Amidst the frustrations and craziness in the WSIS process, a lot of what keeps me engaged and excited about the WSIS is the people. Avri Doria is one of those cool folks who have crossed my path because of the WSIS.
I have known about Avri for a long time because of her lucid and helpful postings to the internet governance caucus email listserv. But this last Prepcom in Geneva was my first opportunity to physically meet her and get to know her better. I immediately felt calmer in her presence as she told me about running around the hallways of the UN as a youth.
Avri currently splits her time between Rhode Island and Sweden as a consultant and researcher on technology and social science issues. As the daughter of a diplomat, Avri has lived all over the world, with stops in Italy, Korea, and New York. “I love the idea of a global citizen’s passport,” she told me. “I would be the first person to trade in my American one.”
She has an eclectic educational background, with a BA and MA in Philosophy and an MA in Counseling Psychology. Avri is currently completing a PhD at Blekinge University of Technology in Sweden on “Technopolitics and the Internet.” How cool is that?
An active member of the IETF, her specialty in internet technology is the routing architecture, its protocols and its policies. She was chosen by the UN Secretary General to be a member of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance. More practically, Avri works closely with the Saami indigenous people in Scandinavia on the unique challenges of getting these semi-nomadic reindeer herders into the Information Society. Talk about digital divide.
I want to be Avri when I grow up.
I know Avri through the MSF (MultiService Forum) in which she is a significant presence by virtue of being a prime mover behind the GMI (Global Multiswitching Interoperability) event, a biennial global interoperability event which is demonstrating and evaluating proposed architectures for next generation converged networks. She is indeed an interesting, unusual, outspoken and authentic person. Thanks for this posting which has told me a few things about her which I didn’t know.