Hi Roberto, thanks for your critical remarks and the proposal. But I believe nobody thought on organising a conference in Paris just for the event itself - and to talk about the weather report. The programme and content of such an User's Summit has to deal with ICANN policy of course. And some of the topics you suggested like "Accountability and Transparency" or “the Whois”, or the “registrant representation in DNS regulation“ as Jeanette suggested would all be relevant programme elements of the Paris event. I think that EURALO - like other RALOs - must define and find its/their own approach to "substantive contribution to the policy making process" of the mother organization -- and this is something you cannot reach by phone conferences and mailing lists only. Best, Wolf Roberto Gaetano wrote Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:53:
Happy New Year.
I have a proposal, that might sound funny to some folks: why don't we plan to do in 2008 some work on policy? After all, that's why ALAC and the RALOs have been created, to provide input to ICANN on policy decisions.
There are plenty of subjects on the table: the modification of the current regime for the Add Grace Period, issues related to domain name tasting, the comments to USG about the JPA, feedback on the Accountabiity and Transparency document, comments solicited by the GNSO about the WhoIs, modification of the geographic regions, and more.
The ALAC Review is starting. It would be very embarassing if the reviewers find out that all what has been done is some basic administration, organization of meetings, participation to IGF, etc., but no substantive contribution to the policy making process. One might wonder whether the money that ICANN is putting into this process is not wasted?!?
Cheers, Roberto
comunica-ch phone +41 79 204 83 87 www.comunica-ch.net http://blog.allmend.ch - Digitale Allmend