Every member of the ICA is a builder. We build theories, models, paradigm and ideas. We are not contractors who build because they are told to do so. We are building because we want to.

I discovered I was a builder of people while playing golf with a friend. If I live as long as my score, I would be among the oldest people on the planet. My friend, however, has won golf tournaments. In one outing with him, I hit a hole for par, a rare occurrence. As I danced a jig, he looked at me and said, "I'm happier for you that you got par for that hole than that I got par."

I could hear the switch turning on the bulb in my head; that's me too: I'm as happy when others succeed as when I succeed.

It is in that spirit of building up people and institutions that I accept the nomination to run for the presidency of the ICA. It is an honour just to be nominated because giants in the communications field have served as president. It is an honour I humbly accept. I have been very fortunate to have met some of these giants at the start of my education in communication, my first degree being in law from Singapore. At USC where I did my masters, I was advisee of the late Everett Rogers and teaching assistant for Ron Rice. Both have been extraordinary models. My research interests in development communication and information-communication technology law and policy and social impact can be traced to their influence.

My Ph.D. programme at Michigan State was unforgettable for the way faculty allowed us to develop yet with that subtle yet ever-present pressure to present and publish papers. I have been fortunate in my academic career as I had stumbled into the new thing called the internet before it was publicly available. Among the highlights since were a sabbatical stint in Harvard University on a Fulbright fellowship and then at Oxford University. Out of that sabbatical, besides a slightly improved golf game, came my book Ordering Chaos on internet law and policy. My views have been published in papers such as the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Asian Wall Street Journal, and The Economist's Marketplace.

Ordering Chaos proved useful when in 2004 I was appointed by then Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan to the 40-member Working Group on Internet Governance. From my book came first drafts for five out of the 22 issues. The WGIG underscored for me the centrality of communications. Besides one or two academics in the technical field, the only other academics were two of us in communications-a colleague from the media law division of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). At the 2006 ICA conference in Dresden, the two of us organised a pre-conference symposium that led to the formation of the Global Internet Governance Network (GigaNet) on which I served as inaugural chair.

My plans for our Association may be summarised by the three initials I C A.

The "I" is for international links, particularly to the fastest growing media markets in the world today-India, China and Asia-Pacific (another ICA), where I have visited many of the top university programmes in communication. In 2006, China had more than 700 communication programmes in universities, and they were growing by the month; that same year, I was approached for general managers for 250 new Indian radio stations to be set up because of liberalisation in that sector. Until then, India had just 50 radio stations for its population of more than 1 billion.

This academic year, I am spending my sabbatical year in India to help start the Mudra Institute of Communication Research in Ahmedabad, an hour's flight north of Bombay. The city is the hometown of Gandhi, has the best communication institute in India (the Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad on which I serve as a governing council member), and was the location of the SITE (satellite instructional television experiment) studies that are a communications classic. The new research centre is in a unique position to influence communication research in all of India.

The "C" is for communication enhancement. I plan to strengthen the communication of the Association, by which I mean the dissemination of research. There are two facets to this. We need to reduce the current lag of two years to get into an A-list journal. We need to explore greater use of the internet. Perhaps a website for work in progress. Perhaps a way to retain papers longer than just a few months after the conference. I have been amazed at how some of my online-only papers continue to be cited 10 years later. I also believe that as a communication association, we should have the best presentations in the academic world. Good substance with good form give reason to invite the presenter to other presentations. Our leadership has taken a step in that direction by honouring the best poster presentations. I would like to look into how we might do something similar for oral presentations.

The "A" is for Association strengthening. I plan to continue to strengthen governance of the Association. I have seen the value of good governance from having served as the head of a leading communication school in Asia and chairman of the non-profit media education association AMIC (Asian Media Information Communication Centre). Governance does not mean more rules; it refers to the way of governing. So, for example, I will continue to develop the transparency in the Association that former President Sonia Livingstone had started. I hope to build on the excellent work already in place and continue the fine working relationship between our Secretariat and the Board.

In summary, I reiterate that the ICA is in very good hands. That is why I am a life member. I am genetically a builder and I hope to contribute by using my "I.C.A." for the ICA.