Response to Proposed Framework for FY10 Operating Plan and Budget

[Janice Douma Lange <janice.lange@xxxxxxxxx>]

This comment was sent to ICANN Fellowship Program Manager Janice Lange, due to 
inability of Gao Mosweu, who wanted to place the comment on the ICANN website 
but could not get internet access at the time.

 From Gao Mosweu:
ICANN Fellowship Program,
I was one of the participants from the first fellowship round for the San Juan 
Meeting in June 2007. From that meeting alone, I learnt so much about ICANN, 
its processes, the community of people that make it all happen. 
For me it even became a launching pad for me to find my voice within my local 
community. It opened my eyes that a lot of people in my country do not know 
about Internet Governance, let alone the tremendous work that ICANN does. 
I became much more involved at the local community level, organised workshops 
on IG issues.
I have organised IPv6 training for local technicians, and made a presentation 
about ICANN at this training in the last year. 
I teach a group of part time students Ecommerce, and every year since I got 
involved with ICANN, each of them graduates from the course knowing at least 
about ICANN and its work around the world.
Subsequent to the San Juan Meeting, I was at the Los Angeles meeting, and at 
the Paris Meeting as a mentor to first time fellows. 
I have also been able to get involved with the re-delegation process for our 
ccTLD - the .bw domain. I have been able to gather enough courage to walk up to 
the authorities in charge and challenge them to do something about it. 
I can tell you now that last year I submitted recommendations about the 
management or administration of the .bw domain... Guess what? Apparently a 
consultant had been hired previously to look into this specific issue, and came 
up with a 300 page document. It apparently did not render much in the way of 
way forward that was comprehensible, so in the end that same document I had 
prepared became the guiding document for further discussions!
No, I could not have done it without having been involved with ICANN... You 
could say that ICANN helped me to be the voice and the change I wanted to see. 
It helped me to gain enough confidence to tackle issues relating to the 
internet community in Botswana.
As I write this now, I have been, for the past few weeks been in touch with the 
Regional Liaison Officer for Africa (Ms. Anne-Rachel Inne), to try to get her 
to come down here to facilitate a workshop on the re-delegation process. We are 
working on the specifics but she should be here end of May. I am looking 
forward to that, and so are many members of the community, who I have mobilised 
- like the Botswana Information Technology Society, for which I am now 
Secretary General. 
I am going to the airport now for my flight to leave to Namibia, to meet other 
people, who I met through the ICANN network, who will be training me on the 
management of the ccTLD.
Imagine, if it could help Botswana in the way it has, what about other 
countries?
ICANN has helped me and my country in a phenomenal way through my fellowship 
participation!
 
 
GAO MOSWEU, 
BOTSWANA

Janice Douma Lange
Project Office Coordinator, ICANN
310-301-3881 direct office line
310-424-0795 cell phone
janice.lange@xxxxxxxxx