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+D.... 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.htm...):
"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.