Rudi Vansnick

Country:	Belgium
Email:	rudi.vansnick [at] isoc.be
Website:	[vansnick.eu vansnick.eu]
LinkedIn:	[Rudi's LinkedIn Rudi Vansnick]
Twitter:	@ruudvs

Rudi Vansnick is the President of ISOC Belgium and the initiator of a consortium with ISfTeH, The International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth, which is seeking the creation of a new gTLD, .health. Mr. Vansnick actively participates in a number of international, regional, and national conferences.

Rudi is a member of the ISOC ECC Board, and an original sponsor for the creation of EURALO, where he now serves on the board and participates in working groups.

Belgian Internet

He has been president of the Belgian chapter of The Internet Society since 2000. He participates in national debates with federal and regional governments on topics such as cyber criminality and security issues related to Belgian citizens. In 2004, he became more and more involved in Internet issues and debates all around the world by attending conferences in Bangladesh, Tunis, Hannover. In 2005, he became the national expert for the World Summit Awards and one of the 38 Grand Jury members from all over the world in electing the 40 best e-Content projects worldwide.

His 30 years experience in ICT prepared him for a study on the usage of ICT in the Social Profit sector in East-Flanders by ISOC Belgium and EROV. The result of this survey, which ended in 2007, is The ICT Whitebook for the Social Pofit. It contains an overview of the ICT inventory in the Social Profit in East-Flanders and several requirements and recommendations for the sector itself, but also for the government and the ICT sector.

In April, 2008, the general assembly of TIK vzw, the users' group of Belgian Telecom & Internet customers in with some 10.000 members, decided to elect a new board. Rudi moved from secretary to president for a mandate of 3 years. By selecting Rudi TIK vzw hopes to gain credibility for the organisation in the eyes of the national government, thereby further defending and empowering Internet users.

Career History

Rudi Vansnick initially graduated as an accountant, and started his professional career at the Ministry of Agriculture; from there he quickly became involved in the digitisation process of government administration. In 1988, he developed the "pharmacy computer" solution, and helped to bring communication facilities to pharmacy distribution centres and pharmacists. The system was later implemented in France, Luxembourg, and Germany.

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. More recently, he was involved in the IT-outsourcing contract of the Flemish government for about 2 years; where he gained implementing corporate decisions on regional and local level such as the Flemish portal website.

In 2006, he began focusing on breaching the Digital Divide through projects in regional and European organisations with a goal to capture the voices of the individual Internet user in an organisational environment. He considers the most difficult hurdle to be the supportive reconciliation of the divide between culture and technology.

Conferences

Rudi has 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 IT companies for children up to 12 years of age.

In 2008, Universal Peace Federation nominated Rudi as an Ambassador for Peace during the Global Peace Festival in Tokyo.

Affiliations

• ISOC Belgium, President Belgian Chapter.
• TIK vzw, President.
• World Summit Awards, National expert, Organiser of the Belgium World Summit Award 2005 - 2008.
• Grand Jury WSA, Member, 2005 and 2009.
• ICANN At Large Structure, Member.
• European Regional At Large Organisation (EURALO), Board Member.
• ALAC,ccNSO Liaison, 2009.
• Steering Committee Global Forum Member, 2006 - 2009.
• UPF, Ambassador for Peace.

Internet Society