My name is James and I am an internet policy addict. I’m humbled but extremely honored to accept Robins nomination.

Having spent my early years of employment working deep in the technical world, playing with bits and bytes and designing complex and secure networks for a living I have gradually built up a varied and cross functional background.

Having followed the work at ICANN for a number of years, I got fully involved in policy development at ICANN during the IANA Stewardship process. I intended to be a voice of Security and Privacy on the working group, making sure that the decisions that were taken were in line with best practises. Working on the CWG I quickly realised that the NCSG was to be my home in ICANN as we agreed on so many positions and I had built up close working relationships with a number of NCSG members.

Since I have joined NCSG I have been a strong voice for your interests, even when they disagreed with some of my own personal positions I have strived to ensure that the voice of NCSG in the working groups and the discussions that I have taken part is has been loud and clear. I would hope to bring that voice to the role of the NCSG Chair, ensuring that we are given the recognition that we deserve and that we continue to be the voice of non-commercial at ICANN.

I would try to be a neutral and representative Chair, working on behalf of the over 500 members that NCSG now has, helping every one of our members to become engaged in our critical work at ICANN.

Among my goals would indeed be expanding our regional representation on working groups, reaching out to our underrepresented regions to find ways to engage our membership in Working Groups and policy discussions. I have been working on my own internal region, attempting to bring more Irish members into ICANN, working with our national government and academia we will be holding a number of civil society outreach and engagement events including bringing ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade to Trinity College Dublin to meet with academic students before ICANN 54 in October.

Qualifications for the position:

I have spent the last number of years working at a small cyber security policy firm called Cyber Invasion, where I led the security and privacy practice for the company. I pride myself on being an advocate for those who are not able to speak out for themselves, even in my day job I have insisted on working pro-bono for the most part in ensuring that the internet is kept as a resource for all, and that we do our part to ensure that access is equal and unhindered.

I have been working extensively on the IANA transition within ICANN from Day 1, making sure that security of the root is core to any of the work that has been done by the group, and advising the group on the technical impacts of some of the decisions, including the incorporation of a strong business continuity requirement.  On the CCWG I have worked closely with Robin our appointed member and many of the other NCSG members to ensure that the new, ore accountable, ICANN that is being envisioned meets the needs of the GNSO and in particular our NCSG members. Working on constructing the Independent Review Panel, ensuring that our review teams have access to the information they require, and helping to guide our independent legal counsel have been some of the core concerns that I have been working on, including working at the face to face meetings in Istanbul, Buenos Aires and most recently in Paris as we came to the final days of the second draft proposal.

As we now move into the implementation of the work of the CWG post ICANN 53 in Buenos Aires, and hopefully the work of the CCWG post ICANN 54 in Dublin, my home town, I will be ensuring that we stick to the plan and that we succeed in transitioning this critical component of the internet’s structure in a safe and secure manner.

I have also been working on privacy matters, working with Stephanie Perrin, Kathy Kleinman and many other NCSG members on the Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Issues PDP working group, attempting to ensure that semi-anonymous registrations are possible for at-risk registrants and keeping that ability in the face of overwhelming opposition from some stakeholders has been a battle to this day.

As the role of NCSG Chair also requires a great deal of operational and administration expertise I feel that I bring a lot of experience in this area also. I have over 10 years experience working as a project and program manager and have extensive experience in leading large groups of diverse teams to a common set of goals. I believe this experience will be valuable to NCSG as we navigate our way through the implementation of the IANA transition and ensure that we place ourselves at the forefront of the new ICANN, maintaining our role as the voice of Civil Society in policy development. I hope to work with both NCSG members and ICANN staff to examine the issue of volunteer burnout within policy development and try and find innovative ways to ensure that our workload is manageable and that everyone has a strong voice in ICANN.

Statement of availability for the time the position requires:

As required I will scale back my day job to part time in order to meet the challenges of being NCSG Chair. I am lucky to have such flexibility in my current situation that I will have the ability to dedicate as much time to this role as it requires.

I have reached out to both our current and former chairs to ensure that I am going into this engagement with a full breadth of knowledge as to the time requirements and am willing to step up to the needs of the position. I am lucky to have the ability to surround myself with some of the most experienced voices in NCSG and thank them for their support that they have given me since I have joined and as we go into this election.

Additional information:

Outside of the ICANN world I am active in advising various groups and governments on their approaches to cyber security issues, submitting extensive comments to many public comment periods and engaging with regulators, politicians and civil servants to ensure that policy making in Europe and abroad is well informed and is based on sound technical principles. Most recently I am working with an ad-hoc group of security researchers and legal professionals to submit comments to the US Department of Commerce on their proposed implementation of the Wassenaar Arrangement, a step which I and many others believe will negatively impact the security of the US and by extension the greater internet ecosphere.

Over the past number of years I have always worked on policy and advocacy in addition to my core career goals. And I think it’s time for that to change. I am willing to set aside part of my career and to dedicate the time necessary to take on the role of NCSG chair.

My core goals of my term would be broadly:

1. The elevation of privacy rights to a core standard in the work of the GNSO and more broadly in ICANN. We see day in day out the rights of trademark holders and others being treated as a core metric by which our policies are measured, I would fight to have privacy rights added on an equal footing.

2. Operational improvements. I would look to build upon the work that Rafik has started to bring a greater level of operational excellence into the work of NCSG. I would endeavour to seek out tools and processes that allow our members to focus on the work of policy development and have to worry less about the administration of such matters.
3. Oversight of the WHOIS review and replacement process. We have a huge amount of work coming over the next 2-4 years in assessing and hopefully replacing the current WHOIS, I would look to work very closely with our members to ensure that we have a consistent approach over all of the working groups and that the voice of NCSG is heard loudly, clearly and with power and authority in representing non-commercial interests in this critical period of ICANN’s evolution.
4. Bridge building. Recently we have found common ground with other constituencies in ICANN, with a prime example being the collaboration between NCSG members and RrSG members on the Privacy Proxy Services Accreditation Issues working group. I think that finding common goals and aspirations that we share with other constituencies is important and that we become a powerful voice when we speak together. I would hope to work to find those common goals and to build relationships where appropriate with both the CSG and the contracted parties where appropriate to facilitate the goals of NCSG’s policy agenda.