At-Large Summit

The At-Large Summit (ATLAS) is a gathering of the representatives of individual Internet users participating in ICANN. There have been three ATLASes.

Overview

Goals; Obstacles; Achievements

ATLAS I

ATLAS I was the first-ever gathering of the representatives of individual Internet users participating in ICANN. Organized as part of ICANN 34 in Mexico City, ATLAS I featured two general sessions for all participants as well as thematic sessions and workshops on issues led by At-Large community members.

Working Groups

Five working groups were formed to draft and finalize a Summit Declaration to the ICANN Board. The subjects for the working groups were chosen via a survey of the entire At-Large Community between December 2008 and January 2009. The summit participants were assigned to the working group that they selected as of most interest to them, and then the groups were balanced regionally and according to language needs. All five working groups began working together in February 2009 in advance of the Summit and met twice during the summit to finalize their statements. The five topics were:

At-Large engagement in ICANN

The general sentiment was that participation was poor and there was much room for improvement.

Issue	Recommendations
IDN POLICY	Fund a timely public information campaign in collaboration with ALSes in the next budget ICANN should consult ALSes to reach communities and end-users
GNSO	Cultivate specialists on GNSO issues in At-Large Community
LOCAL LEVEL	A face-to-face At-Large meeting in each region every year to identify and discuss issues Gather community input in advance, using local radio or SMS
ICANN MEETINGS	Professional remote participation systems (telephonic, chat interface, video streaming), especially for vision- and hearing-impaired users Provide opportunities for regional groups to meet on the horizontal level to feed back into the international level PDP must consider regional differences in views comprehensively
GLOBAL OUTREACH	Differentiated approaches to manage and implement ICANN activities ALAC must engage early in SO PDP to reflect end-users ALAC and the Fellowship committee should collaborate to enhance outreach ALSes need support in providing local users’ feedback (information, sensitization, training seminars on ICANN issues on radio, TV)
TRANSLATION	Continue to apply the multilingualism best practices of other international organizations ALSes should be actively involved in translation RALOs should help identify the documents to be translated
TRAVEL SUPPORT	At-Large participants need full travel support to ICANN meetings, including visa costs Start the travel process earlier and local hosts should help with visas Meeting planners should consider affordability as a criterion Deliver per diem remuneration in a timely manner Avoid accommodating volunteer ALAC members and ALS representatives in remote, low-quality hotels All members should receive travel expense support for regional meetings Amend the Rules and Procedures for Travel Support to comply with the 2008 ALAC Statement to the ICANN Board

The future structure and governance of ICANN

The working group felt that the future of ICANN depended on safeguarding against capture, which they defined as unilateral decision-making and favoring vested interests.

New gTLDs including IDN gTLDs

The working group decided that the proposed policy presented unnecessary barriers to entry for the broadest possible variety of gTLD applicants.

ATLAS II

ATLAS II was held in London in conjunction with ICANN 50. The summit brought together representatives from At-Large Structures to debate ICANN policies, share information, and experience an ICANN meeting. The attendees represented Internet end-users, and many had never experienced an ICANN meeting before. The goal of the meeting was to reach consensus and draft reports on five issues.

Internationalized Domain Name

Generic Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains and other responsibilities set forth in the Bylaws (ICANN Bylaws).

Policy Development Process

At-Large Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN related to the interests of individual Internet users (ICANN Bylaws). Not to be confused with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group.