During my service on the ICANN Board, and on its President's Strategy Committee, I had an active role in drafting the "Improving Institutional Confidence" document, some recommendations of which later found their way into the Affirmation of Commitments, but are also reflected in the CEO's recent statement about ICANN's need to further "internationalize" (F. Chéhadé announced a new ICANN legal entity to be set up in Geneva). Also on the Board, I helped set up the Public Participation Committee, of which I was the first Chair (significant improvements in remote participation, in the Public Forum, and in linguistic services). And for more than 2 years, I constantly pleaded for Board oversight on the international and institutional dimensions of ICANN, which at the time were taken care of by the CEO and a handful of senior Staff: my suggestion was finally accepted, resulting in the creation of the Global Relationships Committee. I was also active in a number of Review Working Groups: chair of the ccNSO Review; member of the ALAC Review which recommended 2 voting members to be nominated by At-Large (this resulted in the creation of "Seat 15"). On the Board, I often made the point that it was time to consider the ALAC not as some "junior partner", but as an essential element of ICANN's very legitimacy. I also strongly supported funding for the first At-Large Summit.

During my service on the ALAC, I introduced the notion that, in parallel with the usual work of this Advisory Committee (responding to calls for comments, drafting statements, consulting with other ACs and SOs), it would be in the interest of the user community for the ALAC to take a more autonomous and longer-term view of challenges to the Internet and to ICANN. Acting upon my suggestion, the ALAC created the "Future challenges working group" (FCWG), of which Evan Leibovitch and I were appointed co-Chairs. The FCWG produced a document, "Making ICANN Relevant, Responsive and Respected" (R3), unanimously accepted by the ALAC as its first White Paper, and which has enjoyed quite a wide distribution.

During ICANN-49 in Singapore, the FCWG will be hosting a public session on its new work, "The Internet as a space of freedom: the user perspective". It is hoped and expected that the result of this work may contribute, in a significant way, to the current debate on the need to place the user at the centre of Internet preoccupations and processes. Without this user dimension, the multi-equal-stakeholder model would be unrepresentative of the evolving Internet.

Although this is a very small contribution, I am also pleased that the over-arching theme chosen by my colleagues for the Atlas-2 Summit (London, June 2014) is the one I suggested, "The global Internet: the user perspective".

If chosen to fill Seat 15, I would want to make sure that the Board holds itself to the same high standards that are required of the community, its ACs and SOs (for instance, how are Board Committee Chairs appointed?). With an open mind, I would demand full information about a number of items crucial to the future of the Internet and of ICANN: the IANA function and contract; objectives, methods and calendar for the further internationalization of ICANN; the upcoming consultations between i-organizations (Sao Paolo and beyond); the need to promote "default settings" that respect privacy and fundamental rights of Internet users; encouraging efforts currently under way at IETF for technical solutions to user rights (encryption); taking stock of the New gTLD programme; helping ICANN migrate from the silo mentality to a more fluid community involvement.

As some members of the Board have pointed out over the years, the notion of a "skills set" for the Board must be treated with care, if only because terms served by Directors overlap, in what amounts to "a permanently unstable equation". With respect, rather than answering the question "without you the Board will lack what skills", I offer the view that, whatever the composition of the Board at any given moment, I could contribute in the following ways:

• heightened awareness of, and attention to the global public interest, by emphasising the Internet users' perspective (fundamental rights, basic principles of good governance, "default settings" in software and applications so as to protect privacy, fair representation) ;
• the ability to place Internet and ICANN challenges in the wider context of social, geopolitical and economic transformation;
• a high-level experience in international affairs, both in conceptual and in practical terms;
• familiarity with high-level cooperation in diverse professional contexts, with colleagues from various cultures and walks of life;
• an operational balance between careful listening, independent thinking, clear analysis of challenges, and problem-solving;
• gravitas and humor in equal measure, where required.