[At-Large] ICANN Board Nomination

Sat Aug 21 16:53:21 UTC 2010

Dear Annette,

Thank you very much for the nomination.  I have started working on an SOI and will submit one before the deadline - and I must say I am very grateful for the extended deadline. I am very touched and appreciative of the nomination.

I have been reading the comments on the Discuss list and will try to respond to them in the filling out the questionnaire.  I am very happy, I must say, that the substantive sections of the questionnaire will be made public.  I have long argued for this bit of transparency and am glad to see that ALAC is the first to adopt the practice of not only announcing the names of those being considered but is also publishing their statements.

I wanted to make one brief comment about my being too closely associated with GNSO as I can understand how close that association still is.  When I first visited an ICANN meeting in Mar de Plata, I hung out with At-large, thinking that was my natural home, I am sure several of the people on this list remember my stint as an At large groupie.  I was later appointed by Nomcom to the GNSO and did my best to represent what I saw as global user interests in my first few years of that role, though once I became chair, I focused more on building consensus, the reorganization and representing the views of the GNSO to the larger community, than I did on my specific view of the user communities' interests.  Since leaving the council I have been engaged in both NCSG and At-Large, two of the groups concerned strongly in user's interests - though in different ways.  I joined the NCSG because I am an academic and felt there was a problem in its reorganization effort  that I could help fix, and started becoming active in the At-Large because I am a member of the at large community.  Should I make it so far as to be selected for the Director's role by the ALAC process, I will terminate my leadership role in the NCSG, a role I intend to terminate shortly in any case, as soon as NCSG makes it through the interim development of a charter and can elect new leadership. I admit, I am a sucker for a reorganization effort where I think I can be useful, but strongly feel that those who manage a restructuring should not lead after that restructuring. I would also guarantee to remove myself from any Board discussions and votes concerning any of the charter work I had been involved with while the chair of the NCSG executive committee.  I will include a discussion of this conflict  in my SOI.

In any case, Annette, I thank you for the nomination and I appreciate the comments on that nomination.  I hope to create an SOI that is worthy of your kind words and of the community's consideration.

a.

---------------------------------------
Avri Doria
Adjunct Professor
Luleå University of Technology
avri at ltu.se

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On 20 Aug 2010, at 17:55, Annette Muehlberg wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> This is a very special moment: For many years we have been working on setting up structures to get Internet users involved in ICANN’s policy and decision making processes. After implementing RALOs in each region of the world we finally managed to (re)build a structure to have an Internet user representative on the ICANN Board with voting rights. This is a very important and responsible position. 
> 
> Herewith, I nominate Avri Doria to represent Internet users on the ICANN Board.
> 
> She is extremely qualified to serve the interests of users on the ICANN Board. Here, I include just some of Avri's qualifications.  She 
> 
> - worked more than 20 years in the technical side of industry. She has technical know-how and understanding of the relation between technology and policy
> 
> - is dedicated and passionate about Internet users' issues and is deeply rooted in civil society. She participated in the WSIS, was a member of the Working Group on Internet Governance, member of the IGF secretariat, was coordinator of the Internet Governance Caucus
> 
> - knows ICANN by heart and is well-respected in the ICANN community. She served for several years as chair of the GNSO Council and community working groups (she was elected chair by the GNSO Council after being appointed to Council by the Nominating Committee). She understands both global situation and ICANN's roles and responsibilities
> 
> - communicates clearly, whether by electronic or in-person communications, she can speak effectively to a variety of audiences 
> 
> - is persistent in advocating Internet user’s interests and relevant policies and is keen to work with the Internet users, RALOs and ALAC on ICANN policies
> 
> - asks for Parity for GAC and ALAC. She wants to see ALAC advice treated in the bylaws with as much respect and response as GAC advice
> 
> - stands for a culture of transparency which she wants to become the norm in ICANN. She worked with ALAC to produce the joint ALAC-NCSG letter to Board on public posting of Staff memos sent to the Board
> 
> - argued against the program to pre-announce the names people planned to apply for; argued for and is co-charing the committee to find ways to assist new gTLD applicants who may not have the financial capabilities of ICANN insiders
> 
> - cares about all Internet users (and potential Internet users). As a long-time developer, she works on systems for people in remote communities and takes figuring out the users' requirements as a serious activity that must involve those users
> 
> - cares about capacity building. She teaches Internet Governance around the world, focusing on technical issues as well as on freedom of expression and privacy. She is a member of the core faculty of the Summer Schools on Internet Governance (ISSIG)
> 
> - is member of ISOC and does a great deal of work on technical participation at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)
> 
> - cares about work on closing the global divide. Co-chairs with ALAC the WG to support new gTLD applicants with funding and other assistance
> 
> - has multi-lingual capacity and cultural understanding. She is well grounded in many languages, lived and worked for several years in many different countries around the world
> 
> 
> Avri is a technical person who understands policy and cares about the user perspective – and she is a nice person, really cool to work with.
> 
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