Executive Director's Report to Council 24/06/05
Overview
The theme for my report for the June Council meeting is transition. On the 20th of June Keith Davidson joins us as Executive Director designate to allow a smooth handover before the completion of my assignment on July 30. In addition we have the preparation for the AGM, with elections and the expectation of new officers and councillors. A secondary theme is regulatory response, with significant time take by our work on the UBS draft determination. As always staffing is our main constraint. The output of the secretariat team since the April council meeting has been exceptional.
Staff
We continue to be plagued by medium term temps leaving early through circumstances beyond our control. Brigette Murphy joined us and was expected to stay until Keith made the permanent appointment. Unfortunately Brigitte has had to return home to Ireland. The main issue that makes this a bad experience is the time the permanent staff have to spend training each new temp. This will be resolved with both the return of Gale from maternity/bereavement leave, and the appointment of a new permanent team member.
Jordan and Bella have continued to develop new skills and are increasingly productive. John as always is our technical anchor. We have been fortunate to have strong support from the team members of the DNC and NZRS.
Transition
Keith and I are already working on the transition. As Keith is familiar with most of the issues the focus will be on process and resources. There will be some differences in mode of operation based on the variance in style of management. None of these will be show stoppers. Most likely this will result is some task reassignment which should be to the liking of the team. One of the first tasks will be for Keith to review the Job Description and select an excellent new team member to provide admin support with a leaning towards committee support and PMO administration. As both Keith and I will be traveling, the actual time together in the office will only be about 7 days from 20 June. I expect handover to be complete on Thursday July 28, leaving a day for any loose ends.
TelstraClear UBS Draft Determination
Since the last Council meeting, we have worked with external contractors Michael Wigley (Wigley & Co.) and Don Stokes (Knossos Networks) to prepare submissions on the draft determination the Telecommunications Commissioner issued on TelstraClear's application for wholesale UBS access. An initial submission was lodged at the end of May, and a further cross-submission in mid-June. We expect to have our contractors available to answer questions at the Commission's Conference on the 5th and 6th of July.
The major objective of our intervention has been to support the position of the Commission in support of a single price point for access to the UBS service. We have regarded this as a critical component of getting broader access to the local loop in the absence of LLU. Cost contributions are coming in from some ISPAG members.
ISPAG
We have deferred the development of the ISP Advisory Group until the UBS determination effort has reduced. Trish Stevenson has agreed to develop the governance structure for ISPAG. Trish is a TVNZ board member and knows our industry well. Trish should be seen by all as an effective neutral advisor.
We were pleased to see the number of ISPs who have offered to contribute to the costs of our UBS determination cross submission effort. We take this as a sign that we will make progress with the formation of the group.
Membership of APIA
InternetNZ has joined APIA the Asia & Pacific Internet Association www.apia.org
Apia's mission is:
To ensure the future and stability of APRICOT
To build human resource infrastructure for the Internet and to foster the efficient, stable, and sustainable development of the Internet in the Asia Pacific region
ENUM
Enum activity is covered by a separate report. From the secretariat view, ENUM is in a quiet patch, while the TCF and InternetNZ develop the Steering Group and plan for a trial. We are keen to work with the Steering Group on the trial. There is a significant amount of interest focussing on ENUM from the Internet community, and we are receiving calls and emails form organisations who wish to be involved.
ICANNZ06
By the time of the council meeting the ICANNZ06 web site should be active. The secretariat is working closely with Laura Virgo of Conference Online to ensure that targets are met for this large and complex event.
ICOP
We now have five submissions, and we are preparing to incorporate them into the final draft, which will be subject to public review. We aim to have this ready to launch around the time of the AGM. We do have some additional work. As the result of a meeting set up by Netsafe, we are expected to extend the ISP code to create a code for Internet cafes.
APTLD Secretariat
Work has begun preparing for the July APTLD meeting in Singapore. The Secretariat will provide resourcing for meeting organisation, broadcast (if feasible) and recording, at the ParkRoyal in Singapore, 6-7 July. Registrations and meeting agendas are the current focus of work. An earlier project to review the APTLD website has been frozen until more time is available for a transition - after the AGM is most likely.
Peering
The peering working group have met with State Services to discuss our position and to arrange a whole of government session to understand each others position. At this stage State Services are adopting a neutral stance. The Ministry of Economic Development have retained John Immanuel to prepare a report on peering. From his report we see the need to agree on the use of terms. Even the word peering has a wide range of definitions. InternetNZ will work to present consistent use of the terms associated with peering. Citylink in conjunction with TUANZ ran an excellent series of after 5 peering presentations. One of these is available online and well worth viewing.
New Web Presence
Good progress by 3months.com and our team. We have the server installed in our rack, and have retained Shift to do the graphics. Using agile development, we are able to rapidly change as we discover more about the way we want to work in future. The project team meets every Tuesday. A separate project report is included.
Conclusion
Another strong two months with great results and more miles won along the InternetNZ strategic road.
This is my final council report as Executive Director. I have genuinely enjoyed my two and a half years in the role. Council has been mostly supportive and quick to point me in the right direction when I wandered away from the core business. We have also had some vigorous debate. This is healthy, and on occasions had me change my position. I hope that some of those discussions worked the other way too. I look forward to a continued relationship with InternetNZ, and hope to contribute effectively from whatever role or roles I decide to tackle.
