NPOC Colleagues, This is my candidate statement for the position of Chair of the NPOC Policy Committee. /Please remember to vote, whether you vote for me or not. Please feel free to contact me with any Internet ecosystem concerns you and your organization may have. These issues have been central to my work for decades, and will continue to be central whether I chair the NPOC policy committee, or not. / First some background on the context: The initial drive to create NPOC was driven primarily by the domain name operational concerns of large global not-for-profit organizations such as the Red Cross and the International Olympic Committee. Within ICANN NPOC is part of the Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group (NCSG), in turn is part of ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). This structure has focused largely on the policy issues agenda set by ICANN. In the past year that agenda greatly expanded as a result of the US Government decision to transition oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to a multistakeholder setting, as well as the need to make ICANN more transparent and accountable. Much of the not-for-profit and civil society (NPOC) constituency has only a low level of interest in the internal work agenda of ICANN. Most other ICANN constituencies are in one sense or another providers of Internet related services, or have a mission (e.g. Internet privacy, security and human rights) central to the Internet itself. Much of the NPOC constituency consists of organizations whose mission deals with development, health, poverty, gender, kids, the elderly, the environment, governance, etc. and not the Internet per. se.. They see the Internet as a space with opportunities for, and threats to, what they do. Building on this context, my past year as Policy Committee chair has been to go beyond developing NPOC input into ICANN’s policy agenda. It includes asking what NPOC can do for the Internet ecosystem concerns that will impact on the ability of NGOs and Civil Society organizations to pursue their own work. Rather than just asking “What can your organization do for/in NPOC?”, I am asking “What can/should NPOC do for your organization?” With this focus I have been sending “food for thought” early warning postings to the old and new npoc-discuss lists about Internet operational issues on the horizon. I support and work with the Pathfinder initiative that has similar goals. One area is the risks of organizational dependence on free social media when there are storm clouds around the terms of access and terms of use on the horizon. Another is that Internet-based operational challenges are increasingly below ICANN and at the national level. One growing issue is: What is NPOC’s role in feeding policy discussion at that level? Please remember to vote, whether you vote for me or not. Please feel free to contact me with any Internet ecosystem concerns you and your organization may have. These issues have been central to my work for decades, and will continue to be central whether I chair the NPOC policy committee, or not. Sam Lanfranco Email: lanfran@yorku.ca <mailto:lanfran@yorku.ca>sam@lanfranco.net <mailto:sam@lanfranco.net>