Hello everyone,

My candidacy statement as per the election requirements:

Amr Elsadr - Egypt - Male - postgraduate student, Masters of Science in Telemedicine and E-health, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
 
I have no conflict of interest.

I believe I have the necessary skills and level of awareness to make the case for non-commercial registrants in the GNSO's policy decision-making process (PDP). Nobody on this list needs to be told that the interests of registrants are in constant jeopardy. Some of the reasons of this are due to continuous attempts to undermine the PDP. Others include actual policies being pushed forward through the PDP that endanger registrants' rights such privacy and freedom of expression, in addition to unjust attempts to shift transaction costs involved with disputes over domain name registrations onto registrants.

I have recently been involved in different groups at ICANN, and feel that I understand the players and stakes well enough to have represented the NCSG's interests there effectively. I would like the opportunity to do the same on the GNSO Council -- if the members of the NCSG feel the same way, and hence my self-nomination.

I've already participated representing NCSG to the best of my abilities on the following:


I am already participating in approximately 4-6 ICANN related calls per week as part of the work I do on the various WGs I've joined, in addition to the time needed to actively contribute to discussions on their respective email lists. Those do not include Council calls I've listened in on (or their recordings), in addition to actively participating in monthly NCSG policy calls. I see no reason why I will not be able to provide the time needed to make meaningful contributions to the GNSO Council on behalf of the NCSG with the same level of commitment.

My background is probably relatively unique when compared to others on this list. I am a medical doctor by education. I graduated from medical school in 2004 in Cairo, but received clinical training in the U.S. and the U.K. After completing my year as an intern at a University teaching hospital in Cairo, I made a career shift to ICT-enabled services for the healthcare sector in 2006 with a focus on telemedicine solutions since 2009. Those have included providing remote access for patients in rural areas of Egypt to specialists at large healthcare facilities in larger cities, as well as connecting a large hospital based in Cairo to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota (USA) for medical second opinions as an alternative to travel. I also provided consultation services to the Egyptian Ministries of Information and Communication Technology and Health and Population on prospective projects to digitally connect public sector hospitals around the country. I am currently near completion of postgraduate studies in this field, and am planning on submitting a thesis on how DNS policy-making at ICANN may or may not affect the future of telemedicine and e-health.

Along side my profession, I've always put time aside for work with civil society groups on a volunteer basis. I've held workshops in various cities in Egypt teaching school children the benefits of Web 2.0 tools (mainly social networks and blogs) as well as how to protect their privacy online. Following the uprising in Egypt, I endeavoured to establish an NGO with a multistakeholder model (the first of it's kind in Egypt) concerned mainly with participation in local Internet related policy development. I did this with some like-minded colleagues in an effort to decentralise the government's monopoly on Internet policies. I was elected to the first board of directors of this NGO representing the Internet Users Stakeholder Group, and also served as its Secretary General. The NGO went on to becoming the ISOC chapter of Egypt, but has admittedly not been as active as I would like it to be over the past few months (although I do not find this surprising considering the political climate in Egypt these days).

I completed DiploFoundation's foundation course of the Internet Governance Capacity Building Program in 2009, and am planning to participate in the thematic course on cybersecurity and privacy starting next month. I also attended the Arab Summer School on Internet Governance held in Cairo in 2009, where Avri and Wolfgang (also candidates in these elections) were two of the instructors. I only attended one Internet Governance Forum (the one held in Sharm Elsheikh in 2009), but attended three ICANN meetings (Seoul, Nairobi, San Francisco) as a Fellowship Program participant.

I strongly believe in the principles this stakeholder group represents, and would like to do what I can to translate these principles into policy. This, however, doesn't only happen on Council. The majority actually takes place in the working groups, where recommendations for policy are debated amongst WG members with conflicting interests and drafted to be voted on by the Councillors representing them. Wether I am elected or not, I plan to continue to participate in these WGs -- the true front lines of our struggles in the PDP. I am glad that I have already had the opportunity to do so with other members of the NCSG from both constituencies. I am no stranger to conflict, not easily intimidated, and have physically placed myself in harms way more times than I can count for the two years following the uprising in Egypt (because of principles). I do not expect things in the GNSO to ever become that dramatic, but if elected, I will surely take the NCSG's principles to Council with the same degree of seriousness.

Thanks.

Amr