Candidate Statement 2020

Name: Bruna Martins dos Santos

Region of residence:  Brazil, Latin America

Gender:  female

Employment:  Policy and Advocacy Strategist at Coding Rights 

Conflicts of Interest:  none that I am aware of

Reasons for willingness to take on the position: 

I believe that, as a stakeholder group, we could reach higher levels of participation once the right bridging between incoming members and PDP active members is done. For that specific point, and in regards to what has already been discussed, I had the honor to follow up on the great work performed by previous chairs of NCUC and to help shape efforts such as the NCUC Policy Writing course and offer our members the right tools for participating and feeling more confident in finding the right places and opportunities to contribute with our SG.  

Having spent the past 2 years in leadership positions at NCUC, I was able to have a comprehensive view of the challenges our members might face when engaging with our Stakeholder Group, as well as some of the intricacies of our groups. In light of being an avid advocate for ICANN's Multistakeholder model and Civil Society participation on it, as well as NCSGs relevance to the model, I would love the challenge of trying to help find solutions for some of the participation gaps we face nowadays and enable new members to engage with the many challenging policy discussions the Policy Committee coordinates. 

Qualifications for the position:

I hold a BA in Law with experience in Internet Regulation, Human Rights and International Law and experience in policy making processes regarding the Internet that started back in 2011 while I had the chance to work at the drafting team of the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet. Ever since then, I have worked for the brazilian government until 2016, as a legal advisor on social matters - including the construction of the initial draft of our Data Protection Law and the regulatory decree of Marco Civil da Internet. After that, I have been with Coding Rights since the beginning of 2018, helping coordinate advocacy efforts around Human Rights in the Digital Age and Internet Governance related debates at the local, regional and global level and our engagement as key constituents at the roundtable designated for debating recommendations 3A/B of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, participation in missions to the UN Human Rights Council during sessions n. 37th and 38th, and recent discussions on the Brazilian Data Protection Law and with passing new regulation to include the creation of our National Data Protection authority in it. 

Moving on to ICANN, I have been involved with our Stakeholder group since 2017 when I joined as a member after remotely following our discussions for years. I am also the current Chair of the Non-Commercial Stakeholders Constituency and have been working together with the NCSG leadership ever since. Previous to that, I was also the elected Latin America and Caribbean Executive Committee representative and vice-chair in the 2018 edition of the EC.  Besides the leadership positions, I have been contributing to NCSG's Public comments, having volunteered for a few of them and being one of the penholders for NCSG provided policy comments to the PDPs Community Comment #2 and the Initial and Supplemental reports of the WG. 

Statement of availability for the time the position required: 

I confirm that I have the required availability to focus on the needed discussions and processes where the NCSG chair is required. Despite working full time I have managed to successfully complete my terms both as NCUC EC LAC and NCUC Chair with a fair amount of weekly dedication to the chair duties - with some extra time for public comments. 

Additional information: 

I also happen to be one of the co-coordinators of Internet Governance Caucus, a fora for advocacy debates and representation of civil society contributions in Internet governance processes that was created in the context of the World Summit on the Information Society and to foster coordination between Civil Society actors to participate in that and many other processes. Apart from ICG, I am one of the co-facilitators of the Internet Governance Forum Best Practice Forum on Gender and Access, a space that I have contributed to ever since 2016.

Thank you all for the attention! 

best, -- 

Bruna Martins dos Santos 

Name: Juan Manuel Rojas P 

Region: Latin America

Gender: Male

Employment: Journalist/Podcaster (self-employed) and Entrepreneur, working at Minka Digital NGO (on formation), Director Ageia Densi Colombia (among other projects).

Conflict of interest: None

 Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position: 

I have been involved in Internet Governance ecosystems and I have been working in my country in capacity building about Freedom of Speech, DNS Abuse and Cybersecurity. I firmly believe that Digital Divide is not only about infrastructure but knowledge and how we can use the technology for good, as we have seen in this healthy crisis that we are living at this moment. I believe that in every step of my engagement in ICANN I learned to read the ICANN Process and Policy making, I learned to read the different stakeholder’s interest, dynamics and problems, and of course, I learned to follow mentors, lead mentees, lead groups, calls, working process and create the right strategies and dynamics to properly address the non-commercial coerces in the DNS policy of the GNSO.

Being a GNSO Councilor allows me to fully apply all that I’ve been learning and fight from a better position in the cause of non-commercial interest.

 Qualifications for the position:

          I have participated in ICANN  since early 2011 when I was a member of the General Assembly for At-Large Latin American and Caribbean Regional Organizations (LACRALO). Recently I have been involved in Executive Committee from Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC), as former Policy Committee member for Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG), appointed Executive Committee for NCSG  and member of New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group. I also have participated as member in Working Groups such as: GNSO Drafting Team to Further Develop Guidelines and Principles for the GNSO’s Roles and Obligations as a Decisional Participant in the Empowered Committee, GNSO Locking of a Domain Name subject to UDRP and Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services to Replace Whois. 

My leadership as a current member is serving on the Executive Committee of Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group  (NCSG) as well as the Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC), addressing topics such as Cybersecurity and  Domain Names Abuse. I also served as Communications Chair for the NPOC Executive Committee and four months ago I stepped in as the temporary replacement Councilor in the GNSO Council when Martin left the position open. During all this time I engaged with SubPro WG which currently discusses Topics that are very sensitive to our non-commercial interests. 

            Some of my academic experience includes my participation as a lecturer in academic events such as: ICEGOV (International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance) organised by United Nation University - UNU, in China (2010) and Estonia (2011). Also, I have been a fellow of Internet Governance events and courses such as LACIGF (2011,2012 and 2014), South School of Internet Governance and Internet Governance Capacity Building Program.

I have been working on unpublished research about the Maturity of IT services in the public sector which has a primary objective to assess the service management effectively in government entities and to provide an updated view of method, models and frameworks used for knowing that maturity stage in each public body. Previously, I have published some papers about e-government entitled E-government models in Latin-America: comparative research, E-participation and e-governance at Web 2.0 in Local Governments of Colombia and Strategies to achieve the e-participation in processes of democratization of local governments what are showing my permanent concern about quality information, interaction and e-services provided to citizens from government entities. 

 Statement of availability for the time the position requires:
I am aware of how to handle volunteer obligations, because I am also a Scout Leader, and leadership positions, I’ve been doing it for years inside and outside ICANN. During this time I have actively participated in Council meetings without missing no one who shows my commitment to this job. 

Especially in the GNSO Council I’ve proved I can keep up with the time and work required to be there. I have a flexible agenda and it is possible for me to tailor my availability to suit the GNSO Council needs. I fully commit to continue and always improve my work and performance in ICANN, whether inside or outside the Council.

I am very happy to be part of this and I want to again thanks all for the support. This is a little abstract from my background and would be an honor to me to represent LatinAmerica and Caribbean as its Councilor.
Best Regards,

Name: Stephanie Perrin

Region of residence: North America

Gender: female

Employer: Digital Discretion Company Inc.

Conflict of interest: I work as a privacy and information consultant, and I do not take clients who are not acting in good faith to comply with law, so I doubt that there are conflicts of interest. Were I to have a client whose interests might be in conflict of those of ICANN, I would recuse myself from relevant activities.

Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:

I joined as a volunteer at ICANN in order to assist in bring data protection perspectives to the famous WHOIS or Registration Data Services Directory. I would like to continue working on that until there is a reasonable chance that the work done on the EPDP will not falter. While I could certainly do that work on various working groups, there are important decisions coming to Council as these matters conclude. I also am keenly interested in the potential GNSO Review, and in the implementation of PDP 3.0.

We received approval for an additional budget request for this coming year, to work on leadership development and training.  I feel strongly that we need better transitioning between those like myself who are ready to leave active participation in NCSG and make space for new blood, and younger folks who are keen to participate and learn but find the water just a little cold and deep to jump in head first.  We need a better mentoring and training package, and I hope to help the new NCSG Chair in developing that.

Qualifications for the position: I have now served as a volunteer at ICANN since February 2013, or 7 years. Committees and activities include:

•  Expert Working Group on the RDS (2013-2014)
•  GNSO Council 2014-2017
•  Chair NCSG 2018-2020
•  WHOIS conflicts with law working group
• RDS PDP
• EPDP I & II
• RDS II Review Team
• various other committees and pdps

Statement of availability for the time the position requires:

2020 has been a very busy year for me, and the current COVID 19 social distancing regime has also caused considerable disruption. In principle, the following year should be a little easier, if only because there will be much less travel! I am semi-retired, although very active with other volunteer activities and some client work. In principle, I have the time and the flexibility to adjust to the rigours of ICANN volunteer work.

Stephanie Perrin

Name: Johan Mikael ("Julf") Helsingius

Region of residence: Europe

Gender: Male

Employer: BaseN Netherlands (IoT services operator)

Conflict of interest:

The only possible conflict of interest is that I am a board member of SIY (the Finnish ISOC chapter).

Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:

I have always been an advocate of freedom of speech and privacy (see https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Penet-5Fremailer&d=DwICaQ&c=FmY1u3PJp6wrcrwll3mSVzgfkbPSS6sJms7xcl4I5cM&r=1A9IIOkJia11FXDmJ1R4Jn7wGT4ExHiVuBF89mvNt_Q&m=YQuczHdz7VGBX_kGWrim0CZs8aEwjYrDwUgfBwaEZwg&s=YtVfDsZ9_X576wQ1pzyNWTLhkn6812jvwrrkDeO8i6A&e=), and feel my positions mostly align with those of the NCSG. I am also keen to protect the governance of the global Internet in a way that furthers those goals.

Qualifications for the position:

Reasonable experience with ICANN (two years on the council as NCA, third year as liaison to the GAC) as well as the larger Internet Governance landscape (co-chair of RIPE co-operation WG, board member of Finnish ISOC chapter) and the Internet industry (founder of several ISPs and former telecoms executive).

I am a former member of CCWG Accountability, and current member of the EPDP 2 (shoot me now!) and CCWG Auction Proceeds. I am also currently chair of the GNSO Council Standing Selection Committee.

Statement of availability for the time the position requires:

The summer and fall of this year are turning out to be really busy for me, but things are quieting down by the time I would take the council seat, so I do believe I do have the time needed at that point, but I will not volunteer for a possible EPDP 3...

Julf

After considering the circumstances of this extraordinary election and the re-opening of nominations, and discussion with some trusted colleagues, I have decided to nominate for GNSO Council.

I have previously been a GNSO councillor for 4 years, from 2013 to 2016, and was council vice-chair from 2014-2015. I have also significant experience with the GNSO policy development process, including forming part of the leadership team for a major PDP, and being an active member of several more. I am currently an alternate representing the NCSG in the EPDP.

I believe I have previously demonstrated a strong knowledge of policy development issues, the ability to be an effective councillor, the commitment to do the work during policy processes and for council, and a commitment to representing both NCSG and the GNSO as a strong active advocate.

I am from the Asia-Pacific region, which is currently not represented on the council. I have no commitments in ICANN outside the GNSO (or other than the EPDP alternate role). I am able to commit the time (generally several hours a week, plus three+ meetings a year) that the role requires.

I am an individual member of NCUC and NCSG. I have had roles on both the EC of NCUC (and briefly served as Chair in 2013) and of NPOC, and have good relationships with both constituencies.

On a personal note, I have had some personal and work issues in recent years that have, at times, made it difficult to give ICANN issues the full focus they deserve. I am confident that those issues are resolved, and that I would be able to serve as a strong and fully engaged representative on council, and I am enthused to do so.

Sincerely

David

Declared region of residence: Asia/Australia/Pacific

Gender: Male

Employment: Technical Lead at NTT Ltd and cyber security policy researcher

Any conflicts of interest: None

Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:
As a first time fellow in ICANN60, we were made to study all the stakeholder groups in ICANN, so that we would be able to make informed decision as to which constituency/stakeholder group we identify with. As someone from the technical community, it was hard to choose, but then I went back to why I was interested in policy in ICANN in the first place. Which was and still is to represent the interest of non-commercial internet users, especially those from developing countries. I have had to now move to Australia because of employment, but that reason for participating in ICANN has never changed.

Qualifications for the position:
Since joining NCSG, I have participated in numerous policy activities including being a GNSO appointed chair and NCSG representative to the IANA Naming Function Review Team. I have also drafted many comments for NCSG. I believe this experience, learning and network, together gives me the knowledge required to represent NCSG at the GNSO council.

Statement of availability for the time the position requires:

By virtue of living in Australia and chairing a review team, I am no newbie to 3AM meetings. I am fully aware of how much effort and time commitment is required as a GNSO councilor, luckily my new working arrangement gifts me back up to 2 hours daily. Time I would otherwise be commuting. This gives me the opportunity to contribute more to policy work.

Best Regards,

Tomslin

CANDIDATE STATEMENT for GNSO COUNCIL MEMBER
Candidate Name: Wisdom Kwasi Donkor
Citizenship: Ghana
Gender: Male
Language: English
Any Conflict of Interest: None

It is an honor to be considered for election to the position of GNSO council member, and I accept the Nomination. I will take this opportunity to provide brief information about my background, my history with ICANN and my views and vision for the GNSO over the next 12 months. I will make myself available to answer any questions you may have.

Looking back over the past few years, I must acknowledge the significant contributions of all that have serve on the GNSO council (past and present) their incredible contributions and support to the communities is very much appreciated. Without the Council’s outstanding leadership team and staff support, the work of the communities would be infinitely more difficult.

Last year has seen a significant amount of policy work by the GNSO community with regard to the finalization of the EPDP recommendations and works of the RPM, PDP workings groups and many other working groups that are all nearing conclusion this year. However, I believe there is still an amount of work to be done or pass significant milestones. 2020 brought about many challenges not only to ICANN but also to the entire IG community where physical meetings was affected by the covid-19 restrictions and protocols. The situation I believe brought about the slash of working time, which I think have left tremendous amount of work that needs to be managed and concluded on time. With this in mind and  understanding of the work of GNSO, I look forward to working with each of you to advance the course of GNSO community and its policy development processes and improvement of its works and to contribute my knowledge and experiences to the broader ICANN communities. 

I have serve on the UN IGF MAG for three years (2016 - 2018), Africa Union Internet Governance Forum (AFIGF) (2017 - 2018), ECOWAS West Africa Internet Governance Forum (WAIGF) 2016 - date and many other working groups across Africa and beyond. With my engagements at this level, got me the needed experience and understand of IG policy work within the entire internet ecosystems. I have also coordinated many internet related projects and policy activities across different sectors of development (public, private, NGO’s etc).  

Having worked with government (National Information Technology Agency (NITA) an Agency under the Ministry of Communications of Ghana, mandated to regulate the ICT sector until my resignation in 2017, Undertook several policy developmental projects and programs that brought about the implementation and deployment of several internet related projects across Ghana such as the construction of the national data center infrastructure, e-government network infrastructure, e-government application, laying of fiber optic cables across Ghana, community network projects, cyber security emergency response, and the re-delegation of the dot GH registry and its internal politics and subsequently the establishment of the Ghana Domain Name Registry (GDNR). All of these gave me that needed experience and understanding of the entire internet infrastructure and ecosystem.    

After my resignation from Government In 2017, I founded Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation (AODIRF) and Africa Geospatial Data and Internet Conference (AGDIC). This organisation are African base non-governmental organization that is championing policies on open data, ICTs, Geospatial technologies, internet governance and community development, training and capacity building and supporting and carrying out innovative projects and programs across Africa.  I am currently the President and CEO of the organisation which I set up along with one other business, this organizations has grown and is doing well and has position itself as a leader of change in the continent of Africa. To reach this position requires leadership and organisational skills with the aspirations and ambitions of succeeding at all level of development.

I have a degree in Computer Science, Diploma in Computer Science, Diploma in Business Computing, Master’s Degree in Human Resource Planning and Development (HRP&D) and other professional qualification. With my leadership skills, knowledge and experiences put together, I believe will gives me the needed technical understanding to contribute meaningfully to the GNSO community. 

Taken into consideration the work of GNSO Council, I am very much aware of the time commitment as a GNSO Councilor and wish to give in part of my time to the course of GNSO.

I have been an ICANN Fellow, coach and booth lead for many ICANN meeting and have good understanding of ICANN functions, the multistakeholder model. I have helped organise several ICANN policy forums and workshops in Ghana and other part of Africa. I have also coached and mentored several ICANN Fellows and individual across  other part of the Africa and the world.