Agree with Pascal. Look within before going out.<br><br>On Saturday, December 16, 2017, Pascal Bekono <<a href="mailto:pbekono@gmail.com">pbekono@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Ayden,</div><div><br></div><div>I agree with you in some points. Indeed, our common purpose is outcome.</div><div><br></div><div>Yes, we all have different backgrounds, in that way, if your idea is adopted, I will suggest that before going for external experts, we shall look at experts amongst us through selection criterias.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div><div>~pascal</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">2017-12-16 10:25 GMT+01:00 Ayden Férdeline <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:icann@ferdeline.com" target="_blank">icann@ferdeline.com</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div>I do not see the NCUC as a school; we need to as professional - and as coordinated (if not more so) - as our colleagues in the private sector if we want to effect real change. Remember what our values are and what we are here to protect and support: non-commercial communication and activity on the Internet, be that personal or political speech, academic research, or even expression about hobbies, interests, and ideas. This is too important to leave to experimentation.<br></div><div><br></div><div>We all have different backgrounds, and ICANN has generously provided us with the support to upskill and to develop our own capabilities through initiatives like the policy writing course. But none of this is a substitute for actually reading the source documents and analysing how they relate to the issues inside and outside of the ICANN ecosystem that we track. Or, rather, should be tracking.<br></div><div><br></div><div>I am more focused on the outcome — making sure the principles of free expression, privacy and data protection, fair use, freedom of association, and due process are evident in ICANN activities — than I am on the measures employed to deliver that outcome. If we need external help to instil these things, we need external help.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes, Ayden<br></div><div><div><div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>-------- Original Message --------<br></div><div>Subject: Re: Additional Budget Requests: What activities do we want ICANN to fund<br></div><div>Local Time: 12 December 2017 3:05 PM<br></div><div>UTC Time: 12 December 2017 15:05<br></div><div>From: <a href="mailto:arsenebaguma@GMAIL.COM" target="_blank">arsenebaguma@GMAIL.COM</a><br></div><div>To: <a href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a><br></div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div><div>I kind of agree that we may need to explore that idea of hiring a consultancy firm. <br></div><div><br></div><div>A quick question would be: for how long are we gonna use the services of such a firm? I believe a good reasoning (in our application for additional budget) would be to request it for a certain period of time (to be determined) and then as part of the package, ask the same firm to provide targetted/specialized capacity building program for those of our members who are already involved in public comment drafting so that they can take the lead afterwards. But i believe we have this aspect already coverd by the policy course?<br></div><div><br></div><div><div>Unless we want to totaly rely on such a firm to forever provide this kind of support, which i am worried might not be approved by ICANN and probably would not be valuable for us in terms of sustainability and on long term run. I see the NCSG as a sort of school, giving its members the unique opportunity that we are not receiving anywhere else to be involved in public comments, which is real policy work that we do here at ICANN.<br></div></div><div>I also used to believe that one of the things that make the NCSG different from other groups within ICANN is our ability (so far) to produce our own policy materials and not rely on staff support or such an independent firm to do the work for us. But, I now do agree that we need help in order to be effective and timely in comments drafting.<br></div></div><div>We might need to find the right balance here. Just been thinking outloud :)<br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><br></div><div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>------------------------<br></div><div>*<a href="http://about.me/ArseneTungali" target="_blank"><b>Arsène Tungali</b></a>*<br></div></div><div>Co-Founder & Executive Director, <span><i><a href="http://www.rudiinternational.org" target="_blank">Rudi international</a></i>,</span><br></div><div>CEO,<i> <a href="http://www.smart-serv.info" target="_blank">Smart Services Sarl</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.mabingwa-forum.com" target="_blank">Mabingwa Forum</a></i> <br></div><div>Tel: <a href="tel:+243%20993%20810%20967" value="+243993810967" target="_blank">+243 993810967</a><i></i><br></div></div><div>GPG: 523644A0<i></i><br></div><div><u>Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo</u><i><br></i></div><div><div><a href="http://tungali.blogspot.com/2015/06/selected-for-2015-mandela-washington.html" target="_blank">2015 Mandela Washington Felllow</a> (YALI) - ISOC Ambassador (IGF <a href="http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/education-and-leadership-programmes/next-generation-leaders/igf-ambassadors-programme/Past-Ambassadors" target="_blank">Brazil</a> & <a href="http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/education-and-leadership-programmes/next-generation-leaders/Current-Ambassadors" target="_blank">Mexico</a>) <span style="font-family:monospace,monospace">- <a href="http://afrisig.org/afrisig-2016/class-of-2016/" target="_blank">AFRISIG 2016</a> - </span><a href="http://tungali.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Blogger</a> - ICANN's <a href="https://gnso.icann.org/en/about/gnso-council.htm" target="_blank">GNSO Council</a> Member.<i> </i>AFRINIC Fellow<i> </i>(<a href="http://www.afrinic.net/en/library/news/1907-afrinic-25-fellowship-winners" target="_blank">Mauritius</a>)<i> - </i><a href="http://www.igfsa.org/" target="_blank">IGFSA Member</a> - Internet Governance - Internet Freedom.<i> </i><br></div><div><br></div><div>Check the <i>2016 State of Internet Freedom in DRC</i> report (<a href="http://cipesa.org/?wpfb_dl=234" target="_blank">English</a>) and (<a href="http://cipesa.org/?wpfb_dl=242" target="_blank">French</a>)<br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div>2017-12-09 3:44 GMT+02:00 Stephanie Perrin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:stephanie.perrin@mail.utoronto.ca" target="_blank">stephanie.perrin@mail.utoront<wbr>o.ca</a>></span>:<br></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><p><span style="font-size:undefinedpx"><span style="font-family:Lucida Grande">I agree with Ayden,
and in particular I would identify research and preparing
briefing papers in order to bring our new people up to speed,
as key activities we could use help on. Some of us are happy
to mentor, but the folks who want mentoring need materials to
read, questions and answers, prior to discussing issues with
potential mentors. We can't just throw them at the ICANN PDP
websites and wikis, it is overwhelming to scan through the
amount of material and resource documents one has to read.
That kind of help from a research firm would be useful, and I
agree with Ayden that we may want to hire a different kind of
resource than the one the RySG is using, which should be
permissible. Although, there are certainly firms like that
who work with NGOS of all kinds.</span></span><br></p><span><span style="color:#888888"><p><span style="font-size:undefinedpx"><span style="font-family:Lucida Grande">Stephanie Perrin</span></span><br></p></span></span><div><div><div><br></div><div>On 2017-12-08 20:14, Ayden Férdeline
wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>Farzaneh, thanks-<br></div><div><br></div><div>I have two suggestions.<br></div><div><br></div><div>1) As the NCSG and its constituencies scale and mature, we
may want to become more independent than we are today from
ICANN. Is it possible to request a budget for professional
services so that we can receive advice on whether becoming our
own legal entity is a possibility - and desirable?<br></div><div><br></div><div>2) Another suggestion - and one which I appreciate will not
have support from all our members - is to explore the
possibility of hiring external consultants to aid us in our
policy work. Other ICANN communities receive support from WBC
Global in writing first drafts of their public comments. I am
aware that the Business Constituency, Intellectual Property
Constituency, Internet Service Providers and Connectivity
Providers Constituency, and the Registries Stakeholder Group
accept this assistance. They receive support from WBC advisers
for up to 20 public comments per year. We refuse this assistance
and I continue to maintain that this is a mistake. <a href="http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/comments-fy18-budget-08mar17/attachments/20170330/8e8238e7/RySGcommentonDocumentDevelopmentandDraftingProgram-0001.pdf" title="http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/comments-fy18-budget-08mar17/attachments/20170330/8e8238e7/RySGcommentonDocumentDevelopmentandDraftingProgram-0001.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">According to a document</a> that I
found on the ICANN website from the RySG:<br></div><div><br></div><div><i>"Our Document Development and Drafting Research Assistant,
Wim Degezelle, made a significant contribution in his role of
drafting comments to complex public comments. His ability to
research a topic, communicate with those in the RySG who may
have some more in-depth knowledge of the issues/topics at
hand, and then prepare and present salient observations and
suggested comments has been of incredible benefit to the RySG.
Wim’s role facilitated participation by RySG members who don’t
use English as their first language, and better enabled
engagement by smaller (or new) registry operators who have
limited bandwidth, resources and/or knowledge that restrict
their participation in issues that may have a direct impact on
their operations. In fact, we saw a notable increase in
participation by volunteers to partner (or even take a lead
role) in developing and/or contributing to critical issues
requiring formal comments by the RySG."</i><br></div><div><br></div><div>When communities with more resources than us are accepting
assistance in drafting their comments, and we do not (for a
number of very valid reasons), I worry that we exacerbate our
disadvantages.<br></div><div><br></div><div>I understand that one of the concerns regarding WBC Global
was that they describe themselves as a "Leading international
trade government relations consulting firm serving multinational
clients ... offer[ing] public policy, political and strategic
business advice to Fortune 500 and other companies". There are
concerns, rightfully so, that they may not be best positioned to
write comments through a civil society lens. But can we instead
request our own budget, and work with ICANN [I am not entirely
familiar with their procurement processes] to choose our own
consulting firm? We're swamped. We need help.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes,<br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div>Ayden Férdeline<br></div><div><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline" rel="nofollow" title="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline" target="_blank">linkedin.com/in/ferdeline</a><br></div></div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>-------- Original Message --------<br></div><div>Subject: Additional Budget Requests: What activities do we
want ICANN to fund<br></div><div>Local Time: 7 December 2017 3:52 PM<br></div><div>UTC Time: 7 December 2017 15:52<br></div><div>From: <a href="mailto:farzaneh.badii@GMAIL.COM" target="_blank">farzaneh.badii@GMAIL.COM</a><br></div><div>To: <a href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a><br></div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default">We can submit
additional budget requests to ICANN to fund certain
activities. This year we got our NCSG policy course
approved. What do you think the need of our stakeholder
group is for next year? What should ICANN fund for us? <br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default">Please send your
ideas my way, and remember that there are many
restrictions to the sort of funding we get. For example, we
probably won't be able to get funding to support travelers
for ICANN meetings we could try but it might be turned
down. Here is the link to additional budget request
announcement: <a href="https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-12-05-en" target="_blank">https://www.ican<wbr>n.org/news/announcement-2017-1<wbr>2-05-en</a><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default">Note that we will
discuss the ideas with NCSG Executive Committee, select
some, develop them and submit the requests on behalf of
NCSG. I advise against submitting additional funding
request on your own. <br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default">Best<br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif" class="gmail_default">Farzaneh<br></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>
</blockquote><br><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><div><div><b>WISDOM DONKOR (S/N Eng.)</b><br></div><div>E-government, Internet Governance & Open Government Data Platforms Specialist<b><br></b></div><div>ICANN Fellow / Member, UN IGF MAG Member, ISOC Member,<br></div><div>Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) Member, Diplo Foundation Member,</div><div>OGP Open Data WG Member, GODAN Member, ITAG Member<br></div></div><div><div>Email: <a href="mailto:wisdom.dk@gmail.com" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">wisdom.dk@gmail.com</a></div><div>Skype: wisdom_dk</div><div>facebook: facebook@wisdom_dk<br></div><div>Website: <a href="http://www.data.gov.gh/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.data.gov.gh</a><br></div><div><a href="http://www.isoc.gh/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.isoc.gh</a> / <a href="http://www.itag.org.gh/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.itag.org.gh</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br>