So I've nominated because I think I have skills and experience to make a contribution on the board.
I worked for 4.5 years as the Executive officer and VP at ICANN. I lived initially in Los Angeles and worked at the head office and then lived in Washington DC where I set up the ICANN office there, arguing for the ending of the Joint Project Agreement and being one of the writers of the Affirmation of Commitments - a new device to keep ICANN accountable and more transparent. I also ran their global meetings, was the spokesperson and ran the the corporate affairs function reporting to the CEO and dealing with the 21 member international board. Before that I was variously, a senior executive at two major infrastructure companies, a senior exec at Telstra and was a chief of Staff for state and federal ministers in a range of portfolios. I've also been a board member on two national infrastructure industry groups (the infrastructure partnerships and the Urban taskforce). Finally I've done volunteer work for the St Vincent de Paul and was on the NSW State board of Vinnies and have run my own consultancy. Presently I head up the Australian and New Zealand office of Intellectual Ventures, a Seattle based company invests in high tech invention.
But I also really believe that this work is very important - it's not some arcane entity that deals with a highly technical part of the Internet. It's decisions and the decisions of the administration affect people's livelihoods and their identities. This point was really driven home to me when I had to manage the collapse of RegisterFly - a US based registrar. The contempt with which they treated domainers and registrants was appalling. It destroyed businesses and placed almost intolerable stress on people. You can see one of the public blog posts I made about this at:
http://blog.icann.org/2007/03/kevin-...e-us-the-data/
Don't get me wrong - I'm NOT in suggesting that auDA is in any way like Registerfly! I'm simply saying that domain names and the policy around them affect people deeply - businesses, revenue, personal identity. And I don't think you can ever have enough people on the Board advocating that position.
And I'd be crazy if I didn't recognise on this forum the importance of domainers, the validity and importance of those business and the responsible way in which they conduct themselves.
So I've built over the years a level of passion about the topic that frankly I didn't think I would have if you'd asked me 10 years ago!
In addition to my experience in and around the domain name system, I'm also a registrant so I know how much of my online identity and my work is tied up in my domain. Incidentally you can find my site at paullevins.com
Finally I believe accessibility is crucial. You can email me at
paul@levins.net
Feel free to contact me via that or ask questions on this thread.
What else?....Ive got two kids and a long-suffering wife and I live in Sydney.
Anyway thanks again and thanks Ned for inviting me on!
Paul
