<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Hi<div><br></div><div>To finish off this round of information overload: As I’ve mentioned on the list and at Constituency Day, we’ve received budget support to do two special events in Singapore just prior to the meeting: a new NCUC EC ‘retreat’ of sorts on Thursday 20 March to discuss working methods, set plans, and get people up to speed a bit on ICANN and GNSO; and a policy conference on 21 March. After an extended bit of bugging staff I’ve received confirmation that we do have a conference space on the 21st for 150 people, so that’s on, and soon we’ll get to work on the organization. I’m hoping we can do this on a fairly open cross-community basis with a lot of engagement from other corners of the ICANNsphere; the precise modalities are TBD. </div><div><br></div><div>The working title of the conference is, "ICANN and Global Internet Governance: The Road to Sao Paulo, and Beyond.” In terms of the substantive focus, there could be sessions devoted to the major foci of the April meeting in Sao Paulo and related, e.g. topics like a potential declaration on global IG principles; options for evolving the distributed institutional architecture (consistent with the I* Montevideo Declaration) with respect to globalization; and the role (inter)governmental frameworks and authority. We might also want to consider the progress and implications of some of the contextual developments, like the 1net initiative, the growing need to support and enhance the IGF, etc. All to be worked out.</div><div><br></div><div>The points I wanted to flag here to round out the tour of current IG work are:</div><div><br></div><div>1. Anyone who’s planning on coming to the Singapore ICANN meeting is encouraged to come a day early for our conference, which should be a notable event.</div><div><br></div><div>2. Anyone who’s interested but unable to come to Singapore, there should be proper remote participation, so do save the date.</div><div><br></div><div>3. Any <b>written materials</b> NCUC or its members can generate on these issues could be posted to the conference website and perhaps printed for distribution to serve as background issue framing/conversation starters. The same materials could also serve as inputs into the Sao Paulo meeting, the CCWG, etc.</div><div><br></div><div>So lots of options, if we have the bandwidth to take advantage of them.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Bill</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div apple-content-edited="true">
***********************************************<br>William J. Drake<br>International Fellow & Lecturer<br> Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ<br> University of Zurich, Switzerland<br>Chair, Noncommercial Users Constituency, <br> ICANN, <a href="http://www.ncuc.org">www.ncuc.org</a><br><a href="mailto:william.drake@uzh.ch">william.drake@uzh.ch</a> (direct), <a href="mailto:wjdrake@gmail.com">wjdrake@gmail.com</a> (lists),<br> <a href="http://www.williamdrake.org">www.williamdrake.org</a><br>***********************************************
</div>
<br></div></body></html>