Ex-Mountie's Task: Bring Law and Order to Web: Canadian Named Ombudsman of the Internet
Ex-Mountie's task: Bring law and order to web:
Canadian named ombudsman of the Internet The Ottawa Citizen Saturday, December 11, 2004
Page: A1 / FRONT
Section: News
Byline: Randy Boswell
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
A former Mountie and UN peacekeeper has been named the first ombudsman of the Internet -- essentially the world's ultimate traffic cop, assigned to patrol the intersection where billions of cyberspace commuters converge every day.
The appointment of Frank Fowlie, a 47-year-old conflict-resolution specialist from Ottawa, was announced by ICANN, the global Internet regulatory body -- at a conference in South Africa.
ICANN, headed by Internet co-creator Vinton Cerf, is hoping a calm, cool Canadian presence will bring some peace, order and good governance to the virtual global village -- ever at risk of anarchy as a host of competing interests angle for control of the world's prime economic engine and cultural force.
The online universe is fraught with struggles against U.S. domination of the Internet, thorny disputes over domain names and various web protocols, and endless battles between private companies and non-government groups over who should ultimately manage the planet's most important public utility.
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is the closest thing in the online world to a UN-style oversight authority. In fact, many experts believe the agency -- now focused mainly on resolving conflicts over web addresses and connection protocols -- should evolve into an arm of the United Nations to manage all international issues involving the Internet.
Mr. Fowlie has been hailed as the new "eyes and ears of the Internet" by the influential high-tech news site, The Register. The Winnipeg native also says his Canadian roots "probably gave me an edge" in what ICANN called "an extensive international search" for its first ombudsman.
"I think Canadians are well known for being dispassionate and fair," Mr. Fowlie told CanWest News Service. "We have a reputation for being good intermediaries, good peacekeepers.
"I'm not a techie," Mr. Fowlie quickly adds, stressing his skills as a listener and "translator" in settling arguments between entrenched sides.
He'll be moving into an office in Vancouver soon so he can work in the same time zone as ICANN's California headquarters. But he says he'll also establish a separate ombudsman office in each continent to reflect both his independence from ICANN and the organization's international mandate for resolving Internet disputes.
Mr. Cerf, in a speech welcoming Mr. Fowlie to his new job, said: "We honestly hope you don't have too much business that would require automated case analyses and 'take a number and stand in line.' I hope that you'll be like the Maytag repairman: A lonely person up there in Vancouver with nothing to do."
Mr. Fowlie says a key area of concern is the relatively poor access to the Internet among companies and individuals in the developing world.
"It's nice having this great house, but not if you don't have the steps to invite people in," he says.
But he expects his job will sometimes be as mundane as refereeing fights over who gets to claim a certain website name.
Mr. Fowlie, who has left a senior advisory position with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, brings plenty of international experience to his ICANN post.
Since working in the 1980s as an RCMP international drug squad investigator in Montreal and Saskatchewan, Mr. Fowlie has served with the provincial ombudsman in B.C. and on a UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor as the island achieved independence from Indonesia.
Mr. Fowlie also earned praise in his UN role for helping to hastily organize the tiny country's first Olympic team in time for the Sydney Games in 2000.
