The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will be having its 51st public meeting from Saturday October 12 to October 16 2014 in Los Angeles, California (although sessions have started on October 11).
Some important ICANN related links:
- ICANN 51 Meeting Guide (PDF) – This document notes what the chairs of the various Advisory Committees (ACs) and Supporting Organisations (SOs) in the multi-stakeholder ICANN Community and the ability for remote participation in many of the sessions.
- ICANN Daily Meeting Schedule – this will show the meetings happening on the day. Clicking on the meeting title will show the remote participation links that would allow you to follow the conversation and if you use the “Virtual Room Stream Live” link, that conferencing tool allows for persons in the virtual room to type questions or comments that could be read or answered by the Working Group chairing the meeting.
- ICANN Full Meeting Schedule – this table (you will have to scroll in both directions) shows the various meetings happening in various rooms at the same time. All times listed are local to Los Angeles. The time in Los Angeles is 3 hours behind that of Trinidad and Tobago. So when looking at the ICANN 51 schedule, you’ll need to add 3 hours to get the time of the meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.
- The At-Large Meeting Agenda Workspace – lists the very busy schedule and agendas of the meetings of the At-Large Community.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) is an accredited ICANN At-Large Structure (ALS) and a founding member of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO), which today has 44 At-Large Structures in 18 out of 33 countries in the Latin American and Caribbean Region. At-Large is the name for the community of individual Internet users who participate in the policy development work of ICANN.
Currently, as the TTCS’ At-Large representative (Dev Anand Teelucksingh) will be completing his 2 year term on the 15 member At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), The ALAC is responsible for considering and providing advice on ICANN’s activities as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users (the “At-Large” community). LACRALO selects two persons to be on the ALAC.
This final year was an busy one for me. A rundown of what I’ve done this final year:
- I’ve been a penholder for several ALAC statements that was submitted to the ICANN Board and Community after approval by the ALAC,
- The 2nd At-Large Summit (ATLAS II) bought together more than 150 ALS representatives. As someone who attended the first At-Large Summit in 2009, this event was the catalyst for me to get involved in ICANN At-Large, serving as LACRALO secretariat from 2009 to 2012 and being involved in many At-Large Working Groups. With ATLAS II, I was involved in many of the ATLAS II Working Groups and deliverables to help organise the ATLAS II event. I also served as session moderator for Thematic Group 5 (“At-Large Engagement in ICANN”) during ATLAS II and participated in the drafting of the ATLAS II Final Declaration.
- A summary of my activities during the period from 2009 to 2012 can be found in my statement of interest for the ALAC position in 2012.
I am serving as chair of 4 At-Large Working Groups : Technology Taskforce, Social Media, Outreach and the Community Regional Outreach Pilot Program Review Team. The first three Working Groups (WGs) are tasked with the implementation of recommendations coming out of the ATLAS II Summit Final Declaration. - Also involved as a member of other At-Large WGs such as the new gTLD WG, Finance and Budget Subcommittee, Capacity Building WG and ALAC Metrics.
This has represented a large amount of time and energy and I do intend to scale back to focus on my life and TTCS. The important thing is that getting involved in ICANN At-Large, representing the interests of Internet end users is doable, once you have an interest.
This blog post is quite long and its late, so I’ll stop for now. However, I do want to encourage anyone with a interest and a desire to learn more about ICANN policy issues, to email me at [email protected] and I’ll help to orient you to attend WGs conference calls for you to discover more.
