Hi Everyone, Here is a very brief skeleton for discussion of our response to the VIP Project Plan (http://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/idn-vip-proposed-project-plan-20feb12-...): 1. General ALAC Position - reiterate our support for IDN and IDN Variants - reiterate IDN's importance on multilingualism, etc. - reiterate our concerns for continued delay on the implementation of IDN Variant TLDs - ... 2. Budget & Process - Previous ALAC comment from FY13 https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/31166974/ALAC+Statement+on+... - transparency of process for which the budget for VIP was developed - explanation on consultants vs. volunteers (was the original VIP results not satisfactory?) - ... 3. ALAC Concerns - lack of clarity or clear need on some projects (project 3) - theoretic/grandiose approach (projects 1&2) versus practical implementation (spirit of the Internet) - need to better distinguish issues not specific to IDN Variant TLDs (project 4) - out of scope for ICANN (project 5) - cart before the horse (project 6) 4. ALAC Advice - concentrate efforts to implement IDN Variant TLDs for communities who are ready - leverage already available expertise and experience from the community - direct funding to other IDN communities to support the bottom-up development of IDN policies from the language community - refocus on ICANN Scope (projects 7 & 8) - ... Feel free to start the discussion on this mailing list and we will continue at our meeting on Monday (http://costarica43.icann.org/node/29525) Edmon PS. If it is agreeable, would also like to invite the VIP team to our discussion