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Name: Arsene Tungali

Region: Africa (DRC citizen)

Gender: Male

Age: 27

Employment: Nonprofit Executive; Independent researcher on issues including Internet Freedom; Consultant in Internet governance and ICT strategies for nonprofit organizations.

Conflict of interest: None that I am aware of.

   - Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position;

I can be considered as a new blood, wiling and ready to serve. I have never had any leadership position in any of ICANN structures. If elected, this will be the first position that I might be taking: representing the NCSG on the GNSO Council. I look forward to working with our veterans and work on their side as we advance our cause.

I am really keen to join past and current Councilors in leveraging on their efforts. I will try my best, in coordination with other Councilors, to involve our distinguished members in Council discussions and deliberations in making sure we really represent you and we are able to convey your views and your message in GNSO so that the Board is able to hear what the NCSG thinks of different issues affecting non commercial users. This is possible through effective communication between Councilors and NCSG members. I know former Councilors have done their best; I am intending to reinforce this aspect.

Concretely and in addition to the above:

-          I will continue my fight for issues related to human rights, freedom of expression, privacy, open Internet as I know these are some of the issues we fight for as a stakeholder group, representing the non commercial users and organizations. I will thrive to help ICANN be more active and adopt concrete positions in these areas, especially in this time where we note a lot of violations in Africa and in the world.

-          I will use my time as Councilor to understand the different positions of other ICANN SO/ACs and see how we can partner with those who defend the same positions as us so that we can have good relationship and join our forces. I believe this will benefit the NCSG to have good allies in other avenues. 

   - Qualifications for the position;

I believe am known to be a strong civil society advocate and activist, mainly in the Internet governance space since 2011. I always try to advance the causes of civil society organizations as well as individuals in different capacity; most recently as a Co-coordinator of the Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus (IGC), a challenging role I took in 2016, which was a learning opportunity as well as an opportunity to advance civil society agenda in the Internet governance space.

In that capacity, I have worked, alongside the NCSG, on the Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG) in a number of tasks including appointing civil society representatives in different venues and structures including the IGF MAG, speakers for the WSIS Forum and the IGF. I have also worked alongside the NCUC for the Joint civil society gathering ahead of the IGF in Mexico. This has given me the experience of seeing NCSG representatives fight, defend positions and build partnerships with other civil society groups; I believe this is something we should strengthen and I am happy to support this move on the Council.

I am familiar with ICANN and its structures (most importantly, its place in the whole global Internet ecosystem). After my first meeting in 2014, I immediately joined the NCSG and the NCUC where I am particularly active in policy discussions. If elected as a Councilor, I know that I will be representing the whole SG even the NPOC which I am not a member of but I am interested and following their work as a nonprofit executive, interested in the DNS.

I have so far joined 2 working groups:

-          An Observer at the workstream 2 working group on Diversity because I am a true advocate of diversity in terms of regional, gender and language representation in ICANN. I am a native French speaker and fortunate enough to speak and write in English as well.

-          An active member of the CCWG on gTLD Auction Proceeds. I joined this CCWG because I believe, as a nonprofit executive, I have something to contribute in helping ICANN use this money for the right cause. I have been contributing so far and can see the work of this group going in the right direction; my main goal being to make sure we decide to use the money on projects that will benefit civil society groups as well. 

Deck of Cards
idCandidate Statement
tabLocationleftCandidates
I am putting forward myself as a candidate for NCSG-Chair because I have considered the needs we have, as a Stakeholder Group, for this position and I feel my experience and working style make me particularly suited for the role in terms of the demands of the position at this time. I have significant experience in ICANN processes. I have been a GNSO Councillor for 4 years, representing NCSG. I have been elected by the GNSO Council as Vice-Chair for two of those terms (including briefly as acting co-chair of the Council between Jonathan Robinson leaving the Council, and the election of James Bladel). I was interim Chair of NCUC in 2012 following the resignation of Konstantinos Komaitos. I have participated in many GNSO Policy Working Groups, including the currently representing NCSG as one of the vice-chairs of the Next Generation RDS Working Group. I was also active in the GNSO-GAC Consultation Group, that sought to bridge some of the barriers to GAC involvement in, and understanding of, GNSO Policy processes. And I served on the first Security, Stability and Resiliency Review Team, which gave me useful understanding of many of the parts of ICANN outside the GNSO. I think my very broad understanding of ICANN, and proven ability to work with a wide range of other groups within the ICANN Community, is particularly appropriate for a time when the ICANN community will be developing new ways to work with each other as it adapts to the new Empowered Community roles and other new community mechanisms. I think in general a strong network across ICANN is very valuable for those aspects of the NCSG Chair role that involve serving as a representative of the NCSG to the broader community. I am currently, and have been for several years, the Chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia. In this role I have developed a very strong understanding of what it means to chair an active civil society organisation in the digital rights space, and I am sympathetic to the very wide range of needs of civil society organisations and the many ways they can related to ICANN. And I have developed useful skills such as understanding procedural fairness, budgeting, and how to support policy development work. I’ve worked towards developing broad civil society connections, and I think I am well equipped to help NCSG represent itself outside the ICANN community in the broader civil society and Internet governance world. In terms of the Chairs role internal to NCSG, I feel very strongly that the Chair has to be focussed on working within the boundaries of the role as set in the Charter, and that means that there are limits to the extent to which the Chair can set the agenda - the Chair must work by consensus of the Executive Committee, must act unilaterally as little as practically possible, and should foster consensus with the EC as much as possible, And the NCSG Chair has a very limited role as regards to NCSG policy work, mostly focussed on finding ways for the Policy Committee and Councillors to do their work. My focus would be as much as possible to develop an EC culture of active consultation and collaboration, to go beyond the necessary consensus on the EC role and foster active cooperation between the constituencies and NCSG members. I would strive to develop the newly active Finance Committee as a mechanism for coordination of all NCSG and constituency budget requests. I believe the resources of NCSG need continued development, as we grow (and ICANN grows in complexity around us). I think I am particularly well placed to assist with the development of NCSG web resources for membership and elections begun by Tapani, as I am familiar with CiviCRM and we use it extensively at EFA (I will of course strive to help if I am not elected). I would work towards the improvement of (through both volunteer coordination and budget requests) both the development of these administrative resources, and tools to assist policy committee in its work. I would also investigate, in collaboration with the EC and Constituency leadership, development of policy expertise and support through programs such as mentoring, training, and leadership. I think some issuesover the last few years have shown some areas where our Charter and rules could use some improvement, and that we could also benefit significantly from some documentation and agreement on established operating procedures of the EC, PC and FC, and our interactions with other ICANN groups, particularly our colleagues in the GNSO Non-Contracted Parties House. I have been involved in the negotiation of some of these mechanisms so far, and I would continue to work towards this. In conclusion, I believe the NCSG Chair needs to be focussed on consensus and cooperation within the entire Stakeholder Group, needs to have a very strong understanding of the NCSG role within the complex ICANN organisation and community, and be very aware both of the opportunities for strengthening NCSG by cooperation, and the limits off he role to act unilaterally. I think I have the skills and experience to provide the form of  leadership NCSG needs right now. I also have a number of ideas for projects that NCSG can perform in the next year to strengthen the ability of all of us to work towards non-commercial voices at ICANN. David
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labelDavid Cake
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labelFarzaneh Badii

Thank you, Ayden, for nominating me for the NCSG Chair position, and thank you everyone for your support. I accept the nomination. Sorry for the delay in my response. This was for two reasons; firstly, I needed time to think about it, and secondly, as I am currently the chair of the NCUC I did not want to just accept the nomination without a statement that clearly stipulated my reasons.
 
I think as the Noncommercial Stakeholder Group we need to be strategic in our overall involvement with policy development at ICANN. Being strategic is not just a fancy term that I throw out there. I actually mean something by that. We need to help our members and NCSG representatives on the GNSO Council to develop policy at ICANN and to be able to meaningfully contribute to the process. We need to be at the top of the game. We need to be better in policy advocacy. We have the means, and we have great members who have suitable backgrounds and qualifications that can help us to advance noncommercial interests and address noncommercial concerns at ICANN.  


I believe members of the NCSG should find it easy to get involved with policy making, to understand what the NCSG does, and to be able to help our GNSO Councilors with their decisions. You should also be able to challenge the decisions made by your leaders and representatives. Experienced members at the NCSG should not be left alone in their efforts to advance noncommercial interests at ICANN. New members should not feel lost when they want to get involved with policy making.
 
We should also make joining the NCSG to advance policy at ICANN more attractive for those who care about similar issues. The NCSG should be the prominent venue where noncommercial interests are advanced at ICANN.
 
If elected as the NCSG Chair, I will work with you towards building the NCSG more. We should explore the resources and means accessible to us to make the NCSG stronger. I have gained some experience in managing and securing resources which will help us with this. I would also like to work more on NCSG internal governance. We need to come up with internal operating procedures, update our wiki page, inform you about the leaders’ decisions and conducts, brief you on most important decisions periodically, and overall, tell you more about what is going on within NCSG leadership.
 
These are the reasons I would like to run in this election for the position of Chair of the NCSG. I have plans and feel totally committed to bringing you three things: strong internal governance, support and capacity building for policy making at ICANN, and increased outreach opportunities.

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labelArsene Tungali
Stephanie Perrin

Position: Chair

I am Stephanie Perrin,residentofPakenham, in the Ottawa Valley, Ontario, Canada.  I am honoured to be nominated for the position of Chair of the NCSG.  I am a privacy and information policy consultant, retired from a 30 year careerin the federal public service of Canada, where I worked for most of that time on privacy and information policy issues in the department responsible for telecommunications.  I retired in 2013 and completed my doctorate in Information studies at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto,Toronto Canada in 2018.  My dissertation was on the contention between ICANN and the data commissioners of the world, over the WHOIS directory.  I have been engaged with civil society for many years, and am on the Advisory Board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).


I was recruited to come and volunteer as a privacy expert on the Experts Working Group on a new directory service for gTLD registration data by Kathy Kleiman of NCUC in 2013, and the privacy struggle here was so interesting that I became hooked. The committee I was on worked very hard for a year and a half, and I joined the NCSG in 2014 and ran successfully for the GNSO Council shortly thereafter.  (I also changed the topic of my dissertation to the WHOIS struggle.)  I have worked in a great many policy development processes since then, including the WHOIS conflicts witha implementationadvisory group, the cross-community working group on policy and implementation, the privacy/proxy services working group, and the RDS PDP which has worked strenuously for two years on the WHOIS policy and is now suspended.


I don’t believe that I have any conflicts of interest at the moment.  I am not actively seeking business in my consulting practice and will avoid any potential work which might conflict with NCSG and ICANN.  I am working with my University on a research project on the utility of standards in managing third-party access to personal registration data, which of course is central to the WHOIS struggle, but I have no economic or professional interest in the results of that research. I believe that I have been very active since arriving at ICANN, and have the necessary background in its policies and procedures to play a useful role as the Chair.  As an executive in a large government, I have had the benefit of quite a bit of training in administrative procedures, finance, metrics and program evaluation, human resources management, and in risk management.  I hope some of that background can be useful to our organization, and it helps me analyze some of the puzzles we face at ICANN.  Since I worked in the Department of Communications for most of mycareer,and was working closely with US and European counterparts during the formation of ICANN, I am quite familiar with its history, and the policy driving its creation.


I have observed the hard work of previous Chairs of NCSG, and of itstwoconstituencies,since I arrived at ICANN.  I am grateful that a lot of terrific work has been done recently, in stabilizing our Charter and some of our policies.  I would like to see further development in our ability to train and develop people to take positions ofleadership,and to contribute meaningfully to the PDPs and cross-community working groups.  This is a difficult problem; we have had a burnout issue since I arrived at ICANN, and the job of participating appears not to be getting any easier, as there seems to be more to learn every year.  I came to ICANN with quite a deep background, and it still took me over a year to figure out what is happening. We need to work with ICANN to help our members who are interested in participating, to develop skills and knowledge.  I plan to make this a priority.


I also think that we spend more time than isnecessaryinfractiousdebate amongst ourselves and between our constituencies.  We pride ourselves in speaking our minds, and I support that 100%, but we can stand to work on our diplomatic and empathic skills, in my opinion.  Most of us have feelings, and when we volunteer our time we prefer to work with a feeling of respect and solidarity towards each other.  I will try to speak plainly about what I think, but with respect to all.  I will actively encourage others to do the same.  You may call me Grandma if you like, that is what I am.  (I believe that disclosure should cover my requirement in this candidate’s statement to tell you my gender.)


I believe in a consultative approach….first of all, I don’t plan to do all the work and that includes the thinking!  I would like to know what the members think about issues.  If you have ideas about those two priorities I just listed, the burnout and development problem, and the solidarity and respect issue, please let me know.  My third priority will be to continue the excellent progress that has been made on our contributions to the GNSO policy process, and make sure that our approach to staffing the policy development processes and preparing comments is as good as it can be, and that we are doing what we can to support our folks who are doing the work.


A major part of the NCSG job is administrative, working closely with the leaders in NPOC and NCUC.  I hope to build on the ongoing work of developing transparent procedures, and furthering the growing harmony between the constituencies.  Our outreach efforts must be focused on having a meaningful presence, not just scooping up new members who remain bewildered about who we are and what we do.  We need people to be engaged in the real work of ICANN, managing the DNS, which sadly can be boring and tedious at times, not to mention rather technical.  We need to ask ourselves and our members why they stay members, or why they leave.  There is a growing gulf between the handful of members who are actively working as volunteers in the policy processes, and those who may well be interested but have no time to take an active role.  For those people, what do they need to stay engaged enough to read our email list?  Do they care what the EPDP is?


I believe I have enough time to do this job.  As indicated, I am retired and not particularly busy as a consultant.  I am on the EPDP and the WHOIS Review team, both of which will demand some of my time.  We have a great team on the EPDP, so I am confident that this will not take as much of my time as the previous RDS working group did.  I propose to find a replacement for myself on the Auction Proceeds CCWG, and the PPSAI IRT, where I have been participatingduringthe past year.  I will, of course, be following the GNSO Council meetings closely, but withoutthehomeworkIhad to do as a Councilor. 


Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions, or to contact me by email.


Stephanie Perrin

stephanie.perrin@mail.utoronto.ca

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labelRafik Dammak

Position: GNSO Councilor

Hi all, 


Please find below my candidate statement,

  • Name, declared region of residence, gender and employment;

Rafik Dammak
a Tunisian residing in Japan, Asia
Male
Software engineer working on colocation services (nothing to do with DNS :))

  • Any conflicts of interest:

none

  • Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:    


I will have the opportunity to serve NCSG as a GNSOcouncilor representative for another term which will be my last since I will be term limited: 

  1. To keep advocating for NCSG positions and non-commercial interests within GNSO council regarding policy development process: defending human rights such as privacy, freedom of expression, access to knowledge and create a balance with other interests. 
  2. For that purpose, I did my best to keep NCSG membership informed about GNSO council activities and ICANN updates in general. I want also to emphasize about working and cooperating with other NCSG councillors to make us more effective, coordinated. I was trusted by NCSG Policy Committee members to be chair for almost 1-year and half now. I worked with them to take the lead on getting involved more volunteers and covering more public comments ensuring that NCSG participates in those ICANN policy processes beyond GNSO related issues.     
  3. As councillor, I will keep focusing to help newcomers and those interested by policy to grasp more about ICANN and in particular GNSO functioning with regard to working group and policy development processes. I will also continue the work on the membership engagement through the NCSG monthly policy conference calls or topic webinar, regular GNSO council reports and making those information more accessible and digestible.  This will be my last term and if I am elected and due my familiarity with council procedures and processes, I believe I can represent NCSG effectively, ensure continuity and prepare new leaders for future.
  4.  Focus on important policy issues such the current EPDP and ensure that we are effective. I play my role as support and coordinating NCSG efforts on different front, currently with our chair Farzaneh Badii (I will miss you Farzi!) and aiming to continue the same with the next chair.


  • Qualifications for the position:

I served NCSG interests in several roles and became aware about our members needs, expectations, the challenges facing us and still need to be covered.  

I participated in several working groups within ICANN on behalf of NCSG. I was co-chair of  new applicant support working group , a cross working group between GNSO and ALAC aimed to give support for new gTLD applicants from developing countries. I was also the co-chair  the cross-community working group on Internet Governance which covered IG topics from ICANN standpoint. The group  was formed prior to Netmundial to connect ICANN to UN  and other IG processes and keep the community informed. The group also submitted many IGF workshops.I am currently the liaison to the GNSO Review Working Group which just sent its final deliverable. I was appointed recently as GNSO council liaison to the EPDP team which monitor the discussion in that working group and report to the council in regular basis. This EPDP or the Expedited Policy Development  Process is aimed to come up with a new policy to replace the temporary specification and get Whois complied with GDPR, one of the most im portant policy issues in ICANN in recent years. 

It would my second term as councillor and I was also a councillor few years ago. I am familiar with GNSO policies, processes and procedures, following the changes happening there but also the challenges for many PDP processes lately. I am also aware of the dynamics of the groups we have to workwith inGNSO and developed good relations with their leaders for many years. As NCSG Policy Committee chair I hope to continue in suchroleif needed to improve the work there and enhance NCSG policy capabilities.

I was NCSG and NCUC chair for 3 years now, doing the admin and organizational work at stakeholder group and constituency level, liaising with ICANN staff and leadership,  with other groups officers. That gave me insight about members expectations, capabilities of NCSG as group and familiarity with ICANN as structure.

I was appointed by NCPH to the GNSO council leadership, working with the chair and CPH appointed vice chair.  In this role, as a  leader of GNSO,  I had to consider various view points and work with the leadership to improve GNSO as a whole. This leadership was one of the most productive in terms of devoting ideas to improve policy making at GNSO. GNSO is  home of NCSG. Its improvement directly affects NCSG interest and I was glad to be a part of a process that set the stone for the betterment of GNSO processes and successful policy along. I hope to get one more term as vice-chair to continue the work done there.

 • Statement of availability for the time the position requires:
Yes, I am available and committing as GNSO councillor. That can be confirmed by my attendance of GNSO council meetings, chairing the NCSG Policy calls but also reporting and coordinating policy activities for NCSG. 
 
 • The nominee’s statement may also include any other information that the candidate believes is relevant: 


I may listed too many roles and activities to emphasize my work and I assume that doesn't seem exciting or thrilling or inspiring. However, what I care more about is representing NCSG and ensuring its sustainability. I am practical and pragmatic due to my background. I cannot promise a lot for the sake to get elected  because nobody can do everything by themself, alone. 
But  I can commit is continue the work, to be accountable, to try improve things as much as possible and to be judged through my actions:
- Informing membership about policy discussion and involve them in the discussion
- Expand the coverage of public comments for NCSG and encourage more people to draft, improving our comments and monitor our inputs to be taken in consideration.
- Preparing new leaders who will run for positions in future.  

I am happy to respond to any question or inquiry.

Best Regards,

Rafik Dammak

@Rafik

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labelElsa Saade

Position: GNSO Councilor


Candidate Statement: Elsa Saade - Nominated for GNSO Councilor Addressed to: The NCSG community
2nd of August 2018

My name is Elsa Saade, currently enrolled as a masters student in the City University of New York. I’ve been working in the field of human rights for the past 7 years, in Lebanon, the Middle East and Internationally as well. Consistently working on advocacy, capacity building as well as digital rights projects, I got drifted into more technical and policy driven platforms such as ICANN in parallel to a deeper focus on surveillance tools, privacy and censorship in the context of the Global South mostly.

My journey with ICANN started at ICANN 54 where I started as a fellow and came back again as a fellow before I got elected to be in the NCUC EC as the Asia Pacific Representative. From day one, and with the help of some of my mentees in the community, I became a member of NCSG. I went through the different phases of a member up until I understood how the dynamics within ICANN works, and how best to balance and participate in the space for the sake of advocating to guarantee that the rights of end users are on the table and are part of the equation within the remit of ICANN’s influence amongst others in the Internet Governance space..

After 3 years at ICANN, and a lot of engagement in Working Groups, Public Comments, different conversations with different stakeholders, holding a leadership position at NCUC EC and serving as an alternate on the GNSO Council at ICANN62, my ICANN journey has opened a door to the Supporting Organization which I appreciate the most and which I’ve been following extremely closely in the past year. Tatiana Tropina honored me with a nomination for a GNSO Councilor position and I accepted the nomination to serve on the GNSO council for different reasons which all build up into a want to commit to policy making on the front of NCSG. The first reason being my background in human rights work and in civil society engagement in one of the toughest regions. This background enabled me to listen and strategize based on all stakeholders’ thoughts and agendas to take my organization’s agenda forward the best way possible to protect and defend human rights defenders in the gulf. My work can definitely feed into the mission and vision of NCSG with a focus on end users and the values NCSG calls for and which I share.

The second reason being that there is an increasing awareness on the importance of privacy, freedom of expression and transparency, given new developments with GDPR thus the EPDP, then the new Open Data Initiative Project (ODI) which ICANN has just launched, the New gTLDs conversations and discussions, and so on. But in parallel to the increasing awareness on rights’ importance, there’s an increasing tide of interests tied with the non presence of those rights without condition. And that is where NCSG plays a role, and I’d be honored to help play one small part within that role of pushing for our rights. Third reason I’d like to serve on the GNSO council as an NCSG representative is to be able to work with other fellow councilors, where I feel I could help find middle ground, help mitigate and help strategize for a strong collective NCSG voice. I’d be honored to learn from them too, and definitely from the past councilors who have done great work for NCSG.

I was asked several times, what my presence with a background of human rights in the Middle East mostly meant in a space as technically focused as ICANN’s and my answer to that question would be, the best strategy for any plan of success, is to see the target holistically; throw a straight arrow to the middle of each part of the target in order to get the awaited prize. I am proud to come from an underserved and underrepresented region which I was happy to serve for a year at NCUC, and I am also proud to be a woman of color who keeps a holistic strategic approach to policy development including the intricacies that could be considered details by some but that really do make a difference on the whole.

I know what it is to work hard to see an idea live. At ICANN it was made more political but more real and attainable, and I’ll be here, present and engaged to take away and give as much as I can from the experience as a GNSO Councillor if I am to be given the trust of our community to do so.

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labelMartin Silva

Position: GNSO Councilor

Hi all, 

Please find below my candidate statement,

Name, declared region of residence, gender and employment;

Martin Silva Valent
Argentinean and Italian Citizen, living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Male
Lawyer, Bar in Buenos Aires, Partner of Silva.legal (a business law firm, mostly real-estate development, hospitality, and some industrial clients) and Co-founder and Director of Datas (NGO for Activism, Research and Education on Technology Governance). 

Any conflicts of interest:
none

Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:    
    I’ve invested more than five years in working inside ICANN mission fending the Non-commercial Interest, mostly form the NGOs perspective. ICANN has been the main project on my work as an activist, regardless of all my other projects in Internet Governance or Algorithm Governance, and now that I’ve finished my first year in the GNSO Council I finally feel I can deliver the full potential of my collaborations. 
    I chose to do this work because I believe that this stakeholder is underrepresented in the Internet Governance ecosystem, and the DNS is one of the few cores or critical resources of the net, by ensuring the DNS stays good for all we are ensuring that other works further the stream can be done with or within internet to make a better society. DNS is not enough but is necessary for the current state of the Internet (as has been since it is beginning).
    I think the main goal of the NCSG is to provide a DNS as open as possible so everyone in the world can do and express their individuality and their communities. This means to create systems that allow expression, privacy, security, and stability, but all these concepts demand further understanding, like the role of identities, language, organizational issues and so on.
    I would say my main work inside ICANN besides the Council mandate is my role as an NCSG leader in the Review of all  Right’s Protection Mechanism Working Group, where the right holders of trademark try to make process to protect their rights, and we try to make sure those processes are respectful of the other stakes outside trademark law, so that the process is no abusive or abused.

Qualifications for the position:
Besides being a Lawyer that worked for years with Technology Governance issues in the Civil Society, I co-founded an NGO with global outreach, doing research, education, and activism with several organization and universities. Inside ICANN, after 5 years I’ve worked with hundreds of members around the globe inside and outside the NCSG, taking me to lead several processes and works, coaching over a dozen generations of Fellows and living through experiences like the IANA-Transition.

 • Statement of availability for the time the position requires:
As a self-employed person, I manage my own schedules. I’ve already attended all GNSO Council calls and fulfilled my duties.
 
 • The nominee’s statement may also include any other information that the candidate believes is relevant: 

I think my skills and personalities are a good complement to the Council team. I am used to working with other, lead and follow. I always put the needs of the community against my own and I feel I am more than ready to take my full potential to the Council Work in such a moment of change for the organization. 

I am open to questions and comments! So please do reach out.

Best regards, 

   - Statement of availability for the time the position requires; and

I am ready and able to commit time, energy and resources to be effective in supporting the work of the Council. I believe those who know me, can testify that I can make things happen. I have followed the work of the Council; I know the level of commitment that this volunteering position requires.

   - Optionally, any other information that the candidate believes is relevant.

I take this opportunity to thank Mamdou LO for nominating me for the GNSO Council as a representative of our dear NCSG. It is truly an honor to be standing and “compete” with the people I admire for their work and involvement in everything ICANN. I have never done/achieved even half of what they have achieved so far; I am humbly writing this in the hope that you will trust me enough and allow me to represent you, which is a challenge that I am ready and happy to take.

You might not know me but I promise that by the end of my term, you will have known me for what I will have achieved, with your support and that of the other Councilors. Thank you to all those who publicly endorsed my nomination and thanks for your wonderful words. I look forward for your votes!

Thanks,

Arsene 

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labelMichael Karanicolas

  - Name: Michael Karanicolas
   - Region: North America
   - Gender: Male
   - Employment: Formerly with the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), now a consultant for the Open Government Partnership (OGP), assessing transparency reforms undertaken by the Canadian government, and carrying out broader research on the efficiencies and benefits of open contracting processes.
   - Any conflicts of interest: None 
   - Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position: As a relatively new face at ICANN, having only joined the NCUC in 2015, among my main priorities is to increase the accessibility and transparency of decision-making processes, with an eye to boosting stakeholder engagement. Too often, ICANN's processes are hidden behind impenetrable acronyms and procedures, which I believe frustrates many who would otherwise be interested in getting involved. My main motivation for seeking this position is to work to enhance the lines of communication between the GNSO and the community as a whole, and to boost the ability of interested participants to contribute their thoughts and ideas, fulfilling the potential of ICANN's bottom-up policy development process.
   - Qualifications for the position: Since 2010, I've worked as a human rights advocate with a dual focus on freedom of expression and transparency (the right to information). As part of my advocacy, I've worked to design, enhance and implement public engagement processes in a range of contexts, from developed democracies, to emerging democracies, to non-governmental structures like international banks, NGOs, and of course here at ICANN. Community engagement, and opening lines of communication, are a specialization of mine, and I would look forward to opportunities to use these skills in the context of the GNSO.
Although I joined NCUC relatively recently, in my time here I've demonstrated a strong ability to push processes forward, and to collaborate effectively with stakeholders from other constituencies. This is best evidenced by my role as Rapporteur of the CCWG on Transparency, where I've been able to overcome substantial policy differences between stakeholders representing different interests to arrive at a set of concrete recommendations for reform, which are currently in the final stages of approval. I've also been an active member of the working groups regarding Rights Protection Mechanisms and, most recently, for the allocation of ICANN's Auction Proceeds, and I am currently on the Executive Committee of the NCUC. 
Through my work with CLD and, more recently, with the OGP, I have had to collaborate with partners from every region of the world, and representing every stakeholder group imaginable. This includes business interests, particularly from the tech sector, as I've worked to enhance human rights protections among private sector intermediaries. I also have extensive experience working with government officials to try and persuade them to improve human rights protections. This includes developed democracies as well as repressive States. I am very familiar with the language of governments, and would make a powerful advocate for our interests. Moreover, as an advocate, building broad coalitions is a particular specialization of mine. As part of campaigns for greater transparency, one of my trademarks was to unite campaigners from a variety of sectors (environmental activists, LGBTQ activists, unions, student groups, etc.) who shared a common goal of enhancing access to government records. Uniting disparate groups around points of common interest is a particular skill of mine, and one which would be useful at the GNSO.
   - Statement of availability for the time the position requires: Anyone who has watched the way the work of the CCWG on Transparency has advanced will know I have no problem putting the hours in. Originally one of two Rapporteurs for the group, and now the lone Rapporteur after the departure of my colleague from the business constituency, I have kept things moving forward at a good pace. However, now that that work is coming to a close, I expect to have more time to devote to ICANN. My move from full-time employment with CLD to a consultancy-based system should also provide me with more available time to contribute. 

Best wishes, and best of luck to the other (really outstanding) candidates whose names have been put forward.

Dear NCSG members,

Please find below my candidate statement.

I would like to thank Michael Oghia again for nominating me and express my gratitude to all those who expressed their support. Your words of encouragement were very important for me. Thank you very much. 

Candidate Statement, Tatiana Tropina, nomination: GNSO Council

Name: Tatiana Tropina

Region: Europe

Gender: Female

Employment: Senior Researcher, Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg, Germany

Conflict of interest: None

Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:

The main – actually, the ultimate – reason why I am willing to take this particular position is that I want the Noncommercial stakeholders to have a strong voice and a strong representation in the GNSO policy-making processes. And here I am not talking about the number of seats on GNSO Council that belongs to NCSG and allows us to vote. I want NCSG to have a stronger voice in deliberations, in advocating for our interests, in bringing our values to the ICANN policy-making outcomes. 

I am also willing to do my best to make the NCSG members informed and to ensure a broader participation of the membership in policy-making processes. I see the areas where we can put more efforts, like the channels of communication between NCSG membership and councillors, the work of the NCSG policy committee, the involvement of the broader NCSG membership in the policy making. I also want NSCG to further strengthen collaboration with other stakeholder groups – because we don’t exist in a vacuum and we can have good alliances on some issues while fighting on the others and standing firm on protecting the noncommercial interests. I am ready to work hard on this.

To sum up, I would like to direct my efforts to:

-        making NCSG always vocal, visible at present at the Council

-        informing NCSG membership on the policy processes, building capacity and engagement

-        collaborating and communicating with the stakeholders when we can have common ground or common positions on the issues.

Qualifications for the position:

During the past 8 years of my career, I have been focusing mostly on two things: policy-making and capacity building. Before getting involved in the domain name issues, I was focusing mostly on cybersecurity and cybercrime – also on capacity building in this field for different stakeholder groups – and then I became more engaged with the broader issues of Internet governance.   

I am not a veteran at ICANN, but probably not a newcomer either. I joined NCUC in 2015 and jumped in with both feet. I started with participating in the CCWG-Accountability Workstream 1 and CCWP for Human Rights and became a member of the NCSG Policy Committee. After the start of Workstream 2, I have been very active in the Human Rights subgroup and was one of the penholders in the small team that worked on the actual drafting of the Framework of Interpretation for the Human Rights bylaw. I am also active in the Jurisdiction subgroup, and I tried to help with drafting SO/AC accountability subgroup report (well – only a section or two but was happy to provide my input!). I am active in the CCWG on Internet Governance and, again, was a part of drafting team for the CCWG charter amendments. Yes, I am trying to make a point here – for me, participation is real. Participation means grabbing a pen (ok, a keyboard) and being vocal.

Last year I was elected as a European representative for the NCUC executive committee. Again, I have a track record of my participation: from outreach (some of you might remember out outreach in Copenhagen, EuroDIG and other venues) to taking part in different procedural and administrative tasks. I took an active part in drafting procedural rules and in addressing the ICANN's comments to NCUC bylaws. I participated in budget request drafting, and in drafting IGF proposals together with other NCUC members – and we secured our presence at IGF 2017 because our proposal was selected.

What fascinated me about ICANN in the beginning of my involvement and still fascinates me is that the more you are willing to take part, the more input you provide – the more of actual results, the real impact of your work on policy or accountability processes you can see. It is very inspiring and rewarding. I think this one of the factors that keep us, volunteers, going on. I believe that NCSG can benefit from my qualification and my willingness to work if I am elected to the GNSO council. I am vocal, I am present, I am ready to put my volunteer time and expertise in the policy-making and capacity building to see the real impact on policy.

Statement of availability for the time the position requires:

I know how much involvement the GNSO Council position requires. I think the track of my volunteer activity at ICANN and other IG spaces speaks for itself: I am ready to put long hours into ICANN-related commitments. As I have quite flexible working hours and schedule, there has never been a problem to devote time to ICANN and I can fully commit to GNSO work.

Last but not least: I wish good luck to all the other candidates – they are excellent!

Warm regards,

Tatiana  

Hi everyone,

My sincere thanks for your kind words of encouragement. Please find below my candidate statement, wherein I speak to my motivations for pursuing this leadership role, our aligned values, and outline how my qualifications and experience would allow me to professionally and intelligently represent the NCSG on the GNSO Council. Thanks again.

Best wishes, Ayden Férdeline 

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Name: Ayden Férdeline

Region of Residence: Europe

Gender: Male

Employment: Independent Policy and Communications Consultant

Conflicts of Interest: None

Reasons for willingness to take on the position:

Through the GSNO Council, civil society has real voting power to impact domain name policy. We are not the primary actor there and our challenges and constraints to participation are both well-known and legitimate. But this is not to say that we cannot be more vocal or have more influence. I have the desire — and I believe I have the capability — to support and develop positions that advance non-commercial interests at ICANN. In general I would say that I have well-developed normative positions on issues, but when faced with specific policy questions, I take care to revise my thinking based on evidence and analysis. What I find exciting about ICANN is how it harneses the power of the Internet to experiment in democratic governance on a global scale. It allows end-users like myself to participate in the management of a global resource. This public involvement in policy making is something which I have taken very seriously in the nearly two years that I have been an NCSG member, and if elected, I am willing to put in the hours to represent the NCSG professionally and intelligently as we advance and preserve non-commercial interests in GNSO discussions.

Qualifications for the position:

I am on fire for Internet policy, and over the past two years have routinely put time aside in my calendar to advance the NCSG's interests at ICANN by drafting public comments, volunteering on the frontline in working groups, and communicating to new voices my own pathway to engagement and how they too can get involved. In addition, I have facilitated workshops and webinars to upskill participants in domain name policy issues, and I have worked with NCUC leadership and alongside other NCUC colleagues to contribute to the development of our onboarding programme.

Outside of ICANN, I have been on the organising committee for workshops at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance in Brussels and in Tallinn, moderated a workshop at the World Summit on the Information Society last year in Geneva, and was an Internet Society Ambassador to the Internet Governance Forum in Guadalajarra. I have edited a series of policy briefs and moderated workshops on audiovisual media regulation at the European level, and I am now a part of a nimble, youth-led initiative, Copyfighters, that is seeking to translate non-commercial principles and values into regional public policy.

I hold an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Additional information:

I believe in the NCSG's mission. I recognise the value of multistakeholderism, and I am passionate about the potential for technology to drive opportunity and to make our world a more open and connected place. I am absent circumstances that could give rise to a conflict of interest or bring the reputation of the NCSG into disrepute. To the best of my knowledge I have not taken any positions which are fundamentally inconsistent with the NCSG's principles or mission, and I have a history of active engagement in Internet governance-related working groups, discussion lists, and related activities.

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labelMartin Silva Valent

Dear NCSG members,

Below is my Candidate Statement. Thank everyone for the support given, it really matters when you do this because you believe in it.

 

Candidate Statement

Nomination: GNSO Council 

Name: Martin Silva Valent 

Region: Latin America

Gender: Male

Employment: Lawyer (self-employed) and Entrepreneur, working at Datas NGO (on formation), Buenos Aires, Argentina (among other projects).

Conflict of interest: None

 

Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position: 

            I understand that this critical resource can either enable or limit civil society rights such as Freedom of Speech, Privacy or the right to organize with others. I also think it’s crucial to develop a fairer society and more prosperous future. I believe that in every step of mi engagement in ICANN I learned to read the ICANN Process and Policy making, I learned to read the different stakeholder’s interest, dynamics and problems, and of course, I learned to follow mentors, lead mentees, lead groups, calls, working process and create the right strategies and dynamics to properly address the non-commercial coerces in the DNS policy of the GNSO. Being a GNSO Councilor allows me to fully apply all that I’ve been learning and fight from a better position in the cause of non-commercial interest. I also do think with the commitment of making the Councilors work more transparent, accountable and accessible to the members so that the non-commercial strategy and engagement can go as far, broad and participative as it can. ICANN is full of places to work from, and in my case, I feel I can do a lot from a Councilors perspective.

 

Qualifications for the position:

            I’ve been working at ICANN inside the non-commercial constituency for the last 4 years because I understand the importance of the DNS in the open Internet. I’ve been going up the ladder in the leadership position, I started as a Fellow from the fellowship program and a NCUC/NCSG member and became and NPOC member, later a Secretariat in NPOC and a Mentor in the Fellowship program and Leadership Program, and about a year ago I became Vice-chair of NPOC and four month ago I stepped in as the temporary replacement Councilor in the GNSO Council when Amr left the position open. During all this time, I engaged in several working groups but they one that caught my eye the most is the Review of Right’s Protection Mechanisms Working Group, one the heavy policy issues that could dismantle all the work being done to make the DNS a balanced and fair system for all stakeholder, and a Working Group with outstanding involvement of Trademark Lawyer, Registries and Registrars and Businesses.

            Outside ICANN, my lawyer formation, going to trials, doing tough negotiations, drafting contracts and sorting out bureaucracy, and my experience as a human right activist in hard issues like the Right to Truth, Freedom of Speech, Intermediary Responsibilities, among others, with regional practice being part of global forums like the IGF and in other countries outside Argentina like Mexico and Brazil, and with several years of research and teaching at university level mainly on civil rights and Internet Governance; all of that give me a very good base to stand up to any task the GNSO Council may require of me.

 

Statement of availability for the time the position requires:

I am aware of how to handle volunteer obligations and leadership positions, I’ve been doing it for years inside and outside ICANN. Specially in the GNSO Council I’ve proved I can keep up with the time and work required to be there. Being my own boss, or an entrepreneur by nature, I have a flexible agenda and is possible for me to tailor made my availability to suit’s the GNSO Council needs. I fully commit to continue and always improve my work and performance in ICANN, weather inside or outside the Council.

 

I am very happy to be part of this and I want to again thanks all for the support. Even if I am not elected I am happy to be here and will continue to do my best.

 

Cheers to all,
Martín Silva Valent