ICANN/GNSO


Barbara Simons

Nomination by Milton Mueller

Candidate Statement

  1. If I am elected to the ICANN Board, I pledge to:

    1. Create an advisory group of experts in technological, policy, economics, and the law;

    2. Work to build a decision-making process that is open and inclusive - and that involves two-way communications from the Board to the public and from the public to the Board;

    3. Establish well defined procedures that will allow sufficient time for people to read and comment on issues, proposals, and initiatives;

    4. Guarantee that policy decisions are initiated and made by the Board, not by the staff.

  2. Background and qualifications:

    3. The candidates have been asked to discuss personal qualities and consensus-building. I have had many years of functioning as a consensus builder in my volunteer work in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). As anyone who has worked with volunteers knows, the only way that one can get anything significant accomplished is by listening to what other people are saying and striving to develop a position that can be accepted by all.

    I have serving on several boards and committees, including the President.s Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption and the Information Technology-Sector of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion. I am a member of the Board of Directors of the U.C. Berkeley Engineering Fund, the Math/Science Network, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. I am also on the Advisory Boards of the Oxford Internet Institute.

    I was President of ACM from July 1998 until June 2000 and Secretary of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents in 1999. In 1993 I founded ACM.s US Public Policy Committee (USACM), which I currently co-chairs.

    My technical background enables me to bring insight and understanding to many of the issues with which ICANN is confronted. I have a Ph.D. in computer science from U.C. Berkeley, and I was a Research Staff Member at IBM's Almaden Research Center for many years. My work on clock synchronization won an IBM Research Division Award. I hold several patents and have authored or co-authored a book and numerous technical papers. Recently, I have been teaching technology policy at Stanford University.

    I am a Fellow of ACM and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the Berkeley Computer Science Department, the Norbert Wiener Award from CPSR, the Outstanding Contribution Award from ACM, and the Pioneer Award from EFF. I was selected by c|net as one of its 26 Internet .Visionaries. and by Open Computing as one of the .Top 100 Women in Computing.. Science Magazine featured me in a special edition on women in science.

  3. Understanding of ICANN:

    4. I have been involved with the ICANN process for many years. I was the runner-up in the at-large election for the N. America seat. I have also been involved with the Non-Commercial Constituency.

  4. Diversity:

    5. Women are significantly underrepresented on the ICANN Board.

  5. Familiarity with technical, policy, legal, business, and public interest aspects of ICANN:

    6. No single individual can be an expert in all the areas on which ICANN touches. That is why I will be creating a panel of experts to assist me with decision making.

  6. Willingness to serve and compensation:

    7. I am willing to serve. The only compensation I would expect is for my travel expenses to be covered by ICANN. I would be working on a pro bono basis, receiving compensation from no one for my time. As a result, I would be beholden to no special interests.

  7. Language and communication ability:

    8. My native language is English.

  8. Potential conflicts of interest:

    9. I have none. I shall be receiving no compensation for my time. I own no stock in any company that might even indirectly be associated with ICANN.

  9. Other issues:

    10. I have no conflicts of interest whatsoever.