Minutes of the SC-cc on Thursday, July 30th
Participants:
Oscar Robles (NIC Mexico)
Don Heath (ISOC)
June Portch (CIX)
Marty Burack (ISOC)
Jay Fenello (ORSC)
Mark McFadden (CIX)
Chris Ambler (ORSC)
Rosa Delgado (SITA)
Tony Harris (CABASE)
Jim Dixon (EuroISPA)
Izumi Aizu (APIA)
John Wood (CSSA, CBI, ICC)
Michael Schneider (EuroISPA)
Anne-Kathrin Orth

The three main agenda items were:

First topic discussed as long as the Asian organisers hadn't joined was the wrap-up meeting. There was general agreement, that a face to face meeting would be preferable to email wrap-up of the process, as the latter is considered to cause delays and the former to be rather progressive. Mark will follow up on the Canadian government's offer to support and sponsor a meeting in Ottawa and report back within a few days.

As to a suitable point in time, it was agreed that August would keep many Europeans, especially the respective governments, from attending, while the second and third week of September (everything following the national holiday (labour day) on the 7th) are full of dates concerning i.e. self-regulation matters; therefore, the first week of September, most likely the 1st to 3rd, possibly also the 4th, would be the days preferred by the SC.

The logistical problems as to who and how many will be attending were addressed. Proxies will most likely be avoided to ensure that only those committed to the process and therefore attending will be voting on the future of the internet. It was proposed to raise a general attendance fee not only to sponsor those travelling large distances but also to fund the new entity. John Wood said that an estimated figure of money needed for the latter was one Million $ by mid September, though this optimum will definitely be near to impossible to reach, as funding from governmental sources cannot and should not be counted upon. There was consensus that as much money as possible should be raised by the SC/IFWP itsself.

The next point discussed were all topics related to the AP-meeting. Izumi reported that there is a ccTLD-meeting scheduled for the 11th from mid-morning to early afternoon which will overlap the informative part of the IFWP-meeting by about two hours. Nevertheless, the two meetings are not seen to be competing and he will negotiate with the responsible people to find a solution and work out any problems that may still arise.

As to the content of the conference, he assured that he would work out a draft agenda with Laina by Monday for the next cc. It was stressed that the cultural differences must be taken into consideration while at the same time keeping the structure of the earlier conferences to ensure continuity. All agreed to leave it to the Asians to ensure this as they are the only ones considered capable of judging how to best include this point in the setting-up of the agenda.

The final point of discussion was the LA&C-meeting in Buenos Aires. The first question posed to Tony was whether the Brasilians have been included so far. Tony reported that CABASE has been contacting not only them, but also ISPs all over Latin America, including ca. 300 in Mexico, to encourage them to attend that meeting. The responses of the governments and Telcos is expected by Monday. He explicitely asked for input in the form of comments and suggestions by the SC-members. The question of giving the meeting an informative label was another big issue. Though the main intention of the meeting is to inform the people possibly interested so that they may have an acknowledgable opinion and point of view at the wrap-up meeting, it was agreed not to label the meeting informative as their are to date several countries from the region attending; therefore it is recognised as part of the IFWP-series and is therefore also given the same weight as the other regional meetings.

It was pointed out that an effort should be made by the Latin Americans to attend the conference in Singapore to ensure continuity, and of course by people from outside LA&C to be in Buenos Aires. There was a question of Spanish-translations of the White Paper, which apparently already exist; it was then pointed out that possibly some of the other important documents in the process should be translated as well and possibly be distributed in the form of a package, an alternative that was considered too expensive for Asia. Rosa and Tony will try to organise this for Buenos Aires.