[election-services] Candidate statement - Charbel Aoun

Mary and all

 

Allow me to start by saying thank you to
John Borras for leading the efforts and for all the work he did. It was a great
pleasure working with him for the last few years.

 

Please find below my candidate statement.

Regards

 

 

Charbel J. Aoun

 

          My
work with XML started back in 2000 at election.com. In my capacity as Vice
President International Operation, I was the key sponsor to introduce
interoperability and open standards in the e-voting industry. This was the
outcome of our early multi-channel work (Internet and Telephone), the demand by
our government clients for flexibility in suppliers’ choice and the universal
consensus that interoperability is the key to Election verifiability. With
election.com R&D team we produced the first schemas known at the time as BML
(Ballot Mark-up Language) which became later the core of today’s EML. 

 

          I
am a co-founder of the Election Services Committee, co-author of the first EML
specifications and remains to date an influential ambassador of EML. Having
said that, and as my colleagues in the committee would recall me always saying,
EML is still at its very early stages and requires much more practical efforts
and testing on the ground. This would be achieved by expanding the circle of
practical adoption and implementation. We will use the work done in the UK as
a platform to centralise lessons learned and jumpstart the roll out across
other geographies. I believe there are too many parallel initiatives that have
similar objectives to the OASIS Election services committee. Such initiatives
are diluting the efforts, confusing the users and substantially delaying our
progress: We need to rationalise our collaboration and consolidate
everyone’s effort under EML. 

 

          Our
greatest challenge is the active dissemination and wider adoption of EML. In
that respect our first order of business will be to find the best vehicle to achieve
this for which I see two key milestones: new UK standard ownership and
international sponsors. 

A
brief action plan would include the following:

 
Lobbying: Create a support network with NGOs,
     Government agencies, Governments, cross-national entities to promote the
     case for EML

 
Buy in: Organise cross initiatives with relevant
     parties with the intention to investigate how to eliminate the current duplication
     of efforts. Ensure that Government technology officers and senior
     government members are committed to EML and translate this commitment into
     action

 
Collaboration: Acknowledge the work done by others
     and be open minded on the best integration route. The existing efforts may
     be the best platform for enhancing localised EML 

 
Resource: Find funding and committed resources in
     target geographies

 
Decentralization: Encourage in parallel, local
     efforts with a central body (EML TC) coordinating and driving the efforts
     to ensure synergy and homogeneous advancement. Produce various draft
     schemas for new joiners, consolidate within the TC, validate and produce
     new specifications accommodating all the new requirements

 
Enable: Set up a web based platform that enables
     better communication in a virtual environment. Interactive tools are an
     efficient approach to facilitate our work (Online calendar, bulletin
     board, newsgroups…)

 
Commitment: Such efforts will still require the full
     dedication and commitment of every member of OASIS but also and
     increasingly the cooperation of the private and public sector.

 

          Over
the last 7 years, I was in charge of
the implementation of large scale major multi-channel e-voting projects internationally
with responsibility over cross-cultural, diverse and virtual teams. I have worked
with the election requirements across US, Canada,
Europe (UK, France, Switzerland,
Spain, Italy…) and Middle East and Asia. Currently
as the lead to the Accenture e-Democracy Services unit, and in my capacity as
Director of Technology & Operation International, I continue to actively
support the Technical and practical development of the standard and act as ambassador
advising government on their technology and standards agenda.  

          

Charbel J. Aoun

International Director of Technology & Operation 

Mobile 0044 794 925 2143

Office  0044 207 616 8414

Accenture
e-Democracy Services

 

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