[NCUC-DISCUSS] Candidate Statement (Farell FOLLY)

[Farell Folly]

Dear All,
please find my statement below. I am sorry to be long but it demonstrates
the complexity level our constituency has reached. For a better lisibility,
you can read the document on google drive here
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JsGJyL1GRhmL83GZaLzFfTNGDVUwZkwtWaJQ3r9UZmQ/edit?usp=sharing>
 (read-only).

* Name, declared region of residence, gender, employment, other
volunteering experience

Farell FOLLY, Africa, Male, IT Security Expert – Network Engineer;
Technology Champion of Africa 2.0 Foundation (www.africa2point0.org)

* Any conflicts of interest : None.

1.     Why?

The NCUC is an important actor within the ICANN ecosystem. As you know, we
are the voice of all “potential” domain name registrants and non-commercial
Internet users. We advocate for the rights of consumers, non-commercial
entities, and individual users of the Domain Name System. Today, the NCUC
is bigger than ever and dealing with more and more consequential issues.
>From a recent report on ICANN diversity data
<https://www.afnic.fr/medias/documents/Dossiers_pour_actualites/2016_Icann_Diversity_Data.pdf>,
ICANN must acknowledge this evolution, and if the NCUC handles this
diversity issue in an elegant and appropriate way, we can become a model
for others to follow. Becoming more diverse will also help make more
democratic decisions, foster richer debate, create more efficient policy,
and build greater institutional legitimacy and vitality. I want to serve on
the Executive Committee as your Chair to promote diversity across our
membership, discussions and leadership positions -- and show the rest of
the ICANN community what we are doing right.

2.     About me

I have a Master of Sciences in Telecommunications and Computer Networks
from the Royal Military Academy of Brussels, Belgium, where I lived for
seven years from 2001 – 2008. I had a field grade of Capt when I worked for
the United States Africa Command stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. I was
working group chairman and technical director of the Africa Endeavour
program which aims at improving communication interoperability among armed
forces from Africa, US, and NATO countries. When I left the army as an
active officer, I worked in the telecommunications regulatory area, ICT
promotion and Internet governance; and have many times chaired workings
groups and organized conferences/workshops.

My journey into the ICANN community began in 2013 when I met the former
CEO, Fadi Chehadé, at IGF 2013 and discussed diversity issues. However, as
a network engineer, I started working with IANA a long time ago to
implement IPv4 networks with its supporting protocols. I began contributing
in ICANN ASO through my membership in the Africa Internet Registry
(AFRINIC) in 2012. Subsequently, I entered the DNS area with discussions on
ccTLDs and realized that still much more work needed to be done in this
field compare to IP domain which was mostly concerned about the migration
from IPv4 to IPv6. Consequently, I responded to the GNSO call in 2015 for
volunteers to contribute to the next-Gen RDS PDP.

Last year, while working for the United Nations in Mali, I decided to
pursue a PhD in Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT). In fact,
many recent reports proved once more that DNS implementation are very (if
not the most) concerned with cyberattacks within the Internet ecosystem,
while IoT tends to complexify the situation.

3.    Time commitment

As a researcher I have a flexible timetable and can devote as much time as
is needed to accomplish NCUC tasks, such as preparing for meetings,
conferences, and outreach events. In general, I will make myself  available
for at least 10 hours per week, and up to 20 hours if needed, to grow the
NCUC.

4.    Communication

My communication strategy will adapt to the three types of audiences that
the NCUC encompasses: newcomers, (engaged) members, and the global
community/others stakeholders.

When I joined the NCUC, I found it very difficult as a newcomer to
understand the ecosystem. I did not want my hand held, however, without an
intrinsic motivation, I firmly believe that no newcomer can reach an
acceptable level of engagement. I recognize the efforts of the current
leadership team to implement the onboarding program,the FAQ, and focal
points to coach newcomers, but I think there is still room for improvement.
Therefore I will use monthly webinars targeted at newcomers so that EC and
focal points can discuss the NCUC’s mission and objectives with them, and
they can also express their own views and positions, so that an efficient
coaching mechanism can be launched at an earlier stage of their membership.

With all engaged members, discussions will happen using the traditional
discussion lists, webinars, periodic meetings and any other channel that
seems appropriate for a particular situation (Adobe, Skype, WhatsApp,
etc.). The more a member shows engagement to the NCUC, the more likely
he/she is to receive a grant or travel support which he/she applies for.
Decision-making processes will always be democratic, transparent, and
objective.

Our website, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook will be used to reach out and
engage more with the community. Capacity building and outreach events will
be conducted periodically and assessed to ensure they are successful. I
will encourage engaged members to maintain blogs and talk about their work
engagement in order to demonstrate to others what they are doing within our
community that reflects NCUC mission.

5.    Plan and goals

I will focus on fostering diversity, membership efficiency, setting up a
roadmap for the NCUC, and on fundraising to ensure our long-term
sustainability and the enlargement of our endowment so that we can support
the participation of more and more members to attend ICANN meetings.

About the roadmap

The most critical thing I will work on after being sworn in as Chair is
setting up a clear roadmap for the NCUC. In fact, we have already updated
our bylaws and written for the first time our operational procedures, with
thanks to the current leadership and their determination to achieve that.
What we now need is to have a steady leadership and management capacity.
For me, that means that we need to set up at least a five-year agenda (the
timescale can be discussed later) associated with our vision and
objectives. EC term is a maximum of two consecutive one-year terms, that is
quite enough but if we keep letting the Chair decide the mid- and long-term
goals for the constituency, we’ll keep changing goals every election, and
this will compromise our efficiency. Once we have our roadmap, all newly
elected Chairs must reasonably comply with this vision, but they will of
course have the autonomy to chart the course to achieve the objectives
using their own methods, means, and style. Setting up a longer term agenda
for the NCUC will be a collaborative work with all the members, and it can
be reviewed periodically to cope with changes in the ecosystem. Policies
related to users/data privacy and human rights will have a bigger place in
that agenda.

Diversity

Diversity will guide every single decision I take as Chair. Following the
recent report of ICANN on diversity
<https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/59643308/Diversity%20-%20English%20version.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1468432893000&api=v2>,
I would like the NCUC be the model and reference point for diversity within
Internet governance ecosystem. We cannot continue talking on behalf of the
vast majority of Internet users we claim to defend without increasing their
means to engage with us. Those “potential” Internet users are mostly
non-native English speakers, living in developing countries with a very
weak Internet access and are to be affected by most of our decisions.
Language barriers prevent many of our current NCUC members from fully
participating in discussions. I am a candidate that intends to represent
and promote that diversity. If I am elected as chair I will increase our
diversity using the following ICANN and community-recognized set of criteria
<https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/59643308/Diversity%20-%20English%20version.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1468432893000&api=v2>
:


   -

   Geographical origin: to make sure that everybody counts, especially
   under-represented voices.
   -

   Language: during my term as chair, I will work on implementing means to
   facilitate spontaneous discussions in two or more languages (out of the
   seven  ICANN recognised languages) within the discussions lists.
   -

   Gender: we will seek gender balance among our membership, leading by
   example
   -

   Backgrounds and Ideology: I will seek for balance between all kind of
   members: technical, legal, lawyers, academic, sociologist, journalists,
   random users, arts, etc.
   -

   Last but not least, openness is also a very critical criterion for
   diversity. It will favor newcomers, women membership and youth innovation.


It is also recognised that there are other forms of diversity (including
age, professional experience, sexual orientation, nationality, parents);
the above criteria is not set in stone nor should it be seen as fixed.

Membership

Our membership is so critical to our growth because it can offer us the
human resources and the skills required to accomplish our mission.
Therefore, it won’t be enough to solely rely on the number of members. I
will measure my success not by growing our membership, but by making sure
we have the right people in our constituency, and that they are ready to
work and to deliver the necessary changes. Focal points will have a crucial
role in engaging with members in policy discussions and will lead NCUC
sub-teams to get involved in their associated area of expertise.
Consequently, call for public comments will be directed to sub-teams first,
before proceeding in a reasonably hierarchical manner throughout the
membership, NCSG Policy Committee, and Executive Committee. In addition,
internal mechanisms to recognize the efforts of valuable people will be put
in place in order to stimulate and reward active engagement. Furthermore,
we will have set metrics to approve outreach events, and equally, metrics
to assess their effectiveness and return on investment.

Funding

The organization is getting bigger but our endowment and resources are not
growing at the same pace. Consequently, we need to work on a funding plan
that will support our agenda. Together with the EC, we’ll work on how we
can get more funding. I am sure that several members, myself included, have
strong networking connections that we can leverage to raise funds.

-- 
Regards
@__f_f__
https://www.linkedin.com/in/farellf
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