[discuss] Academic sector appointments to the 1net steering committee

Sat Dec 28 07:00:34 UTC 2013

Thanks for the update Milton, although this may be late. However, I will
suggest that in future, the process to nominating and selecting nominee be
made public as much as possible(borrowing from the process followed by
diplo to get CS nomination). You can imagine the response received within
that short period(it could have been more than 3 if people understood the
process and requirement early enough).

Cheers!
sent from Google nexus 4
On 28 Dec 2013 04:09, "Milton L Mueller" <mueller at syr.edu> wrote:

>  We've received 3 nominations of African ERN people - thanks for that
> (Seun, I assume you are responsible), I've sent it to our GigaNet Steering
> Committee for a selection. Due to the holidays it will take a week or so.
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Seun Ojedeji [seun.ojedeji at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Monday, December 23, 2013 4:52 PM
> *To:* Mawaki Chango
> *Cc:* Milton L Mueller; discuss at 1net.org
> *Subject:* Re: [discuss] Academic sector appointments to the 1net
> steering committee
>
> Hello Mawaki,
>
> I was about responding to Milton before seeing your mail. I am definitely
> not disputing Giganet(Milton) effort as i am actually not in any position
> to rate their effort since i only know Giganet from a distance. I have not
> also in any way say that "africa community" be vaguely put on a list of
> candidate.
>
> What i am however disputing is the timing that this is happening (after
> release of the nominee) and the initial approach used to source the
> nominees; if people are not aware (how will they participate).
> Nevertheless, i will communicate this to some of the education networks
> that i know (although i just checked the giganet site and can't seem to
> find any open call for nominee?).
>
> Ultimately, I guess we are all looking for what brings value to 1net
> amidst the realities of individual understanding of what is at stake for
> them.
>
> Regards
> On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 9:54 PM, Mawaki Chango <kichango at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Dear Seun,
>
>
>
> I had spent sometime around Giganet in recent past and I know about Milton
> and his activities in this domain, so I am allowing myself to say I find
> parts of your latest message quite unfair. I appreciate Milton offering to
> consider any name of a suitable candidate from Africa but not even member
> of Giganet anyone might want to put forward.
>
>   You mentioned collective entities a lot: Africa, Africa community,
> Research education networks, etc. but what is needed here most directly is
> an individual's name, or two (yes from Africa but) nobody can put 'Africa
> community' on a list of candidates! So if you know of a suitable candidate
> or those Research/education networks you mentioned that could have provided
> candidates, I'd suggest you take the message to them and ask them to do so.
> It is no one particular's issue to go around looking for stakeholders that
> are not involved in this space or aware of this process at this point in
> time; it is incumbent upon any one and all of us to so, if we are so
> inclined.
>
>
>
> Milton made it clear from the get go that he was speaking for Giganet and
> that Giganet was going to provide candidates from academic affiliation,
> which they did. It's a pity there was no volunteer from Africa, but still
> there is the possibility to propose a name from outside Giganet and it's up
> to anyone who's willing to do so to go ahead and do that.
>
>
>
> From what I know and understood from the exchange, what was meant is that
> the academic types often are reluctant spending time on academically
> unproductive stuff... things that do not advance their research,
> scholarship. That was in fact to explain why within Giganet they didn't get
> that many volunteers. Again, nothing to do with presuming Africa unable to
> handle this or that. In fact, while we further need a lot of capacity
> building in Africa, I don't think we're still at that point where anyone
> (even the most ignorant person about Africa  among us in this space) would
> think the whole continent lacks of capacity to field a candidate for the
> kind of work the /1net  SC is supposed to do. I wonder if you are not
> yourself unwittingly underestimating Africa (my turn to talk collective,)
> at least by the implications of your line of arguments. For apart from the
> names you mentioned, there were other early African players in the IG space
> who have chosen to retire from it (so you might not know them) such as
> Prof. Clement Dzidonou of Ghana and others from Senegal (am forgetting the
> names) and I'm sure from a number of other countries.
>
>
>
> It would be helpful that any candidate at this point be fairly familiar
> with aspects of IG and with the actors, given the nature of the decisions
> they will be participating in (unless they take time to go to other people
> to enquire and inform their decision every time.) I see you're affiliated
> to a university. If your profile is academic (as opposed to, say, IT
> support service at the university), I would encourage you to be candidate
> on the Giganet list and I'd be happy to support your candidacy.
>
>
>
> Cheers!
>
> Mawaki
>
>
>
>
>    -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
> *Mawaki Chango, PhD*
>
> *Founder & Principal, DIGILEXIS Consulting*
>
> http://www.digilexis.com
>
> m.chango at digilexis.com
>
> twitter.com/digilexis
> twitter.com/dig_mawaki
>
> Skype: digilexis
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 7:13 PM, Seun Ojedeji <seun.ojedeji at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>   On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 7:30 PM, Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu>
> wrote:
>
>  Seun:
>
>
>
> No Giganet member from Africa volunteered for the task. I suspect no one
> from Giganet (certainly not me) would object if a suitable academic
> candidate from Africa, not a member of Giganet, surfaced and asked to be
> considered. Suitability, I would insist, involves more than simply being
> from Africa however. They have to know what is going on, be reasonably
> familiar with the network of people involved in IG, aware of the diverse
> positions.
>
>
>
> This is the point and where we may always have some lapses. What is it
> that is going on that you think the Africa community may not know. Even if
> there are some experience that Africa does not have, shouldn’t that be the
> expected, afterall Africa is the most recent continent that got exposed to
> Internet so yes there may be some learning to do, however it does not mean
> there ain't knowledge that can be contributed otherwise Nii will not be
> recognised by ICANN, Nnenna will not be spotted by web foundation, and even
> the current leader(administrative)  of 1net (Adiel) will not be assigned
> this role.
>
>
>
>  So if you or anyone has specific recommendations to make, and that
> person(s) wants to be considered, I’d be happy to take this back to the
> GigaNet steering committee for modification. Unlike our friends in the ICC,
> we’re not too proud to make improvements in our work.
>
>
>
>  Was the call for volunteer shared with the academic communities in
> Africa OR just within Giganet?. I believe there are Academias who will
> definitely be interested and willing to serve if they are aware of this
> early enough and if they understood the nominating process. However, I am
> still wondering the role of GigaNet steering committee in this selection
> process....
>
>
>
>  Regarding volunteering, we made a point of noting that this 1net
> coordinating committee was not going to be a cute little feather one can
> put in one’s resume, but was going to be a lot of work that would not be
> related to the things academics specialize in: substantive proposals,
> scholarship, research or teaching; it would, instead, be a lot of email
> traffic and tedious reviewing of candidates for other positions that the
> 1net group will appoint and a lot of struggling and discussions to reach
> consensus among a large group. Possibly the low number of volunteers
> reflected a realistic attitude toward the nature of the committee.
>
>
>
>  Again this is not rocket science and if those on the list have flesh and
> blood then anyone who is willing from any part of the continent can do
> this. I don't want to think you are insinuating Africa will not be able to
> catch up because of the traffic demands? that should be the least of the
> reason and infact no reason at all. Yes Africa is still lagging behind with
> other part continents in relation to bandwidth, however its not as bad as
> not been able to handle non-relatime communications. There will ofcourse be
> low response if the information does not get to the right community list,
> its not an indication of access to Internet.
>
>
>
>  As for why Giganet, I would say, what other academic organization is
> focused on Internet governance, is aware of what is happening, and is ready
> to respond to the need in the time frame required? I doubt you can find
> any.
>
>
>
>  Just because Giganet is based on IG does not mean that it be used as an
> umbrella for all especially as it does not have its representation in most
> of the continent(Definitely not Africa). Also noting says that it must be
> an IG based organisation that provides nominees. There are research
> education networks which are continental based that can do the same and if
> an IG based organisation must do the presentation then it should be an
> organisation that has connection with relevant sectors. Just like DIPLO has
> great link with the civil society community and does a good job at ensuring
> good civil society representation in 1Net
>
>
>
>  Regarding US-centric, tosh! only one of the people on that list actually
> lives in the US, and he is an Indian native. Only one is a US citizen. One
> other has a temporary job affiliations to a US institution, but has strong
> ties to Tunisia as a result of his research. This is a highly transnational
> group, and scholarship and academia is one of the most globalized arenas.
>
>
>
>  You have mentioned 3 out of 5 that has strong US affiliation, so how
> many do we have left ;) Nevertheless i am not all about the numbers, but
> about fair representation.
>
>
>
> Cheers!
>
>
>
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> *Seun Ojedeji, Federal University Oye-Ekiti web:      *
> *http://www.fuoye.edu.ng <http://www.fuoye.edu.ng> **Mobile:
> +2348035233535 <%2B2348035233535>*
> *alt email: <http://goog_1872880453>seun.ojedeji at fuoye.edu.ng
> <seun.ojedeji at fuoye.edu.ng>*
>
>
>
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