Last updated on 28 October 2008
VITTORIO BERTOLA
Born in Torino (Turin), Italy, on 12 September 1974
Home address: Via Zumaglia 24, 10145 Torino, Italy
E-mail: vb [at] bertola.eu
Website: http://bertola.eu/
Family status: Single
Military status: Exempted
Current occupation
The Internet - Interconnected Human Being
Presently I work as an independent professional on a broad range of projects and activities. On the policy and governance side, I serve in voluntary positions in several national and international bodies taking care of the administration and development of the Internet, attending the major conferences in the field, often as panelist or invited speaker; I am working on a new book, write papers when requested, and participate actively in several global discussion forums. As an ICT professional, I offer consultancies, and support new business ideas; I am currently working on a new start-up in the Internet domain name space; I am considering minority investments in other start-ups; I am continuing my activity as a partner in Dynamic Fun (see below), and as a founding partner in Glomera, an Internet television platform.
Professional experience: ICT professional
Dynamic Fun - Founding partner; President & Chief Technical Officer.
I founded the company, of which I own a significant share, together with the current CEO, working on the business idea and the business plan, which was awarded a prize in the "Premio Galileo" 2002 for the most innovative ICT business plans. The company is a leader in Italy in innovating through the use of wireless, Internet, digital TV and mobile phone technologies, putting them to use to improve logistical and commercial processes in corporations and to enhance public services. Among its customers, there are top corporations such as Ferrari, Barilla, Fiat, Mazda, DHL, Beiersdorf, Mastercard, Cartasì, Panini, and public entities such as Regione Piemonte. In four years, the company became a national leader in its market and technical niche.
Apart from general and strategic management of the company, I dealt specifically with the planning, management and implementation of the technical part of the business, an Internet and GSM service platform written in programming languages such as Perl, PHP, Java, C#, supported by databases and by custom communication and application protocols that I designed and developed personally.
Co-founder and Director of E3C, a company which deals with Linux-embedded hardware projects.
Co-founder and Director of European Domain Registry, a European non-profit entity bidding to manage .eu domain names, which ranked second in the tender and then dissolved.
Vitaminic (now Buongiorno Vitaminic) - Vice President for Technology.
The company was possibly the most famous "dot com" in Italy, dealing with Internet music distribution and sale in digital (MP3) format. I joined the company on foundation as head of the Technical Department, being responsible for planning and developing the music distribution platform on Internet and mobile networks, for the technical (initially also editorial) development of websites and B2B services, for office automation and internal processes support. I reported first to the CEO and later to the COO.
Up to May 2001 I took care personally also of the selection, organization and mangement of the Department's human resources, which reached the number of 15 persons; of sales support, meeting clients all over Europe; of project and supply management for the biggest projects; of representing the company in conferences and technical bodies, including SDMI; of preparing and giving presentations about technical assets and strategy during the company's funding and IPO process; of evaluating similar assets in view of potential acquisitions.
After May 2001, following some acquisitions and subsequent reorganizations, I kept responsibility for day-to-day management and operations of the Turin technical department, reporting to a coordinator of all technical teams that had been acquired; I specifically dealt with project management and technical architecture of the company's new data centre in Turin, which required a 1 million Euros investment to migrate and consolidate in a single structure the platforms and services of the company and of two acquired companies in UK and US (Peoplesound and IUMA).
Omnitel (now Vodafone Italy) - Network engineer at the Network Planning Department in Ivrea (TO).
I dealt with technical and economical planning of fixed networks (switch and backbone connections) and with interconnection agreements and policies towards other fixed and mobile operators.
Responsible for the students' ISP service "Politecnico a casa", which offered Internet access, e-mail and personal web space to students and teachers of the University. In this role I planned and managed the service, coordinating a staff of 16 student workers.
I also acted as webmaster and editor for the site www.poli.studenti.to.it, which quickly reached 4 million hits per month, and was awarded the second prize in its category at the "Premio WWW" 1998 by the national business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Professional experience: Internet governance and policy
Vice-Chairman of the At-Large Review Working Group of the Board of ICANN.
Member of the Executive Committee of the Dynamic Coalition for the Internet Bill of Rights.
Elective member of the Board of EURALO, the European Regional At-Large Organization, representing European Internet user groups inside ICANN.
Non-voting member of the Board of ICANN, the organization overseeing the administration of Internet domain names at the global level, as Liaison from the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), which represents individual Internet users on a worldwide scale.
Co-coordinator of the Internet Governance Caucus, the group gathering most of civil society participation inside the Internet Governance Forum of the United Nations.
Co-leader of the Internet Bill of Rights campaign, for a better definition and enforcement of citizens' rights over the Internet. For the campaign, I promoted the "Dynamic Coalition", ran the website, participated in several international conferences, and organized and chaired workshops at the Internet Governance Forum of the United Nations (Athens 2006, Rio 2007).
Member of the Internet Governance Consulting Committee of the Italian Government, created by the Ministry for Reforms and Innovation in Public Administration, as civil society and users representative, on appointment by Minister Luigi Nicolais. As such, I have attended all the Internet Governance Forums as an official member of the Italian delegation.
Member of the Policy Advisory Board of Dot Mobi Registry, the company managing the .mobi Internet top-level domain, specialized in content designed for mobile phones.
Member of the Working Group on Internet Governance of the United Nations (appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan on a nomination by the international Civil Society Plenary at the WSIS). I was one of the most active members, contributing text and ideas, and specifically being one of the main promoters and designers of the idea of an Internet Governance Forum.
Participant to the WSIS Consultation Table of the Italian Ministry for Innovation and Technologies, upon invitation by Minister Lucio Stanca. As such, I have attended the WSIS-II PrepCom-3 and the WSIS-II as an official member of the Italian delegation.
Consultant to the Istituto di Informatica e Telematica of the CNR (the national public research institution) as member of the newly created Rules Committee for the .it top level domain.
Elected Councillor of Società Internet, the Italian chapter of the Internet Society.
Co-founder and active member of the Internet Governance Caucus of the civil society organizations at the World Summit on Information Society organized by the United Nations; author of several documents, talks and public presentations.
Member of the Italian Civil Society Platform for the WSIS and of the Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) campaign.
Chairman of the At Large Advisory Committee (the body representing individual Internet users world-wide) of ICANN. I was the first Chairman of the ALAC, re-elected for three terms, and I contributed significantly to the establishment of the ALAC and of user participation in ICANN.
Member of the At Large Advisory Committee of ICANN.
Member of the At Large Advisory Committee Assistance Group of ICANN.
Twice elected Chairman of icannatlarge.org (worldwide non-profit organization for potential At Large members of ICANN).
Member of the Executive Committee and of other Committees in the Italian Naming Authority (then the policy body for the .it domain). Author of several proposals to rearrange national Internet governance structures.
Italian representative in the Interim Coordinating Committee for the At Large membership in ICANN and in other similar efforts.
Coordinator of the ICANN Working Group of Società Internet.
Most voted Italian candidate (ranked 7th in the overall) in the European election for the At Large Directors of ICANN.
Member of the management committee for the i2000.* Usenet hierarchy.
Proposer or moderator of several newsgroups in the it.* Usenet hierarchy.
Schools and certificates
Succesfully passes the State examination for professional Engineer qualification.
Premio Optime of Turin's Industrial Union for the best new graduates of the year.
Successfully passes the GMAT exam scoring 750/800.
Laurea in Ingegneria Elettronica (5-year-long Master of Science in Electronical Engineering) at the Politecnico di Torino with 110/110 points cum laude. Graduation thesis in Telecommunication Networks, titled "Analysis of cellular telecommunication networks for mobile users with queue network models".
Summer course in "Physics and Electronics at Cryogenic Temperatures" at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Copenhagen.
Scientific high school degree at the Liceo Scientifico C. Cattaneo in Torino, scoring 60/60 cum laude.
Conferences
This is just a subset of my conference appearances and papers, listing some of the major events at which I was a speaker or panelist.
Internet Governance Forum Italia 2008, Manifattura Tabacchi, Cagliari; organized by Regione Sardegna, Ministero della Pubblica Amministrazione e dell'Innovazione, and Società Internet; I chaired the session on "Openness" (Internet freedoms, rights and free content) and reported on it to the plenary.
iSummit 2008, Sapporo; organized by iCommons (Creative Commons); speaker in the session on the Internet Bill of Rights (Internet and politics).
"Verso la costituzione dell'IGF Italia", CNR, Roma; organized by Società Internet; I chaired the afternoon session.
"Safeguarding young people in the Internet and mobile age", Smart Village, Il Cairo; organized by the Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement; speaker in the "Assuming Responsibility and Planning for Action" panel.
Internet Governance Forum 2007, Rio de Janeiro; panelist in the "Emerging issues" plenary session; Chairman of the "Internet Bill of Rights" workshop.
"Dialogue Forum on Internet Rights", Sala Protomoteca del Campidoglio, Roma; organized by the Ministry for Reforms and Innovation in Public Administration, Italy; I chaired the afternoon discussion session and presented a Chairman's summary.
"Ethics and human rights in the information society", Council of Europe, Strasbourg; organized by the French Commission for UNESCO; I presented a paper entitled "Evolving rights and duties for a society of freer expression".
"Networked Politics - Rethinking political organisation in an age of movements and networks", Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin; organized by the Networked Politics Research Caucus; I presented a paper entitled "A new beast in Globaltown".
"Open Standards International Symposium", Yale University, New Haven; organized by the Information Society Project, Yale University; I presented a paper entitled "The age of mass standards".
Internet Governance Forum 2006, Athens; Chairman of the "Internet Bill of Rights" workshop.
"Stati generali dell'innovazione italiana", Università La Sapienza, Roma; I presented a paper entitled "L'innovazione necessaria".
"Workshop on Internet Governance", ITU, Geneva; organized by the International Telecommunications Union; I presented a paper entitled "End user involvement in Internet Governance: why and how".
"Cultural and Social Impact of Mobile Technologies", side event at the World Summit on Information Society, Geneva; organized by GLOCOM, Tokyo; I introduced a presentation entitled "Value-added services on GSM networks - Impact on consumers, impact on workers".
"Workshop on Member States' experiences with ccTLDs", ITU, Geneva; organized by the International Telecommunications Union; I presented a paper entitled "A user's point of view on international and national Internet governance".
Regular attendee at ICANN conferences, usually with speaker or moderator roles in workshops and panels.
Publications
This is a summary of my major printed publications - more documents and electronic papers can be found in the online writings archive of my website.
V. Bertola, "Resoconto sul workshop sulla Carta dei Diritti di Internet", in "Verso la costituzione dell'Internet Governance Forum Italia", edited by L. Abba, Società Internet, Pisa.
V. Bertola, "La governance di Internet: situazione e prospettive", in "Aspetti della società dell'informazione nell'era globale", Servizio Studi del Senato della Repubblica, Roma.
V. Bertola, "Oversight and multiple root server systems", in "Reforming Internet Governance: Perspectives from the Working Group on Internet Governance", edited by W. J. Drake, United Nations Press, New York.
V. Bertola, "La governance multi-stakeholder della rete", in "Futuro della gestione internazionale di Internet", edited by L. Abba, Società Internet, Pisa.
Author of an online guide in various parts about Web site programming and creation, for Polymath ICT.
Repeatedly featured on several online newsletters both in Italy (e.g. Punto Informatico) and internationally (e.g. CircleID).
Author of submissions and panelist for some workshops of the ITU, for the World Summit on Information Society and for the Internet Governance Forum of the United Nations.
Author of technical articles for several Italian magazines (Login and Dev by Edizioni Infomedia, Creative by Edizioni Creative).
V. Bertola, "Tutto quello che avreste sempre voluto sapere su Internet", Editrice IPM, Milano.
Editor and main writer of PoliNews, the internal newsletter of the Politecnico di Torino.
V. Bertola, "Internet & Computing Italian FAQ", e-book (http://bertola.eu.org/icfaq/); it is an Internet user's guide which had twelve editions and is still used as textbook in many Italian schools and Universities.
More activities
Founder and Secretary of ADAM, a non-profit association dealing with cultural and informational activities about Japanese animation series and movies.
Member of the Board of Directors, of the Budget Committee of the Board, of the Faculty Council of the 1st Engineering Faculty and of other internal bodies of Politecnico di Torino, as students' representative. I dealt specifically with allocating funds for projects oriented to students and student services, including verifying their implementation.
Founder and member of Associazione La Sveglia, a University students' group that organized several events and services inside Politecnico di Torino, and repeatedly won elections for the internal bodies of the University.
Founder and maintainer of the FAQ Archive of the Italian Usenet newsgroups.
Vice-Chairman of the Comitato Paritetico per la Didattica (a students-professors Committee for the evaluation of teaching quality) of Politecnico di Torino. I dealt with creating and implementing final tests to check the quality of all the courses of the University.
Amateur keyboard player in rock bands and non-professional musicals.
Languages
Mother tongue.
Fluent.
Basic.
Basic.
Basic.
Basic.