<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); padding: 0px 0px 1rem; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 207, 207); widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 500 !important;"><font size="3">Original link: </font><a href="https://www.icann.org/news/blog/accepting-the-icann-challenge" style="font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">https://www.icann.org/news/blog/accepting-the-icann-challenge</a></h1><h1 style="font-size: 1.31rem; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); padding: 0px 0px 1rem; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 207, 207); widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 500 !important;">Accepting the <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> Challenge</h1><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style u-text-xxxl" style="font-size: 1.62rem; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 30px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="addthis_button_linkedin u-linkClean u-colorGrey at300b" target="_blank" title="LinkedIn" href="https://www.icann.org/news/blog/accepting-the-icann-challenge#" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); cursor: pointer; margin-right: 7.5px; float: left; padding: 0px 2px; width: auto; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none !important; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span class="fa fa-linkedin" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; 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font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">For newcomers, their introduction to <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> can be overwhelming. Our structures and processes can appear incomprehensible; our website information difficult to decipher; our annual meetings a maze of complex issues; our community constituencies might look impenetrable.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">Many have taken advantage of <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr>'s Newcomer and Fellowship programs to ease their entry into this unique world. And if you are a first timer, uncertain whether you can handle the challenge, understand that all of us were new to <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> at some point.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">But Arun Sukumar has taken that challenge a step further.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">Arun is a lawyer and a senior fellow at the Centre for Communications Governance at the National Law University in Dehli, India. He had never been to an <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> meeting until <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> 52 in Singapore in February. He described his experience as "a voice in the wilderness". "Personally, I have found that it takes a whole lot of warming up to", Arun said. But he wasn't discouraged.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">I met Arun in Istanbul in March, at the two-day meeting of the Cross Community Working Group tasked with developing proposals to enhance <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr>'s Accountability - a necessary process running parallel to the <abbr title="Internet Assigned Numbers Authority" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">IANA</abbr> Stewardship Transition work. When the processes began and <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> encouraged broad participation from beyond the traditional <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> communities, Arun accepted that challenge as well and joined the CCWG Accountability as one of 135 participants. The Istanbul meeting was the first time he had met face to face with the other members and participants of the CCWG.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">During one of the work breaks, Arun agreed to sit down and talk with me on camera. He explained that the National Law University in Dehli supports his travel for participation in <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr>. His job is to report back to those stakeholders in India who can't afford to attend <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> meetings, to make them broadly aware of what <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> is all about. Arun said there is great interest in India in the role <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> plays in Internet governance, and particularly in the <abbr title="Internet Assigned Numbers Authority" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">IANA</abbr> stewardship transition and <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> accountability processes.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">Before attending the meeting in Istanbul, Arun participated in the CCWG discussions online. He raised questions about the role of the independent advisors in the CCWG, about <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr>'s Mission Statement and Core Values.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">But Arun admitted, his entry into <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> hasn't been easy.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">"To be frank, it has been an uphill task to be part of the institutional culture of <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr>, to be an active participant in <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> discussions, because I have found that there are some concerns about diversity that <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr> has to address immediately, especially around the context of the <abbr title="Internet Assigned Numbers Authority" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">IANA</abbr> transition".</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">But Arun also said he had established a rapport with several CCWG members and participants online and that during the face to face meeting in Istanbul he found it easy to communicate ideas with the group "even though they may not be entirely acceptable to people sitting across the table".</p><div class="floatcenter" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/assets/sukumar-2-750x424-13apr15-en.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><img src="https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/assets/sukumar-2-750x424-13apr15-en.jpg" alt="Arun Sukumar" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0.5rem; max-width: 98%; height: auto;"></a></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">When the Istanbul meeting ended on that second day and most members and participants had left the room, I noticed Arun had not. He was standing with two others from the group, listening for the most part, as they offered suggestions on community constituencies that might interest him and how he could further ease his entry into <abbr title="Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; cursor: help; -webkit-transition: all 0.2s; transition: all 0.2s;">ICANN</abbr>, reminding him that they too once were newcomers.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4rem; font-size: 1rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem;">The full video interview with Arun Sukumar can be found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhmtNi4M6tc" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">here</a>.</p></div></div></body></html>