[ALAC] Candidate Statement and CV
Alan Greenberg
alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca
Sat Nov 13 03:09:19 UTC 2010
Prior to the tomorrow's (or today for some) community call with the
three candidates for the At-Large Director, I have posted my CV and a
Candidate Statement. They can be found at
https://community.icann.org/display/DirCan/Alan+Greenberg+-+At-Large+Board+Director+Additional+Information.
For your convenience, the Candidate Statement follows this message.
Alan
================================
I am honoured to have been selected as a candidate for the first
seating of a voting Board Director selected by the At-Large Community.
I would like to take this opportunity to briefly discuss my overall
history, my involvement in ICANN, and what I would like to accomplish
as your Director.
History
=======
I have spent the majority of my career in a variety of technology and
technology-management positions. Although I no longer consider myself
to be a technical expert, I have maintained my interest and overall
level of knowledge in many computer and networking areas, and can
still quickly get up to speed on specific areas where required. I
have successfully managed large groups of people and budgets, and
survived in an environment where you could only succeed by working
cooperatively with others. Much of my career was in the
not-for-profit sector, but I also ran successful businesses and spent
too much of my time negotiating contracts. I have been on a number of
not-for-profit Boards over the last 25 years. All together, I believe
that I will function well in the ICANN Board environment.
In the mid 1990s, I began volunteer work with the Internet Society
running the Network Training Workshops that trained much of the local
staff that allowed 140 developing countries to connect to the
Internet. Since my retirement from full-time employment, I have taken
on a number of assignments related to the effective use of
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in developing
countries, and how donor countries and international agencies can
improve their ICT support. Focus areas have been education, health
care and overall poverty alleviation.
ICANN
=====
Although I participated in the 2000 At-Large director selection as an
individual voter, my substantive involvement in ICANN began when I
was appointed to the ALAC by the Nominating Committee in 2006.
From discussions held prior to and at my first ICANN meeting, it was
obvious that despite a number of superb people sitting on the ALAC
(the Interim ALAC at that time, since it was prior to the creation of
any RALOs), the group as a whole had a very poor reputation in ICANN.
I was determined to do what I could to change that.
At this meeting, the Liaison from the ALAC to the GNSO was stepping
down, and I volunteered to fill that role - a role that I have held
since then. Through my participation in the GNSO Council and gTLD
issues in general, I believe that I have helped us gain credibility
within ICANN. To quote Avri Doria in a recent message
(http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/na-discuss/2010-November/004131.html):
>"At-Large/ALAC has achieved a good start with its use of the by-laws
>capability of introducing issue report requests in GNSO. And Alan's
>job as not only a liaison to the GNSO council, but often as a
>virtual council member, including as a chair of a GNSO WG, has gone
>a long way to increasing ALAC visibility."
During the last two years, I have served as the ALAC Rapporteur and
then Vice-Chair. In those roles as well as that of a regular ALAC
member, I have contributed heavily to both policy and administrative
matters. As referred to above, I took responsibility for the issue of
Domain Tasting. This was an issue that had been discussed within
ICANN for a number of years, but with no concrete action taken. My
actions led to the initiation of a GNSO Policy Development Process
(PDP) which ultimately eliminated Domain Tasting. The Bylaws had
always allowed the ALAC to initiate such action, but this was the
first time it was exercised. I followed this with a PDP on ensuring
that registrants could recover gTLD domain names if they
inadvertently let them expire, a PDP which is still ongoing.
As indicated by these and other actions, I believe strongly in
collaborative efforts. I have participated in a number of them within
ICANN, including the groups that, against all odds, found a way to
satisfactorily reorganize the GNSO and the group that addressed the
gTLD Intellectual Property issues following the extreme
dissatisfaction with the IRT Report.
ALAC and At-Large are in a MUCH better position now than four years
ago. The fact that we have this voting seat on the Board is clear
evidence. This change was the result of a lot of people working
really hard, but I take some comfort in knowing that I played a
significant part in it.
ICANN Board
===========
If I am selected to be the first At-Large Director, I will have a
number of specific targets. Several of these were discussed in my
Statement of Interest (http://tinyurl.com/AlanGreenberg-SoI):
1. I will do my best to make sure that ICANN staff and Board not be
as focused on developed countries only. Not everyone in the world has
wideband 24 hr Internet access, and if ICANN wants to be considered a
world organization, it must be receptive to norms other that those
typical in western developed countries.
2. Transparency is not just about telling people how transparent you
are, it is about them believing it. The Accountability and
Transparency Review Team is addressing some of those issues, but
there are more that were not within their scope. The fact that we are
making some progress is encouraging.
3. The Affirmation of Commitments talks about "public interest" and
"the interests of global Internet users". These issues need to be
considered in every ICANN decision. Part of that is certainly
soliciting and then listening to the opinions of the formal At-Large
Community. But it is also making sure that the really load voices of
the ICANN contracted parties and other business interests do not
drown out the less powerful and less well-funded voices.
I do, however, have one overriding goal. That is to do all within my
power to make the Board and the ICANN Community see the unique value
in having a voting Director selected by At-Large. If that can be
achieved, then At-Large will have passed another test on our way to
being a full partner in ICANN's multi-stakeholder environment.
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