I have been since 1996 the owner and technical administrator of domains for various parties, including my own site, the university I used to attend, some non profit organizatons and the company I currently work for - Vitaminic (www.vitaminic.com et al.), an European company of which I am one of the starters, and that has strengthened my European attitude, giving me contacts and friends all over the continent.

For Vitaminic I have been registering domains in more than 40 countries, gathering a deep knowledge in technical and administrative regulations of the registries through all the world.
I have been member of the board of directors or steering group of very different entities, from the Polytechnic of Turin to small non profit associations, up to a Usenet hierarchy. In many cases I have also been one of the founders. This has given me experience in starting up entities and leading their policy.

I think that I can be a good representative for the whole community. My past experiences in last five years include being responsible for students' Internet services at my University, webmaster for non profit sites, technical writer, founder of non profit associations, open source software writer, founder of i2000 Usenet hierarchy, and starter and CTO of a successful European Internet company (Vitaminic). I can effectively understand and support the needs of such different parts as individuals, no-profit, business and academic entities, and bring the enthusiasm of all those young people who make the Internet, but are under-represented in Internet governance bodies.

I want to defend the rights and prerogatives of all At Large members, endangered by the current board. The strength and credibility of ICANN lie in us - if these elections fail, also ICANN will. In further elections, all candidates should go through the member nomination process. The four missing At Large directors must be elected in 2001. Regional councils should be established, so that more countries and points of view can be represented.

New generic TLDs should be introduced, but with specific purposes and classifications, otherwise it will simply be a waste of money, with entities registering their name in all new TLDs, and a cause for further disputes. There should be TLDs reserved for non profit and individuals, in which registrations should be cheap or possibly free. Big businesses and domain collectors, who generate most of the expenses for domain registrations and disputes, should pay most of the costs of the system. Small businesses and organizations must be defended from big businesses trying to take their domain away with legal menaces.

Being independent, I have no lobbies backing me and no money to support my nomination. This is why I really need the help and endorsement by all At Large members in Europe who agree with my view. You can review my full commitments at http://icann.bertola.eu.org/. Feel free to contact me at vb@vitaminic.net. Please, if you believe in my ideas, support me and help me in getting nominated. Thank you.