Candidate Statement 2019

Why do you want to serve on the EC?

I believe my participation in NCUC EC will create another alternative for community members to participate and get more involved within NCUC and NCSG activities and committees, especially newcomers and followers who are not yet active.

Personally, I have participated and engaged the NCUC and ICANN Africa regional strategy since 2016, during my first ICANN meeting in Hyderabad. I hope the NCUC members will give me another opportunity to further contribute to activities NCUC and serve the African region as I also intend to intensify engagement with and among NCSG constituencies, committees and NCUC itself in order to enable mainstreaming of regional members within NCUC, NCSG and ICANN activities. I have always incorporated leadership and administrative capabilities in every task I undertake.

I plan to contribute to enhancing up capacity building initiatives to also encompass research and analysis with drafting skills, as there are currently few penholders within NCUC who can see a public comment to completion.

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 not conflicted and I have experience in financial administration, policy development, research, analysis, project management and advocacy skills and experienced acquired over 15 years of my professional span. I have co-founded multiple organisations which are operational, worked with global companies, civil society and collaborated with governments before engaging the digital space, which started in 2010. My role as the current ISOC South Africa Gauteng Chapter President and member of South African Multistakeholder Committee on Internet Governance does not affect my plans for NCUC as all is inline and complements the work of the Chapters and the local IG fora.

2.1 Other activities within ICANN

In 2017, I also helped managed the NCUC stall during the Global IGF in Geneva, over 2 days, at differentiated time slots. I was also involved in the coordination and moderation of NCUC outreach in Johannesburg, pre ICANN59, 2017, which was a success.

During 2018, I worked with NCSG FC and community members, to finalise the FC Operational Procedures which was a serious exercise, especially with limited number of volunteers. The work of the FC was faced with challenges due to diverse views of community and committee members in regard to functions, autonomy and purpose of the FC within NCSG and how it collaborates and consults with constituencies. The FC during the said term, worked on ABR analysis, ICANN and IANA/PTI comments, and started developing reference document like action plans and summaries of ABRs. I have also participated in outreach during ICANN meetings, specifically, ICANN 62 and ICANN64.

Now in 2019, since ICANN64, I am currently coordinating with the current NCUC EC Africa representative and the regional mailing list members and volunteers to find a way to improve regional participation and contribution within ICANN, NCSG and constituency activities. I started engaging the ICANN Africa office as from early 2018 to figure or map out ways on how to improve regional participation and contributions within ICANN and regional activities before setting up a meeting during ICANN64.

I am also a member of CCWG on New gTLD AP proceeds and am currently participating in a community comment on mainstreaming organisational reviews next steps, I also continue following up on ICANN 5-year and annual plans and budget sessions by ICANN finance online and onsite where possible.

2.2 Other activities within the Internet Governance space

I have participated and set on panel of different global, regional and local events like the 2017 ION conference in Durban, South African IGF 2014 -2019, 2016 - 2017 Community Networks Summit and the 2016 African IGF, as a member of the South African Multistakeholder Committee on Internet Governance, representing civil society, we will also been facilitating local IGFs in the past 2 years and this year will also be facilitating the 1^st South African School on Internet Governance. I am the South African coordinator of ACSIS – African Civil Society on Information Society and member of the Africa Community Network Summit Program Committee. I have been active in the internet space since 2010 developing community networks in South Africa’s townships and rural areas and promoting policies for an open, affordable and stable internet.

During my career and professional span, I have received various distinctions, fellowships and awards, the most recent:

1. August 2015: Nunnovation African Innovator of the month accolade
2. 2015 IVLP (International Visitors Leadership Program) by the US Government focussing on innovation, entrepreneurship and small business development in 4 states
3. ICANN57, 62 and 64 Fellowship
4. 2016 AFRISIG (African School on Internet Governance) fellowship
5. 2018 Eduweek award [educationweek.co.za] Inspiration award

I have actively participated in national, regional and international levels also worked with local registries, registrars, working groups formed by ISOC, local state Department of Postal Services and Telecommunications, World Economic Forum and other local businesses, foundations and institutions.

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 normally have time for attending meetings online and onsite and I am already spending 10 -20 hours per week on working groups, community comments, NCUC, NCSG and communities’ regional activities.

Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?

I normally share reports and updates as I have previously done while engaged in NCSG FC, I provided NCUC EC and NCUC Africa webinars with reports on Financial activities, plans and updates. I also learned the community communication practice within ICANN communities and plan to improve or sustain my communication with the mailing list. With the help of the NCSG FC, I have also coordinated online meetings with NCSG FC committee members, started to develop the FC document repository, attended NCSG and NCUC monthly calls and normally giving report on the FC activities, although the last 4 months have been challenging due other reasons.

 

ICANN as a global policy driven institution with community-driven processes, it is expected that internal politics will arise from time to time since we all come from different backgrounds with different challenges, not all views will be agreed upon all the time but I believe that in an environment of enhanced accountability, impartiality, trust, and transparency, it is less likely to encounter significant disagreements and clash of views. The politics that take place within ICANN and communities cannot be given a blind-eye because those who are denied opportunity and support will never participate and contribute at expected levels. So, it is my goal to understand the decision-making process that takes place at NCUC EC as it is good to have battles on principles and avoid personal fights, for instance, I believe opportunities should be shared not amongst membership not earmarked for specific few members or committees, for whatever reasons, community ABRs should be more open for regional and membership applications and so should CROP.

I normally discuss issues and collaborate and normally avoid conflicts and confrontations but I feel that an environment needs to be created for newcomers and inactive members to anticipate without fear of being judged for lacking skills, experience or fluent in a particular language since there is a thin line, IMO, based on personal perception between being assertive and being disrespectful and being weak against being humble. Threading around this dynamic will lead to effectiveness and tolerance of diversity within the community.

Improvement in communication methods at all levels to facilitate more dialogue between the constituencies, NCSG and the GNSO is paramount, so I look forward to promoting the bottom-up approach to policy development and community consultation and engagement to ensure that pertinent issues are tabled before the NCUC EC.

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.

Within NCUC, I have also mentored newcomers in order to fast track their participation within ICANN and constituency activities, through the NCUC buddy program, which I believe, need to be revived as it was a very good program that gets members active and broadens participation.

Now with a change in my role within the FC, now being an observer member, my participation in NCUC EC will provide me another opportunity to serve NCUC in a different capacity, especially when it comes to exploring how AFRALO is organised to work with ICANN AFRICA GSE office collaborating on regional events and activities. I believe that NCUC must consider ways of ow to strengthen its regional efforts by exploring feasibility of adopting regional structures to steer qualitative growth of community and membership efforts.

Besides my administration, financial and project management background, I am also experienced in research, analyses and policy development, I intend to use all this to contribute to community activities and ensure that voices of the global south and underrepresented regions are brought to the table during discussions. I believe that the ground needs to be leveled and the use of degrading, intimidating comments and  language needs to be guarded against with vigor in order for inactive members and newcomers to start participating and contributing to activities because it seems currently like voices from developed countries/global north normally dominate the ICANN and community policy discourse within ICANN communities, activities and related decision-making processes, IMO, leaving the affected at the mercy of the empowered, so cross-regional community collaborations can also be a link to such issues and for addressing capacity shortages, challenges in certain secluded regions or members.

I am certain that the work of NCUC will have a strong impact on the development and evolution of DNS space and respective PDPs, which is the reason why representation in this role will require collaboration and taking into account your proposals and contributions of members.

IMO, policy areas needing attention include:

-       Organisational reviews

-       Right Protection Mechanisms

-       Expedited Policy Development Process

-       Open Data Initiative

               -     Universal Acceptance

-       New TLD subsequent procedures

 

Conclusion

As much as I am a direct person, sometimes mistaken as being disrespectful, I am normally expressive and vocal on critical issues, I believe the policy development environment needs vocal members who can represent the interest of the underrepresented in a meaningful way since a regions such as Africa is still lagging behind in terms of representation in ICANN meetings and organising itself, furthermore in our region we do not yet have collaborative spaces like Internet Houses where RALOs, RIR and other communities can collaborate on ICANN topical issues unlike other regions like LACNIC.

I appreciate and have worked and collaborated well with different members of NCUC in the past, like Farzaneh and Ayden during plenary of NCUC before ICANN 59, with Renata, Remmy and Joan of NPOC on NCSG FC activities during FY18. Renata has also been my mentor and I still respect her contributions for making NCUC more inclusive and enabling newcomers using innovative programs, her contributions have been very helpful to date.

Regionally, I am currently working with NCUC regional members to improve participation and contribution to the ICANN regional strategy. I intend to represent the African region within the NCUC EC to present her concerns during discussion and deliberation in the Committee meetings. I want to be a voice that stands for what is important and just right for NCUC and Africa. 

I believe Africa’s NCUC quantitative membership growth will impact on regional contributions within ICANN and hard decisions must be made to enhance transparency, fairness and equitable and consistent decision making. I intend to attempt changing the narrative that Africans cannot do anything by themselves because I do not and will never subscribe to that notion. I intend to continue collaborating and working with regional members to tackle regional issues and challenges, irrespective of the outcome of NCUC elections because only a few regional members are able to contribute and participate in community activities. Your vote will be appreciated to enabling development and execution of alternative strategies for the benefit of NCUC and the African region, including respective community and regional demands, thank you.

Thato Mfikwe

Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/royden-thato-mfikwe-97498746 [linkedin.com]

NCUC EC AFRICA

Name: Benjamin Akinmoyeje

Region: Africa

Conflict of Interest: None

1       Why do you want to serve on the EC?

My choice to serve as NCUC EC Africa representative stems from my CROP application work plan - where I had indicated participate in the election process,  [MC1] as an outcome of the opportunity and my years of engagement in NCUC. I also would like to see improved participation of members from the Africa region in the policy development process. I believe the core NCUC mandate is of higher service to the Africa region, so it is unfortunate to see limited participation by Africans in NCUC policy development conversations. My duty is to try and increase African engagement and also mainstream African issues on the frontlines.  With other ECs, I hope we can articulate ICANN’s mandate in a manner that is engaging and practical to the region. This will allow us to have a policy development process that is not only based on academic knowledge, but also practical.

NCUC visibility in the region can be highly improved.

Issues such as affordable access, Internet shutdowns represent the critical issues for Africa.

Taking into consideration the missions and visions of NCUC and recognizing the many technological challenges Africa is confronted with, there is a strong need to strengthen institutional effort in addressing some of the many policy developmental challenges in light of strengthening policy developmental capacity across Africa. Improved participation of Africans on NCUC and ICANN will foster collaboration among members, improve and facilitate a mentorship program for African members and above all champion the course of NCUC among the internet governance communities across Africa and other regions.

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 a specialization in ICT4D and Digital Health with over 10 years’ experience working in international development. I am currently a DAAD postgraduate research scholar at the Namibia university of Science and Technology and Regional Coordinator of ICT4si.org [ict4si.org] .

Active member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of NIGF.

Alumni of the first African Summer School of Internet Governance - AfriSIG,

AfriNIC and ICANN fellow, member of ISOC Nigeria Chapter.

I am a member of Nigeria Coalition of Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), consistently advocating for affordable and inclusive Internet access.

I belong to the coalition of Africa Center for Citizens Orientation (ACCO), championing improving access for women and girls to up-to-date ICT education and some existing ICT facilities in Abuja and northern Nigeria.

My area of research is Persuasive Technologies for health behavioural change and personal informatics. I have over ten years’ experience working as an ICT4D manager in an international NGO and in public health in Nigeria. I participated in the NetMundial Meeting, Netmundial Initiative in Sao Paolo in 2014 which led up to the IANA Transition process.

I have been active in NCUC as member of the Membership engagement team. I am an ICANN fellow, AFRINIC fellow, Diplo Foundation alumni, and alumni of the inaugural Africa Internet Summer School.

Contributed to a few NCUC and NCSG call for comments especially those relating to the Africa region.

I am always eager to help and to collaborate to achieve the greater good as a group. I have introduced a handful of new members to NCUC and ICANN.

Experience within ICANN

Fellowship Alumni AfrICANN group

CCWG Accountability

GNSO Next-Gen RDS PDP WG

·         Draft Proposal of the New Fellowship Program Approach – commented on the NCSG draft statement.

·         Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in all gTLDs PDP Working Group – member – regularly on call of this WG

·         Defunct Next-Gen WHOIS/RDS PDP WG, however following closely the EPDP process. – Member of draft teams (DT) on Domain Sales and WHOIS Data elements.

·         Making comments as part of the NCSG, formed a team on the ICANN Africa Strategic Plan 2016-2020 version 3.0 – volunteered to on the comment drafting team

·         NPOC Policy committee - volunteer

He is a member of other committees

1.    TWG on drafting Nigeria eHealth Policy

2.    Nigeria Open Government Partnership -  Non State Actors Group

3.    A4AI Consumer and Pricing Working Group

4.    Global Network for Cybersolution (CSO)

5.    Nigeria ICANN Multi Stakeholder Group

6.    Member and (Cybersecurity) Alumni Diplo Foundation

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.

Generally, I can commit 8 hours per week and I am readily available for emergency calls or assignments. I am very much committed to the course and development of the visions and missions of NCUC and ICANN. I am a full-time researcher and a student of Informatics.

4   Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?

As a member EC representing the African region, I will identify the critical policy issues which are on the table for discussion and simplify them for the understanding of my African audience and newcomers. I will use available channels of communications such as emails, newsletters, blogs, and targeted social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Google Hangout. Also, I will work with existing NCUC communications strategies and members to advance the work I am doing in the NCUC EC. I hope to drive engagement by linking my EC activities to some of the real-life issues and benefits of NCUC activities to the African users, especially on the issues of Access, Local Content, Human Rights, Development, Privacy, and Multilingual Internet. These issues, when addressed, will ultimately grow the domain name business in Africa. Ultimately reinforcing the stability, security and resilience of the global network

We need to organize more Pre- Post ICANN events in Africa Region to help improve the region’s members and their involvement.

In collaboration with the NCUC ‘s e-platform group, I hope to develop an ICANN and IG-related activities schedule to keep members abreast of events going on.

I will become active on social media, especially Twitter, during or after ICANN events and calls.

Language  is a major constraint to fully engage the full potential of Africans participation, as we have about 50% francophone in Africa to actively engage. I hope to use French as a channel to reach more participants. I intend to work with mentors like Mamadou and  Muriel Alapini to push this engagement agenda.

Gender - gap in participation from the region are yet to be tapped into, we have higher female participation from my region  in other IG space, why not in NCUC, this is what I want to improve.

I will facilitate productive and sustainable mentoring relationships.

ICANN/ NCUC-Africa Outreach is a major project for me to increase our fan base on the continent.

Become active  on social media, especially twitter during or after ICANN events and calls.

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?

With the ongoing Evolving  ICANN’s Multistakeholder Model - it is certain NCUC engagement will evolve in the process.

With the ongoing Evolving ICANN’s Multi-stakeholder Model - it is certain NCUC engagement will evolve in the process.

Personally, I see NCUC’s function evolving in the future, as we bring more participation of academia, CSOs and other non-commercial users from developing countries on board. As we connect the next billion to the Internet and NCUC as the home of the non-commercial users; we need to engage our members to become stronger advocates for the issues of concerns to the constituency (civil society's communities and individual users) in ICANN policy development processes and trending Internet Governance issues. I believe we need to awaken the competent hands in NCUC, that have gone silent and activate new voices, the balance of these two groups will determine how strong NCUC is among stakeholder group within ICANN must also move to champion education about domain name rights, freedom of speech, etc. of civil societies and other bodies with common interests. NCUC within ICANN will have to seek collaborations from ICANN constituents who have common goals on different policy issues for the purpose of the greatest impact. NCUC with ICANN must support those UN SDG goals that coincides with NCUC mission.

Areas ICANN policy needs attention

EPDP on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data - Phase 2; this next phase, it requires the delicate balance between data protection, privacy advocate and need for innovation + data on the Internet.

Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs PDP

ICANN Africa Strategy, this region requires more of ICANN’s engagement to help grow the DNS market.

New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group: the mechanism to utilize the resources should help improve and grow the Internet where it is lacking, especially in Africa.

It is with excitement that I look forward to serving the NCUC community to engender participation of all diverse groups, especially those from developing countries and newcomers to ICANN.

Benjamin Akinmoyeje

Hago Dafalla

1. Why do you want to serve on the EC?
First, in order to represent the best representation of Africa in this position, and secondly in order to serve and possible all stakeholders to exercise good stewardship cemented in human dignity. We need a period of renewal for another blood in the veins of this organization until the election of new people to the benefit of everyone.
To help my continental African and to raise the voice of African in ICANN. To try to support african people in the ICANN community.

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 am Electronics Engineer (System Administrator and Network) I completed a Master degree in Computer Engineering and Networks.
MY activities:
I am participating in many activities:
April To May 1996 : Training in E-Mail by Dr. Khursheed, McMaster University, Canada.
11 to 19 July 1998: Network Training workshop for Countries in the Early Stages of Internetworking,
Network Navigation and Services Track, Geneva, Switzerland, Using UNIX as Operating System.
20 to 21 July 1998: Developing Countries Networking Symposium, Geneva, Switzerland, Using UNIX as
Operating System.
21 to 24 July 1998: INET’98 Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, Using UNIX as Operating System.
2
26 July 1998 to Now: Internet Society Memberships (ISOC).
12 Oct. to 7 Nov. 1998: Fifth College On Microprocessor-Based Real-Time System in Physics, in the
Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, Using LINUX as Operating
System.
-1 To 19 Feb. 1999: Second ICTP-URSI-ITU/BDT School on The Use of Radio for Digital Communication in
Developing Countries, in the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP),Trieste, Italy,
7 to 11 May 2001: African Network Operators’ Group (AFNOG) Workshop for Internetworking in
Scalable Network Infrastructure, Accra, Ghana.
12 to 13 May 2001: African Network Operators’ Group (AFNOG) Meeting, Accra, Ghana.
8-13 June 2003: African Network Operators’ Group (AFNOG) Workshop for Internetworking
In Scalable Internet Services. Kampala, Uganda, Using UNIX as Operating System.
14 to 15 June 2003: African Network Operators’ Group (AFNOG) Meeting, Kampala, Uganda.
- ICANN Meeting in Cairo, Egypt 2008.
- ICANN Meeting  in Sydney, Australia 2009.
-ICANN Meeting in Belgium.
-ICANN Meeting in Costa Rica.
- I am a Member of Locking of a Domain Name Subject to UDRP Proceedings PDP WG Working Group, ICANN.
- I served as a Member of The Inter Register Transfer Policy Part C working Group, ICANN.
- I am participated in the 3rd Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum On ICT Research, Scandic Marina Congress Centre - Helsinki, Finland ,2010.
-  I am participated in the 2010 Euro-Africa E-Infrastructures Conference, Scandic Marina Congress Centre -Helsinki, Finland.
-  I am participated in the 6th  International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
-  I am participated in the AFRINIC Meetings, 2001,2003,2006,2011 and 2012.
- I served as NomCom 2011and 2012, AfriNic.
-  I am participated in the African Peering Coordinate Forum (AFPIF), Peering Coordinators Day, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
-  I am participated in the EGM on the Roadmap for Internet Governance in Arab Region,  United Nations House, Beirut, Lebanon.
-   I am participated in the first and second, seventh  African Internet Governance Forum.
-  I am participated in the First and Second Arab Internet Governance Forum.
-  I am participated in the Internet Governance Forum, Bali, Indonesia, 2013.
I have no conflicts of interest.

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.
I have dedicate about 12 Hours a week and more if there are some more meetings available. I will perform my duties and responsibilities perfectly . Also to increase my contribution in ICANN Meetings in person and online meetings .

4. Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?

The Communications for the memberships is very important and it can be available through mailing list and regular announcements.

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?
I promise to continue to raise issues with NCUC policy and rules. I need to raise the issues in Cyber security, especially in Social Security ( protections of children from the dangers of Internet). We need to  continue engaging more youth people in ICANN Process and to hear their voice and their contributions. We have to continue engaging in the GNSO PDP process.
I shall pressure to see new faces in ICANN Board Members especially in developing countries. More about me see my C.V. attached here

Name: Michael Karanicolas
Region: NA
Gender: Male
Employment: Research Fellow leading the Wikimedia/Yale Law School Initiative on Intermediaries and Information
Conflict of Interest: None

Personal statement: For those who don't know me, I am a veteran human rights advocate, whose focus is on promoting the right to information, freedom of expression, and privacy in the digital space. Although I'm based in Canada, my work has always been internationally focused, including extensive experience in Myanmar, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Mongolia and Morocco, among other countries. Here at ICANN, I am active in a number of working groups, particularly RPMs, and on the ATRT3 Review Team. I was also previously the Rapporteur for the WS2 Transparency Subgroup. This will be my third and final term on the EC, and very much look forward to working with the new incoming representatives, as well as continuing to work with colleagues whom I greatly respect. I also look forward to handling a steady transition after I complete this term. Indeed, I have been sad to see that all of my elections have been unopposed, and will make it a priority to search for new candidates to take over when I leave this position next year.

In addition to my position at Yale, I serve as the President of the Right to Know Coalition, which works to promote open government in Atlantic Canada, and the Policy Director of the Domain Name Rights Coalition, which works to promote freedom of expression and privacy in the ICANN space. 

I am currently in the process of completing my LLM at the University of Toronto. Although my research here is focused on digital platforms, it also includes a component related to ICANN, and my latest academic publication, on trademarks and rights protection mechanisms in the domain name space, is due out in the next issue of the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal. Prior to this degree, I obtained by BAH (Dean’s List) from Queen’s University, and an LLB (Dean’s List) from Dalhousie University. 

Best wishes,

Michael Karanicolas