[bestbits] Nomination of Anja Kovacs for Steering Committee

Sat May 31 06:31:35 EDT 2014

Dear Pranesh and all,

Thank you for nominating me for the Best Bits Steering Committee. It will
be my pleasure to accept, for either position mentioned.

Below some more information to back up  my candidature.

With best regards,
Anja

*Your vision for Best Bits. What do you think you can contribute on the
steering committee?*

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.

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.

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.

*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?*

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).

*Familiarity with the existing statement of objectives
at http://bestbits.net/organizer/best-bits/
<http://bestbits.net/organizer/best-bits/> and the draft procedures
athttp://bestbits.net/wiki/main/procedures/
<http://bestbits.net/wiki/main/procedures/>.  (These are not written in
stone, but they are a useful guideline to our current practices.)*

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.

*Bio*

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.

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.

On 31 May 2014 06:35, Seun Ojedeji <seun.ojedeji at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Pranesh,
>
> sent from Google nexus 4
> kindly excuse brevity and typos.
> On 30 May 2014 21:29, "Pranesh Prakash" <pranesh at cis-india.org> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Seun,
> > I would leave it up to Anja to accept the nomination from the position
> > she feels more comfortable with.  Do you think that would be improper or
> > against the established process?
> >
> 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 :))
>
> Thanks and thanks too @Jeremy.
>
> Cheers!
>
> > Regards,
> > Pranesh
> >
> > Seun Ojedeji <seun.ojedeji at gmail.com> [2014-05-30 21:24:55 +0300]:
> > > I apologize for not being very familiar with bestbits processes, but I
> > > don't just get this idea of nominating same person for multiple region
> > >
> > > I am not sure I saw the provision of such in the call.
> > >
> > > Cheers!
> > >
> > > sent from Google nexus 4
> > > kindly excuse brevity and typos.
> > > On 30 May 2014 21:07, "Pranesh Prakash" <pranesh at cis-india.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear all,
> > > I would like to nominate Anja Kovacs for either the Asia regional
> position
> > > or a non-regional position.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Pranesh
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> ____________________________________________________________
> > >> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
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> > >>
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Pranesh Prakash
> > Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
> > T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
> > -------------------
> > Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
> > M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org
> > PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash
> >
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
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-- 
Dr. Anja Kovacs
The Internet Democracy Project

+91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs
www.internetdemocracy.in
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