[WSIS CS-Plenary] Nomination of Karl Auerbach

[Adam Peake]

Milton, thank you for your passionate support for your nominee.

As I mentioned to Linda, could you follow the 
format mentioned in our earlier email (I am 
copying below), and send to this address

<igov at tla.crepundia.net>

We will collate all nominations.

Of course please also send to the plenary list if 
you wish, but suggest you strip any personal 
contact information.

The format below only asks for information about 
the caucus or working group submitting the 
nomination(s), we should also have something 
about any individual making a nomination: who you 
are, your relationship with the nominee (typical 
conflict of interest type of things.) Of course 
this would not be necessary for a self-nomination 
:-)

Kind regards,

Adam



[Individual members of the CS plenary may also 
submit nominations. Individuals should submit 
their nominations based on the criteria explained 
below.]

In making your caucuses/working groups 
recommendation, we request that you submit the 
following information, which will be passed on to 
Mr. Kummer, with the names of the candidates:

- Reliable contact information for the candidate; 
i.e. email, telephone, fax and postal address.

- A statement indicating the qualities that the 
person would bring to the WGIG.  While no 
particular content is being required, it is 
recommended that this section include a 
discussion of the concerns mentioned above and a 
discussion of the experience and perspective the 
candidate would bring to the WGIG discussions.

- A statement of the person's governance related 
affiliations.  That is information such as: which 
sector does the person belong to (government, 
industry or civil society), what caucuses/working 
groups do they participate in, employer, national 
background, and language skills.

- An indication from the candidate that they 
understand the work load they are volunteering 
for and that they are available during the 
expected period of deliberations.

- A short statement about your caucus/working 
group. Include information about the group's 
background and history, membership (numbers), and 
achievements or other information you think 
relevant. Please give a URL for a website if you 
have one.

It is recommended that these statements be no 
more then two pages in length. Candidate 
information will be collated and published on the 
Internet 
<http://www.too-much.tv/internet_governance/> 
(with candidates personal contact information 
removed.)

END

>I would like to submit the name of Karl Auerbach as a
>CS nominee for the WGIG. email: karl at cavebear.com
>
>Mr. Auerbach has been working on Internet technology
>since the early 1970's, and has been a long-time participant
>in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). He has
>worked for Cisco in the past, and has developed his own
>company dealing with network management issues. In
>addition to his technical work, Mr. Auerbach has been an
>attorney in California since 1978. 
>
>I consider Auerbach to be an ideal representative of CS
>on the Internet Governance Working Group, because of
>his campaign to make ICANN democratic and accountable.
>He is also committed to privacy rights, free expression, a
>decentralized Internet, and resistance to Internet's dominance
>by intellectual property interests. While ICANN was being
>created, Karl worked hard to ensure that it would be a
>membership organization that was open to civil society. He
>played an important role in ensuring that half of its Board
>would be selected through a global electorate. For two years
>ICANN's management attempted to eliminate, stall, or cripple
>those elections. When elections were finally held, Karl obtained
>a position on the ballot by petition, and decisively won the North
>American seat on the Board.
>
>The ICANN elections constituted a radical experiment in civil
>society participation in global governance. I believe that
>someone who was actually *elected* to a responsible position
>by thousands of civil society members has a special standing in
>the Internet Governance working group. It is rare that this
>exposure to the highly political side of Internet governance should
>be combined with the kind of technical knowledge that he has.
>He is also a very accessible, informal and friendly person.
>
>If you want to examine his service on the ICANN board, you can
>turn to his web page about it.
>http://www.cavebear.com/icann-board/index.htm
>Here is more biographical information
>http://www.cavebear.com/cavebear/karl.html
>
>It is well known that Karl was very critical of ICANN, but he is also
>very independent and is aware that some alternatives proposed are
>worse. One of his important achievements was to bring successful
>litigation requiring ICANN to open some of its records to the public.
>
>There are only two negative things that might be said about
>Mr. Auerbach as a nominee. One is that he has not been an
>active member of the WSIS activities. However, I hope this group
>is not so parochial as to think that all of civil society is
>encompassed
>by WSIS activists. One must remember that until November 2003,
>Internet governance and WSIS hardly intersected at all. By forming
>a WG focused on Internet Governance, the December Plan of Action
>required a consolidation and intersection of those elements of CS
>involved in ICANN with those CS elements involved in WSIS. Since
>December 2003, Mr. Auerbach has been recognized as an important
>participant in WGIG matters, being invited to the ITU's meeting in
>February and the UN ICT TF Global Forum in March.
>
>The other possible criticism is that Karl is focused exclusively on
>ICANN and does not see the bigger picture. To that I would answer,
>yes, of course, he knows the most about those aspects of Internet
>governance related to his direct experience in ICANN, but his
>training as an attorney and a technologist provides a much broader
>awareness of key issues. This includes issues such as intellectual
>property, free/open source software issues, and telecommunications
>policy and regulation.
>
>I hope you will support his nomination to the WGIG.
>
>--Milton Mueller
>
>
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