Candidate statement
Name: Benjamin Akinmoyeje
Declared region of residence: Africa
Gender: Male
Employment: PhD Research Student
Any conflicts of interest: None
Questions:
Why do you want to serve on the EC? I want to continue to serve on the EC because I want to help promote the voice of the non commercial constituency and advance the cause of the group post-Covid19, I also want to help enhance our visibility as ICANN resumes physical engagements.
I look forward to continuing to help our community to grow in technical capacity, and to contribute to the PDPs. I want to help improve our web presence as our website requires a major revamp.
Provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and affiliations relevant to serving on the Executive Committee. Describe the relevance of your personal and professional experience to serve on the NCUC Executive Committee, and identify any conflicts of interests you might have. Currently a PhD students of Informatics, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Namibia University of Science and Technology, conducting academic research in the area of persuasive technology and mHealth apps for stress management amongst university students, I am the current EC Africa, and I am part of HR CCWP, part of all the virtual ICANN meetings and currently NCUC chair, I was able to initiate NCUC members call and it led to some positive engagements. I have managed to keep the NCUC twitter handle engaged during ICANN virtual meetings.
The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the Constituency. What level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role on a weekly and overall basis? Describe any concerns or limitations on your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN Meetings in person. The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the Constituency. What level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role on a weekly and overall basis? Describe any concerns or limitations on your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN Meetings in person.
As a research student and current NCUC chair, I have the privilege of time to participate actively in the ICANN process for up to 10 hours weekly to attend ICANN online meetings, possible area of concern may be the occasional need for quality internet access at meeting hours while I am at home.
Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?
As the NCUC Chair, I will continue to improve communication with the community, I hope to improve NCUC online presence with more social media engagements . As a chair, the monthly EC meetings will continue to and also devise quarterly calls or virtual town hall meetings for NCUC members.
How do you foresee NCUC’s function, scale, or role changing in the future? What areas of ICANN policy, if any, need more attention and why? Incumbent candidates should answer in a manner that is both backward and forward-looking, i.e. taking note of their contributions and work in the previous year. The virtual ICANN engagement for the past two years have been a major decider for NCUC's activities and functions in the future will only expand as the need for protection of the non-commercial individual users of DNS increases, as we begin to see ICANN being drawn to issues such as content moderation, and the EPDP Phase 2 and SSAD ODA issues, phase 2. DNS Abuse, (freedom of expression online) and the challenges of digital rights/ Human Rights.There may be a need for NCUC to consolidate with other SGs with similar interests to push a common agenda. In the phase of multiple regulatory laws, and ICANN needs to continue to function, we must continue to voice the non-commercial perspective and the policies that I can develop. More than ever before individual rights to privacy and data protection have been challenged in DNS space, the situation calls for NCUC to be alert to ensure ICANN policies are sensitive to these realities.
I look forward to working with the elected ECs to ensure that NCUC's voice remains relevant in the ICANN multistakeholder space.
Name: Mili Semlani
Region of residence: Asia Pacific
Gender: Female
Employment: Journalist and Community Manager @e27 [e27.co] (tech startup publication in Southeast Asia); Founder and leader at Youth4IG [youth4ig.asia]
Conflict of interest: None
Reasons for willingness to take on the position
After my first ICANN fellowship, I joined NCUC along with APRALO to advance my work in capacity building and understanding policymaking. Thanks to the community's support and fellow NCUC leaders, I was elected to the NCUC EC last year to represent APAC soon after. I used my term to deepen my understanding of managing a community and the participation gaps that persist for my fellow Asians.
Alongside revising the mailing list and enhancing communication at NCUC APAC, I also steered youth in the APAC community over the past years by collectively submitting workshop proposals to regional IGF and public comments to ICANN, organizing capacity-building webinars, strengthening the youth voice in APAC and launching the mentorship program.
I also worked as a multistakeholder steering group(MSG) member of the Asia Pacific IGF I am a part of the Program and Fellowship Committee and represented NCUC, and introduced newcomers at APrIGF 2019 in Russia on Day 0. I plan to use my regional connections to spread the NCUC mission and activate the APAC membership at NCUC.
Qualifications for the position
I am a tech, policy, and business journalist. I have reported in and about the Asian region with work assignments in India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore and have a good understanding of our diverse region.
I hold a Masters's degree in Journalism and worked as a consultant for the BPF Gender and Access at IGF. This experience also enhanced my knowledge in IG policies and divulged my interest deeper in topics related to gender and ICT, with a special focus on how ICT can be used to fight gender issues in developing Asian economies.
Combining my skills as a journalist with my passion for public policy and interest in technology issues; it also gave me the ability to engage with various stakeholders of the multistakeholder process and formulate innovative programs to manage youth groups and volunteers leading change globally with a special focus on APAC.
In 2019, I started Youth4IG, Asia's largest youth and the only democratic youth movement in Internet Governance. It is a home for youth in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) to meet, share ideas, and contribute to the multi-stakeholder policy-making process for IG. This leadership experience has helped me grow as a community builder.
I have been a fellow at APrIGF 2017 and 2019 and ICANN 63 and 66, inSIG 2018. Since then, I have been an active MSG member and co-chair of the Program Committee that organizes APrIGF. As a part of PC, I work on the sub-themes, main themes, workshop guidelines, and program evaluations each year. I am a member of the Drafting Committee at MSG and work on the Synthesis Document presented at IGF each year.
Time commitment
I have been part of various IG processes for over 8 years now, and I am well aware of the workload, volunteer burnout, and working across time zones. I work remotely, which aids my ability to join in meetings and spend the time and energy needed to serve on the Executive Committee, especially in such a complex environment as ICANN. I am most eager to offer my creativity to manage the various tasks to keep the community active and strong.
I am motivated to make the APAC presence at ICANN not just larger but also, more importantly, vocal. It will be my pleasure to contribute to NCUC development and growth in the upcoming year.
Olga Kyryliuk, Europe, Female, Program Manager, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, (ABA ROLI)
Conflict of interest: none that I’m aware
1. Why do you want to serve on the EC?
I’ve been part of the NCUC EC for the two last years and would gladly continue contributing to the development of the constituency for one more term. With all my current EC colleagues being nominated again and in case if elected it would be easy to continue doing the work in the same composition.
2. Provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and affiliations relevant to serving on the Executive Committee. Describe the relevance of your personal and professional experience to serve on the NCUC Executive Committee, and identify any conflicts of interests you might have.
I have PhD in international law. Currently serve as a Chair of the Executive Committee at SEEDIG - South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance. In my daily job working as a Program Manager at the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in charge of the regional Internet freedom advocacy program. Founder and advisor of The Influencer Platform, a Ukrainian-based think-and-do tank. I am actively involved in regional and international Internet governance and human rights initiatives: founding member of the Internet Freedom Network for Eastern, Central Europe, and Eurasia; former open Internet leader of the Open Internet for Democracy Initiative. Provide consultancy and expert support to Freedom House, Council of Europe and a range of international companies working worldwide. During the last ten years, I’m putting lots of efforts into civil society capacity building and facilitating multistakeholder cooperation at the national and regional levels. I am well aware of the specifics of the European IG community and its challenges, have an extensive professional network, including representatives of different stakeholder groups.
I do not have any conflict of interests that could prevent me from running for the NCUC EC position.
3. The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the Constituency. What level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role on a weekly and overall basis? Describe any concerns or limitations on your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN Meetings in person.
Having completed two terms on the NCUC EC, I am fully aware of the required time commitment and am ready to dedicate my efforts to the development of the Constituency in the upcoming year. I have neither concerns nor reservations as to attending online and in-person meetings.
4. Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?
Same as before, I will keep informing the membership about relevant updates from the EC work and available regional engagement opportunities via available communication channels. I will also continue supporting the EC outreach and mentoring activities.
5. How do you foresee NCUC’s function, scale, or role changing in the future? What areas of ICANN policy, if any, need more attention and why? Incumbent candidates should answer in a manner that is both backward and forward-looking, i.e. taking note of their contributions and work in the previous year.
I believe a stronger focus needs to be made on outreach to bring new members to NCUC but also a better diversification of efforts to ensure our meaningful participation in policy drafting and working group discussions.
Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances I won’t be able to attend Meet the Candidates Call later today but if needed I remain available to address any questions via email.
Name: Ines Hfaiedh, Declared Region of residence: Africa, Gender: Female, Employment: Teacher and ICT Implementation in Education Specialist.
Conflicts of Interest : None
Why do you want to serve on the EC?
I wish to serve on the NCUC Executive Committee first to represent my region Africa in the best way possible in the next EC team. I hope to bring back the active participation and discussions that we used to have in the African mailing list, as well as the mentoring initiative that ECs used to perform towards newcomers from their region. I am confident that my academic, civil society, technical and administrative backgrounds in addition to my three year experience as an EC would help me achieve these goals and contribute to the well functioning of the constituency administration.
Provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and affiliations relevant to serving on the Executive Committee. Describe the relevance of your personal and professional experience to serve on the NCUC Executive Committee, and identify any conflicts of interests you might have.
I am a teacher and ICT Implementation in Education Specialist. I had the chance to be a recipient of a number of prestigious scholarships and fellowships among which was The Fulbright FLTA Fellowship which enabled me to study and be a Teaching Assistant at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, USA. I am also a Diplo-certified Curator and Rapporteur and was among the first cohort of Diplo-certified Online Moderators in 2020.
I have joined NCUC since ICANN 55 which was my first experience as a Fellow and had the chance to be back as a Coach several times where I introduced newcomers to NCUC before the actual meeting and during their fellowship sessions. I have been in charge of the Secretariat of the last two editions of ICANN's MEAC SIG (School of Internet Governance) I am a member of ICANN’s Intercultural Awareness Program which we hope to bring back its shine.
I had the chance to be a Guest Speaker and session organiser at IGF 2016-2017-2019 and Booth Lead at IGF 2018 and Rightscon 2019. I was also a guest at several local, regional and international conferences such as the World Bank Group Youth Summit on “Rethinking Education for the next Millennium” and the European Educational Tool Portal has shared my tool of 'Interactive ICT Implementation in Formal and Informal Learning' and selected it for the International Tool Fair in Budapest, Hungary.
The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the Constituency. What level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role on a weekly and overall basis? Describe any concerns or limitations on your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN Meetings in person.
For the EC responsibilities, I generally do not see time limitations and concerns in performing the required tasks especially that now not only work but our life has shifted a little bit more to an online format. Besides, I enjoy some flexibility to attend meetings in person (if the format is back to in-person) as my job nurtures personal and professional development. During my previous terms, I had managed to organise my time in a way which enabled me to do some extra activities such as webinars for the Africa membership.
Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?
I would keep members up-dated on our EC-related activities as well as news, call for comments etc through our NCUC mailing list and webinars when time allows. Also I wish to reactive our Tweeter account which used to be quite active from the part of all ECs. I also hope to keep the members apprised on our events through the NCUC blogs on our website to which I had previously contributed.
How do you foresee NCUC’s function, scale, or role changing in the future? What areas of ICANN policy, if any, need more attention and why? Incumbent candidates should answer in a manner that is both backward and forward-looking, i.e. taking note of their contributions and work in the previous year.
I believe that NCUC has always played a crucial role in defending non-commercial users’ rights. Those who have been here for some time know how our experienced/veterans have been at pains to protect those rights within ICANN’s policy processes and the IANA transition. That said, I am confident that the constituency can still do more in voicing the Non-Commercial Users concerns and defending their interests. I had previously expressed that the real challenge is making the members actually act as multipliers within their respective communities and that was brought to the discussion later by the ICANN board on a joint meeting. I wish that we also keep a spirit of openness and consultation with our membership and keep them in the loop of current discussions for more efficiency in our contributions.
I thank you for this opportunity and looking forward to serving the membership if elected.
Best regards
Candidate Statement:
Name, declared region of residence, gender and employment; Kenneth Herman/North America/Male/Technology Consulting
Any conflicts of interest; I am unaware of any conflicts of interest.
Please provide a short (one or two paragraphs) answer to the following questions:
Why do you want to serve on the EC? After a lengthy career that has a substantial non-profit, community-development focus, I believe that the NCUC EC is a natural fit as I gain experience with the ICANN processes. I believe that my background facilitating multistakeholder discussions and decision-making processes in a multicultural environment might be useful to the Executive Committee.
Provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and affiliations relevant to serving on the Executive Committee. Describe the relevance of your personal and professional experience to serve on the NCUC Executive Committee, and identify any conflicts of interests you might have. In a former career as a UN staff member for many years I regularly attended and participated in IGF meetings and the WSIS forums, including in the 2019 WSIS forum presenting in a high-level panel on gender equality in technology. With non-profit organizations I have helped to organize events at the UN that bring together international policy specialists with young people to advocate for gender balance in STEM fields. Recently I have consulting assignments with a major intergovernmental institution to support government and community cybersecurity initiatives in developing economies.
I have also become more immersed in the ICANN processes by self-financing my attendance at ICANN 63 (Barcelona), 64 (Kobe) and 66 (Montreal), with a focus on the non-commercial sessions and have participated as best I can in the recent ICANN virtual forums.
I have had my own personal domain since 1998 and have been instrumental in guiding non-profit organizations and individuals to the Internet. For example, I assisted in getting the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (unscn.org) disentangled from the UN presence on the Internet by establishing their own domain (I did the initial registration and connected them with the appropriate local resources to maintain the Internet presence) and I did the same for a special interest group of returned Peace Corps volunteers to form a country-specific site, also by initiating their registration and ultimate transfer to the appropriate technical support services.
The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the Constituency. What level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role on a weekly and overall basis? Describe any concerns or limitations on your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN Meetings in person. I do not have any specific concerns or limitations regarding online participation in meetings of the EC, or in-person meetings when they resume. As mentioned, I have self-funded my attendance at many recent ICANN meetings over the past few years. While professional, and other, commitments may at times place limitations, I expect to be able to satisfy any reasonable time commitment required. My expectation is that there will be periods that will require substantial time, perhaps spanning many days over a period of weeks.
Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities? I understand that communication is a necessary element of community engagement, and in addition to the normal networking tools available, I would try to reach out individually to members for their input.
How do you foresee NCUC’s function, scale, or role changing in the future? What areas of ICANN policy, if any, need more attention and why? Incumbent candidates should answer in a manner that is both backward and forward-looking, i.e. taking note of their contributions and work in the previous year. I have observed during my time as an EC Rep that within ICANN (not so much the org, but the greater community) a substantial focus on satisfying the needs of commercial entities, seemingly at the expense of the rights of individuals or other non-commercial stakeholders. As part of the community I hope to strengthen my ability to advocate for a greater non-commercial voice within the entire ICANN ecosystem. Within NCUC, my observation is that there may be some benefit to a stronger human-centred approach to policy in a way that focuses more directly on users, rather than institutions.
