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Principal at AMGlobal Consulting
Joined on October 8, 2009
Total Post Views: 150,164
| About |
Andrew Mack is Principal of AMGlobal Consulting, a specialized Washington, DC-based consulting firm that helps companies do more and better business in Emerging Markets. A former World Bank project manager and finance professional with experience in more than 80 countries, Mack is internationally-recognized for his work on Public-Private Partnership, Corporate Social Responsibility and economic development issues—including work on Internet policy and its impacts on the spread of technology to Africa, Latin America and other underserved regions.
Mr. Mack founded AMGlobal in 2005 with the goal of helping bring together diverse parties—governments, the Private Sector, donors, NGOs, and foundations—interested in solving today’s toughest development problems in a sustainable, business-oriented way. AMGlobal specializes in work with partnership development, community outreach, and technology issues, with clients ranging from Fortune 10 corporations to the World Bank and USAID, to local firms and early stage companies focusing on emerging and green technologies.
A frequent attendee at ICANN and IGF meetings where he works to promote attention the issues confronted by the “next billion” Internet users, Mr. Mack holds a Bachelor of Arts Magna Cum Laude from Amherst College and a Masters in International Relations/International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He speaks and works in Spanish, French and Portuguese.
Except where otherwise noted, all postings by Andrew Mack on CircleID are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Later this week, ICANN is finally going to vote on the proposed sale of .ORG to Ethos Capital. It will decide the future owner of .ORG, but the decision will also provide a window into whether ICANN will remain independent of the U.S. government. It's a big decision, one that can strengthen both ICANN and the NGO community on the web, if we get it right. For nearly a decade, the ICANN community fought hard to untether itself from the U.S. Department of Commerce. more
I run a business. For years I've been in the ICANN Business Constituency, holding a series of different positions including Chair. Suffice it to say, I'm absolutely ok with making money and generally speaking, letting markets work. I also care about NGOs. For years our firm worked with PIR on the .NGO project. We got to see up close the role PIR has played as a supporter of NGOs online -- encouraging best practice, helping push out DNSSEC to a global audience, working on DNS abuse issues, supporting the sector. more
I've heard a lot of discussion of the .africa controversy of late -- from conspiracy theories to questions about staff competence to concerns about the role of the GAC. And it's hard not to find faults galore in the way this process and the IRP reporting has played out. But before we get too lost in the weeds of procedure or the future of ICANN, lets not lose track of what this debate was first and still is fundamentally about: a string. more
Reports of the cancelation of the ICANN 52 meeting in the Moroccan town of Marrakesh appear to be exaggerated. They did, however, force the organization to issue a statement on Sunday confirming that while "no decision had been taken yet" ICANN was considering postponing the meeting in Marrakech scheduled for 8-12 February, 2015. This would a mistake, in our opinion... more
There was one obvious take-away from this week's ICANN meetings in Toronto, and for once it was less about policy and more about geography. Simply put, Africa is really - finally - coming together at ICANN, with a new energy, new unity and lots of new participation from African participants. And from top to bottom, the ICANN community seems to be taking notice. more
As I prepare to jet off to Prague this weekend for the coming ICANN conference, I had to reflect back on the tumultuous year this has been in ICANN and the Internet world generally, especially as relates to Africa and Emerging Markets. And after all the smoke and fury, I had to ask: Is ICANN leaving Africa behind? Or could it be that it's exactly the opposite? That Africa is moving forward and ICANN is missing the party? more
A couple of weeks ago during the 40th ICANN meeting in San Francisco I got up to talk at the microphone. I spoke about the needs of developing markets on the web, about the importance of focusing on the 56% of the world that doesn't use Latin character scripts and about the struggles they still face as they go about their everyday lives - chatting, shopping or when pushed, promoting regime change - all using the internet... more
Good news. In now my 15th ICANN meeting or so it's clear that the internet governance community is finally taking some real note of the rest of the world -- including the over 50% of humankind that doesn't use Latin script characters to communicate. In fact, talk of emerging markets is everywhere at the San Francisco ICANN meeting this week. The ICANN Board and Government Advisory Committee (or GAC, a group of government representatives that advise the Board) are talking about the needs of developing countries. more
As we approach the World Cup in South Africa this June it's heartening to see the amount of attention being paid to the continent. As with ICANN's recent Nairobi meeting, the eyes of the world are focusing on Africa in a new way -- as a sophisticated marketplace, and as a destination for investment, technology, and yes, sports... Still, as we prepare for the Cup and as we celebrate ICANN's recent approval of more Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), our job as an Internet community remains unfinished. Too many scripts and thus too many key voices remain "off the pitch". more
Nobody doubts that some time in the near future there will be Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) in Chinese, Russian or Arabic scripts. The Chinese, Russian and Arabic-character-using worlds are large -- encompassing hundreds of millions of current and potential users. They are politically influential blocs, with the ability to demand action in international meetings. And perhaps most importantly, they are -- at least when taken together -- rich. Everybody knows that access on the web in these languages is not a matter of if, but simply a question of when... more
Anyone who knows Kenya knows it is famous for tea. And while I can now get Kenyan tea online from US companies like Starbucks, Caribou Coffee or any number of other re-sellers, like most consumers I would vastly prefer to cut out the middle man and buy my tea direct from Kenyan companies. Why not? But here's the rub... more
Sometimes you get what you are asking for. And this seems to be one of those occasions... and the US government can give itself a pat on the back for having listened to other stakeholder opinions. For years the world of Internet governance has been seen as its own special corner of the technosphere, full of arcane acronyms and quiet power deals. Despite efforts to make ICANN and the broader Internet community more transparent and user-friendly, many observers, including many African governments, still saw the stage as too much of an insider's game -- with the ultimate insider being the US Department of Commerce. more
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