|
Europe
Region Nominee
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 operatorŐs 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.
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 ICANNŐs 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
|
