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Name: Emmanuel Vitus 

Declared region of residence: Lyon, France (Europe) 

Gender: Male

Employment: Executive Director of AW Free Foundation

Any conflicts of interest: None

Reasons for willingness to take on the position:

I am honored to be nominated for a second term as Policy Coordinator for NPOC, reflecting on a transformative first year in this leadership role. Our voice on policy matters, long unheard, has finally resonated across key initiatives such as the IDNs EPDP Phases I and II, the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group, the Transfer Policy Review IRT, and the SubPro IRT, along with the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI). We’ve led the drafting of four public comments and are actively engaged in the Review of the Draft Registry Service Provider (RSP) Handbook, as well as deliberations on Public Interest Commitments (PICs) and Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs).

In less than a year, our policy efforts have proven highly effective. Building on the promise from my initial campaign to streamline our policy activities and enhance mentorship—promises which we have fulfilled - the results are clear and compelling. Now, I seek your continued trust to advance this momentum into a second term, aiming to pass on a vibrant legacy to future leadership, ready and capable of driving our mission forward. One term has laid the groundwork; however, it is not sufficient to fully enact our vision for a robust policy framework—this first term was about firefighting. Now, I ask for your vote to help establish a strong policy committee that can significantly influence ongoing policy developments, particularly the forthcoming round of New gTLD applications, ensuring our members are well-prepared to participate.

Committed to fostering a dynamic environment of engagement, I am eager to mentor new and existing members who share our vision: reduce bureaucracy, increase participation, and achieve tangible results. With a re-elected term, our Executive Committee can enhance its visibility in policy discussions, empowering more members to lead and shape policy dialogues. Together, we can achieve more.
Some of my focus areas when reelected include the GNSO Policy & Implementation Working Group Recommendations, Public Interest Commitments (PICs), Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs) and activities around the upcoming.

Qualifications for the Role:

I am a Digital Policy Researcher by profession and currently serve as the Executive Director for the Holland-based AW Free Foundation. The AW Free Foundation promotes professional journalism, independent media, freedom of expression, and digital rights in sub-Saharan Africa. The foundation supports journalists and media under threat, and promotes open technology and uncensored media tools and toolkits for journalists.

Before joining the Foundation, I worked as a journalist for the North Africa Post, the BBC, and RFI. I was the Communication Lead at Paradigm Initiative and a Google Policy Fellow (EMEA).
I have worked as a non-key expert for the joint European Union & African Union’s PRIDA - Policy and Regulation Initiative for Digital Africa project, implementing and strengthening several National and Regional Internet Governance Initiatives, including the West Africa Internet Governance Forum, and national IGF initiatives and schools across Africa. I am currently the coordinator of the West Africa School of Internet Governance for ECOWAS and a faculty member of the Ghana and Benin School on Internet Governance.

I have been a researcher and consultant on projects for organizations including the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), the Web Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Paradigm Initiative, Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), ICANN, UNESCO, The Humboldt Institute for Internet and Digitalization, Berlin's Digital Society Institute, and I am the Chair of the Internet Society Togo Chapter.

I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from IAEC University (Togo), a BSc (Hons) in Business Computing and Information Systems from the University of Central Lancashire (UK), an M.A. in Journalism & Communications (New Media) from the Central University of Tunis (Tunisia), and I am an MA candidate in Contemporary Diplomacy (Internet Governance) from the University of Malta. I paused my Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance three years ago. I have authored and co-authored numerous articles and book chapters on topics including AI, Data Governance, IT policy, Internet Governance, Digital Rights, and Privacy. I am also a faculty member at the emlyon business school in France (Paris & Lyon campuses) and the School of Public Affairs at Paris Sciences Po. I am a certified PMP & Scrum Master and a member of the Project Management Institute and the British Computer Society, MyData Global, and several Digital Rights Coalitions. I am bilingual, fluent in both French and English.

In addition to coordinating the policy work of NPOC, I am a member of the NCSG Policy Committee and represent the NCSG in the IDNs EPDP. I have participated in the ICANN Leadership Program (LP), the ICANN Policy Transition Program Pilot as a pioneer fellow, and the ongoing ICANN Policy Development Accelerator.

How many hours per week you are able to dedicate to the position?

During my first term, I consistently devoted approximately 6 to 8 hours each week to NPOC policy work. This included engaging in weekly EPDP meetings and participating in the ICANN Policy Development Accelerator. I am prepared to increase my commitment as necessary and also dedicate time to mentoring members who are interested in policy work or wish to take a leading role in drafting our public comments and contributions.

Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if so please state:

I am currently engaged in the ICANN Policy Development Accelerator and actively participating in the EPDP for IDNs, as well as the discussions around Public Interest Commitments (PICs). I serve as a Penholder for some of the NCSG Policy Committee's comments. Additionally, I am an observer at the GNSO Council meetings and participate in the Transfer Policy Review IRT and the SubPro IRT. 

Name: Jean F. Queralt
                
•Affiliation: Founder & CEO, The IO Foundation

•Position applied for: NPOC Policy Coordinator

•Why you are running for the position?:

As part of my daily obligations, staying on top of policy status in ICANN is becoming a necessity. This would make it a very natural process to me to update NPOC and engage members to participate in ongoing work.

I terms of plans, I hope to develop procedures and tools (as an extension of the work that has been done as Comms Chair) to facilitate NPOC members' participation and engagement.

Notably:

- I will implement a follow-up and voting platform for members to express their concerns and vote in topics they will want to prioritize.

(Work in progress from Comms Chair)

- I will use the tools that I am currently putting together for faster and more effective analysis of policy processes and all the overwhelming amount of information they generate >> In essence, I am building an LLM to process all this information and help us navigate it all.

- I will work with the OEC to post regular updates and use the setup put in place in my capacity of Comms Chair for posts in SocMed (already advanced).

- If NPOC Chair agrees, I will propose

# a parallel NPOC Policy monthly call.

# strengthening collaborations with other constituencies, especially non-commercial

- I will continue the work done as Comms Chair with

# getting the website renewed (hopefully finished before Istanbul)

# getting the blog running so members can update

- Finally, I will seek to establish:

# a stable NPOC Policy group composed by our members

# a procedure for handover for Policy Coordinators so that new elected members can take over more easily

# 1 or 2 NPOC members to shadow me so that the work load can be distributed and learning curve eased.

I have other ideas although that's a lot of work as it is already.

There is plenty of work to be done and I am certain this is doable with the help and support of our members.

Qualifications for the position:

I believe that I have the necessary qualities and capacities to bring the position's responsibilities to good term.

I have been involved with ICANN since ICANN75, currently holding the position of Comms Chair @ NPOC.

My daily work at my NGO, The IO Foundation, revolves around monitoring the governance and outputs of a number of SDOs (ITU, ICANN, IETF) and engaging in their processes.

While the results from my current position are not very visible from the outside, lots of work have been extensive. By the end of the tenure we will have a fully revamped Comms toolkit. You can see raw notes I've been taking on tasks here:
https://community.icann.org/display/~jean.queralt/Comms+Strategy+2023-2024

Personally, I would not have accepted to be a Policy Coordinator if I didn't think I had the capacity, time and willingness to do so. I hope we can better engage our community with though the upcoming elected Outreach and Engagement Coordinator (OEC).

• Do you have any conflict(s) of interest?: None that I am aware of.
  Not running for any other position at ICANN.
  SOI: You can also find my up-to-date SOI below
  https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=234422834
• •How many hours per week you are able to dedicate to the position: I do not have a specific number of hours to dedicate as the position would be a natural extension of what I do daily. 
• Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if so please state: Slowly attempting to get involved with RSSAC in supporting tasks, overlooked some of the IDN work, supporting the CCWP-HR and getting interested in PPSAI IRT.

Thanks everyone.

Name : Caleb Ogundele

Current Seat I'm holding:  Membership Committee Chair

Position applied for:  Outreach and Engagement Coordinator

Affiliation:  African Academic Network on Internet Policy (AANOIP)

Why you are running for the position?:

It is very important to connect with members who are stakeholders for growth . Engaging with other stakeholders and varied interests within the ICANN community to understand the work that NPOC does with the view of serving as a more vocal voice of reasoning and logic during engagements with other communities within and beyond ICANN

Additionally, the bedrock of the GNSO which NPOC is part of is the policy and public comments for the Not-for-Profit Orgs. I have participated in a couple of draft documents used to engage within the NCSG and NPOC. As part of these efforts, I have tried to stimulate interest of our members while communicating with members by calling their attention to public comments that they can participate in and contribute to.

During my tenure as Communication Chair, I have had the privilege of working with the Executive Team and the NPOC community to achieve some notable accomplishments. We successfully revamped our website, ensuring a user-friendly experience and mobile responsiveness. We also implemented a regular newsletter to keep our members informed. These achievements were made possible through the dedication and collaboration of our team.

As Outreach and Engagement Coordinator, I am committed to building upon our progress and achieving even greater heights within the ICANN community. It is crucial for NPOC to have a strong and vibrant engaged membership base, and I believe in connecting with stakeholders and fostering understanding of NPOC's work. I aim to serve as a vocal voice of reason and logic during engagements with other communities within and beyond ICANN.

In addition to my involvement within NPOC, I have actively participated in policy development and public comment processes within the GNSO and NCSG. I have also undertaken outreach efforts to engage non-profit and civil society domain owners, promoting the benefits of participation in ICANN and NPOC. These experiences have reinforced my belief in the power of bottom-up consensus and the importance of member engagement.

Recently, during a major internet governance meeting in my region, I and another member of the NPOC Excom carried out outreach to engage Not-for-Profit, Civil Society domain owners who previously never had a clear understanding of what they stand to benefit in participating in ICANN and by extension NPOC. This was done through a panel session and the distribution of promotional materials of NPOC.

I strongly believe that if elected once again as your Outreach and Engagement Coordinator my work within the leadership of the NPOC will reflect actionable outcomes, an increase in NPOC’s membership activities, member’s quarterly “ask-your-executives anything” sessions, educational webinars as well as outreach and engagements that serves all member’s interest.
 
I represent diversity, age, and regional wise, and with the support of members, they will continue to experience a bottom-up approach consensus to DNS Policy engagement with a focus on realizing the ICANN's multistakeholder PDP missions.

Additionally, I am also active within regional affiliations such as AFRINIC, ISOC, ISOC-NG Chapter, Nigerian IGF MAG and AFRALO and currently in a couple of working groups within ICANN. 

You can learn more about my professional career here

Do you have any conflict(s) of interest?: No

How many Hours a week you are able to dedicate to the position: 5+ hours

Are you involved in any working Groups or PDP efforts, if so please state: CIPWG and an Active member of the NCSG Policy Committee

Please find a link to more information about me [bit.ly]: https://bit.ly/calebogundele [bit.ly]

Thank you for your support over the years and looking forward to more engagement.