Executive Director's Report to Council 23/03/01

REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO MARCH 23 2001 ISOCNZ COUNCIL MEETING

Oral Submission to Law and Order Select Committee

Our Oral Submission took place on March 15 from 10:00-10:30 and we shared the slot with the Law Society. Peter Dengate Thrush was not back from Melbourne so I led the team of Ewen McNeill and David Zanetti, with Ewen presenting the formal Submission. Ewen is preparing a short report, so I will confine myself to stating that our Submissions - written and oral - were well received, and the bulk of the half an hour session was taken up with questions to us by the Committee members. I received a complimentary email after the event from the Law Society advisor on the quality of our work.

New Premises

After five weeks of delay and three weeks working from cyber-space, Beverley and John successfully moved us into our new offices on Monday March 12. Cr Zanetti and John successfully set up the office network on Tuesday March 13. I returned late on the 14 ^th to a tenanted, carpeted, and partially painted office. Steel welders for the stairs, carpenters for doors, glaziers for walls, plasters and painters have worked around us since. We are looking forward to some peace and quiet once everyone is finished .perhaps by the end of this week. On Friday 16 ^th John finished the migration of the new website in-house and the site went live Friday evening.

New Website

The new website went live on Friday March 16. There have been visits from 168 different sites at time of writing. John, and in some cases I, are working through some oddities as they come up.

Media

The release on the .bank.nz proposal with accompanying background documents went out before I left for Melbourne. It has been used extensively.

The release (drafted by the Internet Surveillance Working Group) on filtering software has been held for a quieter moment and will be released when appropriate and I have one in the works regarding our new Technical Manager.

New Technical Manager

This appointment is working well, and John is putting long hours in at the moment.

Strategic Planning Outcomes

As promised, the Final Budget has been prepared and the Capital Expenditure line items reported separately (see Budget Report)

Future Events:

• ISP Forum

I took the opportunity to move tentative plans forward while at the ICANN meeting in Melbourne. With the change from a National Summit on Internet Governance Changes to a "National Forum on ISP Issues" (working title only) decided at the last Council meeting, it seemed appropriate to combine them with two other events I was working on. The Forum is tentatively scheduled for late July.

• APNIC

I met with the Marketing Manager of APNIC and confirmed that we would like APNIC to be part of the "ISP Forum". They will make a presentation during the Forum on their work, and also run a training day at the end as they did at the ICANN/APTLD Outreach in Auckland in November. There will be no cost to the Society for this, and we are working on getting Pacific Island registry Managers to the training. The date for the Forum will be set after APNIC confirms the date of their visit to China in July.

• DNSSEC

Another issue is DNS Security (Bind 9) and its implications for implementation. I had also made tentative approaches to the ".nl" and ".se" managers who presented on this at Yokohama. They have indicated willingness to come and present, but I need 1) a date and 2) an idea of costs before moving forward on this. I expect that this would cost us airfares.

• Speaking invitation

My speaking topic for the E-Business Conference on Australia is confirmed as:

THE NEW YELLOW BRICK ROAD - NEW ZEALAND

RESPONSES TO THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

High quality Internet access for all citizens regardless of age, socio-economic status, or place of residence is essential in the new Millennium. Sue Leader, Executive Director of the Internet Society of New Zealand, will look at the issues facing a geographically isolated country like New Zealand which must find creative solutions to meet the access needs not only of larger businesses situated in major centres but also rural communities scattered in back country areas. She will present some of the creative solutions which are being developed by government, businesses, and community groups - and examine some of the creative partnerships which are helping to create the New Yellow Brick Road to the Knowledge Society.

ICANN Melbourne

See separate report.

Sue Leader
Executive Director

© 2001 The Internet Society of New Zealand
Last updated 19 March 2001