President's Report - March 2009

InternetNZ continues to show strong leadership in all its external work. NZRS, DNC and EB units are delivering results which are appreciated by our Internet community, both here and round the world.

In some ways InternetNZ is like a swan swimming. All beauty and grace above the water with lots of turbulence and action below.

We are enhancing our credibility with work such as:

-         The ongoing stability and cleanness of the registry.

-         A smoothly running set of processes including a successful and unique disputes model from the DNC 

-         The InternetNZ commissioned Network Strategies written “Broadband options     for New Zealand” report

-         Our briefing for incoming ministers.

-         Strong effective collaboration to either rescind or fix the poor law in section 92 of the copyright act.

-         Effective international relationships.

-         The outputs of our many other work streams.

On the inside, we are striving to successfully implement the Structural Review. This has been a long and tortuous process. We are still not there, and “holes” in the structure and some resistance to change have made the reality some distance away from the design. One example of a hole is the lack of an InternetNZ wide accounting function. To overcome this we have appointed a finance committee.

We will properly review the new structure once it has settled down and has the missing bits added and other issues mostly resolved.

The Big Audacious Thing

This year will be the first year InternetNZ has operated with the knowledge that New Zealand is committed to good connectivity. We must keep applying the heat to ensure the connectivity initiatives stay on track, where there is one, and to find a track where there isn’t!

Our new additional role, as expected, will be the broader implications and opportunities that ubiquitous connection will drive.  We must ensure that NZ can see how to make best use of the tools and services that will either evolve or collide with us.

Sadly there is still a failure to understand the significance of this societal shift in the worst possible place - the telcos. Amongst other indicators, the Castalia report shows just how far from our shared future they are, and how hard it will be for us to convert them.

Game on!

Charitable status and charitable action

Now our charitable status is confirmed and we can see the money it is time for council to make decisions on the process to support charitable activity. We will have significant additional funds, and we must make significant use of them. It is too easy to inflate current activities when there is more money. One option to consider is to set up a Grants committee to act on all applications for funding until (if) the DOT is established.

Council Administration

Although not as fast as the SSU or council would like, we are enjoying better services every meeting. I believe that the SSU report this meeting should point to more pieces of the puzzle clicking into place.

Business Development and Sustainability Committee. 

The report from this meeting did not make last council and has gone missing.

As a result of decisions made, we are working through opportunities to produce at least 30% of our income from non .nz activities.

In the next month we will take the ideas and decide how to tackle them. Do we do it with existing resources, or do we need a separate resource to develop a plan and start delivering prospects for us to consider. I will provide a verbal update on some explorations.

InternetNZ and TUANZ

From our council voice conference on February 2,  we decided to park a full discussion on the InternetNZ and TUANZ convergence until the council meeting on March 20.        

Working with our boards

As council adapts to its new model of governance, we must improve our engagement with and direction of the subsidiary boards. We need to ask better questions, and ensure we get the right answers. We need to establish consistent whole of InternetNZ mechanisms to deliver the quality of information we need to make the best decisions.

The chairs’ convocations are becoming a good vehicle for the boards to share views and make sensible decisions.

Finance

The Audit and risk report has made some strong points regarding the “hole” in our structure related to holistically managing our finances. The finance committee will consider this and other finance matters in consultation with council to provide guidance to our boards and where no accountability is established to take direct action.        

Members

Council is accountable to members, and is the vehicle for members to deliver their views for consideration by their elected members. While we have members’ meetings and members can also contribute to the PAG, we need to ensure that members have a dynamic and effective forum to let council now where they stand on major issues. We don’t do this well enough. We don’t use the tools we should promote. We need to decide on how we will deliver.

ICANN meeting

The meeting in Mexico City went well and produced some worthwhile results. As always it seems to be like wading through treacle as identical points are made in lengthy presentations. I feel we were under represented, but recognize that this will not be the case at ICANN Sydney in June.

Outputs relating to IDNs and new TLDs are coming through steadily. CEO Paul Twomey announced his resignation but will stay on to hand over.

I explored opportunities for business development. There were also several solid and useful discussions around the IGF.

A trip report will be submitted to council and to the Business development committee.

Moving Forward

To ensure InternetNZ continues to deliver the superb results we have come to expect, council will need to take some time, energy and real work to make the internal health of the organisation an ongoing top priority. The next two council meetings will allocate more time to this, with the aim of moving back to a better balance of external/internal from the beginning of the next year, with its new council and officers.

Peter Macaulay

InternetNZ President