Andreu Veà Baró

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andreu Veà i Baró
Andreu Veà (left) with his mentor and friend Vint Cerf, one of the "fathers of the Internet" in McLean, Virginia
Born (1969-04-06) April 6, 1969 (age 55)
CitizenshipSpanish
Alma materRamon Llull University
Known forThe Internet Biographer
AwardsHonorary Professor UAI University (Argentina)
ROTARY CLUB, Honor Member
Scientific career
FieldsTelecommunications & Internet
InstitutionsStanford University
ThesisHistory, Society, Technology and Network Development. An exposé of the most unknown face of the Internet (2002)
Doctoral advisorJordi Dalmau
Websitewww.comocreamosinternet.com
Andreu Veà and Jimbo Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, in 2006
Andreu Veà interviewing Paul Mockapetris in 2013 (Berlin)

Andreu Veà (born 1969) is a Spanish engineer, president of the Internet Society (ISOC-ES)[1] and member of the advisory board of the Internet Hall of Fame.[2]

He has been appointed as Digital Champion for Spain in late 2014. Digital Champions are ambassadors for the Digital Agenda, appointed by their Members States to help every European become digital and reporting to the European Commission.[3]

For all his activities, in 2017 he has been awarded with the "National Internet Personal-Trajectory Prize", summoned and failed by the Internet Day Impulse Committee, made up of more than 60 social Spanish organizations led by the Association of Internet Users.[4] The prize is given by the President of the Senate of Spain during the World Internet Day (May 17), at the Spanish Senate Palace.[5]

Born in Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona, Spain) in 1969. Telecom Engineer (’91) and Electronic Engineer (’93), Andreu Veà has an MBA in IT Management and a Ph.D. in computer networks ('02). He had his first computer (with 3KB memory) at the age of twelve, and his first international computer network experience dates from 1986. He's brother of the scientist and primatologist Joaquim Veà Baró (1958-2016).

Since 1992, he has had the word Internet on his business card, working in the private sector, in public administration, and at the university, where he has shared his knowledge with several generations of engineers. He discovered the magic power of the net early on, contributing to the local development of the incipient Spanish market in the mid ‘90s, providing first-time connections to many companies and individuals. He co-founded the 4th Spanish Internet service provider (ISP) in 1994.

In early 1998 the new telco Retevision recruited him to launch their own ISP (iddeo). There he designed the technical system that allowed this network operator to offer the first free access to the Internet and a year later the first flat telephone rate in Spain, doubling the base of Internet users in the country in less than a year.

He is a great defender of the methods and uses of the Internet, antagonistic to the «classic PTT-telco way». He promoted and presided over ESPANIX (the major Spanish Internet exchange point) and the installation in Madrid and Barcelona of one of the 13 DNS global root servers.[6]

After his doctoral dissertation thesis on the technology, history, and social structure of the Internet (which for 8 years was one of the top 25 most downloaded, 260,000 copies), he was invited by Vint Cerf (one of the “fathers of the Internet”) to continue his original research at Stanford University (California, USA),[7] from which he launched the international research program WiWiW.org.

Nowadays he contributes to the launching and soft-landing of technology-based companies in Silicon Valley. He has been elected as Eminent Expert for Spain on the Grand Jury at the UNESCO’s World Summit Award (Global Awards for mobile apps).[8]

He was the founder and President of the Spanish chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-ES) between 2009-2017.[1][9] He was member of the advisory board of the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013.[2]

In 2018 he published «Tecnologia para andar por casa» (in spanish), an informative work to facilitate the "digital life" of the general public.[10]

During the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic, he coined and organized the community of COVIDWarriors[11] as an open initiative to shelter all kinds of civil society initiatives in order to alleviate the effects of the pandemic.[12] From the Interesting People community that he leads,[13] it materialized into a non-profit association formed by professional volunteers and proactive organizations, with entrepreneurial talent and technological initiatives,[14][15] which obtained funding for the fight against COVID-19 through patronage.[16][17] The initiative was worthy of several awards.[18][19]

Published works[edit]

  • Veà Baró, Andreu (2002). Manual pràctic d'Internet a l'empresa (in Catalan). Barcelona: COPCA, Consorci de Promoció Comercial de Catalunya. ISBN 978-84-9313-511-9.
  • Veà Baró, Andreu (2005). Qui és qui a Internet?: recull inèdit de fets i anècdotes (in Catalan) (1st. ed.). Barcelona: CIDEM, Centre d'Innovació i Desenvolupament Empresarial. ISBN 978-84-3936-876-2.
  • Veà Baró, Andreu (2005). La historia oculta de Intern@t a través de sus personajes (in Spanish). Gijón: Fundación CTIC. ISBN 978-84-609-5566-5..
  • Macía Rodríguez, Josep A.; Pardo, Joaquin; Veà Baró, Andreu (2012). !Papá no quiero ir al cole. Me aburro! (in Spanish). Barcelona: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. ASIN B007R59WX2.
  • Veà, Andreu (2013). Cómo creamos internet (in Spanish) (1st. ed.). Ediciones Península S.A. ISBN 978-84-9942-275-6.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Internet Society. "Junta directiva" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  2. ^ a b "Advisory Board". Internet Hall of Fame. 2013. Retrieved 2013-12-07.
  3. ^ Digital Agenda for Europe. "The Digital Champion of Spain". European Commission. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  4. ^ "AUI - Asociación de Usuarios de Internet". Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  5. ^ "2017 Award" (in Spanish). AUI - Asociación de Usuarios de Internet. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  6. ^ "Inauguració de la rèplica del Servidor Arrel de Noms F i de l'extensió a Telvent". CESCA. 2005-06-22. Archived from the original on 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2013-12-07.
  7. ^ Bellmunt, Cintia S. (2006). Tinethistòria (PDF). Tarragona: Arola editors. ISBN 84-96366-95-2. Retrieved 2024-01-14.
  8. ^ Veà, Andreu (2013). "Mobile apps that make a difference". World Summit Awards. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  9. ^ "El divorci entre Catalunya i Espanya també és digital". Ara.cat.
  10. ^ "Andreu Veà: "Som pioners d'una civilització que encara desconeixem"". Retrieved 2018-11-18.
  11. ^ "Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas - Signos distintivos". Archived from the original on 2020-07-05. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  12. ^ Arribas, Alvaro. "CovidWarriors: Una iniciativa ciudadana a la que desde Fide queremos ayudar. Te invitamos a que tú también lo hagas" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-06-10. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  13. ^ "Talento en red frente a adversidades- Historias de Cracks" (in Spanish). 2020-03-24. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  14. ^ "Los profesionales de la privacidad crean un grupo de trabajo sobre protección de datos y salud para ayudar contra la pandemia – APEP | Asociación Profesional Española de Privacidad" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  15. ^ "Hub de soluciones digitales contra Covid-19" (in Spanish). 2020-03-31. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  16. ^ women360 (2020-04-09). "COVIDWarriors guerreras voluntarias para hacer frente al virus" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-04-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ "La increíble historia de los 5 amigos que han traído a España los robots antiCovid-19" (in Spanish). 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  18. ^ "Los galardonados de los Premios AEFOL 2022 son… | EXPOELEARNING". 2023-04-02. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
  19. ^ "Memòria anual Col·legi Oficial d'Enginyeria en Informàtica de Catalunya" (PDF) (in Catalan). Col·legi Oficial d'Enginyeria en Informàtica de Catalunya. April 2022. p. 21. Retrieved 2024-01-19.

External links[edit]