Thank you for considering my nomination - I hope that these pages reflect my skills, ideas and passion towards the matter, together with my independence and my ability to represent the European Internet community in all its faces. I hope to convince you to endorse me - I have no lobbies or industries behind me, and I need your help. Please feel free to contact me at vb@vitaminic.net for any question.

Five reasons to choose me

I have global focus. I've already experienced many very different environments on the Internet - I've run sites and domains for academic, non-profit, personal and business entities, many of which started by myself. I can bring balance and be able to understand all the different types of users.

I am active and productive. When I get passionate about a matter, I dedicate myself to it. Recently, I used great parts of my spare time to create and run the only site in Italy dedicated to ICANN, promoting participation and making the number of subscriptions grow by 12 times in three weeks.

I have an European spirit. The company I contributed to start, Vitaminic, has been highlighted as one of the best examples of European-minded companies, with sites, offices and employees in eight different countries, seven of which are in Europe. This is yet another proof of my ability to represent the whole continent.

I am skilled both technically and politically. I am the CTO of a dot com company, technical and software writer, and so on - but I have also experience as representative in elective boards. Many candidates only have one of these skills, but they are really both necessary.

My application

WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT ME

I am an independent candidate. I am young (25), innovative, and truly European in spirit, and my purpose is to represent all those individuals, non profit organizations, open source community members and small businesses who would otherwise be kept out of ICANN's board.

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 (Italian), 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.

MY BACKGROUND AND QUALIFICATIONS

I am a techie (graduated in Engineering) but also a writer, an entrepreneur, a researcher and a passionate promoter of Internet self-governance.

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.