Question: ICANN is about democracy. Without properly informed and IT aware citizens, policies, however well fashioned will not achieve their intended purposes. How will you ensure that people are not disenfranchised simply because they know nothing about what ICANN is set out to achieve?

Nominee Replies

Alan Levin - posted on 2000-09-23 13:18:34 Firstly let me say that I believe in the ICANN process. It seems well suited to the organisation and actively seeks out and involves those stakeholders that are concerned about ICANN issues. In doing so it drives education and participation. Since Pierre Dandjinou told me about the ICANN At Large program at the AfriDNS meeting, I have pursued various channels available to me to inform and involve key stakeholders in Internet industry about ICANN and At Large. These channels include the Internet Organisations of South Africa, the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) and the press where I have provoked articles that have been published in prominent national weekly periodicals. See links from http://afridns.org/people.html I believe that we cannot do enough to ensure Africans are informed and assisted to become IT aware. I am committed to contribute and have stated on my candidate page that I will be addressing issues on different levels. My experience is one of business and marketing and I have stated that I will ensure that organisations on the Continent are kept aware of Internet issues and opportunities. My style is one of action and I plan to arrange a roadshow where I can address local stakeholders in as many African countries as possible. I have already received some invitations in response to this initial proposal. The aim is to ensure that there will be participation in the development of outreach programs. On a global basis I have stated the role of the At Large African representative is one of an Ambassador. As such I have stated that I will seek out information and create awareness using all the channels made available through the local stake holders I will meet from all the African countries. On a local basis I have involved key industry organisations in the process to enfranchise them and others. Their facilities and resources are current being expanded into many countries in Africa that will continue to grow. I am aware that there are billions of US$ planned for expenditure in Africa. The current commitment from two key Internet infrastructure and solution providers includes informational involvement in ICANN so that they can also play a role in addressing these education issues in both directions - acting as a conduit - of information to users in Africa as well as to suppliers of network infrastructure. I hope that this stimulates more questions and comments. Please read more of my perspectives on my candidate page http://afridns.org/alan Nii Quaynor - posted on 2000-09-14 10:37:19 While I share your concern, I note that the African people are already very disenfranchised simply from the small number of operatives participating in the ICANN process from Africa. Although ICANN uses self-organizing democratic methods its function is more about managing sometimes finite Internet resources. Hence there is the need for active participation by Africans to ensure Africa's interests are not overlooked. The resources referred to are for domain names, IP addresses and protocols. A variant of your question is, how do we prevent further erosion by increasing our participation through an educated community. We have been organizing net-ready Africans to participate by providing various educational programs and by building human institutions on the continent that are regional equivalents of the organizations of ICANN. In this regard, we have created the African Network Operators Group (AFNOG) which holds annual workshop and conference in addition to other related channels of technology transfer. We have also formed the African Network Information Center (AfriNIC) which is growing up to join the ASO of ICANN. We also have the AFTLD, AfriDNS, African Internet Group (AIG), and several others. The approaches of creating technically knowledgeable human resources and having focussed Institutions for them to network through is good way forward. Our people will get to know about ICANN as we increase our Internet penetration and get the word out in outreach programs. In the meantime, the few should consult closely with the community, participate actively in the African Institutions as well as directly in ICANN. Calvin Browne - posted on 2000-09-13 22:14:19 ICANN is about IP address allocation, protocol parameter assignment, DNS and root server management. The At Large election process is an experiment at making that representative. Disenfranchisement can be for 2 reasons - either lack of access to the above resources or an inability to participate in the At Large process. I'll deal with each one separately. As far as access to IP Number resources go, 'slow start' policies (RFC2050) would help. Hosting the IP Address registry where we can get skills transferred (Nii had a brilliant idea on this one) is essential. ccTLD's that are not with, or are difficult/expensive for the constituents of that territory to utilise, need to be addressed. How they are to be fixed depends on the circumstance. There are a few ugly African examples. As for participation in the At Large Process, we need to ensure the process is a success, and it does not stop with the current election of 5 At Large directors, but extends to the full quota. The quality of candidates that the African region has brought to the fore is an excellent indication that something is being done right (at least in our region). One of the points raised at ICANN in Japan was potential participation for people via e-mail (the current @ Large process excludes people with only e-mail access, something that hits Africa particularly hard). But I personally feel that the best way to get people enfranchised, is to get them connected.