<div dir="ltr"><div>Dear Pranesh and all,</div><div><br></div><div>Thank you for nominating me for the Best Bits Steering Committee. It will be my pleasure to accept, for either position mentioned. </div><div><br></div><div>
Below some more information to back up my candidature.</div><div><br></div><div>With best regards,</div><div>Anja</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><b>Your vision for Best Bits. What do you think you can contribute on the steering committee?</b></div>
<div><br></div><div>It is clear that we have come to a crucial juncture in Internet governance. The NETmundial highlighted the important challenges civil society faces in getting its voice heard effectively, but also the great value that lies in organising as global civil society. Now more than ever, to be able to affect a change, we need to build stronger fronts.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In line with the principles that have always guided its work, I believe Best Bits is and should be one important platform to build such fronts. In particular, it should do so across South-North divides. I will bring to the steering committee a strong commitment to make sure that voices and interests from the developing world, and especially from marginalised communities, are not simply "heard" or "represented", but that they fundamentally shape the work of Best Bits and its way forward. This commitment is based in my belief in human rights and social justice, in distributed Internet governance, and in the continued potential value of multistakeholderism for the deepening of democracy while recognising that realising this potential will require considerable reform. </div>
<div><br></div><div>I value collaboration and think that it is by strengthening its messaging and advocacy around points of agreement that civil society can really have an impact in global Internet governance. </div><div>
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri"><br></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><b>That you can commit time of up to several hours per week to devote to Best Bits. This may include facilitating the broader community of participants to organise meetings, draft joint statements or interventions, improve website resources, mediate disputes, etc. Where do you think your strengths lie?</b></font></span></div>
<div><br></div><div>I can commit the time required, and have over the previous year contributed in a range of ways, including in the organisation of meetings, contributing to joint statements and interventions, etc. However, I believe it is important that Best Bits starts to think more strategically and would like to work specifically towards a greater focus on that, as well as to developing the strong processes required to facilitate the evolution of Best Bits as a platform for diverse groups and opinions in that context (see also below). </div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri"><br></span></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Familiarity with the existing statement of objectives at </span><a href="http://bestbits.net/organizer/best-bits/" target="_blank">http://bestbits.net/organizer/best-bits/</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"> and the draft procedures at</span><a href="http://bestbits.net/wiki/main/procedures/" target="_blank">http://bestbits.net/wiki/main/procedures/</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">. (These are not written in stone, but they are a useful guideline to our current practices.)</span></b></font></div>
<div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></span></b></font></div><div>As one of the members of the interim steering committee, I have contributed to this statement of objectives and the draft procedures. That there is a need to further develop these was recognised in Bali, where a number of suggestions to do so were also made. However, there did not seem to be a consensus on whether or not the interim steering committee had a mandate to take his further. If confirmed for the steering committee in this election, this is one area where I would like to focus my energies, as also explained above. This includes the development of procedures for the internal functioning of the steering committee. </div>
<div></div><div><br></div><div><div><b>Bio</b></div><div><br></div><div>As many of you know, I direct the Internet Democracy Project in Delhi. India, which seeks to unearth the promises and challenges that the Internet poses for democracy and social justice in India and beyond, through research, advocacy and debate. My work at the Internet Democracy Project focuses especially on questions regarding freedom of expression in a broad sense (meaning we look at hate speech as a free speech issue, but also at surveillance, access, etc) and on the architecture of Internet governance (the future evolution of which we believe will have an important impact on the empowering potential of the Internet). I have also worked as an international consultant on Internet issues, including for the United Nations Development Programme Asia Pacific and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Mr. Frank La Rue, and have been a Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society and a Senior Research Associate with IT for Change, both in Bangalore, India.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Prior to focusing my work on the information society, I researched and consulted on a wide range of development-related issues. I have lectured at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, and Ambedkar University, Delhi, India, and have conducted extensive fieldwork throughout South Asia. I obtained my PhD in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia in the UK and have lived in India since 2001.<br>
</div></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 31 May 2014 06:35, Seun Ojedeji <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:seun.ojedeji@gmail.com" target="_blank">seun.ojedeji@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr">Hello Pranesh,</p>
<p dir="ltr"></p><div class="">sent from Google nexus 4<br>
kindly excuse brevity and typos.<br></div><div class="">
On 30 May 2014 21:29, "Pranesh Prakash" <<a href="mailto:pranesh@cis-india.org" target="_blank">pranesh@cis-india.org</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> Dear Seun,<br>
> I would leave it up to Anja to accept the nomination from the position<br>
> she feels more comfortable with. Do you think that would be improper or<br>
> against the established process?<br>
><br></div>
I have found that it's not, although from my understanding it seem the final elected position will then be determined by highest voted position per candidate. Looking forward to the election process as I think it's gonna be interesting (imagining a tie on both regional and non-regional for a candidate :))<p>
</p>
<p dir="ltr">Thanks and thanks too @Jeremy.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Cheers!</p><div><div class="h5"><br>
> Regards,<br>
> Pranesh<br>
><br>
> Seun Ojedeji <<a href="mailto:seun.ojedeji@gmail.com" target="_blank">seun.ojedeji@gmail.com</a>> [2014-05-30 21:24:55 +0300]:<br>
> > I apologize for not being very familiar with bestbits processes, but I<br>
> > don't just get this idea of nominating same person for multiple region<br>
> ><br>
> > I am not sure I saw the provision of such in the call.<br>
> ><br>
> > Cheers!<br>
> ><br>
> > sent from Google nexus 4<br>
> > kindly excuse brevity and typos.<br>
> > On 30 May 2014 21:07, "Pranesh Prakash" <<a href="mailto:pranesh@cis-india.org" target="_blank">pranesh@cis-india.org</a>> wrote:<br>
> ><br>
> > Dear all,<br>
> > I would like to nominate Anja Kovacs for either the Asia regional position<br>
> > or a non-regional position.<br>
> ><br>
> > Regards,<br>
> > Pranesh<br>
> >><br>
> >><br>
> >> ____________________________________________________________<br>
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> >><br>
> ><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Pranesh Prakash<br>
> Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society<br>
> T: +91 80 40926283 | W: <a href="http://cis-india.org" target="_blank">http://cis-india.org</a><br>
> -------------------<br>
> Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School<br>
> M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: <a href="http://yaleisp.org" target="_blank">http://yaleisp.org</a><br>
> PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash</a><br>
><br>
</div></div><p></p>
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<br>+91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs<br><a href="http://www.internetdemocracy.in/" target="_blank">www.internetdemocracy.in</a><br>
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