Former National Communications Commission (NCC) chairwoman Nicole Chan (詹婷怡) has been elected a member of the board of DotAsia Organisation after garnering the highest number of votes.
DotAsia is a Hong Kong-based nonprofit organization promoting Internet development and adoption in Asia. Its members include the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre, the Asia-Pacific Top Level Domain Association and other agencies.
Voting was held from Jan. 15 to 29, with the results released yesterday.
The organization, which is governed and operated through the multiple stakeholders’ model, in 2006 signed a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and has since sponsored and supported many projects in Asia, including NetMission.Asia and the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum.
Chan, who resigned from the NCC last year, was nominated by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC) to run in DotAsia’s board election.
Her nomination was also endorsed by the Singapore Network Information Centre, the agency in charge of domain name registration said.
“It was significant that [former NCC] chairwoman Chan was able to secure one of three open seats on the board of DotAsia Organisation with the highest votes. Taiwan has nominated a candidate with extensive experience in handling network governance issues, whose nomination was also supported by other partners in the Asia-Pacific region. This not only showed that the nation is actively seeking cooperation with other nations in terms of global Internet management, but it also showed that Taiwan, as part of the Internet ecosystem, was able to contribute to the online communities,” TWNIC chairman and CEO Kenny Huang (黃勝雄) said.
Chan said that the Asia-Pacific region is rich in culture and history, and a high Internet penetration rate has created impressive changes in the region.
DotAsia has actively participated and assisted in the development of the Internet in the region, but many important issues related to network governance — from the digital gap, digital hegemony and online content supervision to controversies over cross-border Internet law enforcement — require extensive discussions on possible solutions, she said.
“I am committed to contributing my experience in the development of digital technology in Taiwan to the Asia-Pacific region,” Chan said.
Chan is to officially become a board member when she attends the organization’s annual general meeting in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday next week, TWNIC said.
For the board election, Chan faced competition from representatives of Iran, the Philippines, the Cook Islands, South Korea, New Zealand and Hong Kong, it said.
In addition to Chan, National Information Infrastructure Enterprise Promotion Association consultant Wu Kuo-wei (吳國維) served on the board of ICANN in 2010, becoming the first Taiwanese member of the board.
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