CANDIDATE STATEMENT for GNSO COUNCIL CHAIR
OLGA CAVALLI
11 November 2010
Candidate Name: Olga Cavalli
Citizenship: Argentina
I want to thank the Non-Contracted Party House for the nomination and special thanks to Rafik and Andrei. I am very honored by this nomination to GNSO Chair Candidate.
I strongly believe in ICANN´s vision “ One world, one Internet, everyone connected”.
During my career I have been involved in the deployment of the biggest projects of mobile telephony and Internet in Argentina and in Latin America. My responsibilities were not only in managing the installation and making technical decisions but also in understanding those regulatory and commercial aspects that made projects become available for the users.
Along with this experience I learned the great value of technology for the development of countries and citizens. I also learned the relevance of regulations in the creation of fair and competitive markets. This is why I learned telecom and Internet regulations, making them one of my areas of expertise, and this is why I became interested in ICANN.
I strongly believe there is value in diversity. I believe in “everyone connected”. I leave in a region which needs to develop, which needs more involvement of different actors in different stakeholder groups, which needs more participation, the entire developing world needs it. This is the only way to make the view “everyone connected” become a reality. This involves a wide and diverse representation of all stakeholders with a fair representation of regions, gender and professional backgrounds.
I believe in younger generations and the value of forming new leaders of opinion, this is why I devote much of my time teaching in universities and organizing several teaching activities like the South School on Internet Governance and the Womens´s in Engineering Forum of Argentina, among others.
Along my career I interacted and worked with companies and organizations from many countries, where I learned the value of communications and languages. I am fluent in Spanish, English, German and Portuguese, I can manage also French and Italian. Lack of language knowledge can be a barrier for growth and development and I feel privileged to have a wide multicultural experience that allows me to find ways to avoid these obstacles and to understand different views.
Argentina was the first country to propose the creation of the IGF, during the WSIS in Tunis (2005) and I was one of the two members of that delegation. Since then I became very active in the organization of the IGF, being a MAG Member since 2006. Along this process I have organized several workshops about the use of Latin and Native American languages in the Internet and about teaching Internet Governance. I was responsible for chairing the Main session “Access and Diversity” in the last IGF in Vilnius, Lithuania, and I have been chair and panelist in several other main sessions and workshops along the IGF process, also in our regional IGF.
I was appointed to the GNSO by Noncom at the end of 2007, and since then I have tried to honor this appointment being as much active as possible. Following there is a detail of all the activities I have been involved in.
In relation to the GNSO Restructuring Process, I chaired the Constituency Operations Working Team that produced the following documents:
- GNSO Toolkit of Services.
- Recommended Common Operating Principles and Participation Guidelines for GNSO Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies and Recommendations on a GNSO Database of Community Members.
- Global Ourteach Recommendations (soon to be reviewed by GNSO).
I also hold the following roles in the GNSO:
- GNSO liaison for the ccNSO.
- GNSO representative in the Geographic Regions Review Working Group.
- Chair of the GNSO Prioritization Working Team.
- Chair of the GNSO Travel Drafting Team.
- Member of the VI Working Team.
- Member of the Operations Steering Committee OSC (Alternate Chair)
- Member of the Planning Team of the GNSO Improvements Process.
- Member of the GNSO Comments on the IDNC Report drafting team.
- GNSO representative in the IDN PDP Working Group.
- GNSO representative in two joint AC/SO meetings (Sydney and Mexico City).
If I am elected GNSO Chair I will do my best to accomplish my mission as Noncom Appointee to the GNSO, facilitating the work in the GNSO from a neutral perspective placing the broad public interest ahead of any particular interests.
Finally I would like to thank all of you for sharing your knowledge with me, for allowing me to be part of the GNSO, which is one of the most intensive and interesting learning experiences of my whole career.
Olga Cavalli
Buenos Aires, Argentina.