Andreu Veà (born 1969) is a Spanish engineer, president of the

Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. It has offices in Reston, Virginia, United States, and Geneva, Switzerland. Organization The Internet Society ...

(ISOC-ES) and member of the advisory board of the

Internet Hall of Fame The Internet Hall of Fame is an honorary lifetime achievement award administered by the Internet Society (ISOC) in recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the Internet. Overview ...

. He has been appointed as ''Digital Champion for Spain'' in late 2014.

Digital Champions The Digital Champions are appointed by each European Union Member State to help them and the European Commission promote the benefits of an inclusive digital society. The Digital Champions act locally. They work with citizens, communities, businesse ...

are ambassadors for the Digital Agenda, appointed by their Members States to help every European become digital and reporting to the European Commission. 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. The prize is given by the President of the Senate of Spain during the World Internet Day (May 17), at the Spanish Senate Palace. Born in

Sant Feliu de Guíxols Sant Feliu de Guíxols () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Comarques of Catalonia, ''comarca'' of the Baix Empordà in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the Costa Brava and is an important port and tourist centre. The district ...

(Girona, Spain) in 1969. Telecom Engineer (’91) and

Electronic Engineer Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flow ...

(’93), Andreu Veà has an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

IT Management Information technology management (IT management) is the discipline whereby all of the information technology resources of a firm are managed in accordance with its needs and priorities. Managing the responsibility within a company entails many ...

and a Ph.D. in

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

s ('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 A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

and primatologist

Joaquim Veà Baró Joaquim Veà Baró (11 October 1958 – 23 February 2016) was a Catalan primatologist. Baró was a student of Jordi Sabater Pi, as well as a biopsychology professor at the University of Barcelona and the director of the university's Primate Re ...

(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 An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

(ISP) in 1994. In early 1998 the new telco Retevision recruited him to launch their own

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...

(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 Internet exchange points (IXes or IXPs) are common grounds of Internet Protocol, IP networking, allowing participant Internet service provider, Internet service providers (ISPs) to exchange data destined for their respective networks. IXPs are ...

) and the installation in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

of one of the 13 DNS global root servers. 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 Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Robert Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that inclu ...

(one of the “fathers of the Internet”) to continue his original research at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, USA), from which he launched the international

research program A research program (British English: research programme) is a professional network of scientists conducting basic research. The term was used by philosopher of science Imre Lakatos to blend and revise the normative model of science offered by K ...

WiWiW.org. Nowadays he contributes to the launching and soft-landing of technology-based companies in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. He has been elected as Eminent Expert for Spain on the Grand Jury at the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

’s World Summit Award (Global Awards for mobile apps). He was the founder and President of the Spanish chapter of the

(ISOC-ES) between 2009-2017. He was member of the advisory board of the

in 2013. In 2018 he published «''Tecnologia para andar por casa»'' (in spanish), an informative work to facilitate the "digital life" of the general public. During the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic, he coined and organized the community of COVIDWarriors as an open initiative to shelter all kinds of civil society initiatives in order to alleviate the effects of the pandemic. From the Interesting People community that he leads, it materialized into a

non-profit association A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

formed by professional volunteers and proactive organizations, with entrepreneurial talent and technological initiatives, which obtained funding for the fight against

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

through

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

. The initiative was worthy of several awards.

Published works

* * *. * * File:With Doug-Engelbart.jpg, With

Douglas Engelbart Douglas Carl Engelbart (January 30, 1925 – July 2, 2013) was an American engineer, inventor, and a pioneer in many aspects of computer science. He is best known for his work on founding the field of human–computer interaction, particularly ...

, inventor of the

mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

, in 2003 in

Atherton, California Atherton ( ) is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States. Its population was 6,823 as of July 2023 estimates. The town's zoning regulations permit only one single-family home per acre in new subdivisions, though smal ...

file:With Bob Metcalfe.jpg, Interview of

Robert Metcalfe Robert "Bob" Melancton Metcalfe (born April 7, 1946) is an American engineer and entrepreneur who contributed to the development of the internet in the 1970s. He co-invented Ethernet, co-founded 3Com, and formulated Metcalfe's law, which desc ...

, inventor of

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

, in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

file:With Ray Tomlinson.jpg, With

Ray Tomlinson Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (April 23, 1941 – March 5, 2016) was an American computer scientist who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971; it was the first system able to send mail betw ...

, who implemented an email system on the

ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the tec ...

References

External links

*National Internet Personal-Trajectory Prize 2017 "Acceptance Speech
http://ComoCreamosInternet.com
Retrieved 15 June 2017. * *CERF, et al. http://ComoCreamosInternet.com 2013 ccessdate: 14 January 2014 *ICANNWIKI on Andreu Veà https://icannwiki.org/Andreu_Vea ccessdate: 19 February 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Baro, Andreu Vea Internet pioneers Engineers from Catalonia 1969 births Living people Articles containing video clips