Dr Frank March

I am very proud to be a member of InternetNZ.  I believe that over the past several years the Society has achieved many very worthwhile objectives.  Those of the last year been spectacular, with the strong leadership exercised over the Government's telecommunications review and the hosting of the ICANN meeting.  Both the outgoing Council and the staff of InternetNZ can take great credit for these, and for the generally high regard in which InternetNZ is widely held.

For the past five years I have also been proud to Chair the .nz Oversight Committee (NZOC).  Over this time we have built a policy framework for managing New Zealand's own ccTLD which is both reflective of the views of the New Zealand Internet community and world leading in terms of its balance and effectiveness in protecting the rights of nameholders and the open competitiveness of the domain name market in New Zealand. InternetNZ carries a high level of responsibility for holding the .nz delegation.  The delegation also serves the Society well, providing us with a good income through the work of New Zealand Registry Services (NZRS).

But it may be that this good fortune can be taken a little too much for granted.  NZOC has recommended, and Council has adopted, a general policy in relation to the cost to Registrars charged by NZRS to hold a name in the Registry. The policy is simple:  the price should remain stable and predictable and over a period of time should be expected to reduce rather than increase.  In the latest annual review of prices, NZOC and NZRS jointly recommended to Council that, having carefully considered the financial standing of NZRS and the state of the .nz market, and subject to Council confirming that its dividend policy should be fixed at no more than $6.00 gross per domain name per annum, the fee should reduce. As is its right, Council declined to confirm this dividend policy and declined the advice to lower the fee. That is why I am standing for Council.

At the same time, planning should be taking place for the time when the steady and comfortable growth in .nz income can no longer be taken for granted.  Many of the Internet growth curves are beginning to flatten as the Internet moves to the centre of economic and social activity: long term continued growth of .nz-derived income at the present rates cannot be assumed.

The opportunity for diversifying income is now, while the living is relatively easy.

Brief biographic details

I am a Fellow of InternetNZ.  I was a Councillor from 1994 when the inaugural ad hoc committee was established to set up what was to become ISOCNZ until the 2001 AGM, and was Secretary for much of that time.  I have been a member, and Chair, of the .nz Oversight Committee since its inception.  I am currently a 'policy wonk' in the Ministry of Economic Development, more or less and inter alia specialising in Internet-related issues; before that I was Director of IT Services at Victoria University and at one time when I worked for DSIR I even programmed computers but that was a very long time ago.