At-Large Advisory Committee
ALAC is the acronym for At-Large Advisory Committee, which is one of ICANN's advisory committees. The mission of ALAC is to function as an advocate for individual Internet users' interests.
ALAC History
The ICANN Board adopted new bylaws on October 31st, 2002; which came in to effect on December 15th of that year. These new bylaws established the ALAC and provided the support for At-Large Organizations. It stated that the ALAC should consist of ten members selected by Regional At-Large Organizations, with 5 supplementary members to be be selected by ICANN's Nominating Committee. The interim ALAC consisted of ten members, two from each of ICANN's 5 regions.[1]
At-Large Stuctures
The ALAC represents a network of self-organization and self-support for At-Large Structures throughout the world for Internet individual users. The At-Large Structures (already existent organizations or recently created organizations) are divided into five Regional At-Large Organizations (one in each ICANN region – Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean, and North America). These Regional At-Large Organizations have as main goal the management and public involvement, and represent the main forum and coordination point in each region for inputs to ICANN.[2]
As a result of the creation of Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs), the At-Large community is becoming stronger and more powerful. ICANN relies on ALAC and its supporting infrastructure when it comes to the representation of individual's user interests.[3]
ALAC responsibilities
Besides following the provisions of ICANN New Baylaws, ALAC has also other responsibilities such as assisting in the formation and qualification of other At-Large Structures and RALOs. Similarly, ALAC cooperates with GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization) which has the duty for development of ICANN policies for ICANN Board for TLDs. Other responsibilities undertaken by ALAC and its organizations are as follows:
- Evaluating and analysis of accreditation process for At-Large Structures;
- Analyzing and publishing ICANN's policies and decisions;
- Providing guidance and advice to various organizations regarding ICANN's proposals and activities which are relevant for Internet individual users;
- Analyzing and approving the applications of At-Large Structures
- Developing Internet-based processes and methods to enable and ease the communication process between At-Large structures [4]