Chosen from a field of 97 applicants, there were 29 Fellows from 21 countries participating in the 35th ICANN International Public Meeting held in Sydney last month. These individuals represented various sectors of the ICANN community including 8 from the ccTLD community, 7 from Government, 5 each from Civil Society and the private sector, and 4 from Academia.
13 of the fellows are alumni from at least one of the past six programmes and all worked before the meeting to mentor and prepare the incoming group that included 10 first time ICANN meeting participants. The remaining 6 individuals had previously attended ICANN meetings, but are first time fellows and agreed that the experience was quite different and provided insight into the community that they had not been privy to while attending the meetings without this type of support. All of the ICANN regions were represented, though the emphasis for Sydney was on the Asia Pacific region as required by the Program Selection criteria. Fellows hailed from Albania, Armenia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Fiji, Haiti, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mongolia, Niue, Paraguay, the Philippines, Republic of Palau, Pakistan, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sudan, Trinidad, Vanuatu, and Yemen.
The daily morning sessions are a mainstay of the program and mandatory for all participants. This meeting was supported by the growing fellowship alumni base, and included an introduction to the program, expectations of the week ahead and how to be involved in the ICANN community by 3 time alumni Siranush Vardanyan of Armenia, a presentation on the implementation of the AHTIC Internet Exchange Point (AIXP) in Haiti by alum Stéphane Bruno, .ht Admin Contact and Vice-President, AHTIC, and Jamaica’s Jeremy M. Whyte provided insight into DOT JM and the ccNSO, from a member and fellowship viewpoint. Stéphane also presented and was a member of the panel discussion for the ccNSO Tech Day, along with fellow alum Ajit Sharma of Fiji.
The remainder of the week brought a roundtable discussion with Janis Karklins, Chris Disspain, Avri Doria and Sebastian Bachollet, each representing their constituency and providing insight into such topics as ccIDN Fast Track and new gTLDs. Karen Lentz, ICANN’s manager of research and content, provided an update on the new gTLD Applicant Guidebook in another session, followed the next day by another roundtable on Security, Stability and Resiliency with John Crain, Greg Rattray and Yurie Ito. The last morning session on Friday was a breakfast with Tricia Drakes and members of the NomCom, who sat amongst the fellows providing for an environment of lively discussion and exchange of information. Anne Lord was also in attendance and discussed ISOC opportunities for the various regions and individuals.
The fellows stayed busy the entire week, attending sessions for the GAC, ccNSO, ALAC and gNSO meetings as well as various focused sessions on topics related to their interests or the priorities of the ir work or region. Adriatik Allamani, Republic of Albania, a first time attendee said the following, “ I believe that by participating and attending regular ICANN meetings and other supporting organisation meetings, I can further educate not only myself but others around me. Being involved with ICANN for a week has dramatically changed my view on concentrating only on my direct line of duty in the office. Now I am more interested in working with my colleagues in the management of our ccTLDs and I can say that as I get involved more with ICANN I will continuously build my knowledge and will strongly participate in policy making and what ever issue we faced in my country.”
Several other fellows made public comments at various meetings including the Operating Plan and Travel Support meetings, where Tracy Hackshaw of Trinidad and Tobago, along with Blaise Arbouet of Haiti and Naveed Haq of Pakistan each questioned current work and provided comment on the website.
We look forward to seeing many of these names and faces at future ICANN meetings, contributing to the many decision-making processes in ICANN such as public forums, supporting organizations and advisory committees, and perhaps even as potential members of the ICANN board.
To learn more about the Fellowships Program, please visit http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/