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.

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: 1) at-large engagement, 2) the future of ICANN, 3) New gTLDs including IDNs, 4) security issues within ICANN's mandate, and 4) transparency and accountability. The general sentiment was that 1) participation was poor; 2) the future of ICANN depended on safeguarding against capture, which was defined as unilateral decision-making and favoring vested interests; 3) there were unnecessary barriers to entry for a broad variety of gTLD applicants; 4) DNS security needed to be stricter; and 5) ICANN needs to be more transparent for Internet users who want to participate and needs to balance operator/business interest with ALAC/GAC.

At-Large Engagement 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

Working Group Issue	Recommendations
Future of ICANN	Accessible open public forums for all meetings # expand and enforce multi-stakeholder model Stakeholder education and explanation on all aspects of ICANN Multiple languages Simplify documents More time for outreach and community feedback Protocol for reporting and investigating (attempted) capture # regular performance reviews, risk analyses, complaint investigations
Barriers to new GTLDs & IDNs	Further categorization Fee schedule based on current, actual cost-recovery Rounds of gTLD applications, with a fixed deadline, subject to the string contention dispute mechanisms ICANN should not engage in any trademark protection and should recognize non-trademark traditional knowledge rights of Indigenous Peoples Entirely abolish objections on Morality and Public Order # At-Large can be the Independent Objector Applicants' legal status shouldn't disqualify them Required technical understanding # parties should choose their Dispute Resolution Service Providers
DNS Security	Study impact of DNSSEC on installed base The root should be signed in a way that provides integrity and is globally accepted.# modify contracts to allow registrants to deploy DNSSEC conveniently Stricter registration process to minimize fraudulent/criminal registrations Implement proposals from 2005 Hijacking report

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.

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.

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).

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