Alex McKenzie My name is Alex McKenzie and I seek your vote for election to the Internet Society Board of Trustees. I am a "Pioneer" member of the Internet Society. I am willing, able, and eager to devote an appropriate level of time to activities associated with the position of Trustee of the Internet Society. My "platform" ------------- As a Trustee of the Internet Society, I will work to encourage the continued development of the technological support for people-to-people communication, which is what I believe the Internet is all about. Internet technology is becoming more and more integrated into the commercial world; this is a great success story for the technology but we don't want to see the pursuit of commercial interests push individual access aside. Similarly, as the Internet Architecture Board seeks to be a recognized member of the international standards-setting establishment, we need to pay close attention to retaining the ability for small innovative organizations, and individuals, to inspire and influence the Internet's standards and, through them, its usefulness. The Internet Society must be the champion of ubiquitous individual access and of innovation. As an ISOC Trustee, I will work to keep us focused on these concepts. My background ------------- I am a responsible for strategic planning and international development for BBN Information Services Corporation, reporting directly to the President of BBN ISC. I am a Vice President. BBN ISC today owns and operates NEARnet, a regional Internet service provider in the northeast USA, and BARRNet, a regional Internet service provider in northern California USA. BBN ISC has announced plans to acquire SURAnet, an Internet Service provider in Washington DC and 13 states in the southeastern United States. I am also a member of the Board of Directors of NEARnet Inc. Prior to accepting this position with BBN ISC on January 1, 1995, I was the manager of the Information Technologies and Services business unit of BBN System and Technologies. I supervised departments which work on internet consulting, engineering, and operations; internetworked applications; and information security in networked environments. In 1970 I began work on the ARPANET, first in the design of communication protocols and later in network operation. In 1972 I assumed responsibility for the ARPANET Network Control Center, which monitored network performance, coordinated network expansion, and performed diagnosis and repair in the event of problems. For many years I was an active member of the ARPANET Network Working Group - the predecessor to the IAB/IETF. I have a long history of personal involvement in the design of computer communication systems and their protocols. I have been involved in the specification and implementation of other packet-switched network systems, including the first private commercial adaptation of the ARPANET technology by a large New York bank. I served as a consultant to Olivetti in the design of a large Scandinavian bank network. I was the principal protocol architect for each of these networks. In the early 1980's I was the BBN manager of a program to develop Federal Information Processing Standards for computer communication under contract to the National Bureau of Standards. I have been an active participant in ANSI and ISO working groups responsible for the development of national and international standards for Open Systems Interconnection. In ISO I served as chairman of the group responsible for the development of the Presentation Layer protocol. I was also active in the CCITT working group that drafted the X.25 protocol for the attachment of computers to packet networks in the mid-1970's. For many years I have served as the secretary of IFIP Working Group 6.1, also known as the InterNetwork Working Group (INWG), an international group concerned with the specification, development, and testing of protocols for internetworking.