News

CIRA’s Opportunity

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority released the results of its board of directors election yesterday and I was very pleased to be elected to the board with the largest number of votes of any candidate. I’m grateful to CIRA members for their support, particularly given the many excellent candidates who were running for the board. It is notable that this election brings five new directors to the board, which likely ranks as the largest ever influx of new perspectives to the CIRA board. I believe this presents a tremendous opportunity for CIRA to rethink its approach on a wide range of issues from member engagement (the number of CIRA members that participate in the election process is still far too low) to policy development models (an external policy advisory committee never took off) to how to best serve the public interest (I’ve called for the creation of a separate public interest body funded by CIRA similar to the New Zealand model). CIRA has made great strides in recent years and I’m very excited to work with new and existing board members to help the organization meet its public interest mandate and make an important contribution to Canadian digital policy.

10 Comments

  1. Congrats to you Michael!
    So glad to see you were elected to the CIRA board. Looking forward to new directions and initiatives.

  2. Here’s hoping you can contribute to some good directions. You’re one of the voices for us small people to the big people.

  3. Congrats
    First time I ever voted, and glad I did. You’d have my vote for any position considering you’re one of the few sane and intelligent voices in our country when it comes to IP and other tech issues.

  4. Congrats on your election – should shake things up a bit over there đŸ˜‰

    Member engagement statistics are meaningless when _everyone_ is a member. I’m not a member of IANA or ICANN or any other US organisation just because I buy a .org domain; I shouldn’t be a member of CIRA just because I’ve bought a .ca domain.

    If you want membership engagement, then separate membership from domain ownership….

  5. Congrats!
    Great! many congratulations!

  6. Congratulations
    Hello Mr. Geist,

    I just read the news and am very pleased at the results. Like ‘fer’ above me, this is the first time I voted and I’m also glad that I did!

    Good luck with your work going forward!

  7. Congrats. Now please work on making sure the US has no control over .ca domains in any way, shape of form.

  8. Luke Richardson says:

    Great news, let’s hope it isn’t followed by bad news
    For the first time ever I will give legitimacy to the views and work of the CRIA.

    However with the trend to circumvent traditional lawmaking by importing huge chunks through trade agreements that allow no discussion, no dissent, and no revision, I am left with the expectation this signals bad news is on its way.

  9. Michael, maybe one of your new tasks can be to stop the Canadian government from sponsoring illegal sites like the Pirate Bay. I mean really, what’s next … Nazis?

    http://thenextweb.com/ca/2012/09/29/canadian-government-accidentally-sponsors-the-pirate-bay-blames-yahoo-mistake/

  10. Pedro Miguel says:

    Great news Mr Geist. Many congratulations! đŸ™‚