President's Report to Council 13/04/02

Having left the country the day after the last Council meeting, and being abroad for the best part of 4 weeks, I have been in catch-up mode since my return.

Bangkok

The APRICOT conference in Bangkok was most interesting, and I gained considerable knowledge of Internet technologies, much I have little need for outside of personal curiosity. The main purpose of attendance was the APTLD meeting the day before APRICOT, and the APNIC meeting the day after APRICOT. Richard Bourne replaced Peter Dengate Thrush for attendance at the APTLD meeting, very much an 11 ^th hour change. Thanks Richard for filing back the report of this meeting. A summary of the outcomes is in the International Ctte's report.

Sue Leader and I attended the APNIC Annual General Meeting; it was interesting that the numbers people seem far more organized and placid than the names people. Certainly from reports from the other NIC's it appears demand for IP numbers is not decreasing, despite the international trends towards reducing demand for Domain Names. It would appear that IP numbers for other purposes is replacing any reduction in names. APNIC have introduced new steps to membership. Previously, the minimum cost was US$5,000 per annum for a small membership, a new very small category has been introduced, with a fee of US$2,500 per annum - which may open the way for more small to medium NZ based ISP's to obtain telco independent IP number space.

It was a great learning experience to mix and mingle all week with the Asia Pacific TLD folk, certainly highlighting that there is no absolute right or wrong way to administer a TLD, just different ways - and each with different but sometimes overlapping sets of problems. Internationalised domain names was a bit of a focus, and while not an issue to Australia, and not much an issue to NZ, it is of real significance to the Asian ccTLD's.

Stuart Lynn, President of ICANN, added Bangkok as a stopover on his way to Accra and attempted to attract support for his reformation proposal from the APTLD's.

ICANN - ACCRA

This meeting is unlikely to go down as one of the more cohesive or progressive ICANN meetings. It quickly dissolved into a single issue meeting, the Lynn reform proposal. I guess the only unilateral agreement was everyone recognized ICANN had problems, and could not continue without some form of reform.

Within the ccTLD community, day one was a complete shambles, with the meeting crying out for leadership. Peter D-T arrived that evening, and made some strong headway on day two, to re-affirm the desire for establishment of a ccSO, either within or outside ICANN demonstrating that progress will only occur when someone is prepared to take a leadership role.

As always, considerable work was completed behind the formal meetings, and Peter DT will report on the overall progress. The only other significant issue arising in the ccTLD arena was internationalised domain names, and an indication that Unicode is the only potential solution currently available, and this may pose more problems than it solves.

The DNSO and ICANN meetings were pretty much centred on the Lynn proposal - not much progress on anything.

However, I appreciated the opportunity to attend, and to discuss the issues and problems with our peers. Ghana was interesting, and I wish I'd had a little more time to see something of the country. Infrastructure is somewhat fragile, power cuts were frequent, Internet outages even more frequent and the climate oppressively hot and humid.

.maori.nz

I am pleased the 2LD application has proceeded successfully to the next stage, and am hopeful that we will have a new 2 ^nd level operational in the not to distant future.

Domainz / InternetNZ Liaison Task Force

At the last meeting this TF was established, and in my absence, Rick Shera held a meeting with Domainz board and management - and it appears some useful ground-rules were established. I look forward to further progressing these issues in the forthcoming weeks.

Domain Name Commissioner

I recused myself from the appointment panel, and again Rick Shera was called upon to fill the vacancy. I congratulate the appointment panel on their process and their appointment of Debbie Monahan who appears to have all the right attributes for the position.

Strategic Planning Day

By the time of our meeting we will be able to judge the success or otherwise of our strategic planning process. It is important that we do spend some time in navel contemplation and crystal ball gazing, to assess the changes that have occurred, and assess what our priorities should be for the future. I believe we need to take the outcomes of our planning day to our members, and stakeholders, and ensure we have their buy-in to our future direction.

Registry Board and .nz Oversight Board

I recommend we endorse a similar process as used by the Registry Board appointment committee to appoint the .nz Oversight Committee, with the President, Vice President and one other to attend to the interviews and recommendations for appointments.

Special Thanks

Considerable effort is expended by many Councils, but I believe that both Rick Shera and David Farrar have put in some massive effort and made enormous progress on a wide range of issues since the last Council meeting and their respective tasks deserve noting. Thank you Rick and David.

Media Report

InternetNZ seems to have stayed out of the news largely in the last month, despite relatively controversial events such as the release of the DNS review. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, for while it is pleasing not to have any bad press, it is perhaps a little disappointing to not have much good press either. It does appear to me to be a particularly quiet patch for the It industry all around at present.

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