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[council] Descriptive statements from candidates for the position of GNSO Representatives to the Geo-Region Community Wide WG
- To: "council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Subject: [council] Descriptive statements from candidates for the position of GNSO Representatives to the Geo-Region Community Wide WG
- From: Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:04:50 -0800
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- Thread-topic: Descriptive statements from candidates for the position of GNSO Representatives to the Geo-Region Community Wide WG
Dear Council Members,
Nominations have closed for GNSO Representatives to the Geo-Region Community
Wide WG.
Please find descriptive statements from 2 of the 3 candidates standing for the
position of GNSO Representatives to the Geo-Region Community Wide WG:
1. Olga Cavalli NCA - GNSO Council
2. Eric Brunner-Williams - CTO CORE
3. Zahid Jamil - CBUC GNSO Council - statement not yet received.
Forwarded from Olga Cavalli to the GNSO Council on 26 November 2008:
====================================================================
This is the requested descriptive paragraph on why I am interested in the role
and my view on the subject:
I chaired the drafting team that prepared the text submitted by GNSO in
relation with the creation of this Working Group on Geographic Regions.
Complete final text can be found in:
http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/icann-geographic-regions-26aug08.pdf
In this sense, I agree with all concepts and principles included in the
document, and I am very much interested in understanding how much of these
principles are taken in consideration in the dynamic of the wide WG activities.
I also have extensive experience in analyzing geographic regions issues,
especially those related with its impact on developing countries, development
of Internet traffic exchange points, benefits of establishing free trade areas
(like Mercosur) in relation with technology industries and development, etc.
Updating the GNSO Council on the activities of this WG will also enhance my
role as ccNSO liaison for the GNSO, as I believe that many aspects of both
activities are somehow related.
I will be pleased to provide further details if needed, especially those about
my professional experience.
.........................................................................................
Forwarded from Eric Brunner-Williams to the GNSO Council on 26 November 2008:
===============================================================================
I've attached a note I wrote to the RC list when we were considering the issue
a month ago. It is more or less what I said from the floor at Cairo. It covers
what I think are the hazards, and the opportunities we have attempting to
actually obtain meaningful regional representation.
Attached note in plain text:
[Sent to the RC list on 10/19/08]
Let me state what I see are issues:
1. citizenship is not necessarily coincident with residence, my initial
point. A person who left Ethiopia as a youth and living in California ever
since is a poor choice for "the voice of Africa". This is not a hypothetical.
2. I think Israel is in the same part of the world as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan
and Egypt. However, Israel choses to identify as part of Europe. Do we have any
interest in, that is, _do_we_benefit_by_, forcing one model of region or
another on parties seeking to stand for diversity determined responsibilities?
Its not just Israel, also Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan identify as
"Europe", at least for sports. Where is New Caledonia or Tahiti? How about
Guyane?
To use the usual mantra, ICANN should not be in the business of defining
geographic regions against the will of those folks. Let them choose whether
they wanted to vote in one region or another. ICANN should not be telling them
what they are, but telling them that they should opt for one and only one
description. Something along the lines of "bottom up" vs "top down" is
appropriate here.
3. The pseudo-geographical approach has been problematic from the beginning.
Requiring someone from the fictitious AP region normally means having someone
from Australia or New Zealand. Try and wrap your head around the idea that
because Paul and Peter are Antipodeans, ICANN is therefore an Asian-centric
organization. ICANN determining that Peter, Paul, Bruce and Adrian are
"Asians", not "Europeans", is simply bizarre. Did I mention the problem isn't
hypothetical?
Now for the cure:
We have adequate representation from the brightly light parts of the world
city-to-city link map, which Fred Baker was kind enough to point out to me at
Paris. Fred's worked (charity) on getting infrastructure into Kabul, and parts
of Africa, as do I.
Here's the URL:
http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/InternetMap/medium/worldBlack.jpg
ICANN is staffed primarily from the OECD states. The existing "diversity"
requirement has been gamed throughout ICANN's existence to favor rich,
well-connected Anglo-Saxons from all over the world. We need to restate the
requirement towards material diversity, not fictional diversity, towards some
goals of folks, staff or elected, coming from non-OECD countries, the darker
parts of that map.
The UN's model doesn't fit our needs, which is convenient because we _don't_
benefit by pretending treaty organization regionalism is an adequate
representation of diversity of network penetration and availability.
So, to a first order, our goal should be half of staff and half of elected
roles are the responsibilities of persons from (and not in the remote past
either) the non-OECD economies, because our present model is "only token
participation, as staff or elected", by persons from anything but OECD
economies.
Our market is pretty darn good in the OECD market. Where we need help growing
our market is in the non-OECD market, and last I looked, 2/3rds of the world's
population are in non-OECD countries, and the cost of a domain name is still
within the envelope for a huge user base all now well served with cheap cell
phones that are already web enabled.
What we're doing isn't making us as much money as doing something else.
Forwarded from Eric Brunner-Williams to the GNSO Council on 26 November 2008:
=============================================================================
I am in broad agreement with the principles expressed by the Council last
August, that diversity of participation is a net good, and if selected to the
ICANN Geographic Regions WG I will advocate for each of the 12 positions.
However, I would like to take this opportunity to convey to the Council my
thoughts on the 4th position, which I have previously shared with the Registrar
Constituency.
Our goal in December of 1997 in creating a regional requirement in the IAHC was
to ensure equitable international participation. The principle of equitable
international participation is subsumed in the ICANN goals of diversity,
opportunity, and the pragmatic limits of simplicity.
Equity is not best found by selecting "people like us". We are early adopters,
and quite privileged in our accumulation of network resources, in particular,
our individual and collective comprehension of, and control over, internet
identifiers and the uses to which these are enjoyed or exploited. We must look
for "people unlike us" if we are to best implement our policy of equity, or its
cognates, diversity, opportunity and simplicity.
The "unlikeness" we need to find is not unlike citizenships, as we could
satisfy that requirement within area code 408 (San Jose and environs), and
never leave the metaphoric "machine room at cisco", or the median income for
OECD countries. We need to find "unlikeness" that is substantive, not formal,
and residency is a better indicator of a candidate's awareness of local network
cost, availability, and "hot spots", than standing to vote.
I hope that the Council will substitute "residency" for "citizenship", or
sufficiently nuance "citizenship" to replace a formal measure with a
substantive measure of diversity. I would be very surprised if we could not
meet our diversity goal for "a person from X", and not find a person who is a
citizen of some state within X, but I can think of examples where I've no idea
of the citizenship of a person from X who's input to ICANN at any level easily
meets the requirement for equitable international participation.
Thank you for your collective attention, Eric Brunner-Williams CTO, CORE
Forwarded from Eric Brunner-Williams to the GNSO Council on 26 November 2008:
==============================================================================
I confirm that I support the GNSO adopted principles stated in the following
URL:
http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/icann-geographic-regions-26aug08.pdf
and that I will be a committed advocate for these principles.
Thank you.
kind regards,
Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://gnso.icann.org
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