I am super excited today! In fact, I have been for about a week now and I don’t see any signs of that changing. Why all the fuss? I’m so glad you asked…
As you may have seen back in July, Richard Jimmerson left the Internet Society and the team was looking for a new director. Well, guess what?! I have joined the Internet Society and my first day is next Monday (see you in Poland for ION Krakow)!
First, a bit about me. I’ve just finished up a two and a half year stint at CableLabs where, as the Lead Architect for Advanced Network Technologies, I’ve been focused on technical leadership and innovation, particularly in the areas of IPv6, L2/L3 VPN, and Home Networking. This has included leading the CableLabs IPv6 project to completion, launching the HIPnet™ home networking efforts, contributing to various specification and standards, and leading several industry task forces and working groups dedicated to developing and deploying new technology. Immediately prior to CableLabs, I was responsible for setting forward looking architectures and leading technology development efforts at tw telecom inc.
Many of you will better recognize me from my activity in the broader Internet community, however. I currently serve as founding Chair of the US Colorado Chapter of the Internet Society, board member for the Rocky Mountain IPv6 Task Force (RMv6TF), an elected member of the ARIN Advisory Council (AC), an appointed member of the NANOG Program Committee (PC), and I’ve just stepped down from serving as Chair of the IPv6 Task Forces at both DLNA and UPnP. I’ve also written two books: Day One: Exploring IPv6 and Day One: Advanced IPv6 Configuration; as well as several IETF Internet Drafts, various industry papers, a CircleID blog, a personal weblog, and several other publications. Plus I often show up to present at conferences and NOGs around the world.
More important than any of this work I’ve done in the past however, is the work I am about to ‘do’ as Director of Deployment and Operationalization (DO) at the Internet Society, which of course includes the Deploy360 Programme. I believe that we are at a key point in the maturity and evolution of the Internet. This experiment that escaped the lab has taken over much of our world. So far, most individuals and organizations have been scrambling to catch up. Now it’s the Internet’s turn to learn and grow itself.
As the Internet continues to expand in both size and scope, new issues are forced into the spotlight. How do we uniquely address the exploding number of Internet-connected devices? How do we ensure that we “are” where we think we are in this virtual frontier, which grows and changes constantly? How do we ensure that this massive system, built on cooperation and openness, isn’t overly susceptible to basic misconfiguration or attacks at the infrastructure layer? IPv6, DNSSEC, and routing security are some of the first answers to some of these emerging challenges. It’s no coincidence that Deploy360 has focused on these technologies initially.
There will be more questions and more technological solutions as society and the Internet continue to evolve together. The Internet Society is perfectly positioned to play the critical role of ensuring that these key technologies get deployed, and get deployed right. I’m really looking forward to working with Leslie Daigle and the entire Deploy360 team to strengthen our existing programs, develop some new ones, and really drive the entire industry into the future and beyond. The Internet Society can do that, and I’m here to help.
Like the rest of the team, I’m available via social media. You can reach me directly on Twitter or Google+, or you can always reach out to the whole Deploy360 team. Let me know what’s on your mind!
This post was written for the Deploy360 blog.
