[EuroDig Interview] Sorina Teleanu, Romania

Sorina Teleanu works at the the Committee for Information and Communication Technology of the Chamber of Deputies, Parliament of Romania and is part of the delegation to come to the forthcoming EuroDig in Geneva.

DIPLO IGCBP: Sorina, can you share with us how was the capacity building programme with Diplo?

SORINA: I have read Diplo’s IG booklet before taking the course, so I was later on happy to be able to join an online classroom and to learn more about Internet Governance issues. Reading the booklet was, in fact, my first contact with the IG debate and the capacity building programme came as a natural step towards acquiring more knowledge in this area.

DIPLO IGCBP: What did you like more about the eLearning experience?

SORINA: I would not exaggerate if I said that it was a great experience from the beginning to the end: exchanging opinions with colleagues and tutors on the course text, discussing in the forum class on the most “hot” topics and e-meeting once a week during the chat sessions have all been parts of a nice and useful experience that I would recommend to anyone.

DIPLO IGCBP: Sorina, can you tell us more about the current situation in your country: what do you see as the main challenges ahead?

SORINA: Romania still has many problems related to ICT, in general, and Internet, in particular. One of these problems is the digital divide: at European level, we are among the last countries when it comes to Internet penetration rate; inside the countries, there are still huge discrepancies in terms of Internet access between rural and urban areas. There have been some programs launched by the government with the aim of addressing this issues (like, for examples, the strategies on universal service and on broadband communications), but, since they are still at their initial phases of implementation, it is early to predict whether they will be successful or not.

Regarding Romania’s participation in the Internet Governance debate, I have to admit that this is not an important preoccupation nor for the government, nor for the private sector or the civil society, all of them showing little interest on such an issue.

DIPLO IGCBP: What are the main topics of interest for you in Internet governance? And how do you expect to touch these issues on the EuroDig?

SORINA: My main topics of interest are: development through ICT, Internet critical resources and online security. To these I would also add e-democracy and e-government as means of improving the functioning of democracy, at large, and public administration, in particular. Since most of these issues will be debated during the EuroDIG, I am looking forward for the debates that are going to take place.

DIPLO IGCBP: What are the professional and research projects you would like to continue over the next years?

SORINA: I’m not sure about the years to come, but I am currently involved in a sort of research on e-government, with the aim of identifying, from international and European models of good practices, the best solutions that could be adapted to the Romanian realities, thus helping us to create a unitary and efficient e-government system.

DIPLO IGCBP: Thanks a lot for this interview, Sorina! For those interested in CIR, cybersecurity, eDemocracy and eGov, you can add Sorina as a friend on the Community and continue the discussion online.

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This interview is part of a series with participants from the European Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme. Diplo IGCBP stands for Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme and you can find more on our Facebook profile, the Internet Governance Capacity Building page on Facebook or the Twitter for Internet Governance