Re: [ICANN-EU] Jeanette and other candidates (was Re: Snapshots)

[Vittorio Bertola <vb@vitaminic.net>]

On Mon, 21 Aug 2000 21:56:57 +0200, you wrote:

>Which brings us to a question I've not seen here before. How much do
>you folks actually understand of what you are talking about, technically?
>
>I know about Lutz, I have some Ideas about Andy and I'm pretty confident 
>about Sabine given her background. The rest of the field is a mystery 
>to me.

To be honest, this is one of the main reasons why I accepted to candidate. I
am an Electronical Engineer, I am 25 and I had my first computer about 20
years ago (it was an Intellivision console, soon followed by a C=64 *sigh*).
I'm used at spending nights at writing Perl code, and so on. A real geek. 

But, I am also fond of politics. I have been a students' representative in
my high school and then in my University. In Italy, the world of politics is
stale. You need young people to renew it. I love this stuff.

However, as it often happens in life, I was hired to start the technical
department of an Internet startup, and in twelve months this startup boomed
and became an European case-history about new economy, and I found myself
being a manager before ever having had a chance to decide whether I liked
it. In my job, I constantly feel the contradictions between my geek culture
and the way the Internet is changing, and I have to cope with them.

In the end, I am sure that the Internet cannot be ruled only by engineers.
The Internet is for everyone, and in society, engineers are a minority.
However, I am proud to be an engineer, and I think that the Internet as it
was five years ago was great, and the Internet as it is going to be now
plainly sucks. I'd really like to give a kick to all those million-dollar
lawyers there, and solve problems with common sense, fairness and balance. I
think that the classic net.culture as developed by us could get a better
Internet and, in the end, a better world for everyone, if compared to the
"marketing & lawyer" culture. Generally speaking, at least in Italy, I feel
that in the very last years, with all this "new economy" rush, money has
blinded people. Ten years ago all pubs were filled with videogames - now
they are filled with videopokers. If you cannot get rich with the Internet
in a year, you're considered a loser. This is not how the Internet is meant
to be. This is not what I want it for.

But in the end, something that affects the life of millions of people cannot
be ruled by anyone else than politicians, in the good meaning of the term -
people who represent the interests of other people and are able to discuss
with others to get the best possible solution for everyone. So the Internet
cannot be ruled by techies, and it cannot be ruled by lawyers or marketers -
but each of these cultures must meet the others, and try to convince the
majority that its views are good. This is why a democratic process inside
the Internet community is so damn important. If it's not there, big money
will rule - that's it. So I think that for techies it's even more important
to support this process.
-- 
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo vb.
Vittorio Bertola     <vb@vitaminic.net>    Ph. +39 011 23381220
Vitaminic [The Music Evolution] - Vice President for Technology