At-Large Adivorsy Committee Monthly Teleconference 11 March 2008

Present (ALAC): C Langdon-Orr, S Bachollet, A Greenberg, V Cretu, C Aguirre, I Aizu, H Diakite, N Thu Hue, M El Bashir, V Scartezini

Present (Liaisons): X Hong, W Seltzer, R Sherwood

Staff: N Ashton-Hart, M Langenegger

Apologies: J Morris, B Brendler, A Muehlberg

Absent: R Guerra

Minutes taken by ICANN staff

Standing Items

Teleconference commenced at 1410 UTC with the roll call and the adoption of the minutes of the preceding meeting.

The ALAC liaison to the Board informed the participants about the upcoming March meeting of the board and asked for issues ALAC wanted to put forward for that meeting.

It was decided that discussion about ICANN’s strategic goals with regards to its new budget will be discussed at the next ALAC conference.

V Cretu informed the participants about the report on the OneDay ALAC/AtLarge workshop which was recently sent to all RALOs. With regards to the upcoming meeting in Paris, V Cretu pointed out that there would be another OneDay workshop with the goal of bringing representatives of different constituencies of ICANN to the 3rd phase of this initiative.

V Cretu was asked to provide a one page Executive Summary that the ALAC liaison will then put forward to the Board.

The Chair will put forward the Executive Summary of the OneDay report to the other constituencies.

Review of Action Items of the New Delhi conference

The Chair suggested having a new mechanism for the Action Items. She pointed out that the review of the Action Items should take place before the ALAC meetings.

Staff will remind participants of Action Items and deadlines in the future.

It was mentioned that the action item of the February 12 meeting was not meant to be an action item since it was mentioned in a conversation.

Review of current status of ALS applications

The Chair asked the Staff when the new ALS application system was expected to be available, as well as the membership database system. The staff noted that repeated enquiries of Robert Guerra had gone unanswered and it seemed likely that at least part of the work would need to be transferred to another contractor due to R Guerra’s being unwell for an extended period. The Staff would continue trying to reach him.

Staff will update the Google document on ALS applications before the next teleconference.

New Business

Comment on Domain Tasting

A Greenberg suggested having a short statement on behalf of ALAC in support of the motion. He will draft and forward such a statement.

Staff will send out the draft statement to the regional lists for review.

A Greenberg pointed out that a strong statement by ALAC might encourage NCUC to adopt a strong position as well.

All representatives from the RALOs are asked to come up with a statement from their region on Domain Tasting by Friday 28 March 23:59 UTC.

It was noted without objection that there does not have to be a formal vote but rather some sort of rough consensus among the RALOs.

Guide to Domain Names

There were diverging comments made on the quality of the document. Many participants noted that they had issues with the current version of the Guide to gTLDs.

The Board Liaison deplored the fact that the ALAC is presented with the same document she already considered to be a failure and complained that the current document did not even include some of the comments of the former ALAC members. She noted that she did not wanted to publish this guide as an ALAC document. She pointed out that it has been drafted by a contractor and was generally a bad starting point for a guide.

Some participants questioned whether it made sense to discuss the basic question if there should be a document when this in fact has already been supported in a prior meeting.

The Chair suggested an Ad Hoc working group to go over the document and recommend what direction ALAC wants to follow. J Levine, the ALAC liaison, Izumi and S Bachollet and everybody who already sent in a comment on the current draft will be in this WG.

Staff pointed out that it was decided unanimously in New Delhi that comments would be taken on the current draft and that final comments will be made before 31 March. This was then announced on the public lists. The Chair noted that this deadline should therefore be maintained.

GNSO Improvements AL.ALAC/CC.0308/1/2 Proposal of the Chair on GNSO Improvements

Staff will send out an email with the meeting agenda documents in plain text and in PDF in the future.

A Greenberg stressed the fact that everybody should have read the relevant documents before the conference starts since otherwise no elaborate discussion on the subject can take place.

The Ad-Hoc drafting group will consist of five persons, one from each RALO: A Greenberg (NARALO), V Cretu (EURALO), C Aguirre (LACRALO). With regards to AFRALO, M El Bahir will make a suggestion for a candidate. The participant from APRALO is also open. (Subsequent entry: M El Bahir will represent AFRALO)

Staff shall remind M El Bashir about the Ad-Hoc drafting group candidate he promised to announce.

The Ad-hoc drafting group will appoint a Chair.

The Chair pointed out that the statement needed to be short and concise.

The ALAC Liaison suggested having a reference in the document to the fact that the registrants interest group does not entail a representative from the general domain-using public.

Domain Name Front Running (NARALO is draft statement available at Statement to the ICANN Board on Domain Front Running and other policy issues

The ALAC liaison to the Board noted that the NARALO asked her to put forward D Younger’s statement on Domain Name Front running, which asks the board to take emergency action to stop domain name abuses.

A Greenberg will ask the NARALO to wait for the ALAC endorsement until the week of 24 March.

Amendment: The NARALO statement was accepted unanimously by ALAC. There were no further objections or suggested edits. The ALAC liaison to the Board will have this minuted at the next Board meeting on 27 April.

S Bachollet noted that there is not much time to look at it.

Staff will send D Younger’s statement to the ALAC internal list with a view to an ALAC endorsement. Comments should be in by 17 March 12 UTC.

The following document was adopted by consensus:

The At-Large Advisory Committee resolves as follows:

  • That the Chair shall convene an ad-hoc drafting group of five persons, plus the Vice Chair and the Chair;
  • That the ad-hoc committee shall produce a short statement on or before 17th March 2008 1200 UTC, drawing from comments received on the subject in the past as well as the draft statement prepared by D Younger and others;
  • That the draft statement shall be distributed to the ALAC, and to the RALOs, for review, with a deadline for comments not later than 24th March 2008 in order to allow the final comments to be provided to the Board of Directors as a Statement of the At-Large Advisory Committee, and as input into the Public Comment period on GNSO Improvements before the closing of the Public Comment period on 25th March 2008

Amendment: The Public Comment period was subsequently extended until the 25th of April by request of the Business Constituency of the GNSO, the ALAC chair and others.

Budget Subcommittee AL.ALAC/CC.0308/1/6 Proposal of the Chair on the ALAC Budget Committee and its Work

The Chair stressed the importance of having representation from each of the RALOs on the Budget Committee. A Greenberg stepped forward to represent NARALO, which only leaves AFRALO without representation. Fatima Seye Sylla was suggested to represent AFRALO. Staff will approach her with this request within 72 hours after the meeting.

V Scartezini and Izumi pointed out that they are worried about changing the Budget Committee at this stage since the work has already begun. The Budget Sub Committee is currently composed of V Scartezini, the Chair, and A Muehlberg.

The Chair said that she thinks that the current Budget SC is too small and needs to be extended. It was generally felt that 5 members in total, 1 from each region, with V Scartezini representing LACRALO and the Chair representing APRALO, was the appropriate number of members.

This modification led to the following statement being adopted by consensus:

The At-Large Advisory Committee notes that:

  • The current budgeting committee is composed of C Langdon-Orr, V Scartezini, A Muehlberg; A Greenberg
  • There is currently a consultation running within ICANN on the Budget of ICANN for the forthcoming Fiscal Year, which is a consultation on the Operating Plan at the same time;
  • A number of the questions raised by the consultation are of central importance to the At-Large community, such as, inter alia:
    • The amount of resources and importance ICANN shall attach to multilingualism in its operations;
    • The possible harmonisation of travel support across ICANN statutory bodies
  • It is essential that the At-Large community should comment on these matters;
  • The process of responding on these issues should use a “bottom-up” process of developing the views to be presented on behalf of the community.

It is therefore resolved as follows:

  • That the Budget Committee of the ALAC shall be restructured as provided under Rule 7 of the Rules of Procedure as follows;
  • That it shall be composed of the following membership, as provided under Rule 8 of the Rules of Procedure:
  • One representative from each RALO, whereas the Chair of the ALAC represents APRALO and the Vice-Chair LACRALO
  • That it shall meet telephonically within 7 days from the appointment of its full membership with the following agenda:
    • Consideration of a draft response on the questions related to an ICANN Travel Support Policy, currently the object of a Public Consultation, which may be found at: http://www.icann.org/public_comment/#travel-policy);
    • Consideration of a draft response on the questions related to the Operating Plan as they impact the Budget of ICANN – further information to be found at: http://icann.org/planning/;
    • Consideration with a programme for ensuring that RALOs and ALSes contribute at least their preliminary views on the upcoming Budget consultation not later than 31st March 2008.
  • That the deliberations on the first two agenda items shall be draft documents, in sufficiently finalised form to allow them to be sent to the whole At-Large membership not later than 20th March, so that RALOs may comment not later than 31st March, in order to allow the ALAC to make a formal comment to the Board of ICANN by decision;
  • That the Secretariat for the Budget Committee shall be the ICANN At-Large staff, who shall be charged with the necessary preparatory work and other support necessary to facilitate the good working of the Committee in close cooperation with the ALAC Executive Committee.
  • That the following schedule of work of the Budget Committee shall be adhered to in order to allow the community to present comments on these important subjects in good time:
    • Draft documents for agenda items one and two shall be completed not later than 15th March, or before the telephonic meeting of the Budget Committee, whichever shall come first;
    • Revised drafts of the documents above shall be presented, incorporating the comments of the Committee at its meeting, not later than five days subsequent to the date of that meeting;
    • The RALOs shall have not less than 10 days to comment on the revised drafts;
    • RALO’s comments shall be incorporated into a third draft, which shall be considered and adopted by the ALAC at its April meeting, and then transmitted to the Board of ICANN and others as appropriate not later than 15th April 2008.

Accountability Framework AL.ALAC/CC.0308/1/3 Proposal of the Chair on Developing an ALAC Accountability Framework Draft

A Greenberg pointed out that Accountability Framework is not a well-understood term and there should be a reference in the text.

The Chair explained that the goal of the Accountability framework was to have minimum participation criteria and to collect all existing obligations of ALAC membership into one document as they were currently in several places. I Aizu asked if it was intended that additional obligations might be involved and it was stated that this was possible.

After discussion it was decided that the proposal should be modified to extend the deadline for ALAC comments on the draft Accountability Framework from 31 March to 11 April.

The ALAC members are asked to make comments on the Accountability Framework by 11 April.

The final draft Accountability Framework shall then be ready for adoption at the ALAC May teleconference.

Subject to these modifications the following proposal was passed by consensus:

The At-Large Advisory Committee believes:

  • That it is essential that the At-Large Community, and the ICANN communities by extension, can expect the highest standards of behaviour and commitment from Members of the At-Large Advisory Committee;
  • That an essential element of demonstrating those principles is to have a written Accountability Framework which provides the Community with easy-to-understand metrics related to performance and behaviour;
  • That a part of such a Framework must include sanctions for breaches of the Framework;
  • The ALAC notes that the Chair has directed the Staff to compile those elements related to accountability and performance of ALAC members that already exist and that this is currently in the process of being completed.

The ALAC therefore resolves as follows:

  • The ICANN Staff synthesis shall be completed and provided to the Executive Committee of the ALAC not later than 20th March 2008;
  • That the Executive Committee shall discuss the synthesis at its next meeting and propose such amendments as it thinks useful at that time;
  • That the Members of the ALAC shall be invited to make comments on the draft Accountability Framework, the draft being made available not later than 29th March, with comments due to be received on the ALAC public list not later than 11st of April 2008 at 1200 UTC;
  • That the RALOs shall be invited to comment on the proposed Framework for the same period;
  • That the _Executive Committee of the ALAC or ICANN Staff in concert with the Executive Committee_shall compile comments received and present a final draft Accountability Framework for adoption at the April 2008 Monthly Teleconference, said draft to be published for review not later than 4th April 2008.

List Posting and Moderation (see ALAC/2007/1/1.Rev9.1 (EN) and AL.ALAC/CC.0308/1/5 Proposal of the Chair on Code of Conduct Enforcement

The Chair pointed out that list moderation is a delicate issue where a balance needs to be struck between preventing list fatigue while avoiding the slippery slope of censorship.

The view was generally held that list fatigue is a real threat and that there should be a simple and efficient rule to avoid it.

Nevertheless, several participants expressed concerns about the threat of censorship.

After considerable discussion on the merits and disadvantages of various forms of moderation and/or sanctions that have been suggested by subscribers to the At-Large list, regarding the activities of current list subscriber(s) that are, in the view of the Chair, not acting in accordance with our Rules of Procedure regarding list activity and purpose (recently reposted to the At-Large list on 5 March 2008, so that all current subscribers are aware of them).

A motion was carried which supported the following proposal from the Chair with regards to the Code of Conduct Enforcements. There was one abstention and no vote against.

The At-Large Advisory Committee notes that:

Code of Conduct has been established as an essential part of the Rules of Procedure of the At-Large Advisory Committee;_

  • The Code of Conduct establishes a mechanism which properly allows the Chair of the ALAC to intervene to protect the health of debates and prevent misuse of public discussion fora by anyone – but that it does not provide a detailed sanctions regime.

Therefore, in order to provide the community as a whole with further details on how the Code of Conduct will be enforced, the ALAC decides as follows, swith respect to invocation of Rule 22.15 or 22.16:

  • As a first step, the Chair shall post to the list in question as follows (“First Step Sanctions”):
    • notice that there is a violation of the Code of Conduct;
    • the portion or portions of Rule 22 which are being violated;
    • that those who are in breach are to immediately cease to breach the rule(s) or face moderation.
  • If, according to the judgment of the Chair, the offending behaviour continues, the Chair shall post to the list in question as follows (“Second Step Sanctions”):
    • notice that there is a continuing violation of the Code of Conduct;
    • the portion or portions of Rule 22 which continue to being violated;
    • that the staff are therefore directed to enable moderation of the offending persons emails;
    • That The Staff are to allow up to the first three (3) emails per day from the offending person to be posted to the list.
    • The Staff shall confirm to the list in question the point at which the moderation has begun. Moderation shall not restrict the ability of those being moderated from reception of all list traffic.
  • If, after a reasonable period of time – “reasonable” being determined by the Chair – the three postings which are allowed per day are deemed to be entirely, or largely, a continuing violation of the Code of Conduct, the Chair shall post to the list in question as follows (“Third Stage Sanctions”):
    • notice that there is a continuing violation of the Code of Conduct;
    • the portion or portions of Rule 22 which continue to being violated;
    • that the staff are therefore directed to enable moderation of the offending persons emails;
    • That all posting privileges for the offending poster are revoked for a period of one month.
    • The Staff shall confirm to the list in question the point at which posting privileges have been revoked. Moderation shall not restrict the ability of those being moderated from reception of all list traffic.
  • After one month, posting privileges shall be enabled by the Staff in reverse order to the sanctions imposed. In other words, if second-stage sanctions were imposed, after one month, the address or addresses in question will be restored to unrestricted posting access. If third stage sanctions were imposed, then after one month the poster’s first three postings per day would be permitted, and one month from that date, if no Code of Conduct violations were engaged in by the poster in question, full access would be granted.
  • Note that any dispute which those whom the Chair has notified under these provisions shall be taken to private email. Any posting by those whom the Chair has decided are in breach of Rule 22 that is posted to public mailing lists shall itself be considered a breach of the Code of Conduct.
  • Note further that if the Chair has good reason to believe that a poster subject to Second Stage or Third Stage sanctions should be restored to partial, or full, posting privileges in less than a month after sanctions were imposed, the Chair is empowered to alter the sanctions accordingly.

The Chair pointed out that this is only a clarification on one aspect of the rules of procedure and not a new rule.

V Cretu reminded the other participants that if someone replies to a list posting he or she should reply to this person in particular and not to the whole list.

Planning Committee for Paris Meeting AL.ALAC/CC.0308/1/4 Proposal of the Chair on Planning for Paris

The proposal of the Chair was accepted unanimously.

A Greenberg will contact the RALOs to identify the representatives of the different RALOs who will participate. He would also like to be on the mailing list.

S Bachollet suggested the ALAC Liaison should also be on the mailing list and follow the discussion and give the ALAC an update of the Board discussions on the subject.

The deadline to produce a draft programme of At-Large related meeting was changed from 31 March to 1 April.

It was decided that a new mailing list would be made for the Planning Committee which was open to all, but which was for the work of the committee and not general conversation on the subject.

The Chair informed the participants that the Co Vice Chair R Guerra has resigned from his position for personal reasons. The ALAC wants to thank him for his effort and will greatly miss him.

Staff will open calls for this position and inform all the different At-Large lists about the Co Vice-Chairs resignation.

The Chair encouraged participants to dial into conferences five to ten minutes in advance for the conferences. Staff are to remind Members about this in their meeting reminders. It was further stated that the dial-outs should begin 15 minutes before the start time of the meeting to enable the meetings to begin on time. Staff are to implement this change with the conference call provider.

Staff will have a word with the teleconference service provider about today’s technical difficulties.

The Chair adjourned the meeting at 1625 UTC.