Roberto Bissio
Roberto Bissio is the Executive Director of the Third World Institute (Instituto del Tercer Mundo, ITeM), a non-profit organisation committed to promote South-South information exchange and the access of communities and citizen organisations to information. Bissio coordinates the international secretariat of Social Watch, an international network monitoring the internationally agreed commitments on poverty eradication and gender equality. He is a member of the board of Third World Network (TWN).
Willie Currie
Willie Currie is the Communications & Information Policy Programme Manager of the Association For Progressive Communications (APC). Currie has been in the field of policy for the past 15 years. He was involved in developing policy and legislation on broadcasting and telecom in South Africa during the transition to democracy, and in the immediate aftermath of the 1990s establishment of the Mandela government. Currie then worked for the South African Telecommunications Regulations Authority (SATRA) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.
Anriette Esterhuysen
Anriette Esterhuysen is the Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and individuals working for peace, human rights, development and protection of the environment, through the strategic use of information and communication technologies.
Alan Finlay
Alan Finlay runs Open Research, a Johannesburg-based consultancy specializing in media and ICT research, and project development. He is a Rhodes University and Wits Business School graduate and is currently completing his masters in media studies at Wits University, attached to the Public Intellectual Life Project. Recent assignments include a six-month media research fellowship at the University of Witwatersrand where he analysed the media's coverage of HIV/AIDS. Finlay's work in the non-profit ICT sector includes, from 2001 to 2003, the position of Information Services Manager at SANGONeT, an organization with over 20 years of experience in Internet development and building online information projects in the Southern Africa region.
Robin Gross
Robin Gross is the founder and Executive Director of IP Justice, an international civil liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property law and defends freedom of expression. IP Justice is active at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), where it participates in meetings related to the "Development Agenda" and the proposed Broadcasting Treaty. Gross has represented the Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) on the ICANN GNSO Policy Council since 2005 and is a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group to the Internet Governance Forum. Gross taught international copyright law at Santa Clara
University School of Law in 2005 and was the first intellectual property attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1999. She also runs an entertainment and cyberspace law firm in San Francisco, United States of America.
Jeanette Hofmann
Jeanette Hofmann is program leader for internet governance at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) (Social Science Research Centre Berlin), in Germany. Hofmann served on the 2004 and 2005 ICANN's Nominating Committee, co-coordinated the WSIS-civil society's Internet Governance Caucus and worked as a member of the German delegation to the WSIS. She integrated the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) established by the UN Secretary-General for the Tunis phase of the WSIS and in 2006 was appointed as a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group to the Internet Governance Forum.
Don MacLean
Don MacLean is an independent consultant based in Ottawa, Canada and an Associate of the International Institute for Sustainable Development. His work typically involves research, analysis and policy development on economic, social and governance issues related to telecommunications, the internet and ICTs. From 1992-1999, MacLean headed the Strategic Planning and External Affairs Unit of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Amy K. Mahan
Amy Mahan is LIRNE.NET coordinator and senior researcher for the World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies (WDR). Her current research focuses on telecom reform and regulatory agencies information and communication practices in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Recent books include: Stimulating Investment in Network Development: Roles for Regulators (2005 with W.H. Melody), How to Build Open Information Societies (UNDP, 2004, with Yuri Misnikov); Networking Knowledge for Information Societies: Institutions & Intervention (Delft University Press, 2002, with Robin Mansell and Rohan Samarajiva); and Global Media Governance: A beginner's guide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, with Seán Ó Siochrú and Bruce Girard).
Seán Ó Siochrú
Seán Ó Siochrú is a consultant, writer and advocate on media and ICT issues. His work has taken him to over fifty countries for UNDP, IFAD, IDRC, UNECA, APC, European Union and others, and includes programme evaluation, design and implementation, policy and research advice, local team coordination and event facilitation. He works with civil society organisations worldwide, is spokesperson of the Campaign for Communications Rights in the Information Society (CRIS), and Chair and a founder of Dublin Community Television in Ireland. He has written and edited several books and numerous chapters, articles and reviews.
David Souter
David Souter is managing director of the specialist consultancy ICT Development Associates and visiting professor in communications management at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. He is former chief executive of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO). In 2002 he coordinated the study "Louder Voices" for strengthening developing country participation in international ICT decision-making.
