Nominee for Council 2005-07 : Bob Gray

Thank you for taking the time to look at this candidate statement.

This is an interesting time in the development of the Internet in New Zealand. There is a lot going on with the Government sponsored Advanced Network project and recently announced Digital Strategy and, as a result of Government sponsorship and pressure, most of NZ now has access to Telecom’s DSL products.

Despite all this progress there is still a large, and growing, gap between countries at the forefront of developing the Internet and ourselves. True broadband remains elusive for most companies and individuals and the potential benefits of broadband are rarely understood and even less often realised. Issues such as data caps, induced latency and a general lack of understanding inhibit development.

As a geographically remote country New Zealand stands to benefit more than most from wide deployment of real broadband. The contrary position is that if we fail to provide true broadband New Zealand, and in particular rural areas, we will fall even further behind.

InternetNZ can help with this development by educating politicians, business leaders and the public about the benefits of real broadband and by continuing to apply pressure to those providers who resist this.

In keeping with these beliefs, I am standing for election to the Counties Power Consumer Trust who are reportedly selling Wired Country. I firmly believe a sale of Wired Country to a private company would be a serious blow to the deployment of broadband in rural areas around Auckland. See www.bobgray.co.nz for more details of this.

I am a business mentor for Business in the Community and a freelance consultant on IT and the Internet. In my spare time I am the President of the Pukekohe Light Opera Club (www.ploc.org.nz).

History

I was also one of the founders of FX Networks and remain a shareholder and involved with this company. In 1980 I was one of three founders of Software Consultants Limited (SCL) and remained a Director and shareholder until 1991. In 1995 I co-founded the Internet and web development company, Clearview Communications Ltd, which became ZIVO and is now part of TelstraClear.

I was a counsellor of InternetNZ from 2000 until 2002 and was heavily involved with the development of the Shared Registry System. I chaired the SRS Implementation Working Group for much of that time and was also chairman of Domainz for three years until it was sold to Melbourne IT.

Bob Gray
bob@bobgray.co.nz

Bob Gray was nominated by David Farrar.