Global Partnerships - Middle East

August 2007

Summary

Worked with UNESCO on a joint propsal to the IGF Rio meeting. Ongoing communication with TWNIC in preparations for the October event in Taipei. MoU signed between ICANN and UN ESCWA has been announced.

IGF Rio de Janeiro, 12-15 Nov 2007

Towards International Standards for a Truly Multilingual Global Internet

The workshop aims at aiding international cooperation in establishing standards for a multilingual global Internet. UNESCO and ICANN jointly organize it as both organizations play a pivotal role in this area. The workshop is intended to build on the one held between UNESCO, ICANN and NTRA of Egypt at the IGF in Athens, and titled “Towards a multilingual global Internet: Avoiding the Risk of Fragmentation”. More details about the workshop proposal can be found here: http://www.intgovforum.com/.

Toward the New Era of Internet - Taipei, 19-21 Oct 2007

The meeting is organized by ICANN and TWNIC and is aimed at technical groups, Internet businesses, and policy makers interested in the area of Internet domain names and numbers. The focus will be on three key topics: Security, Internationalized Domain Names, and IPv6. All these are themes where there have recently been significant developments taking place at technical, business, and policy levels. More details on agenda, registration, etc. will follow.

MoU signed between ICANN and UN ESCWA

The development of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) in Arabic will get a boost thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the UN Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia (UN-ESCWA).

The MoU aims to build a cooperative working relationship in identified areas of common interest, and specifically to work towards the implementation of IDNs in the Arabic language, and to engage in the further development of the generic top-level domain name space. The partnership program will also foster discussions and raise awareness within the Arab Internet community regarding technical and policy aspects of the Internet Domain Name System.

July 2007

Summary

Attended with CEO the Arab Ministerial Council meeting in Damascus. Coordinating with TWNIC regarding an event that ICANN is organizing in Taipei in October 2007. Working with UNESCO on a proposal for a joint workshop on Multilingualism to take place at the IGF in Rio. Got confirmation from .sa and .ir to take part in the IDN evaluation facility by moderating the wiki's for the Arabic and Persian languages respectively. Liaised with community as regards input to the ICANN Strategic Plan consultation process.

Arab Telecommunication and Information Council of Ministries, Damascus, Syria, July 1-3 2007:  ICANN President and CEO was welcomed to the meeting attended by 19 Arab delegations, the League of Arab States, the ITU Secretary General, the Arab Business Forum, and a representative of the Universal Postal Union. ICANN's CEO addressed the meeting in its second day with a speech focusing on 4 themes: ICANN's Multi-stakeholder environment; Governmental Advisory Committee; Internationalized Domain Names; and the future of the ICANN organization.

June 2007

Summary

Participated in APTLD meeting in Dubai and presented on ICANN and Global Partnerships. Facilitated discussion between SaudiNIC (.sa) and IRNIC (.ir), who both have hands-on experience with IDNs and share the same script (Arabic). Participated in several staff discussions on IDNs and the way forward. Communicated with ccTLDs in the Middle East on a training that ICANN together with ISOC are planning to organize toward end of this year. Worked with Tina Dam and Mandy Carver on final arrangements for the IDN staff training. The training took place in San Juan on 21-22 June. Arrangements are still ongoing in relation to CEO’s potential participation to the Arab Telecommunication and Information Council of Ministers that will be held in Damascus, Syria on 1-3 July 2007.

APTLD Meeting, Dubai, UAE, June 3-6 2007: This is the second APTLD meeting in the Middle East Region. It was attended by more than 60 participants representing ccTLD managers, gTLD registries, registrars, resellers, and other private sector. Participants from the Middle East were from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iran.

The strong and diverse ICANN presence was well received. The meeting was also a good opportunity for both .ae and .sa (the most active in IDNs in the region) to communicate face-to-face not only with ICANN staff, but more importantly with the Chair of the ccNSO (Chris Disspain), the Chair of the GAC (Janis Karklins), and a member of SSAC (Ram Mohan).

Participants from ICANN staff were Theresa Swinehart, Tina Dam, Kim Davies and Baher Esmat. Theresa presented on ICANN/internationalization and IG related matters, Tina on IDNs and registry/ registrar compliance, Kim on IANA, and Baher on ICANN and global partnerships.

Theresa, Janis and Baher had a good meeting with the Director General of Emirates TRA, discussing GAC participation as well as other means of cooperation between ICANN and Emirates TRA.

May 2007

Summary

Finalized agenda of the IDN training that will take place in San Juan. Participated in the Arab IDN working group meeting and gave an update on the ICANN Lisbon meeting. Carried out the first outreach event under the Multilingual Internet Committee of AKMS. Participated in the first AFTLD workshop and gave an update on IDNs. Followed up with ictQatar regarding their request to join the GAC. Followed up on fellowship applications from the Middle East. Making arrangements for CEO's visit to the Middle East.

First AFTLD Workshop, Cairo, Egypt, May 28-30 2007: Anne-Rachel and Baher participated in the First African ccTLD Workshop “Building Local Internet Community” held in Cairo on May 28-30 2007. The workshop was hosted by the Egyptian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA), and attended by 30 participants representing 13 African ccTLD registries, NTRA, ICANN, APTLD, dot CZ, as well as members of the Internet community in Egypt. Anne-Rachel gave a presentation around ICANN, some of the work being done at present, funding and the way ccTLDs are implicated, the fellowship programme and some redelegations issues. Questions were around how to make African ccTLDs pay their fair share of the ICANN budget since a few of them are nowadays charging for domains and should be bale to participate. Baher gave an introduction on IDN basics followed by an update on where ICANN is as far as IDNs development is concerned. Questions were around how to get the African ccTLD registries ready for IDNs. There were discussions around how the Internet community can help the African ccTLDs build capacities in this field, similar to what is happening in other tracks such as IPv6 and DNSSEC. Workshop programme and details can be found at: http://www.aftld.org/cairo2007/index.html.

AKMS Multilingual Committee – First Outreach Event, Amman, Jordan, May 13 2007: The Arab Knowledge and Management Society (ICANN At-Large Structure) has recently launched a new Committee called Multilingual Internet Committee (MIC). MIC aims at raising awareness and creating a constructive debate within the Internet community of the Arab world in relation to the technical and policy aspects of the Internet domain names and numbers. MIC is paying particular attention to the use of the Internet in Arabic language, an area that encompasses a wide range of issues from applications, content development, to internationalized domain names (IDNs). MIC is chaired by Samar Al-Labbad, Deputy Chair of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAGorg), and co-chaired by Baher Esmat, Middle East Liaison of ICANN. Baher participated in MIC’s launching event that was inaugurated by Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of Board of AKMS, and was honored by the presence of Mr. Basem Rousan, Minister of Information and Communications Technology of Jordan. Baher gave a presentation entitled “The Internet: Technology, Innovation, and Policy – A Collaborative Phenomenon”. More information about the event is available here: http://www.tagcb.edu.jo/news.aspx?id=441&lang=en.

Joint Meeting for the League of Arab States Working Groups on Arabic Domain Names and IGF, Cairo, Egypt, May 7-9 2007: The Arabic Domain Names Working Group - ADN WG together with the IGF Preparatory WG met at the League of Arab States in Cairo on 7-9 May 2007. The meeting was attended by members of 9 Arab countries (Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunis, Yemen), in addition to information centre department of the Arab League, and observers from the ITU Arab Regional Office, ESCWA, UNESCO, ICANN, and the Arab Organization for Industry Development and Mining. Baher has provided a brief report on the issues discussed at and outcomes of the ICANN meeting in Lisbon. Questions and comments were around IDNs, .xxx, accountability frameworks, and MOU with UN ESCWA.

April 2007

Summary

Collected information from the RL team in relation to Project 1sf (IDN Outreach), compiled information and made all documents available on the wiki, and provided a status report on the same project. Participated with Save Vocea in the first MENOG meeting, Save provided an update on IANA and I provided an update on IDNs. Had a very good meeting with ictQatar's executives addressing various ICANN matters with a bit of a focus on the GAC process. Meeting with ictQatar, Doha, Qatar, April 15 2007: ictQATAR, is the policy making and regulatory body for information and communication technology in Qatar. I met with the Executive Director and other senior staff. Discussions revolved around participation in the ICANN process and particularly in the GAC.

MENOG 1 Meeting, Manama, Bahrain, April 3-5 2007: The Middle East Network Operators Group (MENOG) held its first meeting on 3-5 April 2007, in Bahrain. Hosted by 2Connect, an ISP in Bahrain, MENOG 1 was attended by around 50 participants representing mainly ISPs and data providers while few were coming from incumbents, telecom regulators and vendors. Baher and Save participated in the meeting with presentations on IDNs and IANA respectively.

March 2007

Summary

Communicated with members of the Middle East community to have them participate to the ICANN meeting in Lisbon. Finalized the IDN outreach project charter and worked with team members on the steps coming forward. Met with APTLD and ISOC representatives to discuss means of cooperation and joint activities. Held a roundtable discussion in Lisbon for participants from the Middle East. Led a consultation session in Arabic language on the ICANN's operating plan.

Consultations on ICANN’s Operating Plan 2007-2008 – Arabic Session, March 29 2007: Consultations on ICANN's Operating plan 07-08 were held in Lisbon with participants from the Arab region. Session was conduction in Arabic though the notes hereunder are in English.

List of participants: Adel Gaaloul, ATI (.tn) Henda Ben Ghezala, CCK, Tunis Omar Karam, Egyptian Universities Network (.eg) Mohamed El-Bashir, ISOC Sudan (.sd) Alaedin El-Sharif, Libya Telecom and Technology (.ly) Wessam Al-Alem, Libya Telecom and Technology (.ly) Charles Shaban, TAGOrg, Jordan Doug Brent, ICANN’s COO welcomed the participants.

Presentation was given in Arabic by ICANN’s Middle East Liaison highlighting the key points of the operating plan. Comments from participants: Adel Gaaloul: It is clear that there is an improvement in ICANN’s transparency and accountability, as well as in quality of services delivered to its customers. However the operating plan does not seem to address any of the WSIS resolutions that were adopted in Tunis Agenda, i.e. issues like enhanced cooperation, etc. ICANN Liaison: This is merely an operating plan that shows activities and projects that the organization is undertaking over the course of the next fiscal year.

So, it is different from a strategic plan which may be more focused on strategic directions, objectives, challenges, etc. However, the operating plan articulates some activities that may be directly or indirectly related to the Tunis Agenda. As an example, engagement with international organizations such as IGF is highlighted in the plan and is something that ICANN showed in Athens last year and is committed to continue doing this in the future. IGF is a key outcome of the Tunis Summit.

Another example is global partnerships and the engagement of ICANN with the broader Internet community around the world, and particularly in developing countries, as well as partnerships with key international and regional organizations. This proves ICANN’s commitment in serving and outreaching communities in the developing world which was another key point throughout WSIS. Charles Shaban: Quite a good positive feedback coming from folks representing Intellectual Property business as regards ICANN’s revision of contracts with registries and registrars.

Many ccTLDs through participation in ccNSO activities have positively recognized improvements in IANA’s processes reflecting on far better response times. Yet, and with regards to GAC, there are governments in the region that have concerns about the role of the GAC as an advisory committee to the ICANN board.

Omar Karam: ICANN’s work methods and processes are quite unusual and are particularly challenging for our communities to cope with and comprehend. Quite a lot of things are going on and developing in a pace that we cannot keep up to speed with.

ICANN Liaison: Couldn’t agree more on this. One of the real challenges of ICANN is to go with the speed of the Internet while at same time realize that we are addressing the entire Internet community with all its various users, cultures, stakeholders, etc. Therefore, and as was illustrated in the operating plan, communications is key for ICANN. Making information available in a simple language, news letters and alerts, blogs, fact sheets, on line public participation are examples of products that ICANN has delivered over the past few months in order to enhance communications. Yet, there is a lot to be done.

Mohamed El-Bashir: ICANN is improving in various aspects. Hiring of regional liaisons, communications made in Arabic language, translation, public participation site, are all positive signs that there is a progress.

Charles Shaban: Although ccTLDs and some governments in the Arab regions started to show more interest in participating in ICANN, there is yet a lack of interest from private sector. Omar Karam: Participation in At-Large is also important and needs more attention from our community.

Wessam Al-Alem: What is ICANN’s policy in relation to translation? ICANN Liaison: This is something that ICANN is working on. So far, there is no such policy per se though there has been a significant improvement in terms of documents and materials made available in various languages as well as live translation in ICANN meetings.

Going Forward with ICANN - The Middle East Region Perspective, ICANN Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal, March 28 2007: The purpose of this roundtable discussion was to bring topics of interest to participants from the Middle East attending the ICANN Lisbon meeting, and hear from them on how they see the participation in the ICANN process. ICANN's Chairman of Board, Vint Cerf, and President and CEO, Paul Twomey addressed the meeting by key remarks about IDNs, highlighting some of the developments and discussions that have been taking place regarding technical and policy aspects of IDNs.

The meeting was chaired by Mohamed El-Bashir of ISOC Sudan (.sd) and ccNSO council member, and was attended by 18 participants representing governments, ccTLD registries, private sector and civil society groups of countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Presentations and talks were given as follows:

• GAC Participation, by Manal Ismail, GAC representative of Egypt
• ccTLD Regional Overview, by Charles Shaban, ccNSO council member
• At-Large Overview, Siavash Shahshahani, member of the ALAC

Discussions were mainly around participation. Many topics were addressed anywhere from IDNs to .XXX, and from GAC and At-Large participation to ccTLD regional organizations. The common denominator among all these issues was about how the Middle East Internet community can have better participation and representation in ICANN.