[EURO-Discuss] Short biography

Patrick Vande Walle patrick at vande-walle.eu
Sun Apr 29 05:39:26 EDT 2007


All,

At the suggestion of Max, I would like to expand a bit on my past
experience and involvement, and how I think it is relevant to ICANN and
ALAC.

My educational and professional background is in computer and network
engineering. I think this is most helpful in the ICANN context. ICANN's
job is narrowly focused on the implementation of technical standards
related to Internet names and numbers.  While they are often policy
issues linked to that, we have to keep in mind the core mission of
ICANN.  Current debates inside the ICANN community over IDNs, IPv6
addresses in the root zone file and some aspects of the whois are good
examples of what ALAC has to discuss.

I have been a long time participant in ICANN processes and tried to
contribute input to several of them and most recently the GNSO task
force whois report.

Through my work with ISOC, I have good links with the IETF community,
where I have been advocating that technical choices should take the
societal needs into account. This has not been  the  case over those
last years, as research and development in Internet technologies have
been exclusively influenced by short-term market demand. This brings us
back to ICANN, in the sense that the latter relies on standards
developed by the IETF, but some of the choices ICANN has to make (IDNSs,
DNSSEC) target a longer term. As a "consumer" of IETF standards, ICANN
should clearly tell the standards community what its needs are for the
future. This is not happening right now.

It is also important, I think, that ALAC acts as a counterweight to the
power of the different business constituencies within ICANN. The recent
decision of all major gTLDs to raise the fees of domain names is a good
example of a decision the ALAC should fight.

>From my perspective, it is crucial for the future ALAC to build its
credibility based on people who are

A. well-known by other constituencies
B. demonstrate they have the right mix of technical and policy background
C. Most importantly, can demonstrate a long experience in ICANN.

More information about me is available on my blog:
http://patrick.vande-walle.eu
GNSO Task force report on whois:
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois-services-final-tf-report-12mar07.htm

Should you wish to check my past involvement, Google is your friend :
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=+icann+%22patrick+vande+walle+%22&btnG=Search&lr=

-- 
Patrick Vande Walle
Check my blog at http://patrick.vande-walle.eu
Jabber me at patrick at vande-walle.eu



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