Dear Marylin, The African Internet Summit is a multi-stakeholder ICT conference and NOT an ISP event. Asides businesses, delegates to the conference are drawn from the academia, public sector, technical organizations, government institutions and civil society. Unarguably, this is one of the largest ICT conference on the Continent. You’ll agree also that Africa rates high in the list of regions that ICANN supports outreach interventions to, it is gradually becoming a region accounting for some balance in diversity within ICANN, hence advocacy efforts can't at this point be said to be too much. I am aware you have been passionate in seeking ICANN’s support for the BC in its outreach efforts in under-served regions, we can’t go back now advocating that it is too much. Where there may be other BC members attending the summit, it is good for the business community as it promotes us as a strong voice which we should be in Africa. It would also encourage more businesses present to engage when they can be pointed to their peers who are already engaging within ICANN. However they are not going there with an outreach mindset, neither would we measure their participation along established outputs aligned with BC outreach objectives. Right now I am the only one so far that has a proposal before the outreach committee to conduct outreach for the BC in Kenya. If there is any other we should review their proposals here. I will be in Kenya as a member of the business community, advocating for business, ICANN and engagement opportunities like the fellowship program which served as my point of entry into the community, asides having to facilitate a session on Start up Incubation and the Internet – a tremendous opportunity for engagement in my region. Ultimately this conference and opportunity provide me a means to achieve all the objectives set out in my proposal which aligns with the outreach objectives of the BC. This is a report on the NCUC outreach at last year’s edition of the conference: "The Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) Outreach Session took place, chaired by Anriette Esterhuysen. This event introduced NCUC to organisations and individuals at the Africa Internet Summit. The session showcased some of its successes regarding policy making and impacting policy making within ICANN through a series of brief introductions by the active members. The session also highlighted the importance of domain names related policies and how to participate effectively to voice African non-commercial users concerns". Where the NCUC considers the AIS a veritable ground for outreach, the BC should have an equally strong justification to engage at the AIS. There may have some other members of the BC attending the meeting, but I am particularly interested in outreach that would lead to new membership, create more awareness for the BC and advocate support for small businesses on the continent through my session. This is the basis for requesting BC support and which I hope would be timely. Please accept the assurances of my warm regards, Lawrence Olawale-Roberts. On Thu, May 11, 2017 1:44 am, Marilyn Cade wrote:
just seeing this. I am sorry it is so late and I will review it but I am at CSTD and one of only three non governmental negotiators on critical language, so it may take rest of day. However, I am still asking why the BC is sending a BC member to do recruitment in what is considered ISPCP land -- and whether we will encounter what we have in the past -- a few years ago - when we were accused of poaching members that belonged in the ISPCP.
Also, we have BC members in Kenya, and I am first interested in understanding if they are participating and can distribute materials. So, at this point, I am thinking that I can't support this particular proposal, but am interested in proposals that engage with actual business users.
Even those who attend this event are the engineers or DNS operators from businesses, not the business user side.
[sorry, suffer from attending RIPE and ARIN conferences in the past! ]
So, at this point, I am not supporting but I will look closely at the rationale.
Can we verify if the Kenya based BC members are already attending? If so, they can distribute any BC materials.
Marilyn
________________________________ From: bc-outreach-bounces@icann.org <bc-outreach-bounces@icann.org> on behalf of Lawrence OlaWale-Roberts <icann@microboss.org> Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 4:08 AM To: bc-outreach@icann.org Cc: lawrence@microboss.org Subject: [Bc-outreach] BC Outreach to Kenya.
Dear Outreach Members,
My apologies for not turning in this earlier as promised, there was a need to review my earlier proposal so as to reduce the proposed cost for the outreach after my consultations with Andrew early on friday.
Please find attached my proposal for outreach to the Business community that would be attending the African Internet Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. The AIS is one of the biggest meeting on the continent because allows for great collaboration among all stakeholders. It is co-hosted by Afrinic (the regional RIR) and AfNOG with Tespok as the local host for this year. ICANN, ISOC, African IGF, AfricaCERT, AfTLD, AfREN and AfPIF are all partners at this years event, with all bringing in a large mix of their stakeholders to the meeting. over 1000 participants are expected in Nairobi in May.
I will be actively participating at the conference, exploring the business network for potential BC members who are a fit for our constituency and looking forward to the approval of my BoF session on "Start Up Incubation and the Future of the Internet" during the conference.
Thanks for your kind approval.
Lawrence Olawale-Roberts.