C2565 - Alan Greenberg (Public)

Much of my past volunteer experience has been Internet-related, and will be described more fully in Section C.

My volunteer activities date back to the early 1970s when I started working with an IBM mainframe user group (SHARE), an activity that continued in various forms for over 20 years. I was an elected member of their Board of Directors from 1983-87. (http://share.org)

Starting in the early 1980 through to my retirement in 2000, I was a prime developer of the Canadian research and education network and participated in its management board. (http://www.risq.quebec, http://www.canarie.ca)

From 1995 to 2001 I worked with and later managed the Internet Society’s Developing Country Network Training Workshops. These workshops were instrumental in facilitating the Internet connection of nearly all developing countries. (See C for additional details.)

I was an elected member of the Internet Society Board of Trustees for 2001-2004. (http://www.internetsociety.org)

I am vice-president and a member of the executive committee of a local genealogy society. Although I occasionally work as a professional genealogist, I donate much time to helping other researchers, work that I could often otherwise do for a fee.

Within ICANN, I have been a member of the ALAC for 8 of the last 10 years and was ALAC’s Liaison to the GNSO for 2006-2014. I have been extremely active in both roles. I have been very active on At-Large WG activities. I have represented the ALAC and At-Large on numerous GNSO working groups, CCWGs and an AoC Review, and I chaired the GNSO PDP Working Group on Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery. Further details will be provided in later answers.

• Internet Society: I was an elected member of the ISOC Board of Directors from 2001 until 2004.
• CA*net- Canada's Education and Research network and first national Internet service: I was a founding member of the CA*net management board (and its lead up organizational committees) from the late 1980s until it was replaced by its next-generation successor, CANARIE (Canadian Advanced Network for Research, Industry and Education) in the 1990s.
• RISQ- Quebec's Education and Research network: I was the founding Chair of its management group and was a member until I left McGill at the end of 1999. RISQ pioneered the Internet in Quebec.
• McGill Systems Inc (MSI) - Wholly owned, for-profit software development and marketing subsidiary of McGill University: I was Vice President and member of the board as well as oversaw all operations. Over its lifetime, MSI brought many millions of dollars into the university, allowing it to expand its technical infrastructure and services far beyond those allowed by the formal university budgets.
• NetNorth: I was a member and later led the management committee of NetNorth, the Canadian equivalent of the US BITNET and European EARN from the mid-1980s until it was phased out in the late 1990.
• SHARE Inc- Independent organization of users of IBM hardware and software: I served as an elected member of the Share Board of Directors from 1983-1987. (www.share.org)

While at McGill, I was the executive in charge of all central technology (networks, computers, voice telephony, etc.) with a staff of about 120 and budget in the order of $20M.

In addition to 10 years involvement with ICANN, I have extensive experience with non-profit (largely volunteer) dating back 30 years. They range from McGill University (40,000 students) to the Internet Society to an IBM user group (about 5,000 institutional members) and national and regional networks. I sat on the board of the IBM user group, ISOC and several smaller organizations.

See also the answer to 2b, as all but one were non-profit.

I was part of the group that started NetNorth, the first Canadian national research and education network in the early 1980s. My department at McGill ran the eastern Canada hub of that network. I was a charter member of the CA*net Board, the organization that brought IP-based networking to Canada. I was a charter member of CANARIE, the organization that (among other things) functionally replaced CA*net a few years later. Following the replacement of CA*net, I sat on the board of the not-for-profit Foundation chartered with awarding the remaining CA*net funds (plus matching funds raised commercially) to innovative network-related development projects.

In Quebec, I was one of the prime instigators and the founding Chair of the Quebec regional network RISQ (currently Réseau d’informations scientifiques du Québec, although like many long-lived acronyms, its meaning has varied over the years). For the first years, at my initiative, McGill physically ran RISQ. I remained active in RISQ management until my retirement from McGill. In 2009, I was given an award for my pioneering service 20 years earlier.

In 1995 I started working with the Internet Society’s (ISOC) Developing Country Network Training Workshops, an activity which markedly changed my life and my world-view. Over their nine year lifetime (1993-2001) these network training workshops taught over 1,000 students from 140 developing countries how to build, support, manage and use the first networking and Internet facilities in their countries. In 1996 I was responsible for the local arrangements of workshop held in Montreal in conjunction with the ISOC’s INET meeting and a concurrent IETF meeting. I co-managed the 1997 workshop in Malaysia, and managed the next workshops from 1998 to 2001 in Switzerland, USA, Japan and Sweden. Unlike some volunteer activities, managing the workshops required a massive time commitment. To a large extent, every country that connected to the Internet after 1993 did so with the help of people trained at these or spin-off workshops (Eastern Europe, Francophone, Latin-American and African).

I view this part of my history with great pride, as I played a key role in helping to spread the Internet to virtually all developing countries in a professional and timely manner.

Many of the workshop’s former students are active in ICANN and credit the workshops as being instrumental in their success (among them Nii Quaynor, Tarek Kamel and Yaovi Atohoun).

From 2001 to 2004, I was an elected member of the Internet Society Board of Trustees and started the formal initative for ISOC to bid on the .org TLD (resulting in the Public Interest registry - PIR)

I have worked with ICANN for over ten years, both in At-Large and the GNSO. In those positions, I have made substantial and significant contributions. As an ALAC member, I led the efforts to have the GNSO eliminate domain tasting and provide a modicum of safety for registrants with expiring domain names. I believe that these and other activities have been one of the key reasons that At-Large is now regarding with a level of credibility, a situation that was not true when I first joined. I have been a key participant in numerous crucial GSNO activities.

Within the ALAC, I have played a strong leadership role, regardless of whether I have held a formal leadership position or not. Currently I serve as the ALAC Chair.

I played an active role throughout the last ALAC review. I was the only individual to comment exhaustively of the various interim reports, and I believe that I was instrumental in convincing the review team of several important points. I am part of the Working Party of the current At-Large Review.

I was a member of the second ATRT AoC review in 2013 where I acted as a vice-chair, was lead reviewer of the Whois AoC review and led the effort making recommendations on engaging stakeholders (and particularly non-industry-funded stakeholders) in ICANN policy processes.

More recently, I played key roles in the IANA Stewardship Transition and ICANN Accountability efforts.

• Having served for eight of the past ten years on the ALAC, and eight years on the GNSO, I have a very strong understanding of both groups, something that no one else on the Board possesses. With the departure of Bruce Tonkin who was term limited, I would likely be the only person on next-year’s Board with real gTLD policy involvement. And having that knowledge nuanced by a user perspective.
• Most Board members have little or no real operational knowledge of ICANN, or if they do, it is from many years ago and typically only from a Chair’s perspective. I have served at all levels in the organization in recent years and bring a perspective of how ICANN operates from a grass-roots level.
• I am a quick study, and have the proven ability to enter unfamiliar situations, assimilate what is needed to understand the issues, and make cohesive, logical recommendations and decisions. Moreover, I can do this taking into account the impact on the various groups and stakeholders.
• I have no financial involvement in the world that ICANN oversees, and no plans to enter into such involvement. My goal is to work on behalf of ICANN, the public interest, and the interests of end-users of the Internet.
• I am semi-retired and can devote the time necessary to meet the demands placed on an ICANN Director. Moreover, my past ICANN experience demonstrates that I am willing to make such time commitments.
• I have senior management and board experience as well as operational experience and understand how they relate and how they differ.
• Lastly, I have a passion for ICANN and care deeply about it.

For a different perspective on what might serve ICANN well, the Boston Consulting Group, in its review of the ICANN Board, noted the following.

The most important personal qualities are, in our view:

• The intellectual capacity to understand a business in which the director has not actually worked.  If the director cannot do this, he or she will be limited to reciting the experiences that they have had in another job.
• The ability to deal with issues at the appropriate level- to see the 'big picture' issues and get enmeshed in the detail only to the extent necessary.
• The director's ability to work as part of a team -to listen well, to draw the best out of other people rather than turn them off.
• Insight and judgement -does the person understand where the 'value' is? Can they cut through to the essence of the issue?

I believe I eminently satisfy all these requirements

I meet all five of the Bylaw criteria (integrity, objectivity, and intelligence; understanding of ICANN's mission and the potential impact of ICANN decisions; diversity; Internet familiarity; English). Even on diversity, where being a white, North American, male is clearly a liability, I have worked with different cultures and in diverse geographic regions for decades.

Commitment to ICANN's mission.

I have been actively involved in inter-networking activities for 3 decades. I have been active in ICANN since 2006 and I have a deep understanding of ICANN's background and activities. I participated in both WSIS-1 and WSIS-2. From 2006-2010 I was a member of both ALAC and the GNSO and have continued as the ALAC Liaison to the GNSO after I left the ALAC (later to return). In the GNSO, I was active in the new gTLD discussions and I initiated the ALAC request for an Issue Report on Domain Tasting and followed it through in the GNSO, resulting in the PDP which effectively eliminated Domain Tasting. I played a similar role protecting registrant rights in the Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery PDP, a GNSO WG which I chaired (thus ensuring that Internet resources that users depend on do not just "disappear"). I have played an active role in numerous other GNSO policy as well as the IANA Stewardship Transition and ICANN Accountability efforts. All of these endeavours illustrate my commitment to ICANN and its mission, and a clear understanding of the potential impact on the global Internet community of the decisions that ICANN takes (or doesn't take).

My commitment to ICANN and its success can be measured by my simultaneously taking on multiple roles and delivering results (ALAC, GNSO and ATRT; ALAC Chair, IANA Stewardship, Accountability)  

Demonstrated capacity for thoughtful group decision-making and sound judgment

I have a proven success record for innovative planning and successfully implementing those plans. Collegial decision-making is a mandatory pre-requisite for longevity in a large research university. Under my direction, McGill went from its pre-network days to become an Internet leader. In my more recent role as consultant to donors and developing countries on the use of technology, my recommendations have little value if I cannot successfully get buy-in from the parties involved.

I am a good listener, and have no problem changing my position when the arguments of others demonstrate that need.

An understanding of the importance of good governance practices and an ability to contribute to the Board in this regard

I spent a very significant part of 2013 serving on the 2nd Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT2) and in the CCWG Accountability over the last two years.

The Board is and will continue to be presented with thorny issues that often have no clear and simple resolution. Understanding this, I think, is the first and perhaps most important step in being able to address them. As mentioned above, I have a track record of thoughtfully and successfully addressing difficult problems, and I have no doubt that this would serve me well on the ICANN Board.

I was a member of the CCWG Accountability and drafted all of the ALAC Statements on various versions of the proposals. I believe that I was the first person to mention the concept of a "single designator", the basis for the final accountability mechanisms.

I, along with many in At-Large were very opposed to some of the proposals made prior to the final ones and I was one of those that helped craft the final compromises.I am also very involved with the Work Stream 2 activities.