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- Howard L. Funk
- funk@vnet.ibm.com
- Nominated Candidate
-
- Work Experience
-
- I would like to apply the considerable experience I have had in
- professional society and conference management to ISOC. My interest
- in professional societies started when as an undergraduate I
- became president of the student chapter of the American Association
- of Electrical Engineers. It has continued ever since as detailed
- below.
-
- My specific interest in Internet began about 8 years ago when I was
- working in a staff position whose mission it was to promote
- technical vitality. It seemed to me then that technical insularity
- was the status quo in the development laboratories of my employer.
- As they say, the rest is history. In May of 1990 I opened up an
- Internet gateway for all employees of my corporation. The growth
- of the gateway has been spectacular. At this writing, March 1993,
- we have over 25,000 users and the growth rate continues at over
- 1200 new users per month. The widespread use of the Internet in my
- corporation has led to profound changes in the culture. A paper on
- this topic was presented at INET '92 in Kobe.
-
- Professional Society Management Experience
-
- o American Federation of Information Processing Societies
- President, Vice-President, Director, Chairman of the
- Government Activities Committee
- o International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP)
- General Assembly Delegate, Trustee, Chairman
- Marketing Committee, Vice-president (with special
- responsibility for conferences)
- o Internet Society (ISOC)
- Regular contributor to the Newsletter (for IFIP)
- o Society for Information Display
- Local chapter vice-chair and chair; Director; Chair
- of Inter-society Committee; Chair of New Chapter
- Formation Committee; Long-range planning committee;
- Monthly Patent Column in Journal; International
- Display Conference, Seminar, and Exhibits; Executive
- Committee; Seminar Chair; Best Paper Awards Chair;
- Technical Program Chair; General Chair
-
- Statement of Acceptance
-
- If elected to serve as a trustee of the Internet Society I would
- apply the skills and judgement learned during my 41 years in
- industry and professional society management. Because the environ-
- ment in which Internet operates is changing at such an incredible
- rate, it would be foolhardy to set out an a priori agenda. ISOC
- could provide a moderating influence in this environment.
-
- Whereas government interest and support for a national
- communications infrastructure is welcome, government control is
- not. We should not forget that the Internet is international and
- our efforts should continue in support of the international
- aspects. As the commercialization of the Internet and its service
- grow we should remain sensitive to the large user community for
- whom commercial services may not be affordable. The one concrete
- proposal which I do feel comfortable in making is the establishment
- of a Government Relations Committee, not as a lobby but as an
- information channel such that our legislators can operate with more
- complete and more accurate information.
-