[Comments-draft-proposal-nextgen-11feb20] NextGen at ICANN Program Improvements

[Elliott Mann]

Hi,

I was a NextGen participant at the ICANN64 Meeting in Kobe, Japan last year. Being a NextGenner was my first experience in Internet Governance, and I’m happy to say that the program pretty much singlehandedly inspired me to get further involved in IG. As a result, I’m happy to have to opportunity to make public comment on the proposed improvements to the program and give back to a program which has given so much to me.

Purpose & Targeted outreach

The role of the NextGen program as one targeted at university students is, I think, right on the money. It creates a clear delineation between the NextGen and Fellowship programs, and gets ICANN engaged at a university level – which I think has been a weakness in the past.

My suggestion here would be to be careful with the terminology used here. I would suggest focusing on students studying at ‘tertiary’ or ‘further education’ institutions rather than focusing on ‘universities’. It’s perhaps a keen distinction, but at least in Australia (where I hail from), there is a difference. Referring to universities excludes technical colleges and other vocational schools, which I think would be to the detriment of the NextGen program. At least here, courses outside of universities still include plenty of people who would be great NextGen candidates – so I think some refinement is needed.

I would propose changing the wording from ‘universities’ to ‘tertiary institutions'.

The targeted outreach to post-graduate students is reasonable, and it’s good to see a broad range of academic fields will be encouraged.

Application

I don’t support allowing applicants to upload a letter of endorsement or recommendation from a community group. In my mind, the NextGen program should be as open as possible for those who are not already involved in the ICANN ecosystem. With that in mind, allowing applicants to show that they are supported by a community group – particularly where community groups are represented on the panel choosing applications – makes me fear the process will be self-selecting and unbalanced towards those known applicants.

Within the current application questions, there is plenty of scope for applicants to show any involvement with ICANN community groups, and to include a letter of recommendation is unnecessary.

I myself, had no connections in the ICANN community prior to being a NextGenner – and I would not like to think applicants in a similar position would be disadvantaged against someone with prior connections.

While I would prefer the removal of this option, as an alternative I would encourage ensuring no applicant is disadvantaged because they do not provide such a letter.

Thanks for providing this opportunity to make public comment, and I hope the NextGen program has a successful future ahead of it!

Kind regards,

Elliott Mann
(speaking personally)
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