[icann-nominations] Support for Rick White's nomination to ICANN

[Ed Lazowska <lazowska@cs.washington.edu>]

Full name:  Edward D. Lazowska

Email address:  lazowska@cs.washington.edu

Organization:  University of Washington

Name of person being supported:  Rick White

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My name is Ed Lazowska.  I am Chair of the Department of Computer Science &
Engineering at the University of Washington.  I also am Chair of the NSF
CISE Advisory Committee, a member of the NRC Computer Science &
Telecommunications Board, Chair of the Computing Research Association, and a
member of the DARPA Information Science And Technology (ISAT) study group.

I support Rick White's candidacy to become a DNSO representative to the
ICANN board in the strongest terms.

I got to know Rick when he was a Congressman from Washington State.  He
rapidly became deeply knowledgable regarding information technology issues.
He founded the Congressional Internet Caucus.  He and his staff became
staunch advocates for informed technology policy in Washington.  They were
always asking smart questions, always listening carefully to the answers.

I want to emphasize that Rick's efforts did *not* focus on being "the
congressman from Microsoft."  He was very strong on federal support for
computing research.  He was very strong on an appropriate crypto policy.  He
was very strong on an appropriate approach to dealing with undesirable
content on the Internet.  His positions on these issues did not always
coincide with those of the relatively conservative constituents who elected
him -- but Rick became informed and knowledgable, and he did the right thing
in every case.

Rick White is a very smart and very hard-working guy, with broad background
and experience and leadership on technology issues.  He also, of course,
knows his way through political thickets.

It's hard to imagine a more appropriate person to serve on the ICANN board.
He would be a superb representative of DNSO.