Executive Director's Report to Council August 1999

REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

TO AUGUST 1999 ISOCNZ COUNCIL MEETING

NETDAY

• Follow up meeting with new co-ordinator, Sarah Berry
• made recommendations for web-site to include internet advice or donated helpdesk support
• RECOMMEND - "THAT the 1999-2000 Budget allocate $5000 to NetDay 2000"

PACFIS (PACIFIC FEDERATION OF INTERNET SOCIETIES)

(Arising out of UNESCO project to train Internet Service Providers for the Pacific Islands)

• Wrote up one to one evaluations - positive response from organisers
• PACFIS list actioned - in progress
• issues with UNESCO mailing list - Not Actioned
• issues with ISOC - PigNet - Not Actioned

ELECTION QUESTIONNAIRE

• Web site created - http://www.isocnz.org.nz/polparties.html - responses in from National, NZ First, ACT, and Libertarianz
• Media release done
• Election questionnaire follow-up - United says "what questionnaire?"

CODE OF PRACTICE

• renamed Internet Code of Practice (ICoP)
• ICoP - Eighteen Founder Signatories
• web page logos created, web site created, Founder Signatories Certificates created
• Certificates presented by Hon M Williamson at ICoP Launch - attendance 30
• follow ups done with those unable to attend - certificates sent out
• Mailing list has ten members - half with Council connections
• good press coverage
• Disputes Board needs to be set up in near future - may have some models after Vienna Conference
• Two new signatories - Wave Internet Services and The Web Ltd

ICANN

• sorted out .nz Administrative Contact for ccTLD
• arranged members feedback and Council vote on ccTLD - Domain Names Supporting Organisation (DNSO) elections
• submitted .nz vote for ccTLD - DNSO elections
• wrote .nz response to WG[A] Report on WIPO recommendations. Positive feedback Froomkin, Sondow, Fay, and Peter DT.

MEMBERSHIP

• membership database update - cross checking to remove inconsistencies before one last attempt to get new details from members in arrears
• investigating new accounts software which will allow invoice integration (amongst other advantages)

'REBRANDING' OF ISOCNZ

• consulted with Communications Trumps and

  Mark Blackham (Account Director) Logos Porter Novelli - consensus is that as The Internet Society of New Zealand has only recently raised its profile under current branding that a rebranding exercise would not be appropriate now.

• RECOMMEND - "THAT the issue of rebranding be revisited in six months"

0867/KIWSHARE

• attended meeting as part of Society delegation of Chair and Crs Farrar and Stokes, with Telecom representatives Clive Litt, Bruce Parkes (Mgr, Industry Services Unit) and David Knight (Group Competition Solicitor), then put materials on web site, and polled the members as directed, and updated the Position Paper originally created by Council
• sent letters to Williamson and Sir William Birch (as Kiwi Shareholder asking for meeting re request for ruling on KiwiShare
• wrote briefing paper for Sir William for meeting attended by Chair and self as Society representatives, with Sir William, his secretary, and Dr Justus Haucap (Snr Analyst, Treasury); wrote media release on outcome, variety of interviews as follow-up
• provided documentation for meeting with David King (Mgr Communications Policy, Ministry of Commerce), Phillip Toye (Senior Advisor, Communications Networks Group, Ministry of Commerce) and Frank March (Specialist Advisor, IT Policy Group Ministry of Commerce as follow-up to Hon Williamson letter; participated as part of Society delegation with Chair and Cr Stokes.
• wrote letter (under President's signature) from the New Zealand Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW NZ) requesting ruling on KiwiShare.
• DECISION needed on where to from here. We have been awaiting some indication as to when (or whether) the Kiwi Shareholder will make a ruling. I believe we need to make a philosophical choice first: do we continue to speak in a "reasonable" voice, thus keeping open the chance of being consulted by all parties, or do we take a more aggressive stance and strongly declare a particular position with the likely outcome that we will be cut out of any future consultation processes a la TUANZ.

MINISTER OF WOMEN'S AFFAIRS

• I met with Hon Georgina Te Heu Heu at her request to conduct a briefing session on issues to do with women and the Internet. I proved her with a briefing paper which included three low cost suggestions to encourage uptake of technology by women, and Maori women in particular. One of the suggestions was for her to encourage the Kiwi Shareholder to rule that data calls are part of free local calling.

CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

• APEC Women Leaders' Network Meeting (WLN). The WLN was attended by over 400 women leaders - approximately half from NZ and half from overseas. The networking opportunities were great, though there was a lot less time to interact in the workshops than most of us would have liked. (In fact the only one that gave enough time was run by our own Brenda Leeuwenberg and colleagues who simply ignored the "rules" and made it work!)
• E-business '99 - I attended some sessions as an invited guest of Software Education Associates Ltd who organised the seminar. It was a good networking opportunity, and I got the opportunity to plug the ICoP during Richard Osborne's session on Law and the Internet. Richard and I subsequently negotiated on his firm (Heskith Henry, backers of NIRO) providing sample contracts on our site. Still to be finalised (NZ Software Education became the 18 ^th Founder Signatory of the Code as a result of this networking)

FINANCIAL

• I am very pleased to be able to inform you that I finally found a successor to Beverley Irvine in mid-July. Lyudmyla Arkhypova (pronounced Liuud-meela Ar-hippova) is a qualified Accountant, (Kiev 1993), and is also a certified Manager of Investment Funds (Kiev 1998), holds a Certificate of the Expert in Securities Marketing and Trade (Kiev 1998), and holds a degree in Electrical Engineering (Automated Control Systems) (Kiev 1974). Lyudmyla came to NZ in mid-1998 with her husband, and has a grown up son still in the Ukraine. Lyudmyla is working on contract with us under the same arrangement as Beverley was.
• I prepared a draft budget for 1999-2000 and circulated this to the Administration Committee for approval. (attached). The draft budget separates out "Project" expenses from "Operational" (or running) expenses which fall under my jurisdiction and "Council" expenses which do not. The Treasurer will speak to the draft budget. This draft reflects the experience of the first year of having a full time Executive Director.

EMAIL FLOOD

• I had hoped to have a draft communications strategy for this meeting but I have run out of time to complete. I would like to speak to this at the meeting.

NETWORKING

• National Council of Women (NCW) meeting - with Barbara Glennie (President) and Liz Hicks (Executive Officer) This meeting arose from my impromptu comments at the WLN E-commerce workshop on the importance of getting women's organisations on the Internet. Barbara got in touch as they wanted to work through the issues in relation to setting up an effective web-site, utilising other aspects of the Internet to improve their service to their members, and incidentally to reduce costs. I was able to confirm much of their thinking, point out some pitfalls, and explain the model we have developed. I will be working further with them on this.
• Consumers' Institute - I invited David Russell of Consumers' to attend the launch of the Internet Code of Practice. He was unable to attend, but they were writing an article on "Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet" and I had input into that. I was sent a copy of the draft for comment, and made some suggestions for change. They are happy to have a link to the article on our site and vice versa.
• Classworld.net - Ole Hansted from Denmark was referred to me as he was in the country promoting his site which aims to build communities on the Internet. Although his ideas are interesting, the site isn't developed very far yet.
• Statistics NZ - arising from another networking lunch with CEO Len Cook, we have been offered input into the Household Survey on areas re the Internet. We've also been invited to comment on the 2001 Census Internet questions, and I have had a live demonstration of the way Stats is using Lotus Notes to deliver a seamless document, intranet, and internet presence.
• ThinkQuest, 3Com, SEARC, and NetDay - I was approached by member Wayne Leong who has been experiencing high levels of frustration in getting schools involved in 3Com (the original NetDay with an internet emphasis). His previous involvement with the area has been with NZCS's national programming competition. I believe that we have the potential to build some networking links to make best use of cross-organisational resources here and so I

• TUANZ AGM, CONFERENCE - I am attending this next Tuesday on behalf of the Society.

UPCOMING

• I am going to Vancouver as a New Zealand delegate to the Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women Inc. I am one of the pre-Congress workshop presenters (Networking on the Internet - Sept 19) and helping with the first ever Cyber- Cafe (which runs the duration of Congress - 20-26 Sept). In the Congress itself NZ has seven remits accepted (of 20 total, NZ does it again!) and I am presenting the two I wrote on Women and Ecommerce, and Women and Internet Infrastructural Access.
• I have taken up the invitation from the US government to attend the joint EU/US International Conference on "Combating Child Pornography on the Internet" in Vienna on Sept 29-Oct 1. I am one of three NZ'ers who have been invited (thanks to the recommendation of Steve O'Brien of the Department of Internal Affairs - the others being Hugh McKellar (ICONZ) and probably Denise Ritchie of ECPAT (the international group working under UN auspices to end child pornography).
• I would like to record my thanks for the Council's decision to fund the difference in cost between my original trip and the inclusion of this Conference. I fly out on September 17 and return to work October 5.

OTHER:

As of August 17:

• Email: 2248 in, read and actioned, 3000 skimmed, 1300 out
• Web pages - 80 updates, many of them new pages
• 14 Media Releases written, various interviews given

Sue Leader
Executive Director

© 2000 The Internet Society of New Zealand
Last updated 17 August 2000