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All,<br>
I would like to express support for people who joined the NCUC with
the energy and spirit I remember from the early days: Raoul Plommer
(Europe) and Renata Aquino Ribeiro (Latin America & Caribbean).
Both of them have brought a new wave of energy that I remember from
the early days - jumping up to the microphone at the Public Forum,
attending an array of sessions, mentoring Fellows and steering
people to NCUC and increased involvement in ICANN.
<p>I thank both of them for jumping into the NCUC -- and welcome
their energies to ICANN and (hopefully) NCUC leadership.<br>
</p>
<p>Best, Kathy</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/18/2016 2:10 PM, Raoul Plommer
wrote:<br>
</div>
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cite="mid:CADirp9QTKWR1Y2ne8QWJ-gBW3sRPWA1F9a1KA11U4C8Jp3dqVg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
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<div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0,32,96)">Raoul Plommer, Europe,
male and free as in unemployed;</span><span
style="font-family:"ms
mincho";color:rgb(0,32,96)">
</span><span
style="color:rgb(0,32,96)"> <br>
I have no conflicts of interest in working with the NCUC..</span><br>
<br>
Hi, my name is Raoul and I'm too honest for my own good.<br>
<br>
I've been a member of NCUC for approximately one year now
and I have to say that I'm very pleased to have joined. <br>
<br>
First and foremost, It has given me an opportunity to expand
my network of people, who fight globally for the same issues
as I have done, as a member of the Pirate party, Electronic
Frontier Finland and lately Open Knowledge International. <br>
<br>
</div>
I woke up politically in 2008, because of internet censorship
in Finland. I realised that our government is willingly giving
away our hard earned rights and nobody was fighting it
visibly. I decided to become a part of resistance that is
focused on hanging on to our rights, on-and-offline.<br>
<br>
No parliamentary party was arguing against censorship and the
Finnish Pirate Party was found a few months after they started
using the blocklist in February. Naturally, we copied most of
our platform from the Swedish Pirate Party, and were formed to
reform laws regarding copyright and patents, to strengthen the
individual's right to privacy and freedom of speech and the
transparency of governance. <br>
<br>
Sound familiar? Vote for a pirate! <br>
<br>
We are a political movement to disperse power through free
information and open governance, and we believe that people
with an access to free communication, culture and knowledge
grow and create a more enjoyable and humane society for
everyone to live in. I'd say we are anarchists that believe in
change through parliamentarism, so not quite the usual
suspects.<br>
<br>
</div>
I am telling you this, because this is pretty much all I do
these days. Being a pirate and fighting for human rights makes
me happier than anything I've ever done in my life. That is why
I am in the NCUC. Why else would one be here? <br>
<div>
<div><br>
I would be highly motivated to excel at my work, was I
chosen to become a member of this Executive Committee. Alas,
my academic achievements are probably the least impressive
of all the people in ICANN, but I'm not going to let that
stop me, or even be belittled for it. I have been working to
defend these rights and study them at my own discretion and
I have drive that academia can't give you. It's made of
conviction and fire. I am willing to work tens of hours per
month for this position and I will use some of them, to
empower all of us.<br>
<br>
In the years I've been actually paid for what I do, I've
been an accountant, financial analyst, executive secretary
or in some other administrative role, so I've been proven to
cope with mundane things, too. Lately, I've started
designing websites, sold a few and hopefully will eventually
be able to get and income from that, based anywhere in the
world, with a flexible schedule, to have more freedom for
the things I love. But that stage is still some years away.<br>
<br>
I feel that I have a different perspective to most other
people in the NCUC and I think I could provide some useful
insights on making our work more easily approachable as well
as making outside people in our networks more aware of what
ICANN does and how it affects the whole internet. I excel in
putting things in layman's terms, but ICANN is a tough nut
to crack. I will need our community's help in doing it.<br>
<br>
To my positive surprise, ICANN <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.icann.org/news/blog/icann-kicks-off-open-data-initiative-pilot">published
an initiative</a> for Open Data while we were in Hyderabad
and that will get OKI more interested in <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blog.okfn.org/2016/08/19/opinion-piece-why-open-knowledge-international-should-join-icann/">joining
our work</a>. There are a lot of people and chapters
around the world working to advance Open Knowledge and I
think their expertise in opening data, would be invaluable
to the NCSG. They would also be able to join ICANN meetings
relatively easy, for the global nature of their <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://okfn.org/network/">network</a>.
I will follow this up persistently in any case.<br>
<br>
I'm planning to introduce some new tools for our members'
use, that will make it easier for our whole community to
know what's going on and what work needs to get done. Such
tools could include Slack, Trello and Hackpad and I would
also like to apply the NCUC to become a member of TechSoup,
that gives licenses to non-commercial entities for free.
This would improve our members' capability to work
elsewhere, too.<br>
<br>
In my eyes, the NCUC does not have even close to it's fair
share of the hierarchical power structure within ICANN. A
great example of this is our single seat at the Nominating
Committee, which wheels a great deal of power in selecting
the leaders of the ICANN community, such as seats on the
Board and the GNSO. I am set to do something about this
deplorable situation and I have already been discussing this
with some members of the board as well as other stakeholder
groups' leaders even though they must be wondering "who the
hell is this guy?" So far, I feel really quite optimistic
after the reactions I've had. I'd say more than half of the
people weren't even aware of our tiny share (1/7) and I will
keep pushing another seat for the NCSG until it's ours.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>I have the two most accessible passports in the world,
the British and the Finnish, and they each give you access
to 176 countries without a visa and I love travelling. I am
broke as a joke but not in debt and I will earn my future
travel funding through hard work. This much I can promise.
You just need to give me this final nudge as validation.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>-Raoul<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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