Executive Director's Report - 4 March 2006
ISOC Membership
Membership has been confirmed, with
myself as primary and Jordan as alternate contact.. We have elected
to be subscribed to all lists, and will forward relevant postings
from ISOC lists to our own lists when appropriate.
ICANN Wellington
NZRS and InternetNZ have signed an
agreement, on the terms and conditions as previously disclosed to
Council, with a $300,000 sponsorship contribution towards the ICANN
meeting coming from NZRS prior to the end of this financial year,
towards the cost of hosting the ICANN meeting in Wellington.
IPv6 Forum
As disclosed on the project template,
it has proved impossible to connect the dots with the various useful
IPv6 people to a single day within the timeframe between NZNOG and
ICANN meetings. Progress was made in this weeks meeting with Roger
Hicks and Simon Riley in identifying prospective keynote speakers,
and prospective dates. We are hopeful that we will be able to confirm
the actual dates of the IPv6 Forum at the ICANN IPv6 workshop.
NZNOG
NZNOG are finalising their arrangements
for their conference in Wellington from 22 – 24 March.. Our
contribution of $10,000 has been made to Victoria University, who are
financially managing the conference, and InternetNZ will receive
recognition in various forms for this support. Part of our
contribution has been offered to bring Joe Abley to the NOG. I have
also offered the NOG organisers use of the 10th floor for
storage, pre-meeting space, and use of our photocopier.
Government Interactions
I met with Associate Minister of
Pacific Island Affairs, Winnie Laban two weeks ago, to discuss some
aspects of the work PIP is undertaking and also backgrounding for the
Pacific Island Communications Forum which is being held in
conjunction with ICANN. I have also been meeting with MED and MFAT to
co-ordinate activities between ICANN and the Pacific Islands Forum.
Also some productive discussions are ongoing with David Cunliffe relating to the ICANN meeting, and broader telecommunications issues.
Website
Is live! It will need ongoing work to
bring it to full functionality.
Membership
As at 31 January 2006 InternetNZ
membership stood at 161, comprising the following:
Total last month end 168
Less Void / Resigned 8
Plus new members 10
-----
Total this month end 170
Staffing
Following on from the resignation of
Councillor Nick Wallingford on 22 December, and strangely a person
with the same name has been engaged on staff as our Technical Analyst
effective from 16 January 2006. This appointment has lead to some
confusion with the number of Nick’s now in the office and we have
made a consensus decision after an open and transparent consultation
process amongst the staff that one of the Nick’s will need to
change their name. But it appears Nick Griffin is not at all happy
about changing his surname to Wallingford…
Nick is already proving to be a valuable addition to the team, and the general sharing of workload, when discounting the additional ICANN burden, is approaching sensibility. The final chapter in staffing the office will be to address our ongoing communications needs.
Brendon Burns has been contracted as the media and political liaison organiser for the ICANN conference, and consistent with our normal ability to allow mission creep, has also been of great assistance in the media strategy for the telecommunications issue.
It is my intention to have a staff retreat weekend sometime in late April or early May, to plan the forthcoming years workload.
Recommendations:
That the changed timing of the IPv6 Forum from March to July/August 2006 be noted.
That the net payment of $12,719 for PIP funding relating to the ICANN & NZNOG meetings be approved.
That payment of up to $4,000 be approved, as partial funding in conjunction with AUT, to facilitate May meetings in Auckland and Wellington to further socialise the World Internet Project with the local Internet community.
That budget of $30,000 be approved for expenditure on advertising the non .nz expenditure aspects of revenue earned from .nz registrants.
That Council endorse the concept of the Technical Capability Development Fund to be managed and accounted for by the Technical Committee.
THAT the report of the Executive Director for March 2006, including the Project Status Reports to 31 January 2006, be received.
Keith Davidson
23 February 2006
