Executive Director's Report - 30 September 2006

Telecommunications Act

Our work during September and October continued to be dominated by the telco regulatory issues. Staff have continued lobbying and media work to advocate for the position the Society has taken, particularly on the need to ensure proper operational separation of Telecom in line with our submissions. Indications are that the Select Committee and the broader government understand the logic behind InternetNZ's submission.

The report-back date for the Bill to return to Parliament has been deferred to early December. At that point staff will quickly analyse the revised Bill and ascertain whether any further amendments are required. It should become clear before the public release whether the shape of the Bill is in accordance with our suggestions or not, and so there will be some lead-time in preparing an adequate response.

Jordan Carter will be attending the regulatory conference of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association in Brussels in mid-November, following the APTLD meetings in Bangkok, to gain insight into the operations of the European regulatory system and to meet with relevant British contacts afterwards.

APTLD Secretariat

The next APTLD meeting is in Bangkok, Thailand on 13 and 14 November 2006. Jordan and Debbie from InternetNZ will attend in support of Don Hollander as APTLD General Manager, and Jordan will provide the ordinary administrative support.

This is an important APTLD meeting, with the first programme in recent years that reflects the impact a permanent staff member can make. It is also the meeting at which APTLD will create its budget and business plan for 2007, and where the future of InternetNZ's role as Secretariat will be discussed.

It is likely that we will be asked to commit to a one-year extension of provision of secretariat services, to 31 December 2007.

History of the Internet

Negotiations with the lead tenderer have now concluded and a contract signed with Keith Newman to undertake this project. The prime output will be a hard copy book, but most of the interviews will be recorded via a wiki. We had hoped the project would conclude during the current financial year, with the book being available at the 2007 AGM, but in discussions with Keith N it does appear our time line was somewhat optimistic and it will be a matter of luck if we meet this timeframe. We are however more concerned with the usefulness and completeness of the outputs than achieving a time goal.

AntiSpam Legislation

Progress of the bill through Parliament appears to have slowed, but it is still likely that it will be enacted by the end of this year, and therefore become applicable by 1 July 2007.

Cyberlaw Fellow

It is likely the formal “hand over” of the Cyberlaw Fellows work will be on December 15^th, the day before the next Council meeting.

Internet Code of Practice

Richard will be workshopping the CoP with ISPANZ at their board meeting on 3 November.

Parliamentary Internet Caucus

The establishment meeting progressed in mid October with useful attendance by parliamentarians, and there was strong enthusiasm to proceed. Most usefully, Co-chairs Cunliffe and Williamson have taken “ownership” for the concept.

Internet Governance Forum

I am currently attending the IGF in Athens and will report fully on this event in due course. This first meeting of the group is somewhat light in Government participation, but there appears to be real commitment to a more useful multistakeholder process than would be the normal UN / ITU case.

Sibling Meetings

During September I attended meetings of ICT-NZ, NZ Bankers Association, Netsafe and REANNZ, and continued discussions on various issues with Consumers Organisation, Ernie Newman from TUANZ and Mark Ratcliffe from Telecom.

Membership

As at 30 September 2006 InternetNZ membership stood at 197, comprising the following:

Total last month end 197
Less Void / Resigned 0
Plus new members 0
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Total this month end 197

Recommendations:

1. That the Executive Director’s report be received

Keith Davidson
31 October 2006