Stewart Fleming bio / election statement

I have served as an InternetNZ Councillor for the past two years, during a particularly challenging time for the organization. Personally, this was a new experience, and getting to grips with the processes of Council was not easy.  Internal restructuring and external developments surrounding the New Zealand Internet during this time have placed great pressures on Council’s activities and decision-making.  I am proud of the way that Council has met those challenges and of how, through good governance, the group has flourished at a difficult time.

There are still many important challenges to meet – copyright, faster and more capable Internet speeds, cyber-crime and IPv6 amongst others – and InternetNZ has important and useful things to say in each of the areas that affect New Zealand Internet users.  While good governance provides a solid foundation, technical understanding and a pragmatic attitude are what allow us to make a difference every day.  I welcomed and supported the establishment of the NZNOG Trust as it sets up a formal relationship that reflects the shared values of the two groups.  As owner of an ISP, and active in the NZNOG community, I am well aware of the issues and challenges faced by the New Zealand Internet community.  If re-elected, I will continue to champion and support the technical and practical points of view.

I am concerned at this stage primarily with two things – that InternetNZ needs to solicit and consider input from members more often and that InternetNZ needs to choose its future path carefully.  We are now an organization with comparatively large financial resources and our status is now that of a Charitable Trust.  That places greater responsibility on the choices that we make as to how to use those resources and we need to consider how they can be used to the benefit of members and the Internet community in New Zealand.  I am in favour of a more active and practical stance to consider how we safely and responsibly invest InternetNZ assets and use them to fund and support new initiatives that will have a positive effect.

Brief History

• InternetNZ Councillor since 2007
• Owner, Managing Director and CTO of WIC, a wireless Internet provider based in Dunedin city since 2005
• hosted NZNOG 2008 in Dunedin
• Lecturer, Computer Science Department, University of Otago, 1998-2005
• Helped establish first international Internet service and domain name registry (.pg) in Papua New Guinea, 1997
  

I am still based in Dunedin, still married to Donna and now have twice as many children as we did at the last election.  I am still passionate about this industry and look forward to the opportunity to serve for a further term.