Affiliation: SLICTA – Saint Lucia
Nomination Committee Evaluation: Well Qualified
Candidate Speech
Nominee Questionnaire
1. Public Contact Information
a) Please provide one URL to an online location (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) where community members can dialogue with you. [Optional.]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrygeorge
b) Please identify your organizational affiliations. Note that Advisory Council (AC) members serve as individuals required to take ARIN’s best interests into account—not those of organizations with which they are affiliated.
- Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG);
- Caribbean ICT stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC);
- Commissioner, National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC – Saint Lucia); President, ICT Association of Saint Lucia (SLICTA);
- ISOC & ICANN ALS
2. Relevant Biography
a) Please refer to the ARIN Advisory Council Guidance to the 2022 Nomination Committee in answering this question:
i) Please describe your relevant professional experience and expertise and explain how this background will make you an effective AC member.
Advocacy within CIVIC, SLICTA, NTRC/ECTEL, ICANN, ISOC and local and regional for a on issues related to ICT, Internet & governance, and telecommunications regulations.
Those roles provides experience in outreach, developing and driving public awareness, collaborating and establishing connections with key stakeholders within those various communities as and when required.
Internet governance training session with Diplo (October 2010), also governance exposure within professional capacity with the NTRC, past Credit Union Board position (Secretary) and regulatory training throughout my NTRC engagement as a Commissioner, participating in consultations on reviewing and updating of policies and attendant legislation.
Have also arranged and organized an ARIN in the Caribbean session in Saint Lucia (March 2018) through SLICTA.
Participating in consultations via SLICTA with the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards on review of and adaptation of International standards (ISO, etc) for applicability to local implementation; Consult with various government ministries in various working groups on proposed policy and legislation under consideration.
Telecommunications/ICT Regulator with the NTRC-Saint Lucia
Close to 30 years working professionally in the ICT field with Internet resources, IP networking, DNS & Domain Name registration & management, and systems hardware and software deployment, configuration & management.
Active participation in various technical forums on Internet resources, Open Source software, technical support and ICT for development in developing countries
Part-time lecturer for over 15 years with the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (SALCC) and University of the West Indies (UWI) management programs (Course: Management Information Systems – year 2 students)
ii) Attach a resume, curriculum vitae, or other biography highlighting your experience most relevant to the duties of the AC.
https://arin-elections.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/george_resume.pdf
iii) You may also optionally include additional web links to external websites (e.g., social media), though not as a substitute for your biography.
None provided.
b) The role of the Advisory Council is to advise the Board of Trustees on Internet number resource policy and related matters. Describe a similar experience you have had in such an advisory role.
Within the NTRC, one of the roles as a Commissioner is to provide advice to the Minister with responsibility for Telecommunications on possible actions and related government policies and interventions. Also engaged in local and regional discussions (workshops & consultations) on harmonized ICT regulations for the Caribbean states (HIPCAR project). As a member of the executive of SLICTA, we often participate on ministerial working groups on proposed relevant and ICT-related policies under consideration.
3. Eligibilty
a) Please disclose any conflicts of interest you may have, real or perceived, that would impact your ability to perform your duty as a member of ARIN’s Advisory Council. How do you propose to resolve any such conflicts?
I have no conflicts of interest that I am aware of.
b) Are you currently eligible to serve on the Advisory Council according to the Conflicts of Interest Policy?
Yes.
c) If not currently eligible, how will you become eligible to serve if elected (i.e. “If elected, I will resign from the position of ________ before 31 Dec 2022”). If not applicable, simply enter “N/A”.
N/A
d) Describe any limitations on your ability to: attend AC and Public Policy Meetings in person; or serve all of the elected term.
I am not aware of any limitations in my ability to participate or attend the AC and Public Policy Meetings in person, or to be able to serve out all of the elected term.
4. Nominee Information
a) Have you attended ARIN meetings or otherwise participated in ARIN activities in the past? What did you find the most rewarding from those meetings or activities? What suggestions for improvement do you have?
Yes, I have attended ARIN meetings both in-person and virtually.
Most rewarding with the in-person meetings, were the personal interactions with so many knowledgeable individuals, the ability to (freely) ask questions, seek advice and have open discussions were very rewarding.
For both the on-line and in-person meetings, the opportunity for everyone to have a voice, and ARINs strong encouragement to persons having their voice heard, to weigh in with their opinion as part of the discussion process was very eye-opening, encouraging and pleasing from a governance perspective.
b) What areas of Internet number resource policy, if any, need more attention by ARIN; why?
Not sure that there is significantly more that ARIN can do beyond their levels of advocacy, promotion and public awareness, unless it is simply more of it, and maybe more targeted engagements towards particular and specific groups and constituencies.
Also, more events like ARIN-on-the-Road, which are smaller, and more targeted interventions may yield dividends in reaching some persons and groups who are not attuned to the larger events.
c) In what ways could the AC’s role managing ARIN’s Internet number resource policy be improved, if any?
The number resource policy is fairly well detailed and received regular review via the PDP. While there is sometimes disagreement on some aspects of a particular policy by some sections of the community, the process is sufficiently inclusive to allow for discussion and consensus prior to acceptance or rejection of clauses (or entire proposals).
Areas of improvement would lie in further inclusion of additional parties – a wider community, of which some segments and sections are under-represented in terms of participation in the ARIN space.
d) What are your thoughts on the rights and responsibilities of legacy IP address holders?
Even as a current legacy IP holder, I do think that it is important that such scarce resources be utilized or there should be plans for its utilization within a reasonable time-frame. Reasonable considerations should exist to address such idle resources in a manner which would also not be disadvantageous to the address holder.
e) What are your thoughts on needs-based justification for the receipt of IP addresses?
ARIN has been very flexible in meeting the needs of members for number resources (IP addresses), especially with the exhaustion of the IPv4 space, and in the promotion of IPv6 towards greater adoption, particularly by smaller entities (by allowing requirements and requests for smaller address blocks in the v6 space).
Requiring justification based on needs (as opposed to wants) will allow for greater efficiency in the distribution and allocation of the resources, particularly where there is scarcity.
As such, I think the current needs-based justification generally meets the requirements and demands of the majority of the membership.