[NCUC-EC] E-Team Engagement

Mueller, Milton L milton at gatech.edu
Sat Aug 5 18:25:57 CEST 2023 

Folks,
Just FYI, ICANN does not reimburse us for the Gandi hosting. 
The cost of that is not very significant, I think it's about $25/month. 
The really expensive thing that needs fixing is the horrible CivicCRM service we are using, which bills us $285/month plus more than $2000/year for ... whatever. I am not convinced that a simple, free excel spreadsheet would do the job better. Fortunately, ICANN does reimburse us for that, but it imposes on someone (currently, me) the hassle of filing reimbursement requests every month.

Whoever registers the domain has to be able to pay for it. Because I run the NCUC bank account, I can pay for the domain directly. 


Dr. Milton L Mueller
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Public Policy
Internet Governance Project 


-----Original Message-----
From: NCUC-EC <ncuc-ec-bounces at lists.ncuc.org> On Behalf Of Tapani Tarvainen
Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2023 9:06 AM
To: Amin Hacha <aminhacha at gmail.com>
Cc: David Morar <davidcristianmorar at gmail.com>; Exec. Comm <ncuc-ec at lists.ncuc.org>
Subject: Re: [NCUC-EC] E-Team Engagement

Hi Amin, all,

First about the GDPR: there's no formal difference between France and Italy. I don't know if there are practical ones (like, how effective their DPAs are), but I don't think there'd be any that'd be important for NCUC. Likewise for differences between companies, I don't expect there to be any that really matter, if they're both EU-based.

There are differences between companies based in EU and outside of it, however, but given the rather limited amount of personal data processing NCUC does I think it'd be mainly symbolic (which doesn't mean it's irrelevant, but I'll leave it up to the EC).

Anyway, yes there are cheaper options than NCUC's current hosting provider (Gandi), but I don't think the difference really matters, especially as (if) ICANN picks the tab. Sticking with Gandi would make administration easier as long as the old VM stays there.

Second, I'm not sure why we'd want to change the domain. The owner of ncuc.org is not the hosting company but The Internet Governance Project of Georgia Tech, in effect Milton Mueller and Brenden Kuerbis.

Unless I'm mistaken, NCUC could not own a domain name anyway unless it's first incorporated somewhere, and that would not be trivial.

As a side note, NCUC's bank account is also legally not NCUC's but Milton's, for the same reason. Should he be run over by a bus or something, NCUC would not find it easy to access the funds.

Best,

Tapani

On Tue, Aug 01, 2023 at 10:09:52AM +0200, Amin Hacha (aminhacha at gmail.com) wrote:
> 
> Greetings all.
> Starting, I want to express my appreciation to Olga for her valuable 
> time and efforts.
> 
> Thanks, Ken for the meeting brief.
> 
> I would like to bring attention to some points that were discussed and 
> not mentioned in the meeting brief, as well as provide further 
> suggestions on specific matters.
> 
> Firstly, during the meeting, I expressed that me and David, we are 
> ready to volunteer to handle and make the forthcoming update, 
> especially since we had several meetings discussing that with Benjamin 
> ( during ICANN 76 and 77). Also, Benjamin mentioned our readiness 
> during the meeting.  Kindly if possible add that to the meeting brief.
> And for future reference, I kindly request that my name be mentioned 
> specifically when referring to the individual who offered free 
> hosting, rather than written as "a member of the e-team."
> 
> Regarding the hosting company based in France and the implications of 
> the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as mentioned by Tipani, 
> I recommend gathering more detailed information through Tipani before 
> reaching a final decision. Since I am currently located in Italy, I am 
> not well-versed in the French hosting company's approach to GDPR compliance.
> 
> Furthermore, I have an inquiry concerning the domain name for NCUC. 
> Are we planning to buy a new domain name, or will we continue using 
> the existing one?
> If to buy a new domain, I propose that NCUC acquires the domain 
> independently to mitigate any potential future issues with the 
> domain's current owner ( the hosting company).
> 
> In today's market, many reputable global companies offer domain names 
> with unlimited hosting capacity and provide free assistance at 
> affordable prices. For example, www.ipage.com offers a hosting package 
> for three years at just 2 USD per month, with the domain name included 
> free of charge for the first year, followed by a yearly fee of 
> approximately 15 USD. with 24/7 assistance. This option has been well-tested and trusted.
> in this case, it is not difficult to upload the new design as it seems 
> done thru WordPress.
> 
> Thank you for your attention to these matters.
> Enjoy your summertime.
> Best regards,
> Amine
> 
> On Mon, Jul 31, 2023 at 6:19 PM Ken Herman <ken at kherman.com> wrote:
> 
> > Hello all.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks for everyone’s contribution.
> >
> >
> >
> > The link below is my brief summary of today’s discussion. Please 
> > edit in places where I might have missed key points.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aeBwOPClnTiNzr6LLcY0K9Ha_JrRmWTX
> > Lqa585_fOYw/edit?usp=sharing
> >
> >
> >
> > Ken
> >
> >
> >
> > *From:* NCUC-EC <ncuc-ec-bounces at lists.ncuc.org> *On Behalf Of 
> > *Benjamin Akinmoyeje
> > *Sent:* Saturday, July 29, 2023 3:12 PM
> > *To:* Tapani Tarvainen <ncsg at tapani.tarvainen.info>; Amin Hacha < 
> > aminhacha at gmail.com>; Andrea Glandon <andrea.glandon at icann.org>; 
> > David Morar <davidcristianmorar at gmail.com>; Olga Kyryliuk 
> > <olga_kyryliuk at ukr.net>; Exec. Comm <ncuc-ec at lists.ncuc.org>
> > *Subject:* Re: [NCUC-EC] E-Team Engagement
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear Andrea,
> >
> > Good day to you and I hope you are doing well.
> >
> >
> >
> > Please can you help create a Zoom meeting for us the eTeam and Olga 
> > to meet.
> >
> >
> >
> > Please it would be great if you can invite everyone on this mail trail.
> >
> >
> >
> > The date and time of the meeting is July 31, 2023, and by 6 pm Kyiv time.
> >
> >
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Benjamin
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 28, 2023 at 4:07 PM Tapani Tarvainen < 
> > ncsg at tapani.tarvainen.info> wrote:
> >
> > I can do July 31 at that time. Probably could arrange the latter 
> > options as well but would have to look at specific times.
> >
> > Tapani
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 28, 2023 at 08:44:21AM +0000, Benjamin Akinmoyeje (
> > benakin at gmail.com) wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear eTeam,
> > > Good day to you.
> > >
> > > Please here is the time availability I got from Olga
> > >
> > > “So if you want a call, let’s make smth quick for 30 minutes max 
> > > with EC inviting Tapani who can explain what is the challenge on 
> > > his side. I can make it for a call on 31 July after 6 pm (Kyiv 
> > > time, UTC+3), 3 August
> > after
> > > 4 pm and 5 August any time at the moment.”
> > >
> > >
> > > I will recommend July 31st please
> > >
> > >
> > > Looking forward to hear from you.
> > >
> > > Kind regards,
> > > Benjamin
> > >
> > > On Thu, 13 Jul 2023 at 2:16 PM, Tapani Tarvainen <
> > ncsg at tapani.tarvainen.info>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > So, a brief summary of the situation as I see it:
> > > >
> > > > Olga and her friend Dusan have designed a new website, which you 
> > > > can see at www2.ncuc.org. Contentwise it's no more up-to-date 
> > > > than the old one, but it should be easy to update (the old one 
> > > > isn't as you presumably know, I won't go into the reasons for that now).
> > > >
> > > > The first decision would be if the new design is good enough to 
> > > > move forward with. (I think it is.)
> > > >
> > > > There are some compatibility issues with the current VPN where 
> > > > it now is. They are not trivial to solve because the old mailing 
> > > > list software (lists.ncuc.org) needs different (older) versions 
> > > > of some stuff, and we don't want to break the mailing lists.
> > > >
> > > > Easiest solution from my perspective here is getting another VPN 
> > > > and separate the mailing list and website to their own VPNs. 
> > > > This will cost something to the order of $10/month.
> > > >
> > > > So that's the second decision. I can set up a new VPN in a few 
> > > > minuts once you confirm someone will pay for it.
> > > >
> > > > Once that's up and the new wordpress setup is there, it's 
> > > > contents would need to be updated. Not all that much new content 
> > > > is needed, most important is to make sure that whatever is there 
> > > > is current, notably EC and other committee memberships. Some 
> > > > subsections are also completely empty now, but could be 
> > > > populated simply by copying content from the old site.
> > > >
> > > > Publication of the new site could be done in two ways:
> > > >
> > > > (1) keep it in a temporary location (www2 or whatever) until the 
> > > > contents are more or less up to date and then change the URL to 
> > > > www.ncuc.org and announce it to the world.
> > > >
> > > > (2) switch URL immediately, that is make www.ncuc.org point to 
> > > > the new design even while incomplete and update it there.
> > > >
> > > > Difference between those is mainly in the optics as it were, how 
> > > > things look like while it's being worked on. The first would be 
> > > > prettier, more glamorous so to speak, but if nobody then takes 
> > > > up the content work it could hang in a limbo for a long time.
> > > >
> > > > That's the third decision.
> > > >
> > > > But what that leads to is continued maintenance of the site, 
> > > > both content (Wordpress) and back end.
> > > >
> > > > Pretty much everybody should be able to learn what it takes to 
> > > > to edit WP content in a matter of minutes, although some care 
> > > > (and
> > > > documentation!) would be needed to keep the site consistent in 
> > > > what's where. But you'd need several people doing that enough 
> > > > that they don't forget how it works.
> > > >
> > > > So the fourth decision is, who'd be doing that.
> > > >
> > > > The back end I can manage for now, but at least in the long run 
> > > > it would be necessary to have a backup sysadmin in case I'm run 
> > > > over by a bus or die of old age or something, and for that you'd 
> > > > need someone with Linux sysadmin skills. There are also options 
> > > > for managed hosting where that'd be somewhat easier, at extra 
> > > > cost (of course), which might make sense at some point.
> > > >
> > > > Deciding on that isn't as urgent, but for the record it's one 
> > > > more question to decide on at some point.
> > > >
> > > > OK, it wasn't all that brief... but I think I got most of the 
> > > > issues covered.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Tapani Tarvainen
> > > >
> >
> > --
> > Tapani Tarvainen
> >
> >

--
Tapani Tarvainen
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