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
I have been involved in the IG space since 2014 as a youth ambassador (Netmission). That has also given me insights into recognizing and addressing barriers to participating and staying engaged in regional, local, and international forums as a youth ambassador and fellow at local and regional IG forums.
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.
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Olga Kyryliuk
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Africa
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Akinremi Peter Taiwo
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Ines Hfaiedh
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.
