Digital policy practitioners join the Geneva Internet Platform as senior fellows

Mr Markus Kummer and Prof. Rolf H. Weber have joined the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP) as Senior Digital Policy Fellows as of 1 November 2016.

More than 50% of global digital policy is addressed in Geneva, which hosts 35 international organisations, hundreds of NGOs, and more than 200 diplomatic missions and representation offices. The senior fellows will further the work of the GIP – an initiative supported by the Swiss authorities and operated by DiploFoundation – by engaging these digital actors in Geneva. The GIP runs capacity development activities in Internet governance and digital policy, including the GIP Digital Watch online observatory.

Mr Markus Kummer, ICANN Board Member, was the Internet Society’s Senior Vice President until 2014. Prior to that, he worked for the United Nations, first as Executive Coordinator of the Working Group on Internet Governance and subsequently of the Secretariat supporting Internet Governance. In this capacity, he was responsible for preparing and organising the first five annual Internet Governance Forum meetings. Kummer joined the United Nations in 2004, after holding the position of eEnvoy of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. He was a member of the Swiss delegation during the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) where he chaired several negotiating groups. Markus served as a career diplomat in several functions in the Swiss Foreign Ministry since 1979. He was posted to the Embassies of Switzerland in Portugal, Austria, Norway, and Turkey, as well as the Swiss Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. 

Prof. Rolf H. Weber was educated in Switzerland and at Harvard Law School (Visiting Scholar 1980/81). From 1995 to 2016, he was ordinary Professor for Civil, Commercial and European Law at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. From 2000 to 2015, he was also a permanent Visiting Professor at the Law Faculty of Hong Kong University, Hong Kong, and short-term senior lecturer at several European Universities. His main fields of research are Internet and Information Technology Law, International Business Law, Competition Law and International Financial Law. Weber is a director of the European Law Institute and of the Center for Information Technology, Society and Law at the University of Zurich; in addition he serves as a co-director of the University Priority Research Program Financial Market Regulation. He was a founding member of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) and of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG). Since 2009, he has been a member of the High-level Panel of Advisers of the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID). Rolf H. Weber serves as co-editor of several Swiss and international legal periodicals and widely publishes in his research fields. Besides that, he is engaged as an attorney-at-law. 

The fellows will be involved in GIP programmes and related research, participate in the delivery of courses and training programmes and interact with a wide variety of stakeholders. 

The Geneva Digital Fellowship is designed for:

• Academics at the post-graduate level and beyond who can benefit from being in the centre of global digital policymaking and contribute with their academic research to further work of the Geneva Internet Platform.
• Government and other professionals with expertise in Internet-related policies, who would like to further actively contribute to digital policy debates in Geneva.
• Digital entrepreneurs who would like to strengthen their business by better understanding digital policy (e.g. data protection, privacy, jurisdiction)
• Civil society representatives and media partners involved in digital policy.

For more information, contact Dr Tereza Horejsova at terezah@diplomacy.edu