[NCUC-DISCUSS] candidate statement - Stefania Milan (Europe)

[Milan, Stefania]

Hello NCUCers



Here goes my statement for the forthcoming election.



A recap for those whom I haven’t met yet, virtually or in real life: I am an Italian national, but have worked and lived in several European countries (and far beyond). Currently, I am based in Amsterdam. I am primarily an educator and a researcher, employed as assistant professor at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. I am fascinated by grassroots practices and self-organization in cyberspace. I am 11 months into my adventure as EC Representative for Europe, and I seek re-election. In what follow, I will try to explain why.



1. Why do you want to serve on the EC?

When I stood up for election last year, I did so moved by a desire to learn about the workings of ICANN, and to support civil society to make a difference within the organizations. Over these intense months, my energies have mostly been spent to ensure that our website was up and running (and, as much as I could, updated). Hardly any energy was left for more policy-oriented work. I think it is now time that I try to contribute at that level, too (starting from attending the NCSG's monthly policy meetings...).



And now the ‘ideological’ statement, which is not that different from last year’s. As an activist and as a researcher, I have spent the last 15+ years using and studying internet infrastructure in relation to people’s empowerment. As an activist and a citizen, I would like the internet to be different. Policy, as ‘boring’ as it might seem, is what creates the conditions for what people can do with technology. Hence, I want to do my share, making sure that civil society is represented at ICANN and in conditions to do its work in the best possible way.



Secondly, as a researcher I am interested in multi-stakeholder governance and participatory policymaking, and in the forms of exclusion that such governance models often afford. I like to think about ways in which we can encourage more participation from the fringes of civil society, and about how civil society can make an impact. Over the last year, I share my interest in ICANN with students, colleagues, and civil society groups, including internet activists and hackers, encouraging their involvement in NCUC. I would like to continue in my commitment to make sure that those vital resources and policy preferences are not excluded, and can find effective and meaningful ways to work within NCUC and ICANN more in general.



2. Provide a brief biography of recent experience, associations, and affiliations relevant to serving on the Executive Committee. Describe the relevance of your personal and professional experience to serve on the NCUC Executive Committee, and identify any conflicts of interests you might have.



I have been engaged in the internet governance debate, sometimes more closely sometimes observing from a distance, since my time as a student and a journalist, when I found myself covering the World Summit of the Information Society for a number of media (2003-2005). Back then, I was a member of the Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) campaign. More recently, I have held roles that brought me to think more actively about how the internet should look like, and engage in actual policymaking.



In 2012-2013 I served in the ICANN GAC representing my country, Italy, as an advisor to the Minister of Education, University and Research Francesco Profumo in the technocratic cabinet of Mario Monti. During that time, I had the chance to work along two main lines within the European Digital Agenda: digital citizenship and internet governance. I designed and ran several public consultations to facilitate citizen’s participation in decision-making; I created the guidelines regulating public consultations in the country. In addition, I drafted a very progressive charter of principles for the internet, which was itself opened for public consultation and spurred a much needed debate at country level. It was then that I got in touch with NCUC, as I was invited to present the charter and the consultation process at the NCUC Policy Conference organized in occasion of the Toronto ICANN meeting. I joined the NCUC following my disengagement with the Italian government, and the subsequent withdrawal from the GAC. (For the record: I am not involved in the current Italian experiment with the Internet Bill of Rights).



Since 2012 I am the co-chair of the Communications Policy Task Force<http://www.iamcr.org/ptf-about> of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), and in this capacity I coordinate the engagement of IAMCR members in a variety of policy arenas. I also sit in the International Council of IAMCR, where I was elected in 2012.



In April this year I joined the Internet Policy Observatory of the Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. There I regularly blog about civil society in internet governance.



I am connected with the grassroots tech community, and I contribute to keep radical techies abreast of the direction and decisions ICANN is taking. For example, this year I gave a few talks in hacker gatherings like the Techno-Activism Third Mondays. These people contribute a great deal to build and transform the internet. They embody very defined and highly principled policy preferences, I would like to bring these preferences inside NCUC and ICANN—although it is definitely not easy to bridge these realms.



Finally, I am fluent in a number of European languages, and I give talks in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish besides English. I would like to reach out also to the non-English-speaking communities, in recognition of the fact that language is often a barrier to active engagement.



I am not aware of any conflict of interest.



3. The EC performs several functional responsibilities for the Constituency.  What level of time commitment can you bring to your EC role on a weekly and overall basis?  Describe any concerns or limitations on your ability to attend online meetings of the Executive Committee and ICANN Meetings in person.



As an academic, I work on a busy but flexible schedule. As my experience with the EC tells me, I will be able to engage on a weekly basis, and to attend the ICANN (and associated) meeting in person as required (as I did this year).



4. Communication with the membership is critical. How would you keep members apprised of your EC-related activities?



This year I have taken good care of the website, although I fails in convincing members to blog! I plan to continue in my regular harassment of fellow NCUCers to make sure our website is more than a mere repository of old documentation. I would like our site to feature at least one blog post per month, starting from January 2015.



I am a member of a number of academic and activist mailing lists, and I plan to feed them with updates from the NCUC and ICANN more in general. I believe there is an interest for such information that is often not met. In addition, I plan to write regular blog posts to be offered to whoever is interested in publishing them on a regular basis. In addition, I plan to use regularly Twitter to share up-to-dates and commentaries from the NCUC privileged standpoint.



5. How do you foresee NCUC’s function, scale, or role changing in the future? What areas of ICANN policy, if any, need more attention and why?  Be concise (200 words maximum).



Over the last few years, ICANN has made a considerable effort in becoming more transparent and accessible. There is however still much to do, also in the framework of the IANA stewardship transition. NCUC is the organization that brings internet policy closer to the people, and that gives voice to their concerns—but civil society is still divided within ICANN. I would like to see civil society re-united under one umbrella constituency, as this would strengthen our voice.



In addition, NCUC should reach out and include more, and more diverse, voices, including those of the ones that have been so far at the margins (activist communities above all). This means an expansion in the depth, variety and continuity of members’ engagement.



Finally, last year I expressed my wish that NCUC would pay more attention to the issue-areas of privacy protection—and it happened (and not thanks to me)!



Many thanks for your attention.

Best,


Stefania




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