ICANN At Large Nomination Application

At Large Candidate Page

Robin Bandy

Email	krystal@devnull.net
Region	North America

PROFESSIONAL
Employer(s)
I'm a self-employed network administration, security and programming consultant. I make my living working as a consultant through a cooperative of self-employed geeks.
QUALIFICATIONS
Statement addressing the candidates qualifications and experience specifically relevant to (a) ICANN's technical and administrative responsibilities, and (b) your leadership and policy-level roles.
Technical: As with any other network administrator, I am naturally familiar with DNS and deal with it on several networks. I use four different operating systems (in rough order: BeOS, OpenBSD, Slackware Linux and MacOS) daily, all connected to the Internet. As the network admin for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org), I stay in close contact with freedom and openness issues on the Net. As the founder and a root server admin for the OpenNIC (http://www.opennic.unrated.net), I am in contact with several alternative DNS projects and with the issues surrounding large scale DNS' management. Political: ICANN's Board, however, is not a body of technicians; it is a body of policy. As a Board member, I would be in a position to guarantee that there would be full openness between the Board and the interested external people and groups. Every document and discussion of the Board would be made available for discussion and commentary by the community immediately. I would argue, and vote, for the expansion of democratic management over the DNS and curtailing the presence of business and government in the decision process. I support the open cooperative management of the global DNS system by all of its users. As for my experience with cooperative governance, I have been designing, living in and working in cooperatives for over 10 years.
ICANN RELATED INTERESTS
ICANN-related interests, including: (a) Employment and consulting relationships (b) Ownership or investment interests in any ICANN-related businesses (c) Official positions in any ICANN-related businesses or organizations
I am self-employed, contracting through CLIQ Services Cooperative, Inc. (http://www.cliq.com); I am also a founder and President of that corporation. Through CLIQ I am the part contract/part volunteer Network Administrator for the EFF. I am also the founder of, and an active participant in, the OpenNIC, an unincorporated democratic DNS project. To the extent that ICANN pursues its stated goal of an open and democratic DNS system there can be no conflict of interest between any of these activities and a Board position with ICANN.
BACKGROUND
Background information, personal statement, URL, or other information you would like posted in connection with your name on the ICANN website.
I came to computing from Anthropology and History and, though I do enjoy networking and programming, my primary interest in all this is the way these new technologies can be used to improve our social systems; hence the corresponding interest and activity in cooperatives. The Internet has a vast potential to democratize the ways by which we run our societies, and it would truly be a shame if such an important piece of the Net's infrastructure as the domain name system were to waste this opportunity by not establishing itself democratically. ICANN has, so far, failed to take advantage of this opportunity and has seemed to drift further from the idea of democratic management in the time since it's inception. This election is the last remnant of a democratic system within ICANN, and we should take advantage of it to get people truly interested in opening up the system onto ICANN's Board. The DNS system needs to be thought of as a global infrastructure, and run as such. It is a common system shared by all of us on the Net and, as such, all of us should have an equal say in its management. The business and national interests should not be determining how such a global infrastructure is managed. Only the users, the constituents of the system, should be determining the global policy and, as the system is truly global, this certainly should be taken to mean all the users. On my personal page (at http://www.devnull.net/~krystal), I will expand on these topics and provide a list of "campaign promises" for the election. Not being a politician, I do not intend to promise the stars and then renege on it all. If you have any specific questions, please send them by email; I will answer as many as possible and place all the answers on a web page. The largest problem which need to be addressed by ICANN is the lack of openness and participation; I intend to do as much as I can to not replicate this within the campaign and, if I should get elected, to address these failures within ICANN's Board.
OFFICIAL STATUS
Status as an official of a national government or a multinational entity established by treaty or other agreement between national governments, such as an elected official or employee of a government or multinational entity.
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a representative, official or agent of any government or any non-cooperative corporate entity.