Colleagues,
As you may be aware, we had a successful meeting in Hong Kong on 25th
July 2007 and due thanks to Nick Ashton-Hart and Michael Evans at ICANN
and Edmon Chung from ISOC-HK for their efforts.
A rough guide to the meeting in the form of summary notes by Cheryl
(thank you!) was posted to this list earlier and is available at
https://st.icann.org/asiapac/index.cgi?25_july_2007
A recording of the meeting in MP3 format is also available on the site
and a transcript is being arranged as well and will be available in due
course at the same site.
I would like to (very briefly) relay to you the major outcomes of the
meeting and welcome your comments for further progress.
(i) APRALO physical meetings: To be held twice a year. One to
be during ICANN AP meeting (if scheduled in the region) and second
during APRICOT or other appropriate regional gathering.
For 2008, APRICOT and ICANN are in the same month, therefore one
suggestion is during IGF 2008 which is scheduled for Delhi in November.
APTLD also intends to hold a meeting
during IGF so it could be an opportune time.
(ii) APRALO teleconferences: To be held on the 4th Tuesday of
every month and to be used to provide input/feedback to/from ALAC reps
and wider community, and for other issues as appropriate.
(iii) APRALO-APTLD co-operation: I have been in talks with Don
Hollander of APTLD in recent weeks on common ground our organisations
can collaborate on. As a result a Working Group has
been formed comprised of Christopher To and Edmon Chung to
liaise with Don/APTLD and explore whats possible.
(iv) APRALO Outreach: Outreach is an important part of our
objectives, and to this end a Working Group has been formed, comprised
of Cheryl Langdon-Orr and Tommy Matsumoto to consider
deliberate on whats needed and whats possible. If you are
interested in joining this WG, please let me know.
(v) APRALO Budget and Projects: It is necessary for us to have
a working budget and project plan so our activities are appropriately
supported. A 3 to 5 year plan is expected. A Working Group
comprised of John Fung has been formed. Nirmol Agarwal had
earlier indicated some interest on budgetary matters and is invited to
join this WG, and a 3rd volunteer is required. If you are
interested, please let me know.
(vi) Issues Working Groups: Various issues are currently under
consideration within ICANN and the Internet community at large. It is
necessary for APRALO to make meaningful contribution to
these discussions and as such each issue of concern must have a
Working Group. These can be aligned with the various policy working
groups within ICANN/ALAC and as such one person
per issue is required to be on the mailing lists of these
groups. This person will act as the lead for the APRALO Working Group
on the issue and will be assisted by at least one other member
from the APRALO community. I invite you to volunteer for issues
which you are most concerned with/interested in. Should we not have
enough volunteers, we will assign a lead and secondary
ALS to an issue as a means of moving this forward.
(vii) Working Group Structure: All Working Groups will have the
APRALO Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretariat as Ex-Officio members.
(viii) Development of APRALO Statement(s) on Issue(s): Will be
a function of the Working Groups with input from the APRALO community
(ix) APRALO Website: Needs a tidy-up. With the pending
release of the new ALAC site, we will not make wholesale changes just
yet, but the site needs more information and regular updates.
It also needs to be easy to navigate. The current wiki-based
site has limitations on how "pretty" one can make it look, but
something can be achieved nevertheless. I have made a start to
tidying up the site and posting information and you are
invite to contribute ideas/suggestions/concepts. However, I do not wish
us to engage in a long drawn out discussion on web site
design - content is king.
(x) APRALO Workplan: The above forms the core of the workplan
and you are invited to contribute to specifics. I would like to see the
workplan in plain language and to the point.
A copy of this will be posted on the website at
https://st.icann.org/asiapac/index.cgi?meeting_outcomes_25_july_2007
--
Kind regards,
Rajnesh D. Singh
Chair, ICANN Asia Pacific Regional At-Large Organisation www.apralo.org