Avri Doria
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 54 |
| Region | North America |
| Nationality | USA / Israel |
| Residence | USA / Sweden |
| Languages | English (fluent); Italian, Hebrew (good); French, Spanish, Swedish (basic) |
| Nominated by | Jeanette Hofmann |
| Endorsed by | Internet Governance Caucus |
Nomination statement
Avri Doria would be an equally good choice. She brings broad technical knowledge to the table and is one of the few techies I know who don't shy away from political matters. She has a broad understanding of Internet Governance and lots of practical experience with both online and offline communities. The caucus benefits from her involvement in the IETF, the chairing of IETF working groups and the IETF nomcom because she reflects on the rules she is implementing. It is the combination of technical skills and civil society related activities, which makes her a good candidate. Avri is also known at UN headquarters.
Personal statement
While I have been employed as a technical person for 25 years, my formal education is in Philosophy and in Counseling Psychology. I tend to bring that background to most of my dealings with technology and its place in the social context. I am currently completing a Ph.D. in the Humanities, Social Science and Technology department at Blekinge University of Technology in Sweden on Technopolitics and the Internet.
I tend to view the issues of technology, technology policy, technology rights, technology responsibilities and the politics of technology as interwoven and inseparable. I tend to be a generalist, and as a generalist, tend to listen to the specialists of the world with an attentive but an analytical perspective. I also consider myself open-minded and able to reflect on my positions, and change them, based on the perceptions and arguments of others.
From having lived within several cultures, I bring to most discussions an inherently cross-cultural perspective. It is not that I pretend to have experienced all cultures, but rather that I am consciously aware of how different cultural experience and perspective adds to the understanding of complex issues.
In practical terms, my specialty in Internet technology is the routing architecture, its protocols and its policies. I am acutely aware of the problems of that structure and the inequality that the lack of international parity inflicts on the countries outside of the most developed nations.
For the last several years I have been involved in the UN ICT Task Force for Development. As a speaker at ICT4D in Geneva I spoke on the problems that are encountered in bringing Internet connectivity to communications challenged areas. I have participated in, and spoken at, several ICT Task Force conferences on access and connectivity. This work has made me cognizant of the problems (technological, cultural, political and regulatory) involved in trying to bring networking to those who currently do not have such access in many areas of the world. I plan to remain involved in finding technical and policy solutions to the problems.
I am an independent researcher loosely affiliated with Luleâ University of Technology in Sweden. My current funding comes from:
For the Sami Network Connectivity Project (www.snc.sapmi.net) funding comes from:
- Vinnova - the Swedish national research funding agency support for the pilot project
- EU Objective 1 - Grant to cover gender inclusion aspects of the project
For Standards body research funding comes from:
- ETRI, the S. Korean ICT Ministry's institute for Electronics and Telecommunications Research.
Although no longer in the industrial sector, I worked on networking in industry for over 20 years. I currently consider myself to be within the Civil Society sector. Though, because of my involvement in standards activities and the fact that much of my funding comes from governments, I am not very remote from either of the other sectors.
Participation and affiliations:
WSIS: I participate in the governance and gender caucuses
ICT Task Force: I participate in The Low Cost Connectivity and Access Working Group and in the Local Voices effort.
IETF - Participant since 1988. I have held various chair and directorate appointments. The most relevant to this enterprise are as co-chair of the Problem Working Group that studied the problems of the IETF and many years involvement with the Nomcom process that selects the leadership of the IETF
ISOC - Member since the formation of the organization
Multiservice Switching Forum, an international industry consortium working on IP technology replacement for the PSTN - Technical Committee chair
I also participate as a mailing list member in ITU Study Groups and the ICANN at large membership list.
Nationality: Dual US and Israeli citizenship, though I currently only hold a US passport.
Language Skills: English is my primary language. As I grew up partially in Italy I am almost fluent, though rather rusty, in Italian. I can read French passably well and can struggle through Spanish text. I am also moderately fluent in Hebrew and have a beginner's understanding of Swedish. I have begun learning Korean, but have not progressed very far.