in the pipeline.
Interpreter: So Fatimata is trying to – so Fatimata is now speaking, but there is a problem hearing her. She’s not as clear as Tijani, so I will ask him to repeat this, so hold on a second.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Fatimata, she has a particular group regarding the budget, and the meeting plans, and the operational plan, so there’s a particular point that needs to be dealt with. So Fatimata, if you have nothing more to say, we’re going to go to the agenda items that have been set forth. Number four, which consists – with ALS participation, and now I’m going to pass --
Interpreter: And another lady is speaking, but she’s not understandable. So Tijani, could you repeat this for the English side? So Tijani is going to repeat what she said, since her line is not clear. So since her line is muffled, and it’s not possible to hear her voice clearly, I’m going to wait until she’s finished, and then ask Tijani to repeat or to synthesize at least what she has just said. Okay Tijani, can you repeat that? Because [not in English].
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Fatimata has just said that we had asked the ALS to make a statement with advice that we should give ALAC.
Interpreter: [not in English]
Tijani Ben Jemaa: --asking for the request by FORCAS. So the accredited ALSs who expressed their opinions, they were not for accrediting FORCAS for ALAC. They were not favorable, and I’d like to ask something.
So this took a lot of time with AFRALO, because it took several months to go after FORCAS so that she gives us correct information, because the requests or the presentation was not possible, not well done, so now the situation of FORCAS no longer exists. They’ve disappeared. Another reason that internet and FORCAS (inaudible). Does anybody have anything to add to this FORCAS situation? So I believe --
Interpreter: So now a lady is speaking but she’s muffled, so that could very well be Fatimata, and so I will ask Tijani to repeat when she’s finished speaking. [Not in English].
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Aziz said last time that this was the last recourse regarding a final decision, (inaudible) had already left for ALAC. Does anybody have anything, any commentary on that?
Interpreter: So another person is speaking, not clear, a man. Somebody on the English line is not mute, so could you mute? Because I’m trying to listen to the French. Thank you. I’m going to have Tijani repeat this person who is speaking, so we can get something at least. Yaovi just spoke and said --
Yaovi Atohoun: -favorable at the beginning, starting with this, then when I saw the situation regarding FORCAS, when they said they were members of something, which they weren’t, so I now have changed my vote from a positive to a negative vote, a no vote. I am changing my vote from a positive vote to a negative vote. [He also says] since the site is not accessible, so there’s no reason to continue.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Does anybody else want to speak about this problem or question, or is it already taken care of?
Interpreter: Etienne is about to speak. Tijani is not hearing Etienne. So there’s some kind of conversation going back and forth, it’s totally not comprehensible to me, so I will wait until Tijani has heard what she has to say, or what they have to say, and then ask him to repeat it. [Not in English]
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay, Etienne just spoke. He believes that the decision taken by AFRALO was the very best decision, and so now let’s go on to point five.
Interpreter: Tijani is asking Fatimata if she’s still on the line.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So what are the points you want us to vote about that are priority points?
Interpreter: I believe I heard her say something about Dakar, but it’s not clear enough, so I will ask him to repeat.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Fatimata would like to speak about the events in Dakar, the countries in development related to ICANN. And we’d like to start with the summit.
Interpreter: So Fatimata is now speaking. She’s talking about the AfriCANN reunion.
Fatimata Seye Sylla: If the summit is the same thing as the ministerial reunion, then it’s planned for Dakar. So the Ministry reunion is only for AfriCANN participants or ministers, and then there’s the summit for all of the developing countries of ICANN. And that was an initiative that was taken by Katim even before the Ministerial reunion, so with respect to the organizational committee, and the Nairobi (inaudible) on the African side, there are other people on the other side of the world that are also developing countries, so that will be another activity that will take place at the ICANN meetings, not before. So the developing countries summit will be organized during the ICANN summit, which will be held in Singapore for preparation for the summit. There will be some kind of meeting.
Interpreter: Second question now, Fatimata says.
Pastor Peters: I have a question.
Interpreter: Oh, okay, hold on. [Not in English]. Okay, go ahead English side. Who is speaking?
Pastor Peters: My name is Pastor Peters.
Interpreter: I’m interpreting. I’m putting you on mute, but I’m interpreting for the French. Okay?
Pastor Peters: Good. I want to find out when was this planned, and who are those responsible for this initiative?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: It’s not a plan, it’s a summit.
Pastor Peters: When was this initiative planned?
Interpreter: [not in English]. Okay, go ahead English side.
Pastor Peters: When was this planned? I am not aware of a (inaudible) in At-Large until now, so that is why I’m asking. When was this planned for the summit, and who is responsible for this initiative?
Interpreter: Okay please listen, [he’s] answering you.
Pastor Peters: Yeah.
Interpreter: Developing countries – we’re talking about a summit of developing countries, on the initiative of the ICANN Board. Fatimata is now continuing to speak.
Pastor Peters: Okay. The initiative of the ICANN Board?
Interpreter: Wait a moment. [Not in English] Okay, you need to wait because Fatimata is speaking. Since I can’t hear her, I have to wait for her to answer.
Pastor Peters: Okay.
Interpreter: So you need to wait, and as soon as he tells us what she’s saying, then I’ll ask that you respond, because he didn’t seem to understand that you were both speaking at the same time, so just wait until she’s finished, and then he tells us what she’s saying, and then I will have you respond. Okay Peter?
Pastor Peters: Thank you very much.
Interpreter: My pleasure. Sorry, this is a bit tricky. She’s speaking now, but it’s not intelligible. So I’m going to have him repeat it to make sure you get it.
Fatimata Seye Sylla: -for the AFRALO meeting with ICANN that we speak about the AfriCANN initiative with certain recommendations, so that it be presented to the round table.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So I’m suggesting something else, Fatimata. I suggest that the reunion at the AFRALO meeting should speak about subjects to be put on the order of the day, and also if you like, for the round table. That is the African community at ICANN. So we’ll also talk about the TLDs, and the others as you have suggested. But I believe that it’s a good thing that we go to the preparatory meeting for the summit with the African developing countries, so that we are together and we know what we want to put on the order of the day, on the agenda, so that we’re prepared for this. You hear me, Fatimata?
Interpreter: Fatimata is now speaking. She’s speaking about something about preparing for the summit for developing countries, but that’s as much as I can hear, and now it’s gone muffled again, so I will ask Tijani to --
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay, I’m recapitulating. Fatimata just said that the reunion in Singapore – just a second, there’s somebody else --Fatimata just said that the meeting in Singapore for the Africans will be to discuss subjects that we would like to put on the agenda for the summit, and involving ICANN too, and then we will have recommendations for the ministerial reunion so that both sides will know about this. And that both sides will know what the Africans are suggesting; she also said that the ministers will be able --
Interpreter: Now somebody is interrupting him so now I can’t hear. Now Fatimata is speaking to him, and of course it’s muffled, so there’s no way I can interpret it, so I’m going to wait until she finished because he doesn’t want me to interrupt. I understand, but I’m waiting until she finishes, and hopefully he will give us a clear synthesis of what she said. She’s still continuing to speak. And now he is hearing her better, hearing Fatimata.
That’s Tijani hearing Fatimata, but unfortunately I don’t hear her, and there’s some kind of interference. So I will simply – unfortunate as it is for the English side, I apologize, but Tijani wants her to finish speaking and it’s taking a very long time. So she’s going through whatever she’s saying with various whistles and background sounds.
Tonya: [Pita]?
Interpreter: Yes?
Tonya: This is Tonya. No need for all of that, just interpret what you can. When you can’t interpret, just have the participants know that you’re still waiting and in service.
Interpreter: Okay, I tried to tell them, but --
Tonya: Thank you.
Interpreter: Okay.
Pastor Peters: Let me know when I can respond please?
Interpreter: I will.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: The African reunion meeting in AFRALO in Singapore will discuss subjects that we hope to put on the agenda at the summit, and also at the ministerial reunion, and the ministry reunion will discuss these and have, hopefully, a unified African position for the summit. So that will be a preparation for the summit, that’s it.
Interpreter: Okay, please go ahead Peter, you have something to ask.
Pastor Peters: Yeah, what I want to find out (inaudible) is okay, what it appears there are (inaudible) on the discussion amongst the AFRALO members for now.
Interpreter: Now I’m not hearing you too well. Can you speak slowly and clearly? Thank you.
Pastor Peters: I said it seems there have been discussions on this meeting prior to this date. I am not aware of these discussions. That is number one. Number two, is that --
Interpreter: Can you repeat number one? They had static on their side. Thank you.
Pastor Peters: I said it appears there have been discussions among AFRALO members on this matter before now, I am not aware until now. Secondly is that if there are particular issues to Singapore, not all of us will be in Singapore, and if every issue is discussed, I want to suggest that we [not in English] online, but also make our inputs and after we choose who will be in Singapore we will input to all of the common ground after what was discussed in Singapore.
So where this is going, it appears there is discussion amongst the group and they only have a part time open line of discussion, which is (inaudible). That’s what I’m saying.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: First of all, my friend Peter should bring it up with the Board of ICANN, it is not an initiative of AFRALO. And second, this is a very recent subject, and the first preparatory meeting for the summit will take place in Singapore. Thirdly, there’s a preparatory committee and AFRALO will participate with myself and the African governments will participate, so we will be present as the preparatory committee.
The meeting, the AFRALO meeting that we will have in Singapore will have a great deal of information on the list and the results and the outcome will be broadcast on the list afterwards as well. Participation in the Singapore meeting, most likely, you probably will be able to participate online, even though you’re at a distance, and you will be kept up to date hopefully, even though you’re at a distance, regarding the AFRALO meeting.
Interpreter: Just a moment please. Now he’s having Fatimata speak again. I think we got the gist of what he was saying, but she may have to leave. I think she has a bad flu. Something is going on where she’s not hearing him, but he’s asking her to put it on mute because there is a great deal of interference.
Okay – okay, I believe he’s thanking Fatimata that she made the effort to come even though she’s quite sick, so she’s, I believe, hanging up and maybe that will resolve the static problem. There may be some kind of long distance – oh, hold on a second. So he said if you don’t understand – okay – so he’s saying for us to ask people to put on silent, because they are obviously not doing it, so he’ll just have to repeat it.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Fatimata had to leave because she wasn’t well. We were at number five regarding – last time ExCom had asked our needs as far as communication is concerned, and they’ve put up a Wiki page for us to try to respond to our needs. And Fatimata has contributed, and there was another contribution from Dave, and a contribution from me, and I’ve put everything on the right page, and you have the link, so you can use the link to see what AFRALO has done as far as communication is concerned.
Number six is the budget; as far as the budget is concerned, remember the ICANN finance department, we had asked them to formulate projects that needed to be financed by ICANN, and each project had a file. The first regarded the training and the second involved workshop participation in Nairobi; the AFRALO workshop in Nairobi. The first was the capacity, with respect to building, and the second was the workshop, so now we also made another request.
We had a teleconference with the Finance Department, and we asked for specific information regarding this, and the draft of the operational plan and the budget, so that the training program was not approved but was replaced by the financing of six additional members of AFRALO who could then participate in Dakar. The second one was the IGF workshop in Nairobi. It was rejected; therefore, what I’m trying to say is we had then asked and presented ICANN with certain projects and we also requested financing of the budget.
We didn’t ask for money, we don’t need money; we need to see that our projects are financed. So replace a project that we were very fond of, that we have prepared, that we’ve done properly; everybody was convinced of the need of that project. If that project was not accepted or financed, the six persons who are going to Dakar, in my opinion, our response to this measure is certainly if they want to finance six persons to go to Dakar, that’s great, but that should not replace our request to have our projects financed. That’s what we wanted.
With respect to the financing of a project of our workshop at Nairobi, the IGF, my personal reaction is that it’s really a pity that ICANN has not understood that we’re trying to do good. We’re trying to help ICANN; we tear ourselves up into a million pieces to try and give more credibility to ICANN, and with people who are not always favorable towards ICANN. We’re trying to create goodwill, and we tried. We made the first attempt without any financing, because there are other parties who believe in us and who financed us, so our credibility with respect to Venus Vilnius, and that was a total success in front of the whole world.
There were a lot of directors of ICANN who participated in that, who assisted, you know, who were there; so we asked for the financing to go to Nairobi to have another workshop like that, and if they do not finance this, it’s not a big budget, but they didn’t understand the importance of this. Personally, I feel as though I’ve wasted my time and I’ve wasted my energy for the good of ICANN and that ICANN has not understood all that I did and all that was done to benefit them.
Interpreter: Okay, somebody else is speaking now.
Female: I really hear what you’re saying, since we have these meetings in Cartagena and San Francisco, we were led to believe that we would have a positive response, and there’s one thing you haven’t said. The last meeting at Vilnius, we organized an AFRALO workshop without any financing from ICANN, and what you’ve said, it’s really a great pity that ICANN is not giving us any significance; they don’t consider us important enough. It’s really a pity.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Is there anybody else who has any reaction to this?
Interpreter: Yaovi is not speaking. He wants to have him speak first.
Pastor Peter: Can I speak?
Interpreter: No you can’t now, because he’s controlling who speaks, so he wants him to speak first. So there’s not much I can do, sorry. I tried to get you in; you will at the end. I believe he’s talking about what ICANN is willing or not to finance. He’s not too clear, so I’m going to have what he says repeated by Tijani, since he has the clearest line. I think he’s talking about online – Yaovi is talking about why ICANN would not finance (inaudible 0:46:28). Something to do with Dakar, and Tijani now says --
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yaovi is asking why these projects were not financed. Is it because it was delayed? Or is it because it’s not in line with ICANN objectives? No, I was very careful to verify before presenting any projects, that they are in line and involving subjects that are acceptable to ICANN. We even mentioned the strategic point and we prepared it in time; we filled out all of the forms in correct time. We did everything the way it should be done and it was done in advance.
The problem is there are a lot of requests for financing, and ICANN chose the easier way of trying to equivalate financing between the various groups, so there may be some projects that are less interesting to them. They decide what is most interesting. They gave all the RALOs the same thing, which is absolutely incomprehensible. There’s no equilibrium; there should be financing for these projects. It’s like they’re distributing monies, but because they don’t have a lot of money, they try to distribute everything equally to everybody. A little bit of money, sort of like Spackle, but I’m not sure they understood the importance of certain projects. I hope this clarifies. So you’d like to speak, Peter?
Pastor Peter: Yes, I want to say that there is every need for the ICANN Board to --
Interpreter: Hold on, hold on; start again, because they were speaking over you. Hold on. Speak again.
Pastor Peter: I said it is high time that the ICANN Board recognizes the various regional groupings, and provides the necessary support for us to advance the activities of ICANN in our various regions. It will (inaudible) in America or Europe, ICANN is relatively new in Africa. So those funds will provide benefit to be part of ICANN’s activities, are involved in the AFRALO and regional organizations. ICANN should (inaudible).
Interpreter: I’m sorry, you have to stop. There’s too much noise on the French side. Just a second. Okay, continue, continue.
Pastor Peter: Did you get my last statement?
Interpreter: Repeat, halfway through.
Pastor Peter: I was saying that as it is an item, ICANN as a matter of urgency, makes it an effort to begin to approve the budget for regional (inaudible), for the purpose of promoting and advancing the activities in this region. So it’s not for us to be making proposals to ICANN, as if we are (inaudible) trying to seek funding from a (inaudible). AFRALO --
Interpreter: I’m sorry; I didn’t hear the last sentence.
Pastor Peter: I said it is not fair for us to be treated as not important entities that are applying to ICANN for funding. What I mean, for AFRALO to begin to apply to ICANN for processes is like an organization to apply (inaudible). We are part of ICANN, so ICANN doesn’t treat us in that light, and approve funds for the activities of this regional grouping. That’s what I’m saying.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to comment? By the way, the English side needs to be on mute if you’re not speaking, please.
Interpreter: I do believe that someone else is saying I don’t think the financing part is very clear, and AFRALO – I think it’s very disappointing that the project is not being financed, that ICANN would not finance it, especially considering the success we had in (inaudible). And I’d also like to mention ICANN must take this into consideration when looking into their budgets, because this is too important.
Dave Kissoondoyal: I believe it’s more than that, I think we need to write saying that we do not understand how this kind of project could be rejected, and that we do not agree with this policy of equilibrium of financing. We’re convinced that our projects are really major projects that have great value for ICANN itself, and that we believe that it is essential to reconsider their proposals, our proposals, because our proposals were made to the Board at Singapore so that the Board can approve this budget, so maybe there’s another way to try and save this in extremis.
I’m trying to prepare ALAC regarding budget and operations, and maybe the statement, I could make the point that the response to our project was never explained, it was never said if the project was rejected because it was not feasible or whether it was not financed because of a lack of money, and that it should be put on the table again for the future, and steps should be taken to allow for it in the future.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay, is there any other commentary with respect to that? So the ICANN meeting in Dakar in October, and in this meeting, it’s a very specific kind of meeting as it also involves all the Africans, so maybe we should ask to have that kind of training and that maybe we could have a meeting of all the ALSes; it’s not going to be possible unless ICANN wants to reconsider its position, and it would be a very particular meeting because we’re going to have a showcase of AFRALO and AFRALO had started the first showcase at Nairobi, and it was a huge success, and all the RALOs followed this path, and now it’s our second time for AFRALO, and they should show us that we can do better than anybody.
It’s a real challenge for the Africans, it’s a great challenge for us, and I ask all of you to think about this, to ponder this, that we can do this showcase, and we should all very carefully prepare your presentations for this showcase, and to encourage the other ALSes that do not participate or have not participated in them, and encourage them to participate in this showcase with the best possible materials they can bring to the table.
The Dakar showcase must be something that is superior to everything done in the past, so we have a little time now, but we’re not going to have much time for long, because October will be coming up. So any ideas that can be set forth and presented now are important, and also to prepare the material is important so that we are ready. Does anybody want to have any comment about this?
Interpreter: Somebody just said yes, and – So you’re saying we should do something more than what’s been done up until now? It wasn’t AFRALO, it was (inaudible) and Vilnius. It’s very difficult for us to find somebody better than – I think he’s saying [Venchus]. And there’s a bit of laughter here. I agree, when I say we need something that’s superior, just by having people participating, the material that we present – he said (inaudible) had built (inaudible) and he believes that there is nobody that is better than that gentleman, and I said I agree with him, but when you need to excel is not just the quality of the invitees, but by the content, the material that we’re going to present as well. And Aziz replied --
Aziz Hilali: Yes, so it’s up to Fatimata and (inaudible) to invite this person from Senegal.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So it’s a good idea, I agree with you --
Interpreter: Tijani is saying, because they particularly like this gentleman.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: I agree; it’s a very good idea. So any other ideas? I’m not asking you to give all your ideas right now, this moment; I’m just asking you to mull it over, to think about it, and to try to come up with something.
Interpreter: Somebody else is now speaking. Since we’re in agreement, says another party, with respect to the ALSes, and Fatimata’s participation, then perhaps she could make a demonstration – okay, hold on. [Not in English] Okay, Tijani is repeating. This other person is speaking, but it’s not too clear, so it’s going to be repeating. – and inviting all the ALSes. Now the English side, there is static on the English side. If you could mute please. We need to present something that is local and that works, says this gentleman. For instance, we could even maybe have Fatimata do a presentation, a local African presentation.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: That’s a very good initiative. In other words, show what is being done by the local Africans at the Dakar summit, and so we could perhaps entertain the members of ALS and we could do a simulation of what has been done, and is that what you’re saying? To do a presentation there? Yes.
Interpreter: Okay, there’s static on the French side, if you could mute please.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Otherwise, please put your ideas on the list as soon as possible, so that we’ve got to think about it and we’ve got to have some back and forth feedback among each other.
Interpreter: Another gentleman is now asking --
Unknown: I’ve asked ICANN to offer that there be some presentation of what the African ALSes are doing all during that week, and that it’s reserved for the ALS all during the week for their activities.
Aziz Hilali: Yes [says Aziz] we’re going to be obliged to maintain our activities and to follow through all during the week, because it could be a permanent showcase all during the week.
Interpreter: And the other answers yes, that’s what I feel is important. Wait a moment; somebody is speaking on the English side. So in Nairobi, we need a stand or there was all this material that was presented during the showcase, during the whole week, so we need to keep that stand so that there’s somebody present there from AFRALO. Unfortunately, certain people did not want to participate in that work, we had to have it – it wasn’t always open, and some people didn’t turn up or care enough, so there’s a back and forth now about this. We need to have a certainty that people are committed and will participate. I believe you said that ICANN was backing six trips?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes. But be careful. The answer that we’re going to do is we’re going to say that does not resolve everything as far as training and outreach is concerned, so maybe they would finance the project as planned. So are they going to pay for the six people, and then we have to try to figure out how to finance the program? And this is going to be a major problem. So it’s not a problem of accepting six extra people coming rather than not doing the pro – we should have the project, that’s more important. So let us answer that very clearly, that we need this – it’s preferable to have the project financed. So we’d like to have the six people, but if it’s a question of not having six extra people then the project is most important.
Interpreter: So there’s a back and forth now.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So we have to see how we can do this. And I have another problem. If we do this presentation or exhibit, I don’t want the same material that we have in the showcase, the main content; we need something else. So if we add a space, in the space there must be the right content, or additional content that is new for that space. So the idea is very good, under two conditions. The first is ICANN must allow us to keep our project intact and allow us to have the six extras.
Interpreter: Okay, hold on. There’s static again.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Aziz’s proposal should have two conditions. The first, ICANN must finance the six additional people despite the fact that – and the second condition is that we need the material for the stand, in addition to the material of the showcase. Our contribution of ideas – and now I’m going to the next point --
Interpreter: And somebody else is speaking, but it’s muffled, so I can’t interpret.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Etienne said he believes that the direction we should continue. And I’m now continuing the first point, the showcase. Dakar is an African country, so our participation will be there. So we have to see what happens with the six extra people without our training project, so we need to insist on that, the five or six people who are financed by ICANN, and then there’s the NomCom.
That would make 12 ALSs already, out of 22, so we’ll start with these two ALSes and try to do some kind of training, so that the ALSes will participate in the future, because that is important, and that they participate more than they have been able to up until now. And so that we have greater African participation in the future. Anybody have anything to say about this? No. So that was the second point regarding Dakar. Is there anything else that you can say or see in Dakar?
(crosstalk)
Interpreter: Okay, hold on. I’ll tell him right now.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: There’s a summit that will be organized in Dakar, so the participation of AFRALO will be intense. I will be participating in the preparatory committee and I will keep you all up to date on the projects and the subjects that will be talked about at that summit. And with AFRALO we’ll prepare our positions regarding that.
Interpreter: Okay, go ahead.
Pastor Peter: Apart from the ICANN solution for everybody, will it be funded to encourage more African participants apart from the fellowship, the original fellowship that is given to newcomers? Will there be (inaudible) people who are not members of ICANN but who want to participate at the African opening in Dakar?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Who is it that asked this question?
Pastor Peters: Pastor Peters. (inaudible 1:10:25)
Interpreter: Who is speaking now?
Pastor Peters: Pastor Peters.
Interpreter: Peter, thank you. Aziz will answer.
Aziz Hilali: Generally speaking, for ICANN meetings, are the larger countries able to sponsor – for example, there’s Morocco, there’s Senegal, there’s a very close relationship between Morocco and Senegal. My government has already stated that they want to have a major presence in Senegal, and that there will be some kind of sponsor for operators from Morocco. So is there any kind of financing or monies from ICANN?
Interpreter: That’s his question. Okay, Tijani answers now --
Pastor Peters: Okay – (inaudible).
Interpreter: Wait a moment, wait a moment. Okay. Okay, okay, wait a moment. Okay, he will give you the floor in just a moment.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Regarding sponsorship, to allow more Africans to participate in Dakar, the Dakar meeting, the ICANN Dakar meeting; if somebody could find themselves a sponsor individually that would be great, but ICANN AFRALO or whoever, I can’t ask them to sponsor anybody. It has to be part of a particular group or --
Interpreter: And somebody else is speaking now. It could be Aziz.
Aziz Hilali: If ICANN is willing to pay six extra participants in Dakar, that means six extra people will participate there.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Could you speak now Peter? You had a question?
Pastor Peter: I was going to say that if there are countries that are prepared to support ICANN financially, at least there are (inaudible) to also support participation from --
Interpreter: to support what?
Pastor Peter: Support (inaudible) to the event. If their support will also include providing that support to people from Africa who will attend the event, then can I ask that the (inaudible) through AFRALO to members of AFRALO so that we can (inaudible) country --
Interpreter: Just a moment please. There’s static on the French line, hold on. Okay, go on.
Pastor Peter: So it is nice if more information is provided to us, to AFRALO, so that we can also distribute this information to our countries.
Interpreter: One moment please. Just a moment, wait, wait. Okay. Please continue again. Start again with your question, English side.
Pastor Peter: I was saying that if there are opportunities for countries governments to support ICANN with financing, I want to know if this financing will also extend to supporting financing for participants from Africa, and if that is yes, then I am requesting that AFRALO should pass information across to its members, that is to us, so that we can also pass this information in our countries, so to get as many people as possible to attend the Dakar summit in October.
Interpreter: Thank you.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So now listen carefully, we don’t have the right to collect money. We can’t ask money from anybody. Our countries --
Pastor Peter: But --
Interpreter: Wait a moment! I can’t listen to both. I can’t interpret, I’m sorry.
Pastor Peter: Something is getting wrong, I don’t want to waste time, so let me speak myself.
Interpreter: Okay, hold on. [Not in English]. Okay, Tijani wants to speak, and then he will have you speak.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: I’m saying we don’t have – please put it on mute – AFRALO does not manage money, or the At-Large communities do not manage money. Therefore the sponsoring that any countries or enterprises may back for ICANN meetings have to go through ICANN, it doesn’t go into AFRALO or any other organization or – what I’m trying to say by this is we don’t have the possibility of distributing any kind of sponsorships ourselves.
Interpreter: Go ahead, go ahead.
Pastor Peter: I said that if there is information, somebody informed this house that they are aware that some countries are supporting ICANN, and I said if such is true, could we please find out if there will be funding for sponsorships. If that is also true, then AFRALO should pass the information to members that there are those for whom possibilities are available, and we can pass that information to our countries.
I’m not asking AFRALO to collect money, I’m saying if there is (inaudible) to that there are countries willing to support ICANN, they should give us reasonable time (inaudible) in our countries. It’s simple. I’m not asking AFRALO to collect money.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Alright. If these monies are prepared to sponsor or to give some kind of backing to ICANN, this would be great. What I’m saying is, Peter, if you can find sponsors who would like to participate through ICANN, but they can’t count on AFRALO or At-Large because we don’t have the right to do it. So that’s all I’m saying. If you can find countries or we can find countries that are willing to sponsor individuals through ICANN, this would be great.
It’s just that At-Large or AFRALO are not in a position to be able to do this. That’s all I’m saying, so if we can go to the next point; I’m agreeing with you. If there’s a way to do that through ICANN it would be great. So let’s go to the next agenda regarding the working group to support – for people or requests for those who need assistance.
Interpreter: So there’s a second [not in English].
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay, so this working group is continuing its work, and has already presented its report. And now we are preparing a meeting in Singapore between the JAS working group and ALAC, GNSO, the two charter organizations, and the Board and the GAC, because the Board and the GAC are interested in these two working groups and their work.
Because these working groups hope to have the feedback from the Board and from the GAC, so we’re also in the process of finalizing the various activities in the reports, and I imagine that in Singapore we’ll have meetings with members of the Board, with the GAC and with the GNSO and members of ALAC. So I finished with that question. Now I’m going to nine. And I’m going to speak to you about the recent activity of ALAC. I’ve spoken already too much about --
Interpreter: He’s asking, Tijani is asking someone else to do it. [Not in English]. I believe he’s asking Dave.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So Dave doesn’t seem to be there, so I’ll have to do it, obviously. ALAC has a great deal of activity, which we haven’t been able to go over since my return from San Francisco; and now what we’re trying to do is to prepare a conference call for the working group for the future; the new working group. And this will allow us to prepare the charter for the working group and start the actual work. My second point is we had meetings in San Francisco with the ALAC registrars --
Interpreter: Oh, hold on a second.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: ALAC and the registrars met in San Francisco, and they decided to collaborate between the two. And now we’re trying to ponder and see what we can do; what we can ask the registrars as far as information is concerned, and what we can give them which will help them to understand ALAC better, and also At-Large better.
Third point; ALAC has organized a joint meeting with GNSO, the GAC, which we spoke about earlier, and we need to prepare that. ALAC will also suggest a statement on ICANN on security, stability, and that whole thing which is going to be prepared now. And ALAC is preparing a statement of their position on the ICANN request for removal of ownership subscriptions of certain kinds.
And then finally, ALAC is trying to prepare a statement of their position regarding their operational plan and the budget, which I spoke to you about before. I’m in charge of preparing that. Those are the most important actions by ALAC that are being taken at this time. Are there any questions, or shall we go to the next point? And the next point are the recent activities and future activities of AFRALO and the members of AFRALO, so each one of you can give a brief feedback; what you are doing and what you plan to do.
Interpreter: [Yush] is the name I got.
Aziz Hilali: Regarding the future, there’s first of all the meeting; I was disconnected, so I don’t know if you spoke about the Africann/AFRALO meeting yet, because we have to set the theme of the discussion. For the next AFRALO, the upcoming AFRALO activities, I don’t know if you’ve already spoken about it, and also I personally would like to have news about the working group from the GNSO and the very territories. I would like to have news about participation of two members of AFRALO that we have designated, [Awa] and Mohamed, regarding the working study group. So I’d like to have feedback from each of them.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you, Aziz. That was Aziz who brought up these two questions. Now let’s start with the African AFRALO. [Afrolua] has suggested before, I don’t know if you remember, with Fatimata, but the theme that will be discussed is – I’m going to repeat, since you were disconnected. The subjects that we hope to have on the agenda of the summit are being developed at Dakar. We can talk about the gTLDs and all of these subjects that were mentioned before, and any subjects that can be proposed or suggested. Did you get that, Aziz?
Aziz Hilali: Yes, now I understand.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Now, regarding the second point, the working groups, so we have Mohamed who is on the English side, and Mohamed, could you give us a little bit of feedback regarding the working group, on the names and territories? Could you do that, Mohamed? Is Mohamed there? Mohamed, are you there on the English side? Who’s there from the English? Is Mohamed there? No, he’s not here. Okay, I can’t give you feedback, because Mohamed – the two members of that working group are not there. So they’ll have to post it online, but they can post it online. It’s more rapid, and you’ll have more specific answers, so they’ve resolved that basically. So now that we’ve dealt with these two questions, let’s go to the ALS activities; each ALS will tell us what activities they’ve been involved in and what their future activities. Who wants to start?
Interpreter: Okay, Aziz is starting.
Aziz Hilali: The Moroccan ALS, we’ve organized some kind of meeting on the future of the internet, and that was very successful. We spoke about various things, national conferences, and we also had participants from Germany, Switzerland and the US. There were almost 200 people; it was a whole day long conference, and very valuable. You can go on our ALS site to see what took place, so that’s what happened with us.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you, Aziz. That’s great.
Etienne Tshishimbi: We’re still, it seems, discussing how to encourage --
Interpreter: I hear him mentioning ICANN, but there’s a lot of static so I will wait until he’s finished and then ask Tijani to repeat. I think he’s mentioning something about Dakar and their participation in Senegal. I heard him mentioning some kind of original program. Those are the principal activities of Senegal. I’m waiting until he’s finished to have Tijani repeat this so that you can get it.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So what he said was in Senegal, even though they are not ALS AFRALO, he did a little report. They are participating in some commissions, preparing the ICANN meeting in Dakar, so they’re preparing that report.
Interpreter: And Etienne is speaking. Tijani is asking what the second point was. He’s also preparing a national forum for on the internet for Nairobi. Those are the two activities that they’re involved in. He’s saying that there will be a national meeting before the regional one in July, I believe, in Senegal.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Alright, so okay, so that is one thing; so we’ve heard Senegal’s results. Anybody else? Yaovi? I guess they’ve been cut off somehow. Any other ALSes? I can speak about – wait a moment. The English side?
Interpreter: Okay, he’s going to finish first, and then he’s going – he’ll have you speak.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So his ALS has participated in the INET that you’ve spoken about, and I’ve participated in that conference, and we’ve actively prepared a kind of specialized workshop that was also participated in by the European Commission for Mediterranean countries of the south; and so we prepared that and I had meetings with the technicians and I hope that we’ll be able to have that in the first three months of 2012, so that’s just a brief panorama of our activities.
Interpreter: Yes, go ahead. Who’s speaking?
Pastor Peter: I can speak now?
Interpreter: Who is speaking? Yes, please. Who is speaking?
Pastor Peters: Pastor Peters.
Interpreter: Okay, okay, go ahead Peter.
Pastor Peter: Okay, my group actually after the last ICANN meeting in San Francisco, we came in contact with (inaudible) from Nigeria, who attended the Columbia ICANN meeting---
Interpreter: Wait please, hold on. Okay, go ahead.
Pastor Peter: [Ms. Tula] worked with – she’s a government regulatory agency staff. She works for the government, and --
Interpreter: Hold on.
Pastor Peter: I am enthused slightly. Following the meeting in San Francisco we came to an agreement that the only way we can proceed with the ICANN, is for us (inaudible) and for them (inaudible) to begin to engage the internet users. Because to have a large number of internet users --
Interpreter: Hold on. Hold on a second. You’re going to have to start again, because they had people who had not put themselves – there’s terrible static. Somebody’s not bothered to put themselves on star six. Okay, they’re making an announcement, Peter, so hold on just a second. When Tijani’s – thank you, thank you. Hopefully they’re doing it now, but I’m waiting until they’ve done it so that you don’t waste your time. Okay, start again.
Pastor Peter: I was saying that after the San Francisco meeting, I met with Ms. Tula who was a fellow in December at the Columbia meeting. We both agreed that from the two countries, she is from (inaudible), she works with the Nigerian Communications Commission in Nigeria. We agreed that we should work together as members of ICANN community and try to engage (inaudible) Nigeria, with a view to promoting and giving the facility of ICANN to them. Because we have a large number of people who use the internet. So we are putting plans together and then looking to the fall, we come to Dakar (inaudible).
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you.
Interpreter: They’re asking Yaovi to speak for Etienne. So I got as much as I could across.
Pastor Peter: Thank you.
Interpreter: Sure. And make sure you post it online, because there was a lot of static as I was trying to hear you, and make sure. That’s very important.
Pastor Peter: Thank you.
Interpreter: Sure. They’re talking about the ALS of Aziz now, and now Tijani’s fairly clear, but the minute you started speaking, somebody had not silenced their – so now they’re seeing if anybody else wants to add to this.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Is there any other business?
Interpreter: Yaovi is now speaking. He’s talking about the participation in one of the programs. They’re talking about ICANN and the participation in Dakar, but I’m not sure who is speaking; it is not too clear, but they seem to --
Tijani Ben Jemaa: --the fellowship program is now open, and wants to remind everybody who can go to Dakar to make a request if they want to. Is there anything else, subject you would like to discuss at this point? Otherwise, it’s late and we’ve done two hours instead of one hour. So I would like to thank you all; it was very painful this evening. It was one of the most difficult that we have ever had. I want to thank you all for your participation.
[End of Transcript]
