Dear NCSG Members

Please find below my Candidate Statement for your kind consideration.

Best wishes
 
wolfgang


Candidate Statement Wolfgang Kleinwaechter:

·         Name, declared region of residence, gender and employment:

Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, Professor for Internet Policy and Regulation at the University of Aarhus

 

·         Any conflicts of interest:

I have no confict of interest. 

 

·         Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:

 

I was elected by the NCSG community as NCSG-rep for the GNSO Council in 2011. Although I knew ICANN quite well - I have participated in 43 ICANN meetings since 1999 and was active in various other groups including the Nomination Committee which I chaired in 2009/2010 - this was a new experience and a big challenge.  The GNSO is now in the center of ICANNs policy making and to have a strong voice from the non-commercial community is crucial to find balanced solutions for complicated issues in the G Namespace. I did my best to represent the non-commercial stakeholder community and did fight for the positions, values and interests of the NCSG which were developed in a bottom up and inclusive way through the F2F meetings and the monthy telcos. I concentrated my activities on three issues:

1. special protetion mechanisms in the new gTLD programm, in particular for Red Cross, IOC, IGOs and INGOs.

2. the human rights dimension in the new gTLD programm and here in particular the WHOIS and data protection issues but also freedom of expression and consumer/user rights. 

3.further enhancement, internationalizationand democratization of ICANN policy processes, and here in particular the issue of policy vs. implementation.

I was as active as possible in the six F2F GNSO Coucil meetings and the monthly teleconferences and I made in nearly all the metings a number of clear statements introducing or defending NSCG positions. Futhermore I wrote a number of articles on those issues (inter alia in Circle ID) and introduced those issues into Internet Governance meetings and conference outside the ICANN world to broaden the understanding of non-commercial stakeholder positions to the ongoing policy debate within ICANN.  As a member of the NCUC, I was very active to build bridges to the members of the NPOC constituency so that we could speak with one voice as a NGSG both within the GNSO council meetings as well as in consultations with other ICANN Stakeholder groups, including ALAC, the GAC and the Board.  I invited NPOC member to write articles for publications I edited and to make statements in confrenes I organized. I was invited by the ALAC to their anniversary meeting in Prague and made statements in the joint GAC/GNSO meetings in Bejing and Durban. I did outreach also in particular to new potential NCSG groups in developing countries mainly via the Internet Governance Summer School which I am organizing on an annual basis since 2007. I was active in organizing relevant outreach events within ICANN meetings in Bejing and Durban, as the 1st African Summer School in July 2013. 

Together with the other NCSG Councillors we achieved something but a lot of more things has to be done, in particular in the ongoing implementation procss of the new gTLD programm, especially if it comes to human rights as privacy and freedom of expression. I feel that my mission is not yet completed and so I am ready to continue for a second term as a NCSG Councillor in the GNSO council to complete unfinished business.  

·         Qualifications for the position:

 

I see myself as an ICANN veteran who knows the Corporation from inside. I have excellent contacts to other ICANN constituencies and stakeholder groups which is useful for building bridges in complicated policy development process to promtoe understanding of the special fundamental positions of the Non-Commercial community in ICANNs PDPs. As an academic teacher, who oversees an Internet Governance Master program since 15 years and has given lectures about Internet Policy and Rgulation around the globe I feel that I have the needed qualifications both to understand the policy issues in the G-Namespace as well as to fight for the special positions, based on values and principles, of the non commercial communities. Futhermore my engagement in global Internet Governance policy making outside ICANN is an additional qualification which helps to put the specific ICANN issues into the broader context of Internet Governance. I am involved as a civil society representative since more than 10 years in the WSIS process. I am involved since the very first IGF in the policy making around the IGF (in the first five years as an adviser the IGF Chair Nitin Desai and later as a CS member of UNCSTD Working Group on IGF Improvment). I am also involved in a number of other IG initiatives where ICANN issues are discussed like the IG program of the Council of Europe, EURODIG, ITUs WCIT and WTPF (where I was a CS member of the Informal Expert Group) and th WSIS 10+ process. 

 

Statement of availability for the time the position requires: 

 

After  have reached my retirement age as a university professor I can give more time and energy to the work in the GNSO Council. So I will be able to fulfill the required commitments.

 

*	The nominee's statement may also include any other information that the candidate believes is relevant 

 

If I am re-elected I want to do primarily three things:

1. I will together with the other NGSG councillors to make sure that the values and interests of the non-commercial constituencies are represented in an sufficient and adequate way into every PDP which takes place within ICANN. This means to strengthen our own constituencies and communties and to develop clear positions to all the issues in a bottom up open and transparent process as well as to enhance both informal and formal communication and collaboration with other parts of the ICANN communties.

 

2. I will together with other members of our constituency do more outreach to get new groups and individuals into the NGSG, in particular from developing countries. The framework of the IG summer school is a good platform and could be further enhanced as a tool to bring more people with the right qualifications to our constituency. Futhermore I want to become also more engaged in doing specific outreach meetings at the eve of each ICANN meeting for the local community. And I want to make sure that the NCSG positions are adequatly reflected in the new educational programms managed by ICANN staff as the ICANN Academy.

 

3. I will build bridges also to the IG world outside of ICANN by bringing NCSG issues from the G-Namespace into coming discusison with the the global Internet Governance Ecosystem as the IGF, the UN. UNCSTD or the TU.