The Canadian Internet Registration Authority, the agency that administers the dot-ca domain, is currently holding its annual board of directors election.  This is a particularly important year since there are five positions open (virtually guaranteeing considerable change at the board level) and the organization has finally begun to address the public interest side of its mandate.  I’ll be posting more on some of its announced plans soon, but I want to encourage all CIRA members to vote before the September 29th deadline.

In this election, CIRA members can vote for one member-nominated candidate and up to four nominating committee candidates.  I should note that this is a broken system as the nominating committee has created signicant board upheaval and loss of institutional memory.  Meanwhile the CIRA members are left to select only one of their nominated candidates.

On the member nominated side, I supported Bill Reid.  This was a particularly difficult choice as members nominated several excellent candidates, including Zak Muscovitch, who ran a campaign with an unprecedented effort to engage the membership on the issues, establishing a campaign site, posting lengthy essays on key issues, and generally raising the awareness of CIRA policy.  While I think Muscovitch’s campaign should serve as a model for future campaigns, I felt most comfortable supporting Reid, a CIRA director for the past four years with decades of computer science and Internet experience.  His response to CIRA’s biggest challenges, which included Internet governance and net neutrality, highlights his commitment to policy issues and the public interest.

On the nominating committee side, I supported Paul Andersen (the current CIRA chair who has worked to move the organization forward on some key issues), Martin Kratz (a well known technology law lawyer), Rowena Liang (board and corporate experience) and John King (online education experience).