A domain name can become where other people find you on line, and adds to your online identity. Although domain names are a big part of the Internet, understanding how these names work (and the ins and outs of obtaining them) can be mystifying at first. This highly readable guide, created in cooperation with ICANN’s At-Large community (which the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society is a member of), helps the individual user understand and use domain names.

The beginner’s guide is 18 pages and can be downloaded at

http://www.icann.org/en/learning/domain-names-beginners-guide-06dec10-en.pdf (PDF ; 1.02 MB)

(update 3rd Dec 2010 : updated Jacqueline Morris’ status as associate chair of ICANN NomCom – Dev T)

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be participating in the 39th International Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Cartagena, Colombia from December 5 to 10, 2010.

Background about ICANN, At-Large, LACRALO

At-Large is the name for the community of individual Internet users who participate in the policy development work of ICANN. Groups throughout the world that deal with individual Internet users’ interests can register with and participate in ICANN. The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society is one such group recognized by ICANN as an At-Large Structure (ALS) since 2006.

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS), along with 10 other ALSes in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN to create the first At-Large Regional At-Large Organisation, LACRALO. 

Today, The Latin American and Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO) includes 36 ALSes  in 15 countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Together, LACRALO represents the regional interests of the At-Large community of individual Internet users in ICANN from Latin America and the Caribbean.

One of the directors from TTCS, Dev Anand Teelucksingh, is serving as the LACRALO secretariat since 2009.

At Cartagena, another director from TTCS, Cintra Sooknanan will also be attending.

What’s happening at ICANN Cartagena

• ICANN meeting page 
• Cartagena Meeting Guide (PDF)
• Cartagena Meeting Schedule : 
• Detailed ICANN Policy Update showing various updates from the Supporting Organisations (SOs) in ICANN

Note that Cartagena time is one hour earlier than Trinidad and Tobago time. Many if not all meetings allow for remote participation for live viewing and live transcripts for some of the larger meetings. If you view the meeting schedule and click to a specific meeting, there are participation details for how to remotely connect to that meeting

For more details on remote participation, see http://meetings.icann.org/remote-participation

TTCS’ involvement in ICANN At-Large activities

As LACRALO secretariat and as the primary At-Large Representative from the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society, I (Dev Anand Teelucksingh) have been involved with several Working Groups which will be presenting in Cartagena :

ALAC/At-Large Improvements project

https://community.icann.org/display/Improve/At-Large+Improvements+Workspace

The goal of the ALAC/At-Large Improvements project is to review and improve both ALAC/At-Large’s participation in ICANN and the ALSes’ participation in At-Large. This will be done through the implementation of the 13 recommendations outlined in the At-Large Review Work Group’s Final Report and detailed in the Simplified At-Large Improvements Implementation Outline.

We have divided these recommendations into four groups, each of which has been assigned to a work team consisting of ALAC members and regional representatives.

I am chair of Work Team D : Work team on ALAC’s policy advice development, which is assigned to the implementation of the following recommendations :

• Rec 8: ALAC may request public comment period be extended to 45 days
• Rec 12: Consumer representatives should have input into decisions and policy advice
• Rec 13: ALAC/At-Large policy advice mechanisms should be strengthened.

My presentation (so far) is published at  https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dg5t3cfz_135c45n7fg4

There are several flowcharts that were developed :

• ALAC/At-Large Policy Advice Developement flowchart – showing the steps on how At-Large and the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) responds to public policies out for comment in 30 days
• How ALAC may request public comment period for ICANN policy be extended to 45 days
• Proposal on how Policies from ICANN and Supporting Organisations are monitored before they are published for comments.
• At-Large / ALAC activities before policy is published

I am also a member of  Work Team B : Work team on ALS participation, which is assigned to the implementation of the following recommendations :

• Rec 3: Remove any obstacles in ALS-RALO-ALAC structure
• Rec 4: ALS education and engagement
• Rec 7: ALAC should choose its own communication/collaboration tools
• Rec 9: ICANN should strengthen its translation/interpretation tools

LACRALO Showcase Working Group

https://community.icann.org/display/LACRALO/LACRALO+Cartagena+Showcase+Working+Group

LACRALO will organize a showcase event on Monday December 6 2010, 1800 to 1900 local Cartagena time to :

• highlight the activites of the ALSes of LACRALO in Latin America and the Caribbean
• engage in outreach activities for regional Internet user organisations attending Cartagena.

I am serving as the chair of the LACRALO Showcase Working Group preparing for this event. 

See LACRALO Showcase Speaker Schedule : https://community.icann.org/display/LACRALO/LACRALO+Showcase+Programme

Cintra Sooknanan from TTCS will be speaking about the TTCS at this showcase event.

I will also be speaking as the LACRALO secretariat.

Mike Tikasingh from TTCS, drew three maps of regions of Latin America and the Caribbean showing the ALSes in LACRALO. These maps will be showcased at the event.

• Caribbean Map
• Central America 
• South America 

Countries in green shows a country with ALSes (and the pins indicate the number of ALSes in that country). Countries in orange shows a country in the LAC region without any ALSes.

There are 33 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. LACRALO has 36 At-Large Structures (ALSes) from 15 countries.

Also done were ALS factsheets from the region which are being printed and translated for the showcase event. Here’s a draft ALS factsheet showing only a few of the ALSes in LACRALO.

LACRALO Bylaw Working Group

https://community.icann.org/display/LACRALO/LACRALO+Bylaw+Working+Group

Previous LACRALO teleconferences have identified two key issues in how LACRALO operates, according to our LACRALO organising documents 

The two key issues :

1. The terms for the LACRALO chair and the LACRALO secretariat. It was generally agreed that the terms of these officer positions should be for two years instead of one year and that persons elected to these officer positions can only serve for two consecutive terms.
2. how to deal with At Large Structures (ALSes) in LACRALO that are inactive and not participating in LACRALO. Such inactive ALSes affect the quorum for successful adoption of motions in LACRALO meetings, including General Assemblies.

The LACRALO Bylaw Working Group have been meeting and drafting suggested updates to the operating principles to address these issues: https://community.icann.org/display/LACRALO/Draft+Modifications+to+the+LACRALO+Operating+Principles+2010+-+Highlighted+Changes

At-Large Structure Survey Recommendations Report 2010

https://community.icann.org/display/ALSurvey/At-Large+Structure+2010+Survey+Workspace

The 2010 At-Large Structure (ALS) Survey polled the 122 ALSes in At-Large to get current contact information for all ALS representatives and their alternates; to discover what policy areas the ALS Membership is most interested in; and to learn how they prefer to communicate with members of the At-Large community and ICANN At-Large Staff. Additionally, the survey will assist in learning more about the types of At-Large engagement the ALSes are interested in, including the preferred working group format, and whether their Membership is interested in representing the At-Large community at local and regional meetings and contributing to the implementation of the At-Large Improvements project.

The Survey Analysis WG (which I am chair) is preparing a final ALS survey report to be presented at the ALAC and Regional Leadership Working Session 1 on Sunday, 5 December in Cartagena.

• Redacted Google spreadsheet of the 2010 ALS survey
• Presentation of Preliminary Survey Analysis 
• Final ALS survey report 

Persons from Trinidad and Tobago participating in the ICANN meeting in Cartagena

I note that there are several persons from Trinidad and Tobago that will be present at the ICANN meeting in Cartagena. In no particular order :

• Dev Anand Teelucksingh, ALS representative from Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society and serving as LACRALO Secretariat
• Cintra Sooknanan, ALS Representative from Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society in LACRALO.
• Jacqueline Morris, Associate Chair of the ICANN Nominating Committee, and a a member of the BCEC, which was responsible for the short list of Candidates for the election of the first ever At Large voting Director of the ICANN Board. Also involved with Internet Governance issues (and in TTCS)
• Tracy Hackshaw, from Ministry of Public Administration of Trinidad and Tobago (MPA) and who helped to organise the DiploFoundation IG event in Tobago as a DiploFoundation alumni. 
• Patrick Hosein, director at TTNIC, which manages the .tt ccTLD and is serving on the ICANN ccNSO council.

Questions, Comments, are appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Dev Anand Teelucksingh

Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society at http://ttcsweb.org ; @facebook : http://fb.me/ttcsweb ; @twitter : http://twitter.com/ttcs

“networking local computer users!”

 

TTCS attends Internet Governance Workshop

The Diplofoundation in cooperation with the Caribbean Telelcommunications Union (CTU) will be hosting an Internet Governance(IG) Diplomacy Training Workshop, during November 12-13th 2010, at the Grafton Beach Resort in Tobago.

The Workshop

The workshop attendees comprise of persons from the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) Group of states. In fact, attendance has been confirmed by professionals from the OECS countries, Barbados, Belize, Haiti, Jamaica,Trinidad and Tobago.

This training workshop will give participants an overview of the multidisciplinary field of IG (including technical, legal, economic, socio-cultural, and developmental aspects) and explain interplay among international, regional and national IG policy processes. It provides an opportunity for officials and professionals from ACP countries to strengthen their overall understanding of IG and to develop diplomatic approach of their country and institution in the IGF process.

The Team

• Ginger Paque, a coordinator of Internet Governance capacity building programme of DiploFoundation and one of the main facilitators
• Rodney Taylor, a Manager at the Caribbean Telecommunication Union (CTU), he will introduce the anchors to the regional (Caribbean) progress and challenges when it comes to the IG and ICT, as well as the CTU work in the field
• Tracy Hackshaw and Sheba Mohammid, the local partners from the TT Government, who will help place focus on  the IG challenges with Small Island Developing States, with examples from Trinidad and Tobago
• Shernon Osepa, joining on behalf of ICANN, he shallcontribute his knowledge and expertise on critical Internet resources, especially in relation to the region
• Vladimir Radunovic  coordinator of Internet Governance Projects with DiploFoundation, trainer and facilitor of the workshop.

Useful Links:

The leading material for the workshop is the Internet Governance book, which is available for download free, in pdf format at: http://igbook.diplomacy.edu/

Additionally, there is a Film available : http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig/dvd/ which provides an introduction to Internet Governance through the views of leading policy-makers and academics on a wide array of related questions.

Other useful materials from DiploFoundation are available at: http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig/resources/

At the regional level, CTU IG framework (“Caribbean Internet Governance Framework Issue 1.0.doc”), as well as the CTU link: http://www.ctu.int/internet-governance

CARICOM provides information on the region at: www.caricomict4d.org

Under the Observatory for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (OSILAC) there are specific resources in terms of ICT measurement in the Caribbean, an area where there is still a grave deficiency in terms of informing Evidence Based Public Policy http://www.eclac.org/socinfo/osilac/default.asp?idioma=IN

Specifically on the Trinidad and Tobago case there is the recently posted ICT Market Survey results), you may visit publicly available content atwww.tatt.org.tt and on www.fastforward.tt.

The DIPLO Community:

Diplo has a very vivid community of (almost 1000) professionals worldwide involved with IG and ICT policy; they are all gathered online for discussions, mutual contacts and joint work through a professional social network available at: www.diplointernetgovernance.org  The network is open to new professionals and they invite you to join and extend the community – thus further strengthening the within network of Caribbean.