Question: Knowledge of bylaws, parliamentary rules, platforms and coalitions may decide the effect when having minority seats. Which positions have you had in the past: seats or president of students', city, corporate, NGO, club councils, or parliaments, for which political or electorate platform (party, electorate group, constituency)? Additional comments welcomed.

Nominee Replies

Olivier Muron - posted on 2000-10-06 06:55:15 I worked for the French Ministry of Industry. Very often, I then represented the ministry in various, non-profit orporations, or other organizations, where a very good knowledge by me of bylaws was mandatory. Jeanette Hofmann - posted on 2000-10-04 12:16:48 To be honest, I don't think that knowledge and experience of parliamentary rules are of much help with respect to ICANN. What we witness right now is the attempt to reinvent the rules and principles of inter-national decision-making. By tradition, citizens are represented internationally by their governments. In case of ICANN, however, the netizens themselves have a say. We thus participate in an experiment on new forms of global representation. Unfortunately, ICANN changes its bylaws rather quickly. Hence we may be soon forced to defend the right to individual participation. Referring to your question, I have been actively involved in political movements before, among them the squatter movement in Berlin. I've also been an active member of a political party for a couple of years. Alf Hansen - posted on 2000-10-03 07:06:21 A very good question. I have experience from being board member for UNINETT, the owner of UNINETT FAS where I am Director. I have no experience from political parties. My way of working is the following: It is important to listen to everybody and hear all the arguments, also those against my own view. When I discuss I often find myself arguing against myself, because I want to see everything on the table before the decision is made. Then it is easy to decide and conclude, and perhaps even more important, the people arguing against me understand (and perhaps respect) my position. I think this will work also in the ICANN context where strong groups will fight for their positions and interests. If I am against, I have to explain why, decide and vote based on my own judgement. Some people will respect this way of working, and use good arguments against me instead of dirty tricks. If one can agree on the process, most of the difficult work is done.