Board of Trustees
2003 Board Election
Candidates
Candidate Profile: Jean-Claude Guédon
jean.claude.guedon@umontreal.ca
Please find enclosed
my request to be placed on the list of candidates for
the Chapter membership election leading to a seat on the Board of Trustees
of
ISOC.
I can confidently state that I can spend a sufficient amount of time to
respond to the demands of this position.
Position statement:
I have been working for ISOC in a number of ways for the last eight years,
most rominently as a steady member of the Program committees from the
year 1996 until 2000 and again in 2002. I have co-chaired this committee
on three
occasions, in 1996, 1998 and 2000. This role has allowed me to gain a
good knowledge of the issues to which ISOC members react most.
In these years, I have also come to realize that ISOC has suffered from
a kind
of identity problem: between IETF, IAB and ICANN , among other organizations,
ISOC has not been able to define a clear range of issues and position
statements that would have greatly helped in the development of a coherent
strategy to develop members and chapters. Had these issues and values
been clearly identified and broacast, it is my belief that it would have
greatly helped develop world-wide communities united by a clear set of
goals and values relating to the Internet. It is not enough to say that
te Internet is revolutionary; it is also necessary to put content behind
such a claim. In effect, these claims have remained largely empty of meaning
and have moved dangerously close to slogans.
I believe I can help ISOC to focus on a clear range of issues that would
help
a healthy development of the Internet in the world, for example :
- Problems of access
and digital divide;
- Problems of cultural
diversity and the technical issues that relate to
this matter (think of the domain names in linguistic areas where ascii
is
patently insufficient - an issue that ICANN appears close to solving.
- Problems of peer-to-peer
versus client-server approaches.
- Local laws and
internet uses.
- Internet and world
development.
- Internet and the
preservation of peace - war will not always prevail, incidentally.
- Identity and confidentiality:
issues of cryptography.
I could go on listing
such issues for several pages, but the present list gives a flavor of
what I am concerned about. All this could be summarized in
two basic statements:
- The Internet society
must sharpen its vision of itself, its functions, its
strategic and core roles, while reinforcing its financial base (and
without becoming a prisonner of these concerns either);
- The internet is
affecting many dimensions of life in society in a wide variety of contexts
and this must become an importat basis for the definition of ISOC activities.
I hope all citizens
of any country, women as well as men, will recognize the importance of
these issues wherever they may live.
Thank you
Jean-Claude Guédon
Professeur
Littérature comparée, Université de Montréal
Tél. : 1-514-343-6208
Fax : 1-514-343-2211
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