Between 18 October and 1 November 2017, members of the SEEDIG community were invited to submit nominations for candidates for the SEEDIG executive committee. In line with Art.6 Section F of the Terms of Reference for the SEEDIG executive committee, this page contains information about nominations for the SEEDIG 2017 executive committee elections that meet the eligibility criteria. The nominees are listed in alphabetical order.
For each eligible nominee, the following information is provided:
- The nomination form;
- A candidate statement, outlining the candidate’s vision for SEEDIG over the following two years, as well as their expected contribution to achieving SEEDIG’s objectives;
- A transparency statement, containing information about the Internet governance processes and/or organisations the candidate is involved with, on a voluntary and/or paid basis, as well as the nature of this involvement.
Nominations
1. Dušan Caf | Private sector | Slovenia
2. Sasho Dimitrijoski | Government | North Macedonia
3. Lianna Galstyan | Technical community | Armenia
4. Su Sonia Herring | Civil society | Turkey
5. Narine Khachatryan | Civil society | Armenia
6. Fotjon Kosta | Government | Albania
7. Olga Kyryliuk | Civil society | Ukraine
8. Domen Savič | Technical community | Slovenia
9. Sorina Teleanu | Civil society | Romania
1. Dušan Caf
Organisation: Digital Society Institute (DIGITAS Institute)
Stakeholder group: Private sector
Country of origin: Slovenia | Country of residence: Slovenia
Age: Between 35 and 55
Gender: Male
Motivation: Dr. Dušan Caf is director of the Digital Society Institute (DIGITAS Institute), which is focused on digital policies, regulation, internet governance and digital accessibility.
He is a member of the Slovenian IGF Steering Committee and the driving force for hosting SEEDIG 2018 in Ljubljana.
Dušan has been active in the area of Internet Governance for many years. He has been involved with the IGF since 2015, when he presented a Slovenian zero-rating case at the Internet Governance Forum in João Pessoa, Brazil, and with SEEDIG since April 2016. He is also a member of the Digital Society Forum, a digital policy think tank, and a member of the National Communications Council.
He has been a digital rights advocate and has successfully led several campaigns, bringing together different stakeholders, aimed at promoting affordable internet access, open internet, and net neutrality in Slovenia and EU. His policy analysis and articles related to net neutrality and zero-rating were cited by leading scholars in the field.
His areas of expertise include policy and regulation in electronic communications and internet, information and ICT accessibility, privacy, data protection and information security. He was a fellow and lecturer at Faculties of Information Science and Applied Social Studies, fellow at the Jožef Stefan Institute, and a visiting researcher at Loughborough University.
Between 2011 and 2016, Dušan served as chairman of the Electronic Communications Council of the Republic of Slovenia, the body appointed by the National Assembly to provide advice and directions on the development of electronic communications in the Republic of Slovenia. He was also chairman of the Council of the Agency for Communication Networks and Services of the Republic of Slovenia.
Dušan has experience working in multi-stakeholder and multicultural environments. As an adviser on policy, regulation and institutional setup, he was involved with the United Nations Development Programme and participated in several regional initiatives aimed at stimulating the development of the information society in South Eastern Europe.
He was a founding member of the group that brought together ministers from the region who met in Ljubljana and signed the declaration for the development of the Information Society in South Eastern Europe. Dušan also exercised a profound influence in bringing to the attention of authorities the work of the Slovenian IGF and SEEDIG in particular that serves as an example of successful regional multi-stakeholder cooperation.
Nominator: Peter Sterle, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Slovenia, government
The South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance (SEEDIG) is a pre-eminent example of regional cooperation. I really enjoyed my first SEEDIG meeting with vivid discussions within as well as outside the sessions. The whole community was very open and I established strong relationships with colleagues from the whole region.
For three of the founding members of the Slovenian Internet Governance Forum, SEEDIG was a great inspiration and motivation for a successful launch of the national initiative. A new challenge is ahead of us next year, with hosting SEEDIG in Ljubljana. Our goal is to bring more visibility to, and open up new possibilities for SEEDIG to attract more institutional support within the region.
The outgoing Executive Committee has done a great job. In just three years, SEEDIG has become a leading platform for a multi-stakeholder collaboration in South Eastern Europe and the neighbouring areas. It has put the region into the spotlight of the international internet governance community.
All three annual events were well organised. The annual reports indicate the significant progress made since 2015 in strengthening the regional internet governance dialogue and building the community. Besides, they reveal the progress of capacity development programmes and activities between annual meetings, aimed at information exchange as well as at community and stakeholder involvement.
Let me first focus on the stakeholder engagement at annual meeting. In my opinion, the Executive Committee should look at the numbers and try to figure out why there has been such a big gap in participation between stakeholder groups. The participation from academia, private sector and civil society seemed to be in the same range for each stakeholder group at the last two annual meetings, with most participants from civil society.
The government stakeholder group was also well represented, especially at the third meeting, organised in parallel with the regulators’ conference that attracted more participants from the private sector and the government stakeholder groups. On the other hand, the technical community, well represented at the second annual meeting, was almost completely missing at the third one.
It seems that organising SEEDIG in parallel to or jointly with other events brings some challenges and influences the stakeholders’ participation. In order to attract all stakeholder groups, the Executive Committee needs to rich out to the community early enough and address stakeholder groups already at the first stage of the whole annual process—in the call for issues. Moreover, SEEDIG needs to cover all major areas of internet governance in order to attract and involve all stakeholder groups.
It is also important to attract the youth into all SEEDIG activities. The Executive Committee has made significant progress in this direction by the SEEDIG youth school, the meeting fellowship programme and the internship. I fully support all three capacity building programmes that have proved to be successful. They need to be further developed and provide more opportunities for youth participation and engagement in SEEDIG activities.
At the same time, I would like to stress the importance of intergenerational cooperation, the principle that should also be taken into account in the composition of the Executive Committee. Moreover, the digital divide tells us that there are underserved groups of citizens, like elderly, persons with disabilities and others that are left behind. SEEDIG should not forget about these groups of citizens and should promote intergenerational cooperation as well as provide opportunities for participation and engagement of persons with disabilities, who represent almost one-fifth of the population in the region.
SEEDIG should follow the UN accessibility guidelines and become accessible to everyone, without compromise. It should provide opportunities for engagement of persons with disabilities at annual events, in capacity development programmes as well as in intersessional activities. SEEDIG should promote accessibility in all its activities and encourage national initiatives to follow its example.
The capacity development programmes, the SEEDIG youth school in particular, have a potential to develop into regular intersessional activities. However, these activities are neither in SEEDIG’s current primary focus nor SEEDIG has sufficient resources to carry them out (throughout the region and/or on the ongoing basis). The Executive Committee should explore the funding possibilities and opportunities, or find alternative implementation ways, by forming local partnerships, in order to further develop capacity development programmes.
The intersessional activities between the annual meeting—especially if expanded by capacity building—are important for community and stakeholder involvement. A broad scope, however, may not be sustainable under the current volunteer model. The new Executive Committee should set or rethink the goals and prioritise the areas where actions need to be taken. Besides, it should focus its resources on activities where they would have the greatest impact.
We may all come up with great ideas and several were collected from the participants by questionnaires at annual meetings in Belgrade and Ohrid. They have to be considered by the Executive Committee, however, SEEDIG has limited resources and has to strategically focus them. It, unfortunately, is not in a position to implement all fancy ideas. It shall concentrate on SEEDIG’s mission and instead partner with other organisations in the region or beyond as well as with national internet governance initiatives in carrying out certain intersessional activities, e.g. the hosting of the SEE hub sessions by national initiatives throughout the region.
At the same time, such partnerships may be an important tool for strengthening engagement with national initiatives and for capacity building. Similarly, well thought intersessional activities may be used for strengthening engagement with stakeholders.
The current Executive Committee has developed several online communication channels. SEEDIG reaches out to the community via the mailing list and the website as well as via social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. A brief analysis of current communication channels indicates that the impact and outreach outside the SEEDIG community is rather limited. The focus of the Executive Committee therefore should not be on developing new communication channels but rather on improving impact and outreach of the existing ones and SEEDIG’s activities in general.
While some of the communication channels are targeted primarily on the SEEDIG community, others have to go much beyond its members. The community is well informed about SEEDIG’s activities, yet there is a need for improving its engagement. The focus of the Executive Committee, however, should be on designing well thought communication campaigns targeted at individual stakeholder groups, especially outside the community. For improving SEEDIG’s impact and outreach, the Executive Committee should form partnerships throughout the region with organisations from different stakeholder groups.
When speaking about partnerships, it is important to recognise the key role that institutional partners and intergovernmental organisations have played in nurturing SEEDIG. Some of them have provided financial support for its activities. If we want SEEDIG to grow, long term agreements have to be reached with the partners that have financed SEEDIG so far. The Executive Committee should look for new financial supporters as well. At the same time, it should improve the outreach to national governments, that could also financially support SEEDIG.
The major »threat« to SEEDIG’s growth lies in internet governance activities in the region that compete for the same funds. It is therefore even more important that SEDIG forms long term partnerships.
SEEDIG could not grow and finance its activities without being a legal entity. It is thus of vital importance to establish a legal structure, which would also provide a framework for transparency and accountability. It is not that SEEDIG at present lacks any of these, but further growth requires a more formal and structured approach to leading and governing SEEDIG.
I accepted the nomination because I believe that SEEDIG has a potential that can be further developed for the benefit of the whole region. Apart from my academic background related to internet governance and extensive experience in policy and regulation, I can bring to the Executive Committee strong leadership and governance experience, gained throughout my career spanning across different stakeholder groups and different roles (including corporate and not-for-profit roles).
Statement of availability and commitment:
I am aware how much involvement the SEEDIG Executive Committee position requires. My involvement with national and regional internet governance and digital rights initiatives speaks for itself. It illustrates my commitment and amount of time dedicated to volunteering and engaging in multi stakeholder dialog. I hereby warrant and affirm my ability and commitment to serve actively on the SEEDIG Executive Committee.
Since 2016, I have been a member of the Steering Committee of the Slovenian Internet Governance forum, in charge of organising annual meetings.
I am a partner and director of the DIGITAS Institute, which is a private non-profit organisation focused on digital policies, regulation, internet governance and digital accessibility. The institute engages with various stakeholder groups and expert organisations.
In 2016, the National Assembly appointed me to the Electronic Communications Council of the Republic of Slovenia for the second five-year term. The nomination was submitted by the National Council of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities.
I am a founding member of the Digital Society Forum, a non-governmental think tank that advocates for better legislation and policies for the digital age.
2. Sasho Dimitrijoski
Organisation: Agency for Electronic Communications, Director
Stakeholder group: Government
Country of origin: North Macedonia | Country of residence: North Macedonia
Age: Between 35 and 55
Gender: Male
Motivation: Mr. Sasho Dimitrijoski has a very significant role in the core of the digital world in our country, because of his educational background in the field of telecommunications where he has a master degree and also his working experience on a relevant internet governance topics. Before his current working position, he was director of the Macedonian academic research network, and before that he was State Counselor at the Ministry for information society and administration and a Board Member at T- Mobile Macedonia.
It is important to stress that Mr. Dimitrijoski during this working career actively participate in the SEE internet society in different fields of multistakeholderism. Also, he as Director of the Agency for Electronic Communications manages to provides support for important regional events like SEEDIG 2017 and other local ICT gatherings. He is also GAC and ccNSO representative of Macedonia at ICANN.
As a person he has strong communication and organizational skills, a passion on everything integrated in the e-world and a good sense for connection of the actors in this field for comprehensive goal. Very important, he is one of the founding members of Macedonian IGF initiative, and he is absolutely the right candidate for the SEEDIG executive committee.
Nominator: Sanja Simonova, MARnet, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, technical community
At the very beguining I would like to emphasize my readyness to accept the candidacy for member of the SEEDIG executive commitee sent by Sanja, who, among other things, is a member of the IGF Macedonia Founding Assembly.
The idea of initiating the formation of IGF-MKD came exactly from my participation in the work of SEEDIG, which dates from the very beginning, when it was all a good idea shared between our colleagues and friends .
Although I directly participated in all conferences organized by SEEDIG, starting from 2015 when the meeting was held in Sofia as a pre-event within EuroDIG, as a member of ex.com. I was selected during the year of 2016, primarily for the purpose of taking the role of host of SEEDIG conference in 2017 in Ohrid.
The reasons why I proposed that the AEC (Agency for Electronic Communications) be the organizer and Macedonia host of this conference were more, but now I would mention the most basic ones, which are:
1. Personal motivation to help the organization from a technical point of view;
2. To encourage awareness of internet governance in the country itself because there was already the idea to establish IGF-MKD;
3. To take advantage of the serious human and financial resources available to the AEC;
4. To be able to bring on the same table stakeholders that were missing in the previous internet governance conferences, and that is the private sector, especialy telecom operators who at the end of the day are those who need to invest in the development of technical capacities as a basic precondition for the development of the Internet as a whole .
Participation of the government as a very important stakeholder was also successfully accomplished at the conference in Ohrid where as a participant we had a Minster for information society and administration of the Republic of Macedonia, which contributed to the introductory presentation at the beginning of the conference.
The success of the SEEDIG conference in Ohrid, especialy in the field of stakeholders engagement is geaving me the motivation to continue to contribute to the work of ex.com. Through my personal and professional relations in the region and with involvement of the National Regulatory Authorities in the SEE region, with which I have close co-operation, I will try to bring and keep these two very important stakeholders, the government and the private sector with (special emphasis on telecom operators) and to have them as active participants in the work of SEEDIG.
IGF-MKD founding member
Macedonian government representative to the GAC
3. Lianna Galstyan
Organisation: ISOC Armenia – ccTLD Registry, External Relations Manager
Stakeholder group: Technical community
Country of origin: Armenia | Country of residence: Armenia
Age: Between 35 and 55
Gender: Female
Motivation: Lianna has been serving in the SEEDIG ExCom since its beginning and successfully contributed towards its development and strengthening.
She’s also involved in the Armenian IGF and this year she initiated a launch of the first Armenian School of Internet Governance. This remarkable 5-days capacity building program involved 30 students from several universities of Armenia.
Lianna is an active person ready to share her experience and encourage others in various initiatives.
I believe she can continue serving the SEEDIG community at best and bring the perspectives of the neighboring area such as the Armenia to the SEE countries.
Nominator: Siranush Vardanyan, ISOC Armenia, civil society
I’ve had an honor to be a member of SEEDIG Executive Committee since its establishment and be a part of its development. Starting as a pre-event of EuroDIG in Bulgaria in 2015, it evolved to be a stand-alone event for the SEE region with many intersessional activities throughout a year, established institutional partners, supporting organizations and sponsors.
Along with the SEEDIG, I’ve been deeply involved in the national Armenian IGF, being a member of Secretariat responsible for organizing the annual event. SEEDIG was a standard-setting role model for me to replicate the principles of multistakeholder model and inclusiveness for the national IGF. On the other hand, the experience gained from the local community was being used in SEEDIG as well.
As a board member of ISOC Armenia, non-for-profit organization, I used to represent the interests of civil society in various fora of IGF platform. Simultaneously, working for .am ccTLD Registry and ․հայ IDN ccTLD Registry, I’m also involved in technical aspects of Domain Name registration and policy making process. Moreover, IDN is one of the challenging topic not only for Armenia but across SEE region we all need to work on and move it forward.
As SEEDIG is a community-based IG initiative, I believe with a more engaged and active community we could raise the challenges and concerns in the SEE and neighboring area and address them to wider community and policy-makers, wherever possible. Capacity building programs for different stakeholder groups on various topics of interest could be an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of Internet governance related issues in the region, thus strengthening the SEEDIG and achieving its objectives.
I would be happy to continue to contribute with my experience to achieving these objectives, and particularly happy to help strengthen SEEDIG’s capacity building efforts, within the SEE and neighboring area. I would also make it as personal mission to strengthen the linkages between the SEE and the neighboring area, and bring more stakeholders from these eastern countries into SEEDIG.
In ISOC Armenia, being the ccTLD Registry, I’m actively involved in domain name registration policy development process, in dispute resolution policy development.
In ISOC Armenia, being the Secretariat of the Armenian IGF, I’m actively involved in its organization and spreading a word about it. I regularly participate to the calls for National and Regional IGF initiatives (NRIs) organized by the IGF Secretariat.
I consider a great achievement the establishment of the Armenian School on Internet Governance aimed at capacity development for the local community.
I also represent the interest of Internet users on behalf of ISOC Armenia in the At-Large community within the ICANN and am the Vice-Chair of APRALO (Asia, Australasia and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization).
4. Su Sonia Herring
Organisation: Youth IGF Turkey
Stakeholder group: Civil society
Country of origin: Turkey | Country of residence: Germany
Age: Between 18 and 35
Gender: Female
Motivation: Ms. Herring has been an outstanding participant at the Youth IGF Turkey meeting in 2015, hence has been selected to represent Turkish and European youth at the EU and global levels at various IG-related events. Since 2016 Ms. Herring has been a member of the organising committee of Youth IGF Turkey and has taken many inspiring steps in organising the meetings.
Nominator: Gurkan Ozturan, Youth IGF Turkey, civil society
SEEDIG is the first regional internet governance event that I have attended. I found myself in an environment where people were talking about similar challenges, issues to my home country (especially when compared to the global IGF). I was involved in the organizing committee and everyone was welcoming and friendly online. Once the actual event was finished I knew I wanted to be more actively involved, not just in the yearly event but intersessional activities and the amazing people that I have met. So, I volunteered whenever I could, contributing to the monthly SEE summary, overviewing applications to the inaugural Youth School, staying in touch with the ex com, becoming a SEEDIG fellow and even helping out with social media management when it was needed during this year’s event! I am now a part of the editorial team of SEEDIG and offered to host a SEE hub if plans go forward with having the hub travel through the region (which I think it should). I tremendously enjoy and find value in these efforts, and would like to thank the outgoing ex com for their relentless work and the legacy they are leaving behind (will be hard to live up to no matter who gets elected).
I believe our region is a growing digital force in the global arena however there aren’t enough interest/awareness. I think national and regional initiatives are vital to raising this awareness and building capacity. SEEDIG is on the right track, weighing in on intersessional activities just as much as the annual events, following regional developments while keeping the network informed and connected. Highlighting youth involvement and the concept of official SEEDIG Ambassadors are ideas that I would support and take further if elected.
Among the areas to be improved are greater and livelier social media presence all-year round, distributing the SEE summary in more than one format and in more than one medium, engaging Youth School and Fellowship alumni to increase the reach of SEEDIG, make better use of audio/video content from the annual meetings. I also believe that having the SEE hub travel in the region is an idea that should be implemented, it will strengthen the bonds of the community and shine a light on each host community. Both SEE hub and SEE summary can be taken a step further from only giving updates from the region, to tying regional updates to global trends and discussions related to the internet. I would suggest distributing updates in pieces, instead of one big report through SEEDIG’s social media channels in bitesize to build a more organic and sustainable engagement that is year-round. Having young and older members of the community collaborate and interact in identifying issues which are both crucial and interesting, debating it from different stakeholder and generational perspectives, perhaps in brief video/podcast/clip format in a quarterly basis are other ideas that could be explored. I realize new efforts should not be too burdensome on the ex com or community, so the aim would not be to have TV quality content but easy to make and consume (just with a smartphone). The same call for volunteers can be made for the editorial for similar efforts and SEEDIG also has interns that can help. Of course, these are some ideas that came to mind while brainstorming, whichever new path to take should be discussed with the entire community and approved by majority.
To sum up, in my opinion, internet governance (not just SEEDIG but all IG initiatives) needs to be ‘marketed’ better to engage with a wider audience. Although we are involved in an area which effects everyone who uses the internet, the image of internet governance is intimidating, complex and even dull at times. For our region to have a stronger voice in the global debates, we need more people from all backgrounds to be interested and engaged in different discussions and work taking place in internet governance spaces.
I have prior experience as an event manager, marketing manager, social media manager, researcher. I am on the organizing committee of Youth IGF Turkey for the last two years and we have taken the event forward each year in many aspects. I am also a freelance editor and translator for print and online media including IG-related work as assistant curator for the GIP Digital Watch Observatory, academic research and writing for Network of European Digital Youth’s ‘European yIGFs Good Practice Guide’ among other endeavors.
I have represented civil society voices and interests from my country and region as a youth delegate, session organizer, trainer, speaker, reporter, recruiter, activist and researcher at local, national, regional, and international levels. I have curated and conducted trainings in English and Turkish, for various sized heterogenous and multinational audiences. I have trained youth and adults on election observation, active citizenship for women, digital rights, surveillance and censorship, freedom of expression online, youth participation, internet governance, media literacy, capacity building and other similar subjects.
I accepted the nomination because I strongly believe in the value and potential SEEDIG and our region has. I can bring a unique, fresh, youth oriented perspective and energy to the ex com and increase its diversity while learning from other ex com members and their experiences, if selected.
I would be happy to answer any questions regarding my professional background, involvement in internet governance processes on the SEEDIG list or offlist.
Youth IGF Turkey – Executive commitee member
GIP Digital Watch Observatory – Assistant Curator
ISOC TR – Member
SEE summary – Editorial team member
ICANN60 – Fellow
NCUC (non-commercial users constituency) – Member
5. Narine Khachatryan
Organisation: Safer Internet Armenia, Coordinator
Stakeholder group: Civil society
Country of origin: Armenia | Country of residence: Armenia
Age: Between 35 and 55
Gender: Female
Motivation: I would like to submit my candidature for the SEEDIG Executive Committee. While I have been working in the field of ICTs and youth for over a decade, my path in the Internet governance started in 2010 with participation in the European Dialog on Internet Governance, where spoke about aspirations of people in our country in the face of technological (r)evolution. Since then and throughout the years I have put much effort into diffusion of best European practices and models in our country, combining practical work with education and also putting a lot of effort in educating others about Internet Governance and its Ecosystem, on one hand, and the Internet and its major challenges and opportunities, on the other.
I have been part of European Dialog on Internet Governance orgteams each year since 2010, participating as a panelist or moderator in 6 face-to-face meetings (workshops are listed below*) and as a remote hubs co-organiser. Participated in SEEDIG work since its formation in 2014, and thereafter by helping to formulate sessions, and in intersessional discussions. Recently I have contributed to the work of SEEDIG Elections Working Group.
In 2011 I was part of the team which prepared the first resource on Internet Governance in Armenian language – the Armenian Edition of DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance Book, that stimulated discussions about IG in various communities of Armenia, making their participation in IG activities more informed and meaningful. The Book has had two Editions in Armenian: in 2011 and 2013 and remains until today the only large-scale Armenian language resource in the field of Internet Governance.
Another significant project has been the Armenian Edition of the Council of Europe Internet Literacy Handbook. The CoE Guide has been popular resource among educational institutions in Armenia, which helped to explain in a plain language ethical issues and cybersecurity, provide advice on how best to use the Internet for education and development.
Between 2012 and 2014 I participated in the bottom-up Armenia Working Group on IG which paved the way for the launch of the Armenian IGF in 2015, where I coordinated the track on Internet Safety and Youths. This year I have become a part of the faculty of the 1st Armenian SIG.
Work. I am a coordinator of Safer Internet Armenia (link), raising public awareness and educating about Internet safety country-wide, program’s 10th edition will be launched in 2018. Over the last decade Safer Internet Armenia has given start to numerous educational initiatives in the fields of ICTs involving many thousands young people and adults.
Participation in IG organizations and networks. Participated in 5 ICANN face-to-face meetings, twice as a Coach and Mentor: ICANN 50, ICANN 54, ICANN 56, ICANN 57, ICANN 60 (in progress). Participated in the ALAC work on the Final Report Rec. of the Geographic Regions Review WG in 2016. I have been following the work of a number of working groups and most actively contributed to the work of Cross Community Working Party on ICANN’s Corporate & Social Responsibility to Respect Human Rights. Helped to build the capacity of delegates from Armenia, including 4 young people to take part in the 1st Children’s Forum @ ICANN 46, NextGen@ICANN and ICANN 49.
Organisational member of NCUC and associate member of the EURALO Individuals Association.
Member of ISOC, Internet Governance Caucus. Within the IGF environment worked with Dynamic Coalitions, and co-organized remote hubs.
Education. I have been a fellow at the European Summer School of Internet Governance, ISOC Next Generation Leaders Program, DiploFoundation’s five programs covering Internet Governance, ICT Policy, Cybersecurity, Privacy, Personal Data Protection, ISOC Fellow to Global INET. I am alumni of the USAID Technical Cooperation Program in the US and have a MSc in Physics/Math-Physics from the Yerevan State University. Fluent in Russian, have a professional working proficiency of English.
Reasons behind the nomination. I have a keen interest in the governance models in the region and aware of varied perspectives on the meaning of governance and multistakeholderism. I find it particularly important to engage with those different points of view and develop inclusive models around which consensus can be built.
Regulatory and political aspects of technology now more than ever require non-standard thinking and alternative solutions. SEEDIG has the potential to enhance the common understanding of the principles for the governance of the Internet, come up with original proposals and up-to-date mechanisms complementing and improving the existing processes.
Hope my experience and knowledge can serve to the best interests of the SEEDIG community, fulfilling its expectations. My years-long experience in capacity building in ICT, cyber safety and Internet Governance can be a valuable asset for SEEDIG.
Areas of Interest in Internet Governance. ICTs’ impact on economy and society, the relationship between technological advancement and the democratic development of different nations. Education and Literacy. Internet Safety & Security. Children and Youth. Human Rights and ICTs.
*10th EuroDIG 2017, Workshop ‘From Internet Users to Digital Citizens’,
EuroDIG 2016, Workshop ‘Empowerment Through Education’,
EuroDIG 2015, Workshop ‘Should I click for Internet Governance? Where?’,
EuroDIG 2014, Workshop ‘Intelligent Risk Management for Youths in the Digital Age’,
EuroDIG 2012, Workshop ‘Do We Need Net Neutrality Regulation in Europe’,
EuroDIG 2010, Workshop ‘Children & Social Media: Opportunities & Risks, Rules & Responsibilities’.
Nominator: n/a (self-nomination)
I strongly believe that the governance of the Internet in SEE should be improved and democratized. Openness and transparency in how the internet policy is being made, democracy and human rights, informed and meaningful participation and engagement – this is not a complete list of concepts and principles, vital for the region. For a two-year term I propose:
– Establish SEEDIG’s legal structure;
-Grow SEEDIG (in terms of participating individuals, engaged organizations, as well as the number of national IGFs joined). Build new and effective partnerships with interested organizations;
-Strengthen SEEDIG’s intersessional activities (such as SEE Hub, SEE Newsletter, etc) enabling them to continue year round. Beyond being a dialog forum, SEEDIG can become a place, where the Internet Governance best practices can be shared, learned and diffused;
– Create a SEEDIG database/observatory of Internet Governance related information (legal, technical, academic, etc), policies, projects, initiatives, institutions, best practices;
-Develop and implement SEEDIG Educational Projects aimed to build the capacity of citizens of South Eastern Europe and the neighboring area, raise awareness of Internet governance issues among them;
-Improve SEEDIG’s outreach to national governments through the SEEDIG Ambassadorship Program;
-Strengthen the linkages between SEEDIG-EuroDIG-IGF.
As mentioned above, I have a keen interest in the governance models in the region and well aware of varied perspectives on the meaning of governance and multistakeholderism. I find it particularly important to engage with those different points of view and develop inclusive models around which consensus can be built.
Regulatory and political aspects of technology now more than ever require non-standard thinking and alternative solutions.
While being new, SEEDIG can achieve its potential in enhancing the common understanding of principles for the governance of the Internet, coming up with original proposals and up-to-date mechanisms complementing and enhancing the existing processes.
Hope my experience and knowledge can serve to find new solutions to the best interests of the SEEDIG community. Besides, my years-long experience in capacity building in ICTs, cyber safety and Internet Governance can be a valuable asset for SEEDIG. On a personal level I consider myself as a responsible, proactive and team-worker person, being positive about tasks and challenges in my life.
ISOC, Member
Internet Governance Caucus, Voting member
NCUC, Organisational member
EURALO Individuals Association, Observing member
6. Fotjon Kosta
Organisation: Coordinator of Albania IGF/Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy
Stakeholder group: Government
Country of origin: Albania | Country of residence: Albania
Age: Between 18 and 35
Gender: Male
Motivation: As you are aware, I have an education background on Computer Science and a professional background on ICT\Cybersecurity expert working on the last 10 years in Albanian Government as also, i have professional experience from the business sector worked on ICT and ISP Companies. Furthermore, the last two year, I am very much engaged and strongly motivated to internet governance initiative not only for promoting internet governance in Albania and working launching the first national IGF initiative but also, I want my experience, knowledge and contributions to be part of this excellent initiative related internet governance in the region (SEE), EU and World Wide, sharing ideas, experiences and collaborating with other colleagues with a multistakeholder approach by spreading the word and promoting on Internet Governance in our countries, region and worldwide.
Since 2015, that i was firstly engaged to internet governance starting by IGF 2015 since that day i have contributed and participated as a participant, contributor, working group member and as fellow in IGF, EURODIG, SEEDIG, RIPE NCC, ICANN meetings.
Since this year i am not only a contributor to Internet governance but also i am the initiator and coordinator of Albania IGF working on launching our fist national initiative and lastly i am a member of EURALO Association at ICANN.
I am very much interesting, strongly motivated and eager to contribute and to serve to SEEDIG EC doing the best for our region by raising awareness and promoting more and more engagement from all stakeholders groups from SEE region.
Furthermore, i am seeing a great opportunity serving to the SEEDIG EC not only as i am from Albania, coming from Government stakeholder group, with an engagement on internet governance on last two year and lastly as the coordinator of AlbIGF but also being part of SEEDIG EC would be a great support for my mission in AlbaniaIGF community.
Nominator: n/a (self-nomination)
SEEDIG is the first regional internet governance event that I have attended and contributed. For me SEEDIG is an enviroment and initiative showing the same challenges and issues as in my country. Involved and contributing to SEEDIG is not only great possibility to contribute for our region but also is even better for our work and mission on National IGF.
My very first engagement on internet governance began attended IGF 2015 and then with SEEDIG participation in 2016 contributed and being member of organization team on cyber security session and continue with EURODIG 2016 contributed and being member of organization team on cybersecurity session and then in 2017 i have enforce my engagement and participation to IGF, SEEDIG, EURODIG, RIPE NCC, ICANN, by contributed in several sessions and topics(as for IGF, SEEDIG, EURODIG, RIPE).
I am very much interesting, strongly motivated and eager to contribute and to serve to SEEDIG EC doing the best for our region by raising awareness and promoting more and more engagement from all stakeholders groups and even more dedication of youth engagement and participation from SEE region to SEEDIG.
Furthermore, i am seeing a great opportunity serving to the SEEDIG EC not only as i am from Albania, coming from Government stakeholder group, with an engagement on internet governance on last two year and lastly as the coordinator of AlbIGF but also being part of SEEDIG EC would be a even greater support for my mission in Albania IGF community working on launching 1st national IGF and by having the opportunity engaging more more Albanians to SEEDIG but also considering and having the opportunity organizing AlbIGF & SEEDIG in Albania on 2019.
Albania Government Stakeholder Groups – Working on ICT and cybersecurity field
Albania IGF- Initiator and Coordinator
EURALO Individual Association – Board Member, Secretary
IGF 2015-2017 – contributor and working group member on Cybersecurity BPF contributor, Retreat Meeting contributor, Policy Options for Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion Phase II contributor, IGF – NRI Planning for the Main IGF Session for the NRIs contributor, Info Manual & Tool Kit contributor. IGF 2017, Contributor as AlbIGF coordinator and working group member on IGF 2017 annual agenda, NRIs work, MAG works and participation, NRIs manual tool kit, Youth in IGF
SEEDIG 2016-2017 – Contributor and member of organization team for seesions cybersecurity, security, Human rights, Youth paticipation, Election working group etc
EURODIG 2016-2017 – Contributor and member of organization team for seesions cybersecurity, security and crimes, Literacy in communities, Crime and criminal justice
ICANN 57, 58 & 59 Fellow
RIPE NCC SEE5 speaker as from government stockholder group
APrIGF 2016, Session proposal “Cyber Security and the Internet of Things: Is Privacy Dead”
7. Olga Kyryliuk
Organisation: NGO “Digital Defenders Partners”, Co-founder and Managing Partner
Stakeholder group: Civil society
Country of origin: Ukraine | Country of residence: Ukraine
Age: Between 18 and 35
Gender: Female
Motivation: Olga is an active and faithful young leader in Internet governance area. She has doctorate degree in international law focusing on the issues at intersection of law and technology. She has been engaged with ICANN as a NextGen and a NextGen Ambassador, and has joined the Non-Commercial Users Constituency. She was a part of the Fellowship program at SEEDIG 2017 and the YouthDIG at EuroDIG 2017. I am also aware that she showed her dedication to SEEDIG by joining the editorial team for preparation of monthly newsletter. She is a member of the organizing committee of the Ukrainian national IGF and the regional Internet Freedom Network. I believe that her expertise, managerial skills and willingness to promote and improve Internet governance discussions and developments would be a valuable asset for the SEEDIG executive committee. Moreover, she is well aware of the regional context and is a Russian speaking expert, which would be a benefit for building sustainable relation with different stakeholders in the SEEDIG community.
Nominator: Tatiana Tropina, Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Russia, academia
I believe that SEEDIG offers a great opportunity for multistakeholder community in the region to share their experiences and knowledge, as well as substantially discuss latest Internet governance trends and developments in a variety of fields, in particular those related to IoT, cybersecurity, open data, media literacy, etc.
I see SEEDIG as a forum that offers a platform for different stakeholders to address the concerns shared across the region and learn from each other in order to meet a high demand in the community for more capacity building, while moving forward to ensure sustainable growth of Internet in the region.
During the recent period I have been actively engaged with SEEDIG activities. I started from providing inputs into the monthly newsletter, attended 2017 annual meeting as a fellow, and then joined the editorial board. Therefore, I strongly believe that it is a right time to move forward and start contributing more meaningfully into strengthening and improving regional cooperation in order to achieve SEEDIG goals, especially in the areas of Internet freedom and censorship, data protection and privacy, surveillance and cybersecurity.
Being an active member of the regional Internet Freedom Network for Eastern, Central Europe and Eurasia supported by ABA ROLI and organizing committee of the national Ukrainian IGF I do my best to ensure and promote sustainable dialogue between government, private sector, civil society and technical community in their respective roles. My managerial and analytical skills, along with a broad range of professional contacts would find proper application and would be used for the benefit of the SEEDIG community. Serving in the SEEDIG executive committee I will look for the opportunities to use the potential of the Internet for fostering sustainable human development and enhancing free flow of information and ideas throughout the region. I will also strive for making SEEDIG more participatory, inclusive and digitally visible.
I hope that you will consider my application positively and welcome my willingness for more engagement in SEEDIG activities.
Co-founder of the NGO “Digital Defenders Partners” since 2015
SEEDIG 2017 fellow
YouthDIG participant at EuroDIG 2017
ICANN58 NextGen
ICANN60 NextGen Ambassador
ICANN NCUC member
ISOC Global and IoT SIG member
Member of regional Internet Freedom Network for Eastern, Central Europe and Eurasia
Participant of IGF 2017
8. Domen Savič
Organisation: Registry.si, Communication officer
Stakeholder group: Technical community
Country of origin: Slovenia | Country of residence: Slovenia
Age: Between 35 and 55
Gender: Male
Motivation: Domen is an activist by nature, always in action. He’s successfully led some amazing projects in Slovenia: for net neutrality, digital literacy, net security, online media,… He’s already very active in SEE region, cooperating regularly in the regional projects. I believe that his passion, creativeness, his ability to connect with people and willingness to contribute for better good makes him a perfect candidate for SEEDIG excom.
Nominator: Barbara Povse Golob, Registry.si, Slovenia, technical community
I consider local and regional internet governance forums as one of the most important policy shaping platforms in the information society. The joint efforts of the academic, business and general public debating the problems of the digital commons is the only way we can achieve meaningful progress in this field.
My direct involvement with SEEDIG began in 2016 with when I attended the SEEDIG meeting at Ohrid. I also attended local IGF meeting in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia in that year. For the last ten years, I’ve been an active member of a local digital community, organising lectures, debates and calls to action in the field of digital rights, media regulation, media literacy and other internet related topics.
I see SEEDIG’s main challenge in reaching out to different interest groups within the community, explaning the role and meaning of IGFs and encouraging a wide and long-term participation. I would dedicate special attention in bringing in younger participants from all three stakeholder groups therefor assuring sustainable participation within the SEEDIG community.
One of the short term goals could be the development of a special short event format. With it, we would attract new members and participants, introduce the IGF-specific way of participation and would build up user’s attention to the local annual/regional event(s).
Another way of reaching out to the community would be to establish an online presence with different media formats (newsletter, podcast, social media) which would then be used to promote the regional development including different guests from all three of the major stakeholder groups.
It would also be wise to develop formats similar to the Balkan school of internet governance which would then be used to further develop and strengthen the presence of local IGF chapters within individual countries of the SEEDIG region.
With my background in journalism and digital marketing combined with self-developed skills in event organising and a strong interest in the wide approach to internet governance I would use my seat on the board to widen, strengthen and improve the perception of the internet governance forums within the region, raise user participation and connect SEEDIG with others relevant organisations in this field across the region.
Domain registry in Slovenia – I am the head of PR department within the .si national domain registry.
NGO Citizen D – I founded NGO Citizen D which focuses on digital rights, privacy and security within the digital age.
9. Sorina Teleanu
Organisation: DiploFoundation, Digital policy senior researcher
Stakeholder group: Civil society
Country of origin: Romania | Country of residence: Romania/Malta
Age: Between 18 and 35
Gender: Female
Motivation:
a. I think Sorina’s involvement goes without saying: she is a significant reason why SEEDIG got off the ground to begin with, and has been instrumental to organizing it for the past three years. She has demonstrated incredible commitment and dedication to the SEEDIG community, and I am confident she will continue to do so if elected to the new EC.
b. Sorina’s competence, motivation, committment, patience, generosity and vision of SEEDIG is a continous source of inspiration. Her attention to details, and deep believe in the necessity of a different Europe to come together to dialogue around Internet Governance is constantly visibilize in the way panels are composed, processes are lead.
Sorina is a bridger, a link, never a filter, always attent to the community. Seeing her taking care of content, process, but also logistic; making sure everyone feel included and everyone is attended shows her maturity as a leader and as facilitator. This election is an important one, heading towards clarity of decision making, strengthen the existing relation, while building sustainability. We need new people, but we need to ensure continuity, memory and to recognize that without it we would lose something along the way. Sorina’s role is still necessary and I would pledge her to accept the nomination, to walk this extra mile together.
Nominators:
a. Michael Oghia, independent consultant, Serbia, civil society
b. Valentina Hvale Pellizzer, One World Platform, Bosnia and Herzegovina, civil society
In the second half of 2014, when my colleagues and I started discussing the idea of an IGF initiative for South Eastern Europe, there were two main things we were aiming at: (1) to better coalesce the regional Internet community around those Internet related topics that are common across the region, and to allow different stakeholders to openly talk about these issues, to learn from each other, and to try to find solutions together; and (2) to contribute to ensuring that SEE voices are better heard in European and international IG processes. Now, more than three years laters, we have SEEDIG as a recognised sub-regional IGF initiative (with SEE voices more present at EuroDIG, IGF, etc.), we have a community which continues to grow, and we have a strong foundation to build on while continuing to work on achieving the objectives set in 2014.
I believe SEEDIG has grown considerably over the past three years, and I was proud many times to hear and see it mentioned as an example of good practice, on calls, meeting, and mailing lists of different organisations and processes active in IG. The annual meetings, the intersessional activities, the capacity building programmes (Youth School, Fellowship Programme, Internship Programme), even our recent work on the Terms of Reference for the executive committee and these ongoing elections – they have all strengthened SEEDIG. And have also taught us many lessons. I personally have learnt a lot during these three years, and, if given the chance, I would do my best to put these lessons to good use, in the benefit of SEEDIG.
As I am asked to describe my ‘vision’ for SEEDIG for the next couple of years, I will do this by highlighting few points I think SEEDIG should focus on.
Broader goal(s): I believe the two objectives we had in mind when putting the basis of SEEDIG are still relevant. Sure, progress has been made in the past three years, but there is much to be done yet. As a broader goal, I will paraphrase one of SEEDIG’s supporters: We should strive to give SEEDIG the strength and recognition that will make other organisations and processes in the regions and beyond reach out to us and ask us to support their initiatives, to hold joint meetings, to launch joint projects…
Strengthening the community. SEEDIG has worked well, but it is far from being perfect. There have been hiccups along the way, and there are surely more to come. But I think our strength lies in the community itself. And this is the first thing for us to focus in the coming years: strengthen this community, bring new people and organisations on board, and make sure that the community itself has a strong sense of ownership of SEEDIG. There are many ways in which this can be done, as joint efforts between the executive committee, the existing community, and SEEDIG’s supporting organisations. I won’t point at specific stakeholder groups here, as they are all equally important. What I would like to point out, though, is that we will need different approaches for each and everyone of them, to show them the value of SEEDIG, and to ensure they have stronger representation within SEEDIG.
Strengthening the network of supporters. SEEDIG was very fortunate to benefit from support from several important organisations in the IG ecosystem. I am personally grateful to all for their support, which has been key in SEEDIG’s growth. I would like SEEDIG to enhance this network of supporters, by strengthening the relationship with those that have been on our side so far, and by bringing others on board as well, from both within and beyond the region.
I firmly believe that with a strengthened community and a strengthened network of supporters, SEEDIG can continue to grow and become more sustainable, as an initiative and a year-long process.
Annual meetings. Our annual meetings are at the centre of SEEDIG. Here we need more involvement in the planning process, and more participation in the event itself. And, most importantly, we need to better promote the messages resulting from the annual meetings, and, on medium and long term, look into how to enhance this concept. The Youth School and Fellowship Programme should continue to be integral parts of the annual meetings.
Intersessional activities. Building on what we have, we can achieve more. For example, the monthly summaries could also include, in addition to factual updates, articles looking more in-depth into topics of relevance for the region. The hub meetings most likely need rethinking and refocus, and having them hosted around the region, as suggested in the survey conducted earlier this year, could help. New activities can be launched, and one example could be to have SEEDIG, as a community, responding to open consultations launched by regional and international bodies (from the European Commission and the Council of Europe, to ICANN, Internet Society, and the IGF). We should also actively explore possibilities for partnerships with regional and international entities on issues that are of interest for the regional community.
I have deliberately not touched here on issues related to financial and organisational sustainability. Financially speaking, there is always room for improvement, and fundraising (regionally and globally) should be an ongoing activity; but I see this as going hand in hand with the substantive work, in an interdependency. In terms of organisational sustainability, we have recently tried to set up a legal structure and it did not work as planned. To me this meant that we were not there yet. And, to get there, I believe we need to build more trust, within the core team and within the community at large. If we focus on this, I believe the rest will come more or less naturally.
These are only some of the things SEEDIG can do to stay relevant and get stronger. I would be honoured to continue to work on this, if elected on the executive committee. And build on my past work with SEEDIG and the lessons learnt during this work, while bringing in commitment, dedication, passion, and the experience I have acquired with the IGF, EuroDIG, the Romanian Parliament (where I worked for almost nine years), and DiploFoundation.
Job: DiploFoundation – Digital policy senior researcher
Volunteer (un-paid basis):
– EuroDIG: Over the past few years, acted as subject matter expert and helped with YouthDIG and the travel support programme
– ICANN: member of the fellowship selection committee
– Internet Society: member of the Romanian chapter
– Occasionally, assisting Romanian authorities with advice on Internet governance and digital policy matters (between 2011 and 2016 I acted as Romania’s alternate representative on the Governmental Advisory Committee of ICANN).