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
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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.
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,
Martín Silva Valent
