Winfried Schueller

Country of citizenship: Germany
Place of residence: Bonn
Email address: schueller@phone.berkom.de
Employer: Deutsche Telekom AG

Current professional position(s):
Deutsche Telekom, Director International IP-Services

Clarification of policy-level roles:
I do not have any interest in investment in any ICANN-related businesses. Nor do I have any official positions in any ICANN-related businesses or organizations.

Statement of Qualifications and Experience

I have experience in international and multicultural environments due to pan European and international projects, leading a team of more than 40 people and being responsible of a multinational Working Group of 150 members dealing with network engineering, network management, operations, and maintenance. I have strong know-how in professional and individual user requirements in Europe due to my long involvement in design and implementation of national and international corporate and research networks including integration of Data and Voice, or ATM and Frame Relay. I am involved in the ongoing IPv6 activities and Next Generation Internet technologies.

I personally was responsible for the registrar activities within Deutsche Telekom and do have deep insight in the ongoing registry and policy activities at ICANN and in general.

As a joyful user of the Internet and with a strong background in the development of IP networks over the past years, I feel strongly committed to the overall functioning and stability of the Internet in general and the Domain-Name-System in particular. Therefore I feel strongly aligned with the At-Large community to ensure the freedom and equality of the internet. I consider myself a representative for user, technical, business and public interest. I especially consider myself as an individual with a strong interest in the stability of the Internet, having some network operator's expertise and perspective.

The support of ICANN-related-activities in Germany (e.g. www.icann-forum.de) and as a speaker at conferences on Internet-related issues, I am trying to push the initiatives forward in order to communicate the relevant technical and policy issues.

RETURN TO TOP

Personal Statement

The evolution of the Internet so far has been really exceptional. Freedom of speech and equal chances are only some of the promises of the Internet. One of the reasons for the broad acceptance of the media is the support of the industry. The development of standards and rules that ensure interoperability and interconnectivity of different implementations has been the key for this success.

As candidate for the At-Large elections I strongly support the constructive dialogue between the user-community, the research-community and the industry. The administration of the Internet - at least in the area of DNS - as it is handled by ICANN, will create opportunities that benefit all. Nobody, neither service provider nor user, have an interest in monopolies and proprietary solutions, since they are an obstacle in the path of further development.

For me, as a At-Large candidate, the following issues are of particular interest:

• In the past ICANN has been criticised for lack of transparency and global orientation of the organisation. The formation of ICANN was the first step towards an independent organisation. However - the contractual relation between ICANN and the US Department of Commerce stands on a rather weak foundation. There has been doubt that after the elections in the US there might be change in the attitude of the US Government towards ICANN. The strive for a truly international Internet-Body might be hindered or even reversed. For the further evolution of the Internet it is fundamentally important that the relations between ICANN and the US DoC are clarified and contractually fixed. The most important task at hand is therefore to establish true and trusted independence from national governments. This ensures the ongoing work of the organisation in the interest of all users of the internet world-wide. As a representative of the European region, I especially want to strengthen the position of Europe within ICANN in order to make this global, non-profit internet organisation a success.
  
  
• The importance and power of ICANN has been proven by the introduction of registry accreditation measures. The fall of the monopoly and with this, the elimination of a critical bottleneck, has directed the fight against limiting factors in the future. ICANN has proven its ability to manage its delegated duties of co-ordination and assignment of Internet domain names, IP address numbers and protocol parameters and port numbers. It is very important to further maintain a stable operation of the Internet.
  
  
• The introduction of new Top-Level-Domains (TLD) is one of the most important tasks for ICANN. It illustrates the importance and far-reaching scope of ICANN's topics. The power that ICANN exercises in such decisions needs to be safe-guarded against single interests and undue influence from stakeholders. Transparent procedures and a decision making process that reflects the general interest of the topics at hand are of highest importance. Here, the At-Large membership plays a crucial role. The membership allows to integrate the opinions and interests of the Internet-Community. This is the only way to justify decisions on a global scale and to participate in the process of decision making. It will be the most important part of my work to guarantee a fair and democratic process for the developing At-Large Membership.
  
  
• With the definition of the bylaws ICANN has taken a leading role which has caused world-wide recognition and respect. Through the Awareness and Outreach activities, ICANN has propagated not only their own work, but has also put the future of the Internet as such on the agenda. These efforts need to be continued and based upon, new tasks can be defined. On the G8 summit, the leaders of the biggest industrial nations agreed to ease the effort for developing countries to gain access to the Internet and aid them in the construction of their network infrastructure. To put this ideas into action, ICANN could co-ordinate the necessary measures, along with the Internet industry.
  
  ICANN needs to incorporate upcoming new challenges. The improvement and extension of the Domain Name System (DNS) is currently the most challenging goal. Decisions made by ICANN will be far reaching and influential for the whole Internet. Qualitative improvements of DNS-services with the support of multilingual systems opens fresh opportunities and could lead to a new Internet. Europe with its multitude of languages and cultures has so far been hampered by the technical limitations of the name services.
  
  New technologies and standards will bring the Internet into regions which have so far benefited only slightly from the electronic revolution. New technical developments need to be looked at rather sooner than later.

For up-to-date information please contact my personal homepage
http://www.winfriedschueller.de