26 June 2017 – JOHANNESBURG – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2017 Multistakeholder Ethos Award. This year, the community evaluation panel recognized two long-time members of the ICANN community: Hiro Hotta and Patricio Poblete. The awards were presented today at ICANN59 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Multistakeholder Ethos Award honors members of the ICANN community who have made outstanding contributions to ICANN's multistakeholder model of Internet governance. Hiro Hotta and Patricio Poblete were selected from a list of 14 nominees as those who best demonstrate the spirit of collaboration, strongly promoting consensus. These recipients have proven their commitment to ICANN's multistakeholder model through decades of active participation and dedication.
The community panel felt that each recipient met the award criteria in distinctive ways and recognizes them for the examples they set in supporting and encouraging ICANN's multistakeholder model in their respective regions.
Hiro Hotta, based in Japan, was recognized for his unwavering commitment to volunteer service, serving in ICANN's community for over 18 years. Starting in 1999, he spent 2 years as a member of the Names Council of the ICANN Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO). He is one of the most long-standing members of its successor body, the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) Council. Hiro embodies the spirit of the Multistakeholder Ethos Award through his keenness to engage at all times with fellow councilors and other community members to mobilize consensus on critical policy decisions that affect the names community and ICANN.
Hiro also played a pivotal role in developing and deploying Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), including IDN country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). He spearheaded and contributed to multiple exercises to help communities across the Asia Pacific region to build meaningful Label Generation Panels. These panels ultimately led to the creation of IDN ccTLDs – making the global Internet truly multilingual, accessible, and available to all. Hiro's contributions to this effort cannot be overstated.
Chile's Patricio Poblete is recognized for his participation in the ICANN process before the incorporation of ICANN itself. Like Hiro, he was also a member of the DNSO. Patricio was instrumental in moving this diverse community forward to create what today are called the ccNSO, Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), Business Constituency, and Intellectual Property Constituency. He was then one of the original councilors of the ccNSO, on which he served until 2011.
Throughout his time in the ICANN community, Patricio has worked both with individuals and across communities to maintain a secure, stable, and trusted Internet that continues to evolve. His commitment to equity, access, and freedom of participation in the digital world has been unwavering. The ability to achieve consensus is the foundation on which the multistakeholder model is built, and Patricio epitomizes this aspect of the multistakeholder environment.
Patricio is unique in his ability to think globally while acting locally. Patricio was a driving force in building the Latin American and Caribbean TLD Association (LACTLD). He has worked tirelessly to ensure that the unique needs and views of the Latin American and Caribbean Internet community are represented globally. He served as an effective bridge between the policy and technical communities in Latin America, ICANN, and the Address Supporting Organization (ASO) – leading to the creation of the Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Center (LACNIC).
Launched in 2014 at ICANN50 in London, the Multistakeholder Ethos Award recognizes ICANN participants who have invested in consensus-based solutions, acknowledged the importance of ICANN's multistakeholder model of Internet governance, and contributed in a substantive way to the higher interests of ICANN's organization and community.