#CIRAelection: Why I'm voting for Moll, Geist, Sandiford and maybe Finckelstein

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is holding its annual board election. I'm voting for these candidates:

Members' Slate:
- Marita Moll

Nomination Committee Slate:
- Michael Geist
- Bill Sandiford
- Konrad von Finckelstein (maybe?)

If you're a CIRA member, you can vote Sept 16 - 23 (deadline: noon Pacific time Sept 23). You'll need your Voter ID and PIN from the email CIRA sent you today (Sept 16). Anyone with a .ca domain can join CIRA for free at cira.ca/membership and vote next year.

How I choose who to vote for:

My research is not very deep, but there seems to be a lack of candidate assessments available online, so I'm trying to help fill that gap.

I try to guess which candidates are more likely to advocate in the broad public interest, rather than for the interests of industry or themselves or their friends. I also look for some knowledge of internet issues, including privacy, technology, security, economics, business, politics etc.

My sources include the candidates' statements and résumés (linked from cira.ca/election), the election campaign forum, perspectives from OpenMedia.ca (internet public interest advocacy organization), a former CIRA board member, and various others.

I'm uncertain about my third choice on the nom-com slate. Konrad von Finckelstein is former chair of the CRTC, so has a wealth of relevant experience. Could he be too much of an insider? Hard to guess. Here are two perspectives on him, pro and con:

Pro -- openmedia.ca/node/3548

Con -- rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/openmediaca/2014/07/has-crtc-really-changed-will-they-listen-to-canadians-or-telecom-

What do you think? Comments welcomed! 

How to improve CIRA's election process:

There is not enough voter engagement, nor enough sources of insightful assessments of the candidates. I have recommended various improvements to CIRA, so instead of repeating them I'll link to them:

1. The latter half of this blog post.

2. The paper We Want Our Co-ops Back.

#CIRA Election: Who I plan to vote for

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is holding its annual board election. I'm planning to vote for these candidates:

Members' Slate:
- Michael Geist
- Kevin McArthur

Nomination Committee Slate:
- William Gibson
- Bill Sandiford
- Dave Chiswell

If you're a CIRA member, you can vote Sept 19 - 26 (deadline: 9am Pacific time Sept 26). If you have a .ca domain, you can join CIRA or check your membership status at cira.ca/membership.

How I chose who to vote for:

My professional expertise is accountability of elected leaders to voters, in all types of voter communities, from democracies to corporations. Like most large organizations, I find CIRA rather lacking in accountability (reasons are in this paper). So I looked for director candidates who give priority to that.

In particular, I focused on candidates' responses to these questions in the recent campaign forum:

- Question concerning Governance Reform

- Year-round CIRA members forum

- Critique of CIRA governance

I especially appreciate Michael Geist's emphasis on upholding the public interest -- mentioned 6 times in his nominee statement. He's an experienced CIRA director, and a law professor at Carleton University with a well deserved reputation for public interest advocacy in internet law and policy.

In addition to his technical expertise, Kevin McArthur has some great accountability planks in his campaign platform. My favourite: "Advance a transparency culture at CIRA by removing bylaws that censor the disagreements of board members."

William Gibson would bring his valuable experience from chairing the board at Mountain Equipment Co-op. Among the nomination committee nominees, he was perhaps the most responsive in the campaign forum, especially on my proposal to create a year-round online forum for CIRA members.

You can see that my voting this year is consistent with last year -- see my post on the 2011 CIRA election.

I plan to wait until the last day to vote, so I can learn from others' opinions. Please comment below or by email to mark[at]votermedia.org. I thank all candidates for offering to serve CIRA and Canada's internet!

Keep Canada's internet democratic: Oppose #CIRA insiders' power grab proposal @OpenMedia_ca

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority's board is proposing to eliminate CIRA members' right to nominate directors. Instead, the board-appointed Nomination Committee would decide which candidates would be on the ballot. I'm amazed to see such an anti-democratic move. It's like what we just saw at Mountain Equipment Co-op.

Fortunately, CIRA is inviting advance comment on the board's proposal, via email to governance@cira.ca before May 2, 2012. Detailed info is at http://cira.ca/legal/governance/, especially page 3 of this document. I'm emailing them this blog post:

Thank you for requesting member feedback on this important governance proposal. I especially appreciate your advance notice to members, which lets us discuss the issue well in advance of voting on it. This contrasts with the recent move by Mountain Equipment Co-op's board -- see my post-mortem blog post at http://votermedia.blogspot.ca/2012/04/mountain-equipment-co-op-agm-democracy.html.

I hope you drop this proposal. But if you do submit it to CIRA members for a vote, I strongly urge you to open an online members' forum where we can discuss it with each other well in advance. And I urge you to include a link/reference to the members' discussion from the ballot and from any voting info you circulate.

As I read the proposal, it seems that you are proposing that we members should give up our right to nominate board candidates without screening by a board-appointed nomination committee. I think that's a very bad idea, so I would oppose it.

I think this proposal would concentrate too much power in the incumbent board (or rather, whatever majority currently dominates the board), thus disempowering CIRA members and making the board less accountable to members. Accountability to members is the best way I know to ensure that CIRA is run in the best interests of Canadians generally.

Lack of accountability of elected leaders (in governments and in corporations) is the main root cause of our recent financial crisis. So it is clearer than ever that we should strengthen accountability, not weaken it by letting incumbents control the nomination of their own successors.

There are better ways to make sure we get excellent people onto the CIRA board, while simplifying the process and improving accountability to members. I would suggest we do something like this:

- Continue to let both the nominating committee and the general membership nominate board candidates.

- Don't separate the nominees into two slates as we are doing now.

- Expand the online election candidate forum to enable us members to communicate with each other as well as with the candidates.

- Let the nominating committee express their opinions on candidates in the online forum, but not on the ballot. Let all of us members express our opinions on candidates in the online forum.

- Change the ballot to a preferential one where we rank our favoured candidates 1, 2, 3 etc. Determine the winners by Single Transferable Vote. This would ensure a broad representation of various member interests, while reducing vote-splitting, wasted votes, and the need for strategic voting.

- Ensure free speech for all candidates and directors, especially for those who criticize CIRA's current policies. We members need this for accountability.

- To help voters process info about candidates, let voters allocate at least $10,000 per election among blogs competing to provide insightful coverage of the candidates. The effectiveness of this "votermedia" system is described in these two blog posts, along with the reasons for similar reform proposals at MEC and Vancity:

http://votermedia.blogspot.ca/2012/03/how-i-plan-to-vote-in-mountain.html

http://votermedia.blogspot.ca/2012/04/vancity-credit-union-election-who-i.html

As I'm sure you know, other CIRA members also strongly oppose this proposal -- see for example http://www.unrest.ca/cira-governance

I'm posting this email on my blog at http://votermedia.blogspot.ca

Feel free to contact me to discuss any of this. Again, thank you for your work on this important issue!

Mark Latham

$5k for Student Media at ASUC Berkeley @asucpres @dailycaleditor @jrue

I'm looking forward to visiting U C Berkeley next week to meet people in the student union (ASUC), the newspaper (Daily Cal) and the School of Journalism.

On Monday Feb 27 I'm scheduled to meet ASUC President Vishalli Loomba, staff members Janice Crowder and Marilyn Stager, and Elections Council Chair Pamudh Kariyawasam. We'll discuss VoterMedia.org's offer of $5,000 in matching funds for the ASUC to try VoterMedia to improve voter information and engagement -- see briefing paper at votermedia.org/publications. Sample ballot at votermedia.org/asuc.

On Tuesday Feb 28 I'll meet with Daily Cal Editor Tomer Ovadia. I see he's co-proposing a referendum to raise student fees to fund the Daily Cal and other campus publications (Facebook event announcements here and here). Community funding for community media is a great idea! VoterMedia is similar to this plan, except that the funding is allocated by student voters through time, and any campus media can compete for funds. This keeps the media accountable to students -- see interviews of UBC students, including their newspaper editor, in video Mainstream Media vs Voter Media.

The ASUC allocates over $50k annually to various student publications -- see 2011-2012 Budget. A VoterMedia competition is designed to support those media that create the most benefit for the student community per dollar cost. It's Participatory Budgeting for media.

On Thursday March 1, I'll talk with Susan Rasky's Political Reporting class at the School of Journalism. We'll discuss the media economics underlying the VoterMedia blog contest design, as outlined in Newspaper Sponsorship for Municipal VoterMedia. I'll also meet faculty members Jeremy Rue and David Cohn.

Should journalists endorse election candidates? #bcmuni2011

My opinion:

Yes, journalists should endorse election candidates. Reasons below. Comments welcomed!

Context:

We are now at the height of the election campaigns for all municipal governments in British Columbia. Voting day is November 19.

VoterMedia.org is sponsoring competitions for blogs covering the elections in Burnaby, Surrey and North Vancouver. (Info & entry form here.)

My reasons:

My main reason is having watched the UBC student union elections for the past 5 years, the endorsements of candidates published by bloggers covering those elections seem to have been helpful information for voters. Voters who did not want to spend much time doing their own research (i.e. most voters), could find well reasoned endorsements to help guide them to choose candidates that would serve the voters' interests well. (Here's an example.)

It's important to note, however, that those 5 years of elections were held in the context of bloggers being rewarded via a VoterMedia system, where voters allocate funds to blogs they found helpful. I designed that system to give journalists a stronger economic incentive to build reputations for serving the voters' interests. Once they have built those reputations, they can endorse candidates without worrying so much that their endorsements will automatically be viewed with suspicion.

Journalists working in other incentive contexts have good reason to worry. There is widespread suspicion (probably justified) that many media organizations have incentives other than the broad public (i.e. voters') interest. For that reason, I think, many excellent journalists avoid endorsing. Many of those who publish endorsements (often non-journalists) are partisan, explicitly or implicitly campaigning on behalf of those they endorse, and often paid for doing so. Perhaps to avoid that taint, some journalists believe they should maintain "objectivity" by not taking sides.

Limits on my opinion:

So perhaps I should limit my opinion to the context of bloggers in VoterMedia competitions. I don't understand the incentives of mainstream media journalists well enough to have a strong opinion for them. And in the VoterMedia context, I should further limit my opinion by emphasizing that this is only my advice to bloggers and voters, but they are free to ignore it. I'm used to having my advice ignored!  ;-)

I believe more strongly in freedom of the press and democratic choice by voters than in my own opinions. But I also believe in free speech, so I feel free to express these opinions.

What are your opinions? Express below or by email to mark[at]votermedia.org...

Media Democracy Days in Vancouver this weekend #MDDVan

Media Democracy Days this weekend, Fri Sat Sun, Nov 11 12 13: Free events but reservations recommended & filling up fast. (Sorry I didn't post this sooner!) Info at mediademocracyday.org.

Panel on The Future of Journalism, Sat Nov 12 1pm-2:20pm at Vancouver Public Library main branch (Alice MacKay Room) is very timely since top B.C. independent political journalist Sean Holman just gave up blogging for lack of $ -- see Tyee article & my comment. Great panellists:

DAVID BEERS is founding editor of The Tyee. He has won national awards for his journalism in Canada and the United States, writing for The Globe and Mail, Vancouver Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, and many other publications. He edited the “Fate of the Strait” environmental series for the Vancouver Sun, which received Canada’s National Newspaper Award for Special Projects.

PETER KLEIN began his career as a radio reporter for National Public Radio, covering the Bosnian war and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. In 1999 Klein joined CBS News’ 60 Minutes as a producer remains a contributor to the program. Klein joined the faculty of UBC in 2005, and in 2008 he launched the International Reporting Program, Among other prestigious awards, his 2010 class’ Frontline/WORLD documentary, Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground, earned him an Emmy for best investigative newsmagazine.

CHARLIE SMITH has been editor of the Georgia Straight for six years. Before that, he was the news editor at the Straight for 10 years. He has also worked at CBC Radio and CBC TV and taught investigative journalism at Kwantlen Polytechnic University for seven years back in the days when it was known as Kwantlen University College. These days, most of his writing appears on Straight.com, but some find its way into the print edition.

KAREN PINCHIN is the founding editor of OpenFile Vancouver, a community-powered collaborative news website. She has reported and edited for The Canadian Press, Maclean’s and Newsweek, and freelanced for outlets including The Globe and Mail and The Walrus.

& moderator:
LINDA SOLOMON is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Vancouver Observer, which was the winner of the 2010 Canadian Online Publishing Awards for “Best online-only articles” and took second place in “Best overall online-only site”. She is also the founder and director of The Vancouver New Media Foundation and is CEO of Observer Media Group. Linda was the recipient of the United Press International award for Best Investigative Reporting.

#CIRA Election: Who I plan to vote for

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is holding its annual board election:

Sept 13 - 20: Candidates online forum

Sept 20: Annual General Meeting & Symposium (free & open to public)

Sept 21 - 28: Online voting

As a CIRA member, I've been participating in the campaign forum. As in many large democratic organizations, member engagement and voter turnout are low. This is a problem that votermedia is designed to help solve, so I have focused my participation on the issue of voter information and engagement (here and here).

I'm planning to vote for these candidates:

Members' Slate: Kevin McArthur

Nomination Committee Slate:
Kerry Brown
Bill Gibson
Gary Evans
[2011-09-26 update: Michael Geist's post today has raised my opinion of Bill St.Arnaud. So I now plan to vote for Kerry Brown plus 2 of these 3: Bill St.Arnaud, Bill Gibson and Gary Evans.]

These may not be my final choices. Voting is Sept 21 - 28, so I have time to gather more insight which may change my mind. I don't consider myself especially well informed. I'm posting this in the hope of receiving comments etc from people more informed than I. My main role in votermedia is not blogging -- it's building a system to support and encourage blogging that benefits the community.

I have asked for candidate reviews from people whose views I respect, and so far have received these replies:

From Michael Geist, 2011-09-17:

I'll likely post an endorsement of some kind once the election launches.

[2011-09-26 update: See Michael Geist's post today.]

From Steve Anderson, Executive Director, OpenMedia.ca, 2011-09-18:

I haven't studied the candidates yet - if I come up with a list I feel confident in endorsing I will let you know.

What I can say is that I will vote for and endorse Kevin [McArthur]. He's a long time advocate and active contributor on key issues like Net Neutrality, UBB, and lawful Access. You're welcome to make my endorsement of Kevin public.

If/when I hear more from them, I'll add a comment below and/or edit this post. Meanwhile, here are some reasons why I'm choosing the above candidates:

Kevin McArthur is my clearest choice. He is supported by Steve Anderson. He has been very active in the campaign forum. I like his proactive policy advocate approach to the director's role, as well as the policies he advocates. And his technical expertise seems at least stronger than my ability to assess it.

Kerry Brown has been active in the campaign forum and in his thoughtful blog. His technical knowledge and experience seem strong. I know enough about governance to say that I find his discussions of it intelligent and balanced.

Bill Gibson's track record at MEC looks strong, and very relevant to a large democratic organization with low voter engagement.

Gary Evans is a governance specialist. That alone would not get my support, since many conventional governance models are not worth the time and effort, in my view. But Gary has an eclectic scope that includes some worthwhile approaches, so I think his contribution would be valuable. I should confess a personal bias here: I found one of my publications on his course reading list, and on my suggestion he has added another one. Anyone who agrees with me I find particularly intelligent! ;-)

BTW I also have a positive impression of François Vidal, with his experience on the board of a large nonprofit (Hostelling International - Canada) and for improving CIRA's representation of Quebec.

Anyway, I hope this post will prompt some more enlightening links and comments on who we should vote for and why, from other CIRA members, board candidates, and anyone with insight and/or interest. Please comment below or by email to mark[at]votermedia.org. You could also add a link in the comment thread at https://elections.cira.ca/2011/campaign/topic/7/en.

See you at the Sept 20 AGM!

New video: Mainstream Media vs Voter Media

Today we released a new video at votermedia.org: Mainstream Media vs Voter Media.

In it, UBC students discuss how VoterMedia (= voter funded media = VFM) provides healthy competition to the University of British Columbia's established student newspaper, The Ubyssey.

"...does VFM work for students? I think yes. Does it increase campus discussion and student engagement? I think absolutely. Does it ensure that established media does a better job? Yeah. And are students and is this campus better off because of that? Well, absolutely." (Justin McElroy, Coordinating Editor, The Ubyssey)

Dan Hind on the BBC & on the riots

Dan Hind, author of The Return of the Public, last month wrote this insightful critique of the BBC. Quotes:

"I would argue that it is a problem that derives from the structure of the institution, rather than from the shortcomings of individuals."
...
"The BBC is a political actor of considerable importance. It is in some ways central to the operations of the British state and as such it has a stake in the existing constitutional settlement. Its reliance on revenue from the license fee means it is vulnerable to pressure from the political class and from the privately owned media. It has interests about which it cannot be entirely candid. When its interests overlap with those of other powerful actors the social silence is likely to be deafening. For these reasons it is also unrealistic to think that the BBC can be left with so much discretion in decisions about whether and how debates in civil society are covered."

(We can apply a similar analysis to Canada's CBC.)

More recently, he wrote this post (which I also recommend) about the UK riots -- Nothing 'mindless' about rioters:

"...there is no single meaning in what is happening in London and elsewhere. But there are connections that we can make, and that we should make. We have a major problem with youth unemployment. There have already been cuts in services for young people. State education in poor areas is sometimes shockingly bad. Young people cannot afford adequate private housing and there is a shortage of council-built stock. Economic inequality has reached quite startling levels. All this is the consequence of decisions made by governments and there is little hope of rapid improvement. The same politicians now denouncing the mindless violence of the mob all supported a system of political economy that was as unstable as it was pernicious. They should have known that their policies would lead to disaster. They didn't know. Who then is more mindless?

The global economic crisis is at least as political as the riots we've seen in the last few days. It has lasted far longer and done far more damage. We need not draw a straight line from the decision to bail out the banks to what's going on now in London. But we must not lose sight of what both events tell us about our current condition. Those who want to see law and order restored must turn their attention to a menace that no amount of riot police will disperse; a social and political order that rewards vandalism and the looting of public property, so long as the perpetrators are sufficiently rich and powerful."

Knight Foundation media innovation contest announces 2011 winners

"Sixteen ideas that push the future of news and information will receive $4.7 million in funding as winners of the Knight News Challenge, an international media innovation contest funding digital news experiments that inform and engage communities."

"Knight News Challenge winners receive $4.7 million, including $1 million in support from Google; winners include traditional news organizations and Internet entrepreneurs, projects focused on government transparency, mobile and more."

You can browse the winning projects at:

www.knightfoundation.org/press-room/press-release/knight-foundation-media-innovation-contest-announc/

VoterMedia.org entered the contest, but didn't win funding. We congratulate the winners and look forward to watching their progress!

New video: What Is VoterMedia?

We just released a new video at votermedia.org, entitled "What Is VoterMedia?"

In it, students at the University of British Columbia explain that votermedia is a system for rewarding bloggers who inform students about their student union, elections and other issues that matter to their community. "...it’s an innovative incentive structure to encourage independent media to develop and to flourish and to cover events in their local communities." (-- Alex Lougheed)

Thank you to all who contributed to this!

VoterMedia enters $5 million funding competition

The Knight News Challenge is a media innovation contest that aims to advance the future of news by funding new ways to digitally inform communities. As much as $5 million will be given away this year.

I just submitted an entry for VoterMedia.org, requesting $200,000.

You can:

1. See the VoterMedia entry, vote on its rating, and participate in its comment discussion.

2. Enter the contest yourself! Deadline is December 1.

Media Democracy Day: tomorrow at VPL

Media Democracy Day is on Saturday November 6 from noon to 5pm at the Vancouver Public Library main branch. It's free, fascinating and important -- see you there! Info at www.mediademocracyday.org/vancouver

Comments to FCC on the Future of Media

Four days ago, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced their request for comments on "the future of media and the information needs of communities in a digital age", along with 42 specific questions. I submitted my comments this morning, which are already linked on the FCC website page for "Proceeding 10-25". I've also posted these links at votermedia.org/publications.

Mainly I pitched the benefits of voter funded media, with the UBC Continuous VFM competition as an example.

Giving talks at Stanford & Berkeley

I've recently scheduled to give these three talks:

Nov. 16 at Stanford Law School's Rock Center for Corporate Governance, mainly on the paper "Proxy Voting Brand Competition", my work on the SEC Investor Advisory Committee, and ProxyDemocracy.

Nov. 17 at U C Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, mainly on the paper "Global Voter Media Platform" and VoterMedia.org.

Dec. 10 at the 2009 British Columbia Pension Forum, mainly on the paper "Proxy Voting Brand Competition", my work on the SEC Investor Advisory Committee, and ProxyDemocracy.

More info on the talks at votermedia.org/presentations. The papers are available at votermedia.org/publications.

Media Democracy Day this Saturday at VPL

Media Democracy Day 2009 will be this Saturday November 7 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Vancouver Public Library, 350 West Georgia Street. Info at www.mediademocracyday.org/vancouver.

See you there!

You can now vote at new Global Voter Media Platform

We've just released the first beta version of votermedia.org, where you can now vote on media that cover Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Iran, Microsoft, CBC etc etc. It's designed to have a page of voter-ranked media (blogs and others) for each voter community in the world. You can add new communities and new media to this voting system.

There's more explanation on the site's FAQ page, and in the paper "Global Voter Media Platform" at votermedia.org/publications.

Come and help reform our governments, corporations and other large organizations!

http://votermedia.org

May 27 event: Where's the Money in Media?

Panel Discussion: CBC cuts, corporate media bailouts, exciting alternative models

Host:	Media Democracy Day Vancouver
Type:	Education - Workshop
Network:	Global

Date:	Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Time:	6:45pm - 9:00pm
Location:	VIVO Media Arts Centre
Street:	1965 Main St. near 3rd, close to Main Street/Science World Skytrain
City/Town:	Vancouver, BC

Phone:	6048758455
Email:	naava.smolash [at] gmail.com

Bad news & good news for news

The bad news:

2008-12-28 Buy a newspaper for democracy

2009-01-07 Eric Schmidt wishes Google could save newspapers

2009-01-11 NY Times' financial woes

The good news:

We're solving these problems with Global Voter Media Platform.

Join us to build Global Voter Media Platform

We are a group of volunteers creating a website and nonprofit organization for the next generation voter funded media system – automated and scalable to all voting communities in the world. Skills we especially need at this stage: Ruby on Rails; Ajax; website graphic design.

More info at votermedia.org/about-contact.html.

To join us, please email mark[at]votermedia.org.