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 I'm not quite sure what I expected at the ITU, but I kind of figured a modicum of computer literacy. Nothing fancy, mind you, but at least things like basic phone tricks, fax machines, and maybe even electronic mail. After all, this is the home of X.400, the message handling system to end all message handling systems. Was the ITU using X.400, though? Not a chance! They had Digital's proprietary Message Router and the infamous All-in-(N)One as a user interface. X.400 connectivity was achieved by a poorly functioning gateway.

This lack of computer literacy at the ITU was what made Tony Rutkowski such an odd duck. When he came to Geneva he saw that none of the international bureaucracies had Internet hookups. So, Tony did what any self respecting technocrat would do and called up the nearest Internet provider, in this case the CERN physics laboratory, and asked for a guest account. Several years later, Tony was still the only ITU employee with access to the Internet.

Tony had taken a rather strange career path to his position at the ITU (a position he left at the end of 1991). After studying engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology, he became quite active in civil rights. Eventually, he landed himself a seat on the city council, getting further involved in policy and politics.

From there, through a roundabout road, his interest in telecommunications drew him to Washington, D.C., where he went to work for the chief scientist at the FCC. The chief scientist was also an Internet old boy, and the FCC was promptly installed as part of the Internet. While working at the FCC by day, Tony put himself through law school at night at American University.

Eventually, Tony went up to Boston to become the publisher of Telecommunications. In Boston, he alleviated the drudgery of punching out a magazine by working as a Research Associate at MIT's Media Laboratory.

Altogether, this mix of lawyer, regulator, and engineer was just-the combination needed when Pekka Taijanne took over the helm of the ITU. A physicist by training, Tarjanne was determined to bring the ITU into the telecommunications age and asked Tony to work as his personal assistant.