Candidate Statement: Sam Lanfranco
·
Name:
Sam Lanfranco
·
Declared
Region: Canada/North America
·
Gender:
Male
·
Employment:
Economics Professor Emeritus & Farmer
· Conflicts of Interest: None
· Reasons for Willingness to Take on the Tasks of the GNSO Position: The recent major expansion of new gTLDs marks a milestone in the maturation of the Internet ecosystem as a factor in economic growth, and for civil society. The next years will bring growing bottom up pressures on the scope and focus of GNSO project and policy activities, especially with regard to the less developed and more disadvantaged regions of the globe and sectors of society. Policies related to issues of generic top-level domain (gTLDs) governance, engagement and accountability will increasingly be driven by issues of poverty and social justice. ICANN’s efforts will be joined by other significant entities within the Internet ecosystem. These concerns have been central to my work as a development economist for decades and with ICT for development. I want to bring an “outside the ICANN box” perspective to GNSO discussion and debate as it formulates its work agenda and strategy within this new emerging reality.
·
Qualifications
for
Position: I have been formally associated with ICANN for
slightly over
a year. While I am Chair of the Policy Committee in NPOC, and on
the GNSO New
gTLD Discussion Group, I would not qualify for a position on the
GNSO if the
sole criteria were length of service within ICANN. However, I
have been dealing
with the consequences of ICT on economic development and civil
society
processes for four decades. As an ICANN outsider and economist
my perspective
would complement the mainly technical and intellectual property
centric view of
gTLD policy with a more development centric perspective. As a
social scientist
I would bring a civil society perspective that emphasized how
gTLD policy
implementation impacts on stakeholders as they build and work
within the
Internet ecosystem.
·
Statement
of
Availability for the Time the Position Requires: As a
Professor Emeritus
I have ample time to meet the demands of the position. My farm
work involves mutual
help between farmers and requires only short periods of
attention during the
year. The rest of my time is devoted to issues of ICT and
development, with a
preferential option for empowering the poor via greater
stakeholder engagement
in policy and implementation.
·
Other
information
that the candidate believes is relevant: Rather than offer
more
detail with regard to relevant qualifications, in terms of past
experience elsewhere,
I would like to reiterate my view that ICANN (and the GNSO) are
at a milestone
in the development of the Internet ecosystem. The next few years
will call for
new perspectives, even within the existing ICANN remit and GNSO
remit, as well
as the emergence of new significant players with regard to
Internet governance.
New beneficial perspectives will have to come from broader and
deeper
stakeholder engagement in the reasoned dialogue that precedes,
accompanies and
follows creating discussion groups, creating working groups,
recruiting expert
panels, and instituting policy development processes within the
GNSO and within
ICANN.
-- ------------------------------------------------ "It is a disgrace to be rich and honoured in an unjust state" -Confucius ------------------------------------------------ Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof Emeritus & Senior Scholar) Econ, York U., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 1P3 email: [log in to unmask] Skype: slanfranco blog: http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com Phone: +1 613-476-0429 cell: +1 416-816-2852