Transcript EN 05.08.09
- Laura Kolker
Adigo
icann_afralo_20090805_en_242704
French Channel: Yaovi is here. I actually want to ask Yaovi if he was able to work on the AFRALO bylaws.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: Personally, I was not able to participate during the month of July. I was not able to work on that.
French Channel: Heidi, that was the first action item.
Heidi: Okay.
I'd like to say something regarding the action items of the bylaws.
French Channel: Okay. We now have Tijani online, by the way.
Heidi: Thank you. Mohammed is still not here?
French Channel: Mohammed is still not here.
So, reconfirming – we have Yaovi, we have Renald. We have Michel. We already started the call, so Hawa, if you could continue.
Hawa Through Interpreter: There's a series problem in regard to this. This is a crucial issue with AFRALO, and it's always important. First of all, we don't even have inaudible participation at the meetings. We don't even have enough number of ALSs here. I don't know if any of you have any ideas to improve that aspect, first of all.
Then to work on the other items later.
Tijani Through Interpreter: Can I say something? Okay. Tijani is going to speak in regard to that. I do think that there's also a problem of connection, first of all.
Because there are a lot of people who are not able to participate in the meetings. Why? Because there's difficulty to get in contact with them, first of all. Excuse me – this issue's a lot if I may.
Everybody who was on the list for the dialout, I actually had sent out an e-mail just to confirm the phone numbers that we had. Just to make sure that we actually have the good numbers. Also, to confirm their presences on the call.
I also think that for this month of August, we do have a lot of people that are on vacation. That's an issue.
We are hoping that with the new system, to send out an e-mail before. Or at least two nights before. Just to confirm the phone numbers and to confirm the participation. "This way, I'm hoping that we're able to have more people present," says Gisella, too. Tijani. Thank you, Gisella, for that.
Hawa Through Interpreter: In regards to the confirmations that you sent out, though, did you actually get any responses?
I received responses that I sent out. I think that at least half of the people didn't respond back.
Okay that's good.
I do want to remind Gisella and Hawa that for the month of July, we had actually started late. That the call started really late. There was only me, Yaovi and AFRALO. There was a lot of silence – because there was nobody on the other side.
For 30 minutes, we did not even start. Then 10 minutes later, they recalled me again. But they didn't call Yaovi. I had actually asked to call him. Nobody called him.
It's always a problem when it comes to the technicalities. I do agree that there's a problem with the technicalities. This is fine.
We're going to try to from now on fix the problem. Not only sending an e-mail – like I said – either the night before or at least two nights before. Just to see if people are going to be available at the number that we have for them, if they're going to participate. At least the least will be to actually answer the phone call when they're called.
There are people that sometimes are at other places, and they forget to get the number, for example. Let's hope that for this system, there won't be an excuse.
Mohammed: Hello. It's Mohammed, here.
French Channel: Hi, Mohammed.
Heidi: Hi, Mohammed. It's Heidi.
Mohammed: Hi, Heidi. How are you?
Heidi: Fine, thank you.
Mohammed: Sorry for all the inaudible
French Channel: Let me go ahead and announce your presence.
Heidi: Okay.
Matthias: Okay.
Heidi: Mohammed, I have updated all of the comments on your document onto a wiki, in French and English. They're all collected right there.
Mohammed: Okay. Thank you very much. I'm opening the wiki, now.
Heidi: Okay. You'll see that there's a hyperlink to your document.
Mohammed: Yes. Checking it now.
Heidi: We had a lot of compliments of "Well done."
Mohammed: Well hopefully we can proceed on that. Yes. The latest comment was on how to proceed in using some sort of monitoring. Who's attending and who is not.
Heidi: Yes.
Mohammed: inaudible if we can do something about that.
French Channel: We don't follow Mama? He asked Mohammed. Spoken in French.
Heidi: Very quickly – Hawa is chairing.
Mohammed: Okay.
Heidi: She unfortunately does not have the agenda in front of her. Gisella is on the French Channel, and is telling her what the major agenda items are.
Mohammed: Okay. Can we apologize for me joining late? Because the operators were trying to call a wrong number, and that's why that threw me out for 15 minutes.
Heidi: Okay. Well, we're glad you're here.
Mohammed: Thank you.
French Channel: Okay. So, Point 1 – if we could actually talk about Point 1… I just joined if we could actually talk about Point 1. Now we say your name, please.
Tijani: This is Tijani. If we could talk about Point 1 of the Action Items. Otherwise, if you can update me in regards to what we did.
Basically, at this point, Gisella is updating Tijani on what's happening. We had started talking about Point 1. Now we were at Point 2. We were actually talking about the action items. One of the important points was Khaled was actually going to finalize the statutes. Hawa was saying that it's very difficult, because we haven't actually made any progress.
Heidi: Yes. If I could speak to that, please.
French Channel: Okay.
Go ahead, Heidi.
Heidi: Yes. Hi. This is Heidi. Welcome, everyone.
I would like to suggest that with the bylaws, I will help Khaled and Yaovi in developing these. Nick has also offered his assistance in drafting these bylaws and helping me draft these bylaws.
We are also concerned, as Hawa is, that we have not made progress as quickly as we had hoped. If we could get agreement on that way, what I would suggest is that we post the current bylaws – as they are, the planned bylaws – on a wiki. Then we can start adding comments as they come in.
We can do that in both the French and English languages.
French Channel: Hawa's back.
Heidi: If that would be a way forward, an example of what I have suggested is what we've done for Mohammed's documents on participation.
French Channel: Yaovi wants to say something.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: Thank you. In regards to the bylaws, I think that there's some work that had already been done.
Heidi: Yes. That is correct. That's what I was suggesting. That we would put up the version where we were the last time. The latest version. Then we could review it and we could comment. Staff could help Yaovi and Khaled with that.
We could put that version – we could see how it continues, and people could continue making comments.
French Channel: The one thing that Yaovi is saying is that it's important to start sending out these mails. Yaovi says that he had time in the month of July. If he would've received any mail in regard to this announcement, he would've been able to work. If we could actually start sending out more mails in regard to this, to do more progress.
Heidi: Okay. We'll make that as an action item.
French Channel: Very well. Tijani's going to say something.
Tijani Through Interpreter: Hi, Heidi. I hope that you had a good vacation, first of all. The work that had been asked of us was not actually to rewrite the bylaws, but to just include the comments.
At this point, if we don't know where the comments are, there's a problem. I personally did add contributions. I'm not the only one that had a contribution. What happened to that?
Heidi: We would go through the history of all of the comments that were made. We would put them on a wiki, so everyone could see all of the comments that had been made.
Hawa Through Interpreter: Yes, I am here.
French Channel: Okay. Just continue. I'm still here.
I want to know is in regard to this extension, what happened to the actual open public comments?
If we look at the agenda, there is a section that talks about sending issues. We have the action items. We have open public comments. No, no. We haven't spoken in regard to that.
So in regard to the bylaws? Is there anything else in regard to the action items? Participation. Okay. Participation. And we already spoke about that.
Heidi: Heidi.
French Channel: Yes.
Heidi: If I could just finalize one point.
French Channel: Okay. And let me go ahead and tell them.
Very important. Just one second, Heidi.
In regard to the wiki – when you see it on the actual page. There's a section that talks about how to participate. But you see a little summary in regard to how to be able to participate, and how to actually take certain options in order to start the phone calls and to be able to adapt, in regards to the phone call. How to engage more participation in Africa.
When I send an e-mail just to confirm who's able to participate, if possible then – just to reconfirm – obviously it depends. First of all, it's always better to be on a fixed phone and not a cell phone because of the echos and the connections. I know that it's not always possible.
But as much as possible, if anybody… Everybody could make an effort just to be able to be at a specific fixed phone. At least for these calls. You can even send us the right number a few hours before, and just for you guys to always try to be on the best connections.
If we are persistent in regard to this new method, I think that we will be able to have more people on the call.
Finally, please – everybody always say your names. This is how we are going to be able to know on the recordings who said what. Because now for the transcriptions, we're actually going to have those available, so that's going to be important for the AFRALO calls.
This is why it's always important. Usually we're going to need 72 hours for the French transcriptions. But as soon as the transcriptions are available on the page, we'll actually send an e-mail just to let you know that we have those available.
Thank you, Gisella.
Go ahead, Heidi.
Heidi: Yes. On the action items with the bylaws, I just wanted to get confirmation that it is going to be okay going ahead with the suggestion that Nick and I will be working with Yaovi and Khaled. We will be using a wiki, and posting comments that we receive on the draft of the bylaws.
French Channel: That's very good. That's very good, Heidi.
Heidi: Thank you.
Tijani Through Interpreter: This is Tijani. I think that for next time, we'll be able to either validate or make more comments or take action on the actual bylaws.
If you could just then inform the people that the modified version has actually been posted on the wiki.
Heidi: Okay. I will do that.
Hawa Through Interpreter: I definitely ask everybody who's present to reread everything that's going to be posted on the wiki. Please. That's from Hawa.
Heidi: Thank you, Hawa. And thank you, Yaovi. I will note that.
Another suggestion would be that perhaps each meeting, you agree to one item. One document.
For example, we could hopefully have agreement today on Mohammed's participation document. Then next month, we can have an agreement on the bylaws.
Tijani Through Interpreter: That would be good. I think that's good.
Heidi: Thank you very much.
French Channel: And I said that was good.
Michel is going to say something, Heidi. Give me a moment. Unfortunately, he's on a very bad connection. He's breaking up.
Heidi: Mohammed, are you having a chance to incorporate all of the comments on your documents?
Mohammed: No. But I can see it now on the wiki. I just want to discuss… Most of the comments were positive.
Heidi: All. Yes. Very much.
French Channel: And give me a moment, Heidi. Please. Michel is still speaking. Unfortunately, I cannot really understand them because of the breaking up.
Heidi: Okay. Mohammed and I are just talking.
French Channel: I highly apologize for that.
Heidi: No problem.
Mohammed: I think most of it's just agreeing on the document. There is not much change I can actually see.
The other thing is how to implement the card scenario of inaudible. I was thinking if we could find an Open Source tool – something like a doodle – that we could integrate into the wiki. To have something to monitor the participation – in terms of at least attending the meetings.
I'm not sure it has to do with that, but this is…
Heidi: Perhaps, Nick, you and I could have a call on that. Would that be a way forward?
Once we see what they agree today – if we could then just have a call to implement it. Just the three of us?
Nick: Sure. That would be great.
Heidi: That might be useful. And maybe Matthias, who is our techie person.
Mohammed: That would be great. We could see proposals on how to do that.
Heidi: If we could get agreement today, we could just move ahead by implementing it.
Mohammed: Yes. Sure.
Heidi: Let's see what happens.
Sorry, guys. I think it's Maya.
French Channel: Yes. At this point, Michel had a proposal. Unfortunately, none of us could hear him.
Hawa was suggesting that either he could send this proposal by e-mail or we could try to recall him.
This is Yaovi speaking, now.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: Tijani – if you could actually continue being chair, because I'm going to stop now. So I'm going to disconnect. Tijani is going to chair the meeting now.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: Now also, we can always continue chatting, as well. Whenever there are problems hearing people, we can always try to just continue on chat. That was Yaovi, by the way.
Yaovi – that's Gisella. You're on the AFRALO chat, aren't you?
Yaovi Through Interpreter: Yes. That's right.
French Channel: If we are not able to hear you, if you could please then type it. Then if you write it in French, I'll be able to translate.
No, no. For now, Yaovi, we can hear you very well. I was saying that people who are not able to actually communicate because of the connections. What Gisella was saying is that those that are not able to call – they can always just go on the chat, and she will be able to translate it, if it's in French.
This is where they're at, now.
So Hawa, we can then continue. Tijani, please continue.
Tijani Through Interpreter: Okay. I'm going to go to Point Number 3, then.
Okay. So Point Number 3. Yes. Please go ahead.
All right. Point Number 3. You have the Open Public Comment Periods – which are open at this time. Does anybody have anything in regard to that?
We're actually going to ask Gisella to talk to us about that. Gisella? In order to continue participation, that is. No. The public comment period. What's going on with that?
Heidi: I can…
French Channel: And Heidi, if you have something in regard to that.
Heidi: If you could click on "Issues Currently Open for Public Comments," you can see what is currently open.
But I think more useful, perhaps, is if those who have the wiki on… This is a spreadsheet that the At-Large staff have prepared. It shows each of the policy issues that the ALAC is currently working on.
You can see on this development schedule, where they are in the process of each of the statements. If there is going to be a briefing call. The dates where you – as the At-Large community – can add your comments. Also then, the final statements.
This is a very useful tool that I would highly encourage you to consult on a regular basis. You can see where exactly each policy issue is in the process. You can add your comments to ensure that the AFRALO voice is heard.
French Channel: I think that it's very important for the different ALSs… the open public periods. It's very important for all the African ALSs to participate in order to hear and present their voice on ICANN.
It's just a reminder, basically. We always receive e-mails. It's always important then to remember and continue.
Hawa Through Interpreter: And Tijani, can I say something? In regards to this issue, they told us that we need to organize amongst us and to organize different groups to be able to actually propose subjects to our groups for subjects that we actually want to hear.
The issue is, if we do it the other way, it's going to take too long. If we organize ourselves amongst the ALSs and actually take a specific action or subject, and maybe do summaries in regard to our final comment – by building a consensus – I think we'll be able to accomplish more that way.
Tijani Through Interpreter: Yes. I do have something to say in regard to that. I think that currently, each person is making a comment on the subject that is interesting to them.
Personally, I will participate in the subjects that I'm interested in. I think that everybody does the same thing. That's not going to change.
If we're going to be divided into different groups, each person that agrees on the same subject is going to go to their own specific group, and they will comment on that specific subject.
I think Hawa's idea is a great idea. To basically do a general comment in the name of AFRALO – that, I think, is going to be difficult to do. First of all, because we have to have the opinion of all the ALSs in regard to that position. Remember that this is going to be a comment that is going to represent the name of AFRALO.
Now Yaovi's going to speak.
Yavi Through Interpreter: Tijani, I'm driving. I will be on speaker. So I'm not going to be very active.
French Channel: But okay, Yavi is going to speak now.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: I do agree with what Tijani is saying. It's good to speak in the name of the community. Like Tijani said – people that are interested in a specific subject will participate on that specific subject.
If we're going to be dividing or doing this, how are we going to get the community involved to agree? How are we going to get results?
There's really a lot of will that we need – and a lot of volunteers. Then to agree on what subject we're going to work on. This is how we're going to make progress. Otherwise, I don't know how we're actually going to be able to do something about that.
Once again, people will be always making the contributions on the subjects that they're interested in. That's what I think.
French Channel: Thank you, Yaovi.
Tijani? Through Interpreter: I'm going to make a comment on that. I completely agree with what you're saying. I also think that each person does obviously need to make their own comments. Then make the proposal for the community.
Then if the community agrees, we post that in the name of AFRALO. This is what we can do. We can't wait for the whole consultation time to get all that done. Somebody else…
Oh, and Baudouin is going to speak, now. Baudouin is going to speak, Heidi.
Heidi: Thank you.
French Channel: One second.
Baudouin Through Interpreter: That subject that you've actually mentioned… what is the actual list? We're going to start making these exchanges. Where are we going to look for the suggestions or the subjects?
I don't even know what lists we should actually start looking at, in order to be able to work on this.
French Channel: Look, Baudouin – I think it's the AFRALO list. There aren't any other lists. It's really quite simple.
Once again, don't restrain to make your own comment. Or in the name of your ALS.
But at the same time, to be able to agree to agree to a consensus.
Heidi: This is Heidi; if I could make a comment.
French Channel: Let me go ahead and tell them.
Go ahead.
Heidi: This is Heidi. I would like to possibly suggest that the lists that would be of most use for developing policy would – firstly – be the AFRI discussed. We could make sure that the messages are translated into English and French.
The second type of lists might be the working group lists. The various active At-Large working groups.
For example, we have some for the new gTLDs, and for the future structure and governance of ICANN. The At-Large engagement in ICANN. These are all working groups that are active, and are participating in the development of policy in those areas.
French Channel: Very well, Heidi.
But the thing is, not everybody is on these lists. I personally am on the gTLD working list, but I'm not on the other ones, for example. To be able to actually post a global point of view for AFRALO, I think it would be good to just use the AFRALO list – which is the list that we usually use.
Heidi: Yes. This is Heidi, again.
French Channel: If not… Because we have the working group list, for example. Those that are not in that group are not going to be able to participate.
Heidi: Okay. This is Heidi.
French Channel: Go ahead!
Heidi: Yes. The AFRA discussed is a very good mail list. But also, all of you can join any of those At-Large working group lists. I can go ahead and send a link to you, where you can then add yourselves to the mailing lists. They are all open to everyone that wishes to join.
French Channel: That's good. But I think it has to do, Heidi, with the interests. What people want. If I'm on the Working Group 3, it's because I'm interested in that subject. That's what I'm talking about.
Heidi: Yes. I agree with that.
Those of you that are interested in a particular topic where there is a working group – please do join that e-mail list.
French Channel: Very well. If there are no other comments, can we continue?
Yes. Let's go ahead. All right.
Did somebody want to say something else? No?
No, No. I was saying that I agreed that we should continue.
Okay. Let's continue, then.
Now we are going to – first of all – with the proposed issues. We have election calls for liaisons – process and next-steps. I think either Heidi or Gisella are going to speak to us about that.
Heidi: Yes.
There are going to be several election calls coming up very shortly. If those of you who are on…
French Channel: Heidi – I'm so sorry. Somebody was speaking at the same time. Give me one second.
Heidi: Okay.
French Channel: This is Baudouin speaking. We did receive a message already. I think for those that wanted to participate with the ALAC in regard to these selections. Whoever was available.
Okay. Heidi – we can't hear Baudouin very well. And Tijani also just said the same thing. So it's not just me. He's going to repeat. Okay? Give me one second.
There we go. Okay.
We received an invitation on the ALAC list for the teleconference on the 11th, to talk about travel and all these other issues.
Heidi: Are we going to continue talking about the election calls?
French Channel: I think, yes. It's just that Baudouin started adding this other subject. So give me one second, Heidi.
Heidi: Okay.
French Channel: Baudouin basically brought up the previous point.
Heidi: This would just take a few minutes, and then we can move down to the agenda.
French Channel: Let me go ahead and tell them.
Heidi: Mohammed?
Mohammed: Yes?
Heidi: I'm going to be mentioning the upcoming election for the ALAC representative. Just telling them that your position is coming to an end at Seoul, and that we need to start doing nominations, et cetera.
Mohammed: Yes.
Heidi: Do you want to say anything that you're happy to continue? Or to put yourself in?
Mohammed: Yes. Actually, I'm planning to do that.
Heidi: Sorry, Maya. Mohammed you will?
Mohammed: I will. Yes.
French Channel: Heidi, before talking about the election issue, Baudouin wants to talk about a proposal. This goes back to the engagement issue. He's going to talk about that for a moment. They want to talk about that before talking about the election.
Heidi: Thank you.
French Channel: Heidi, give me a moment. I cannot understand Baudouin at this moment because of the connection. I'm so sorry for that. Give me a moment. Okay?
Heidi: No problem.
French Channel: Once again, Heidi, Yaovi himself confirmed – we can't hear him, either. It's not just me, Heidi.
Heidi: Okay.
French Channel: Maybe if we could have him post it…
Heidi: That would be a good suggestion.
French Channel: First of all, in regard to engagement – to be able to choose what AFRALO members are going to be able to represent AFRALO at the At-Large level, and for ICANN.
Heidi: Is this Baudouin?
French Channel: Yes. That's Baudouin.
Baudouin Through Interpreter: If we have 15 At-Large members, there's going to be inaudible. The second option – we have 15 At-Large and how many RALOs, did you say? There are zero RALOs.
French Channel: Okay. Gisella is going to say something.
Gisella Through Interpreter: Actually, we were going to talk about that. We go back to this. We were going to discuss this issue in regards to the call for the elections.
To also try to get more interpretations in French. But is that what you guys want to talk about today? It's not on the agenda.
Baudouin – we're going to talk about that issue. If you have things to say in regards to that, maybe you could send that in a mail, first, to discuss it and then bring it about.
Okay, Baudouin – do you agree?
Baudouin Through Interpreter?: We can try to do that, also. To post it on the wiki.
Gisella?: Thank you, Baudouin.
Now – Heidi! Please go ahead.
Heidi: I wanted to just review all of the very important election calls that will be coming up shortly. As you will have seen, there is a board liaison position coming available. That is currently Wendy Seltzer. Her position will come up.
Cheryl, as chair of ALAC, will be putting out that announcement in the next few days – on how the process will be running for the nomination and the election for that position. So please do look for that.
All of the other liaison positions are also up for election in the next several weeks. Those are for IDN policy liaison – for the gNSO liaison – for the ccNSO liaison – and liaisons to the NCUC, the SSAC and the WhoIs. Again, Cheryl will be putting out that official election call very shortly – in the next several weeks.
The third election call will be for NonCom positions. Those will be coming up, opening on the 5th of August – which is today. We will be sending you information about that very shortly.
Then another election will be for the current ALAC officers. That would be the chair, the two vice chairs and the rapporteur. That is for Cheryl as chair, for Vanda and Sébastien as the two vice-chairs, and Alan as the rapporteur.
The election call will be issued on the 25th of September. Very important is the ALAC representative election call. That will be opening very shortly.
In AFRALO, the position of ALAC representative currently held by Mohammed will be coming to an end at the end of the meeting in Seoul, in October. That election call will be open.
Given that AFRALO does not have specific provisions that govern the election process for ALAC representatives, we are suggesting a process that includes a call for election no later than the 15th of August.
Then there will be a period of four weeks through the 12th of September, for people to nominate people for that position. Then the acceptance deadline, where the nominees need to accept their nominations, will be on the 19th of September. The election deadline will begin no later than one week after the acceptance deadline, and will end on the 10th of October.
The voting for that position will be between the 26th of September to the 10th of October. For this process to start, that would be through the initial call for election. That would need to be done by the secretariat of AFRALO.
I will be sending out a general message on this particular election in the next day or so, that discusses in greater detail the process and the timeline for this election. If anybody has any comments on that – or if Mohammed would like to say something – I would welcome that.
Mohammed: Thank you very much, Heidi.
For myself, I guess I'll be willing to serve another term for AFRALO and ALAC. I think there is some work to be done in terms of the participation in terms of different policy levels.
I'm happy to go through that process. I'm sure we all are inaudible to go through that process. But I'd like to express my interest to continue for the next and final term. Thank you.
French Channel: Very well. That was actually the question that I had, Mohammed. Would you like to do a second term? But you actually answered my question, Mohammed.
Heidi, if you're okay with this, then if you could send us the mail with all the details in regard to all the elections – starting with the AFRALO position within ALAC. Obviously there are going to be a lot of people that are going to do that.
And then the other elections, as well. What are going to be the positions? And what are going to be the actual limit dates? So we can actually talk amongst us in regards to who are going to be the desired candidates.
Heidi: Exactly. Yes, I will do that.
I would like to stress what I have heard from the ALAC. Particularly the ALAC chair, Cheryl. For the liaison positions – the board liaison and the other liaison position – it is very important that these people who are nominated have a lot of energy, have a lot of enthusiasm and also have a global outlook, perhaps.
In fact, they don't need to necessarily even reside in the particular region where you are. I'm telling this to all of the RALOs during the monthly calls. We will be sending out also, very shortly, suggested position descriptions or criteria that you might want to consider when you're choosing the nominations for these positions.
Mohammed: Thank you, Heidi. inaudible
French Channel: Very well. Very good. That's very good, and thank you so much for that, Heidi.
Okay, then. Any more comments. I'm sorry. Mohammed. You were speaking. I interrupted you. I'm so sorry.
Mohammed: It's fine.
Regarding the liaison position…
French Channel: Let me tell them that they want to speak. This is Yaovi speaking.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: There is a lot of activity, and it's very important to get a lot of e-mail information. Also to get all the details in regards to these elections. I agree with you.
I'm sorry, Mohammed. Please go ahead.
Mohammed: Yes. Thank you very much.
Regarding the liaison positions – currently, we don't have any applicants for AFRALO on the liaison positions. I can see some liaison positions that we can have good candidates applying for.
We should encourage our ALSs and AFRALO members. For example – IDN policy. In Africa, we have countries interested in IDNs starting to apply for IDNs. ccNSO liaison, we have ccTLDs. We have people in AFRALO linked with ccTLDs.
I think there's a chance that we can nominate from AFRALO, good candidates to fill those positions. Specifically, I think we have a chance in IDN policy or IDN liaison and the ccNSO liaison.
I know that this will require some work. Thanks, Heidi, for mentioning that there will be a minimum position – or let's say required level of participation – information sent with the process. Thank you.
French Channel: Thank you, Mohammed – and thank you, Heidi. I'm sorry.
Baudouin is going to say something else, now.
Baudouin Through Interpreter?: All I wanted to say is that participation is always very important.
Tijani Through Interpreter: This is Tijani. Heidi – please are there going to be positions per region? Or is it basically everybody in the same bag, and there are going to be 1 or 2 positions? How is that going to work?
Heidi: That depends on the positions.
Tijani Through Interpreter: Is there going to be a possibility for Africa to have one position? Or is it positions that everybody can apply for?
Heidi: That depends on the position. For the ALAC representative, it would obviously be the AFRALO region only. For the other ones – for the liaison positions – my understanding is that ALAC will be deciding on those positions. They would welcome multiple nominations from a region.
You could perhaps nominate some from the AFRALO region and others that you think would also make good candidates from other regions.
Again – my understanding is that the secretariat of a region would then take all the people that the ALSs have suggested and send the ALAC the entire list of nominations or candidates with a priority.
The secretariat would then put the priority of that entire list. So the ALAC would…
French Channel: Very well.
Heidi: …would have some information on the secretariat's view of those candidates for the liaison positions.
French Channel: So basically, now we're going to then continue. That's all I wanted to clarify with you. Thank you, Heidi.
Now we're going to continue if there are no more comments.
Next point – criteria for participation. I think that was Mohammed that was going to talk to us about that.
Heidi: I believe that Mohammed is… Are we dialing in to him now again? I think we've lost him?
French Channel: Oh – did we lose him? Mohammed?
Heidi: He's coming in. He's in, now.
French Channel: Okay. Whenever you're ready.
Heidi: Mohammed, are you here?
Mohammed: Yes. I'm sorry.
French Channel: Okay, Mohammed.
Mohammed: Currently we are in the middle of our second document?
Heidi: Yes.
Mohammed: Basically, the document had been sent earlier to the mailing list. It has received some comments from Fatimata and Yaovi and Alan Levin that make sense.
French Channel: "Baudouin also made a comment. Just by the way," says Yaovi. Go ahead.
Mohammed: Yes. It's generated very positive response from all of the committee. I can say most of the comments are positive.
Currently, the main missing element in the document is how to implement the card scenario idea that had been proposed by Fatimata. To at least try to measure the participation of AFRALO members, using a red, yellow and green card.
This is the only part that we need to work with the staff, in terms of ideas on how to implement that.
Other than that, I think, all the comments are already currently on the wiki, and you can see it. Thank you, Heidi, for including that. It's very difficult to track comments in e-mails. Currently they appear on the wiki.
I think the next step is for AFRALO to adopt a document officially in this meeting. The action item will be – for example – myself or any other volunteer candidate with me to work with the staff on how to implement this idea.
Heidi: Mohammed, this is Heidi.
Mohammed: Yes.
Heidi: Thank you very much for all of your hard work.
French Channel: Thank you, Mohammed – says Yaovi. Any comments? I have one, but I wanted to…
Heidi, I'm sorry I interrupted you. He started speaking at the same time.
Yaovi has a comment, as well. So just whenever you're ready.
Heidi: Should I speak first? Go ahead, Yaovi.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: All I wanted to say was that the AFRALO secretariat needs to be more active. A lot of the times after each meeting, we don't have that many things. We want At-Large support, but in order to make AFRALO work, we need more energy.
French Channel: Yes, thank you, Yaovi. Heidi, please go ahead. I'm so sorry.
Heidi: No problem.
I wanted to thank Mohammed for his very good job on preparing this document, and incorporating the comments. I also want to thank everyone in AFRALO for your very enthusiastic response to this document.
You can see all the comments that have been made on this document. On the issue of implementation, once we have approval for this document, if we could then… If staff could work with Mohammed and anybody that's interested in implementing this document.
Mohammed: Mohammed, here. I'd like also to comment on Yaovi's.
French Channel: Yes. My comment – I hadn't had any official comment because there are many little things that – from the one side, there's minimum participation. We say the person does not want to participate.
At the same time, though, we have constraints that are out of the control of the ALS, or of the person. Exterior conditions. We've just imposed to consider the individual consideration.
I think that we need to reach a consensus on the actual… I think these suggestions in regards to the cards are good. But we need to be more understanding at the same time. That was my comment.
Mohammed: Okay. I'd like to respond to those comments.
French Channel: Go ahead, Mohammed.
Mohammed: First, the Yaovi comment. I do agree with Yaovi that an active secretariat is very important, to proceed on this. Even to have meaningful participation from AFRALO. We need to have an active secretariat. That's another issue that we need to maybe talk about in another conference.
Regarding the other comment…
I would like to stress that this document does not impose any sanctions or actions on active members. The main idea of this document and maybe the process that will follow is that we need to have a set of minimum participations. We need to have some sort of monitoring of who is active or not.
This document does not talk about what we should do with inactive members. That's another discussion we need to go ahead and talk about, inaudible inaudible these] documents.
The process – if we implement it – the cost is inaudible will give you an idea about who is active and who is not. I do agree, that there are circumstances beyond the members' ability to participate, then that will be in consideration. Definitely.
French Channel: Thank you, Mohammed. I think that we all agree.
Even on everybody's comments that we received, I think we received very similar points of view.
Any other comments on that point? In regards to the participation criteria? That would be a decision.
Mohammed and Gustav and if there's anybody else that wants to work on this – we will try to gather all the reactions, and then turn it into a definitive document, and then continue the procedure in regards to that document after that. We agree.
Heidi: Should we take a vote on this call? To officially agree the document?
French Channel: Let me go inaudible. I'm sorry.
Hawa Through Interpreter: This is Hawa. I was In traffic, so I apologize.
For the participation document, the only thing that I wanted to add… It's good to know who participates and who doesn't participate. But it's important too, for the people that do not participate, why they are not participating – and how to make them participate. That was my first comment.
Second of all – find. In regards to the document that I prepared, and the document that Mohammed prepared, we could maybe try to unite both documents, to have a final document in regards to participation.
French Channel: Very well, Hawa. Thank you for that comment, Hawa.
What do you guys think about what Hawa said? Baudouin is going to say something. One second.
Do you guys have something to say on English? Would you let me know? That way I can just tell them if they want to say something. Just to make sure that you guys get your say.
So, Mohammed – if you have something to say about what Hawa just said… You do? Let me just tell them and I'll let you know when they're inaudible
Mohammed – please go ahead.
Mohammed: Yes. When I drafted the document, I took into consideration Hawa's survey that had been done earlier. That was a base, also, for my drafting of this document. I share her comment about what's next.
I think also, what's next, is the business discussion. We need to talk about it in a different or in another teleconference. We need first to adopt this document that lists the minimum participation criteria for our members.
Then we should also think about what to do after implementing the card system, or whatever system, to monitor who's active or not. At that stage, we need to inaudible and inaudible
French Channel: Mohammed –
Heidi: This is Hawa?
French Channel: Mohammed, I think what we have to do at this point is to really just gather all the comments and then create the final text with all the comments. Not only the participation and how we're going to deal with that.
After that, I think that we have to maybe visualize how we're going to stimulate those that do not participate, and make them participate. What would be the measures to take to stimulate the participation of those that do not?
Yaovi's…
Yaovi Through Interpreter?: What I'd like for the next teleconference, let's not take too much time for these discussions. At the end of the teleconferences, we can actually discuss a lot of these subjects. Then we actually can gather a consensus.
This document had been sent out a long time ago. I think that we should always be ready to read all the documents right before the meetings – but not take all the time of the meetings to discuss them at the same time. Like I said – for participation, if somebody is not free, then choose another member of the group.
Mohammed: I do agree with that. Yes. If the consensus is to go ahead with the document, then we can start planning with staff how to implement the card idea. That will be a very good outcome from the meeting.
French Channel: Very well. Heidi – you wanted to say something?
Heidi: I just wanted to inaudible on… Do we consider this document adopted? Or do we now put it out on the "For Discussion and Acceptance" on that? On the AFRA Discuss?
French Channel: Personally, I think there's nothing else to say. I think that we took enough time to discuss it. So any other comments that we had – everybody made them. I think that this document should be adopted from the group.
Unless there's somebody else who wants to put it up for discussion again. But otherwise, there aren't. So I think that Heidi, in that case, the document is then final. It's been adopted.
Heidi: Okay.
Mohammed: Thank you very much.
French Channel: Okay, now. Point 3. How to increase the participation of the AFRALO members. Not only at the teleconferences, but in regards to the discussions for ICANN policies. We already spoke about the first one.
In regards to ICANN participation and things of that nature, how to be able to then not only engage AFRALO members to participate in regards to the ICANN politics issues – and who is participating.
Baudouin still has a proposal in regards to that subject.
Baudouin Through Interpreter: Like I said – we have a very weak participation in regards to that subject, as well. We know that.
The problem always is the documents are always in English. It takes time to translate. We go back to that issue.
Obviously, if the documents are sent at the same time – meaning if the English document is sent at the same time as the French document – then that will give us actually more time to start working. That's a proposal.
That was a question that was always asked. It's a problem that is always existent, as you guys know.
French Channel: And you know, Baudouin, the documents are not translated. That is very true. While we wait for the translation and then post it on the list, sometimes we are late.
Unfortunately, the times allocated for the comment periods are very short. So if we get the translations, that's great. The staff can actually work on that, maybe. What do you think about that?
Heidi?
Heidi: Yes. I think that I hear what the concerns are. The ALAC are working on ensuring that translations are going to be a regular part of the policymaking; the open-comment period.
I'm going to look into where we are exactly on this process, and I will send an update on the list.
French Channel: Very well. At least the staff is working on that issue. Correct?
Heidi: And ALAC. I want to stress that the ALAC is very aware of these issues, and is working hard to ensure that there are going to be translations. So French-speaking as well as Spanish-speaking people do have the best possibility of offering their comments on these issues.
They do very much recognize that as a barrier to policymaking in these regions, so they are working on that.
French Channel: Very well. Yaovi, please.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: I wanted to say that we should also try to see if we can find volunteers – even within our group. People who are actually able to do this.
Like I said – we don't have enough time, sometimes. What I would suggest is if we could find or get more time to read the documents. Maybe that will engage more participation.
Even if the document is translated, sometimes we don't have time to read it. So maybe extend some of the time periods, if possible.
Heidi: Yes. This is Heidi, again.
French Channel: So then what you're saying is to choose people that are willing to read the documents immediately, whether they're English or French. We can't read for everybody. Yes, Heidi.
Heidi: Again, on the issue of the translation and the public-comment period. There is work begin done on the public comment period or the 30-day period. It will start once the translated version of the document that is open for public consultation is posted on the ICANN website.
I'm going to look into where we are on that, and let you know, as well.
French Channel: But it's not been applied yet, Heidi.
Heidi: Yes. I know that work is being done on that. I just need to see where that is in the approval stage.
French Channel: Very well. Good. Thank you for the work and the efforts, Heidi. Any other comments in regard to that point?
Heidi: Yes. This is Heidi.
French Channel: Go ahead.
Heidi: I have been speaking with Scott Pinson, who is our new staff member for policy communication. He is very active working in developing new types of briefings and briefing documents. To ensure that issues are explained in a way that all end users will be able to understand them.
I wanted to update you on the briefings issue that we have been speaking about the last several meetings. They are now working on a means to survey the community, to prioritize in particular what kind of briefings you are interested in, in terms of both policy briefings as well as other briefings in terms of services, for example. What the RAA is. How IDNs are of particular importance for end-users, et cetera.
They are also looking into the idea of developing podcasts. Short podcasts that would be on iTunes. That would also help you learn more about these policy issues.
I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on that kind of technology.
French Channel: That's actually an excellent idea, Heidi. That would allow, I think, the people that don't have too much time to read something short, for example. Really clear and concise.
Heidi: So short documents, yes.
French Channel: Any other comments?
Mohammed: Yes. It's Mohammed. inaudible for implementing that. This would be interactive, and very helpful as a tool to use.
Heidi: In terms of timeframe, I know that he is working on it currently. I can find out what he is thinking, in terms of when these might be available.
I don't know when they're going to be available. But I know that just the last couple of weeks, they have been working very much on these ideas.
French Channel: Very well. Thank you.
We're going to continue. Once again, subjects for the next briefing session. Identification of subjects.
Basically, subjects in regards to ICANN politics. We spoke about participation this week. Next time we're going to talk about bylaws. Correct?
Heidi: Yes.
French Channel: Very well. If we could maybe…
Mohammed: Sorry. Mohammed. I'd like to make a comment.
French Channel: Yes. I'm sorry, Mohammed. Give me one second. It's just that he was speaking at the same time you were.
Let me tell him.
One second, Mohammed. Hawa's going to say something. Then you. Okay?
Mohammed: Sure.
Hawa Through Interpreter: In regard to briefing and choosing the subjects, I think that we should definitely choose a subject for what the politics are that they're working on. And how to present that to the community.
? Through Interpreter: You mean ICANN politics? How to present that to the community?
Hawa Through Interpreter: Right. I think that would be a good briefing, basically. We could do a briefing in regard to what the ICANN policies are and how we can present that to the community. That could be something for the October meeting that we can actually work on.
? Through Interpreter: But next time, we're talking about bylaws. You know that.
Hawa? Through Interpreter: No – for October.
? Through Interpreter: Oh – for October. Yes. Okay. That would be good. Okay.
French Channel: Go ahead, Mohammed, please.
Mohammed: Yes. Regarding the bylaws for the next meeting… I think we need to have someone – a replacement for Khaled, if he wasn't available. Or at least if they couldn't do anything for the next meeting.
This item has been moving and delayed for a long time. So we need to inaudible if we didn't get Khaled involved.
Heidi: Mohammed, this is Heidi.
French Channel: Right. But what we had said, though – Hadn't we discussed this previously, though? We had said that we were just going to gather the comment on the actual bylaws that we have right now. We already have bylaws.
From there, for next meeting, simply send it on the list and then put it on the wiki. Then for the next meeting, just adopt it.
Heidi: This is Heidi.
French Channel: Yes, Heidi.
Heidi: I just wanted to stress that Nick would like to be involved, as well. In order to ensure that the bylaws are of a way that will be clear to everyone. He will be involved in the process, as well.
French Channel: Comment from Hawa.
Hawa Through Interpreter: Heidi, yes. No, but we had already agreed on this. We had said that the people in charge of the bylaws who are going to enter the comments are going to work with the staff. Especially with you, Heidi. So yes, we had agreed on that.
Heidi: And Nick – his expertise is in the bylaws, as well. He is very familiar with the bylaws of the other RALOs.
He will be able to suggest perhaps comments or provisions that would be useful to AFRALO, and that have been useful to other RALOs, as well.
Mohammed: I'm okay with that comment.
French Channel: Okay.
Heidi: Okay. Thank you, Mohammed.
French Channel: Yaovi is going to say something.
Yaovi Through Interpreter: We definitely want to work – in regards to this. But I don't even know if we've actually opened enough time for comments for that issue. I think if we give it one more week, we'll have more comments.
Yes, Yaovi. Please.
?Through Interpreter: What I had told you is that if we insert the comments on the text, we're going to have a new text.
Then we're going to consider the ICANN bylaws, as well. And Heidi is going to help us, in regard to that. She already has started working on the text of the bylaws from ICANN.
It's going to be interesting to see what's on the wiki, and then see it on the mailing list, and then maybe have a deadline for – I don't know – the 25th of the month? And to see the comments on the new text.
? Through Interpreter: Okay. I got it.
And for the next meeting, have the adoption.
French Channel: Very well. And thank you so much Heidi, for what you said. And thank you for what you said about Nick, as well, Heidi.
Is there anything else to say about that issue? Any other comments? I think that we've agreed on that, then.
Okay. So let's continue.
Then we're done with the agenda, then, in that case.
Heidi: No – if you'll please take a look – just two very quick issues, still. We can work these through very quickly, I think.
French Channel: Yes?
Heidi: The first one is, it's already time to start thinking about the meeting in Seoul that will be held from the 25th through the 30th of October. There is a link that has potential or tentative meetings for Seoul. We would very much encourage you to add your comments directly to this wiki.
I'm now putting it into the Skype, and we will send it out on an e-mail list. But do put in your ideas and your suggestions for what the ALAC and At-Large should be discussing at the next ICANN meeting in Seoul. That's all I have to say on that issue.
French Channel: Very well.
Heidi: Okay?
French Channel: And thank you so much for the information that you're going to be sending us. It's very useful. That's going to allow us then to really contribute for a lot of the subjects. So thank you for that. Anything else?
Heidi: Yes. One final issue. On the agenda.
French Channel: Go ahead.
Heidi: That is the issues of the At-Large travel funding for the fiscal year 2010. I wanted to just again announce that there will be two briefing calls next week on the 11th of August. The two times are currently at 3.00 UTC – which is 3.00 in the morning for many of you in the French-speaking part of Africa. Gisella is just telling me we can also do French at the 15.00 UTC call – which is 1700 CEST or 1800 in Nairobi.
We would encourage you to join that call – either one of those calls – to hear the two options that are available for travel funding. That may allow each of the five regions to hold general assemblies on an annual basis.
French Channel: Very well. And Yaovi just has a question. Go ahead, Yaovi.
Tijani Through Interpreter: "First of all, whoever has a child there," says Tijani – "could you please do *6?" I really couldn't hear what Yaovi said.
French Channel: So Yaovi's going to repeat the question. Okay, Heidi?
Yaovi Through Interpreter: What I was trying to say is, in regard to the meetings – the briefing sessions – let's say there's a second member that wants to participate. Is it possible to connect both members?
Heidi: To the call?
Yaovi Through Interpreter: To be on the call?
Heidi: Absolutely. Anybody can join the call. We welcome everyone's participation.
French Channel: Heidi said it is possible. We can have whatever ALS participants that actually want to join. So I encourage all the ALSs to participate in these teleconferences. That way, if somebody cannot make it, then we have a representative from the ALS.
French Channel: Thank you, Yaovi. And thank you, Heidi, for that. And thank you, Gisella. And thank you everyone, then.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this teleconference and that it was constructive. If there's nothing else, I will say goodnight, and thank you to everybody.
Gisella Through Interpreter: "And thank you, everybody," says Gisella. "And I hope that we have better participation next month."