Internet Society Belgium Chair
Rudi Vansnick (° 1955) graduated Accountant (EISTC - Enghien 1977).
He started his professional career at the Ministry of Agriculture and was very quickly involved in the digitisation process of government administration. Inside the ministry of Agriculture he participated in the setup of informatics division, handling all the accountancy data of the Belgian farmers. Until 1987 he had the opportunity to explore the usage of the information technology in SME’s in different sectors and applications. In 1988 he developed the "pharmacy computer" solution bringing communication facilities to pharmacy distribution centres and the pharmacists (in collaboration with Labo Flandria –Gent). The elaborated solution was later on implemented in France, Luxemburg and Germany keeping in mind that the national regulations and laws were incorporated for each country.
A few years later he designed and implemented a huge IT-architecture for logistics and communication purposes in Hungary for a food/non-food distribution corporation (TiszaCoop). More recently he was involved in the IT-outsourcing contract of the Flemish government for about 2 years. An impressive experience was gathered while implementing corporate decisions on regional and local level such as the Flemish portal website. Since 2000 he is president of the Belgian chapter of Internet Society, an organisation focusing on the promotion of internet for everyone. He participates in national debates with federal and regional government on important topics such as cyber criminality and security issues related to the Belgian citizens. In 2005 he became national expert for the World Summit Awards and was member of the Grand Jury in Bahrain.
2006 saw him focusing on breaching the Digital Divide through projects in regional and European organisations. His goal: to capture the voices of the Internet user, individual as well as in an organisational environment, understanding the needs and burdens of each. He considers the most difficult hurdle to be the fact that while culture and technology are far away from each other, they should be mutually supportive.
His 30 years experience in ICT was a perfect basis for the study ISOC Belgium together with EROV made on the usage of ICT in the Social Profit sector in East-Flanders. The result of this survey, which last till end of 2007, The ICT Whitebook for the Social Pofit is available in electronic format by simple request at www.ictwitboek.be. It contains an overview of the ICT inventory in the Social Profit in East-Flanders and several requirements and recommandations for the sector itself but also for government and the ICT sector.
2006 December 6th Rudi participated in the International Conference in Washington focusing on the Rights and Protection of Children in the Web 2.0 World. An issue he was already involved in during the Round table in June 2006 in Brussels, in presence of Ms. Viviane Reding and several important authorities. Following this congress, he participated in the workshop organised by ETSI in February, focusing on what should be done by the telco's for children up to 12 years of age.
2007 became the year of his presence in ICANN structures. Founding member of EURALO, he participates actively in the ALAC At Large Structures. Involved in national matters in relation to domain names, registry and registrars, he focuses specifically on issues of cyber security in relation to registries and registrars. During the 33rd ICANN meetings in Cairo, Rudi got elected ALAC liaison ccNSO for 2009.
April 2008 the general assembly of TIK vzw (usersgroup Telecom & Internet customers in Belgium - some 10.000 members) has decided to elect a new board. Rudi moved from secretary to president for a mandate of 3 years.
World Summit Award 2009 choose among the 168 countries 34 grand jury members, Rudi is one of them. They gather together in India - New Delhi (http://wsa.defindia.net/index.asp). The gala takes place in September 2009 in Monterrey Mexico.
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