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LACNIC at 10 and the Pioneers Who Made It Happen

2 November 2012
By
Rodrigo De La Parra

Rodrigo De La Parra

VP, Stakeholder Engagement & Managing Director - Latin America & Caribbean

A leading voice and advocate for the multistakeholder Internet governance model in Latin America and the Caribbean, Rodrigo de la Parra is a Regional Vice President for ICANN. Based in Mexico City but frequently travelling through the region, Rodrigo is responsible for outreach, support and engagement with user groups, governments, private sector and civil society throughout the diverse region. In his role, he works closely with the Latin American technical community to continue to build a robust Internet infrastructure in the region. Under his leadership, ICANN has opened an engagement center in Montevideo, Uruguay, in the House of the Internet.

With more than 20 years experience as a multicultural executive, Rodrigo served as Director General of Prospective Regulation and Director General for International Cooperation of Mexico's Federal Commission of Telecommunications before joining ICANN in 2011. While at Cofetel, he leveraged his diplomacy skills and deep knowledge of Internet governance structures and ICT to develop public policy and regulation recommendations for new technologies. He was involved with various ICT groups of international organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Organization of American States, and the World Trade Organization, among others.

He also represented Mexico on ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee which gives governments a voice in the organization's policy formation. He was a member of the Consultative Committee of NIC. MX, the non-profit operator of Mexico's country-code Top-Level Domain and the registry that manages allocation of Internet Protocol address space to Mexican Internet Service Providers.

Rodrigo has a Master's degree in political economy and international relations from the University of Essex in the UK. He has been a lecturer of International Organizations and Economic Negotiations and a consultant to the Latin American Cooperation for Advanced Networks.

He speaks Spanish, English and French fluently.

Español

Top row (from left to right): Julián Dunayevich – Argentina, Wardner Maia – Brasil, Alejandro Guzmán – Colombia, Oscar Robles-Garay – México, Rafael Ibarra – El Salvador, Raúl Echeberría – Uruguay, José Luiz Ribeiro Filho – Brasil, Germán Valdez – México, and Carlos Neira – Colombia

Bottom row (from left to right): Fábio Marinho – Brasil, Hartmut Glaser – Brasil, Oscar Messano – Argentina, Jesús Martínez – Cuba, and Raimundo Beca – Chile

LACNIC –the Regional Internet Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean- celebrates its first ten years of service, featuring its solidity and honoring regional Internet pioneers.

The success of the Internet is always said to result from the aggregate efforts of all those on the network periphery who develop and use information on interconnected networks. No doubt, this is a genuine virtue of this great net. However, there is a crucial technical coordination effort underlying all this and making it happen. This work is, unfortunately, seldom recognized.

Recent celebrations at LACNIC on the occasion of their tenth anniversary serve as a reminder that, without the effort – which is sometimes even heroic – of these people and organizations, the Internet as we know it today would have never been possible. We invite you to take a quick look at LACNIC’s accomplishments over the past decade on a video available at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjeubrMtu_E&list=PLU6Q4ZhHN2Q5fr9CBkOUkqC0HjRvYrN8n&index=3&feature=plpp_video

Specifically, within the context of Latin America and the Caribbean, those who built – and continue to build – the Internet registry for the region were recognized during LACNIC’s 18th Meeting. Also, this was the second time that a group of distinguished members of the Latin America and the Caribbean community achieved recognition for the making their mark on the development of the Internet.

A stately building of Montevideo’s Old Town was the chosen venue for paying tribute to both groups of awardees. First off, founding members, current and former Board members and LACNIC’s Committee leaders received an ovation. Clearly, each of them had plenty to share and many a story for the audience, and they really went to great lengths to stick to their allowed 60-second time frame, at the risk of having a hatch open underneath their feet and falling into the net… not the Internet, but rather Montevideo’s sanitation “net”, as the MC said in jest.

Regardless of this, I do believe that, in a nutshell, the message that comes up in unison is that of focus, tenacity, collaboration, coordination and team work. On behalf of ICANN, and in my own capacity, I would like to express my admiration and respect.

Two people that are very close to our organization were also part of this group and were recognized for their job as drivers and enablers of LACNIC’s originating process. Ray Plzak, member of our Board, and formerly CEO of ARIN, North America’s Internet Registry, was instrumental in advancing the creation of a new regional registry.

Andrew McLaughlin, ICANN staff member at the time, provided guidance in overcoming obstacles that stood in the way of LACNIC’s creation.

The second group of awardees received LACNIC’s Achievement Award, granted to those people contributing to the development of the Information Society within the region.

  • Valeria Betancourt (Ecuador). Information and Communication Policy Program of the Association for the Advancement of Communication.
  • Luis Furlán (Guatemala). Internet pioneer in Guatemala. Former Chairman of the Board at RedCLARA, Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks.
  • Marcos Galperín (Argentina). Founder and CEO of Mercado Libre.com, one of the most successful private initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • Demi Getschko (Brazil). Internet pioneer in Brazil. Director of NIC.BR, the organization in charge of domain name management in Brazil.
  • Anthony Harris (Argentina). Managing Director of the Argentine Internet Chamber (CABASE) and of the Latin American and Caribbean Internet and Electronic Commerce Federation.
  • Bernadette Lewis (Trinidad and Tobago). Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), agency in charge of regional intergovernmental cooperation in the Caribbean.
  • Ben Petrazzini (Argentina). Coordinator of the Inclusive Development Program for Canada’s International Development Research Centre.
  • Loretta Simon (Grenada). ICT Director for the Government of Grenada. She plays a significant role in ICT, Information Society and Education issues in the Caribbean.
  • José Soriano (Peru). Internet pioneer in Peru. A driving force behind the Peruvian Scientific Network, which spread the use of the Internet within the country.
  • Edmundo Vitale (Venezuela). General Manager of the Latin American Networks Foundation and General Coordinator of the Workshops on Network Technologies for Latin America and the Caribbean.

ICANN expresses its deepest appreciation of their efforts to develop the Internet.

As usual, LACNIC’s meeting was a success in itself. LACNIC 18 kicked off with the presence of many an Internet celebrity and the celebration of this tenth anniversary.

The agenda included Steve Crocker, Internet pioneer and Chairman of our Board, who delivered a truly inspirational master class on his involvement in the design of Internet fundamentals and underscored LACNIC’s solidity. Here is a link to his presentation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRoS-u-4-8E&list=PLU6Q4ZhHN2Q5fr9CBkOUkqC0HjRvYrN8n&index=10&feature=plpp_video

Though unable to join us in this celebration, Vint Cerf sent us a message, available at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04yLgz4NhXU&feature=BFa&list=PLU6Q4ZhHN2Q5fr9CBkOUkqC0HjRvYrN8n

It would be quite ambitious to post an account of all the events taking place at ACNIC 18 and LACNOG 2012 on this blog, but I guess you know where to look up this info.

Friends from LACNIC, our most sincere congratulations on this first decade, from all of us working at ICANN. May you celebrate these ten years and many more!

Authors

Rodrigo De La Parra

Rodrigo De La Parra

VP, Stakeholder Engagement & Managing Director - Latin America & Caribbean
Rodrigo De La Parra

Rodrigo De La Parra

VP, Stakeholder Engagement & Managing Director - Latin America & Caribbean

A leading voice and advocate for the multistakeholder Internet governance model in Latin America and the Caribbean, Rodrigo de la Parra is a Regional Vice President for ICANN. Based in Mexico City but frequently travelling through the region, Rodrigo is responsible for outreach, support and engagement with user groups, governments, private sector and civil society throughout the diverse region. In his role, he works closely with the Latin American technical community to continue to build a robust Internet infrastructure in the region. Under his leadership, ICANN has opened an engagement center in Montevideo, Uruguay, in the House of the Internet.

With more than 20 years experience as a multicultural executive, Rodrigo served as Director General of Prospective Regulation and Director General for International Cooperation of Mexico's Federal Commission of Telecommunications before joining ICANN in 2011. While at Cofetel, he leveraged his diplomacy skills and deep knowledge of Internet governance structures and ICT to develop public policy and regulation recommendations for new technologies. He was involved with various ICT groups of international organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Organization of American States, and the World Trade Organization, among others.

He also represented Mexico on ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee which gives governments a voice in the organization's policy formation. He was a member of the Consultative Committee of NIC. MX, the non-profit operator of Mexico's country-code Top-Level Domain and the registry that manages allocation of Internet Protocol address space to Mexican Internet Service Providers.

Rodrigo has a Master's degree in political economy and international relations from the University of Essex in the UK. He has been a lecturer of International Organizations and Economic Negotiations and a consultant to the Latin American Cooperation for Advanced Networks.

He speaks Spanish, English and French fluently.

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