Executive Director's Report for the AGM 2003
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It has been a very busy year for ISOC-AU. Our directors continue to
offer their time and resources in specialist areas, attending meetings
and providing advice and services to Internet organisations.
Requests for media comments have been continuous throughout the year,
with a number of directors discussing topics such as spam, chatrooms,
file-sharing, Verisign activities, censorship, interconnection and
peering. Major events for the year were the one-day forum `Connecting
the Future 2003' and nine meetings held with Internet users in cities
all over Australia.
[A] Working with Our Members
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have offered substantial benefits to our Organisations members, with
publicity for their Internet-focussed activities, and invitations to
special directors' teleconferences with guest speakers.
This year we were addressed by the Honorable Marsha Thomson, Victorian
Minister for ICT & Small Business, Anne-Marie Lansdowne from DCITA,
Mike Biber from the IPv6 Forum, and Bronte Adams on the BAG report -
reports are available at:
www.isoc-au.org.au/Organisation/mins/mins1003.html
www.isoc-au.org.au/Organisation/mins/mins0703.html
www.isoc-au.org.au/Organisation/mins/mins0803.html
www.isoc-au.org.au/Organisation/mins/mins0203.html
We also held an informative teleconference with a visiting
delegation from the Internet Society of China.
We promoted numerous events (most with concessions for our own members)
for Organisational Members such as ATUG, SPAN, Curtin University Internet
Studies, and on behalf of members involved with Web Accessibility
Workshops, QUESTnet 2003, the Regional Broadband Conference III,
Australian Technology Park Open Day, and a book launch for member Dr
Gerard Goggin. We regularly provide a column for the Smart Internet
Technology CRC newsletter.
[B] Meetings and Submissions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Directors have attended meetings with the TCCC, ACA, ACIF, SPAN, ASIC,
InterAct 2003 and the National ICT Alliance, covering topics such as
ENUM, broadband, next generation networks, interconnection and peering,
Any-to-Any Text Connectivity, standards and guidelines, IT law,
framework for future leaders. A major area of commitment has been the
involvement of directors Cheryl Langdon-Orr and Craig Ng with the auDA
board and committees.
Spam has become a major issue this year. We provided a special page on
spam on the website, with links to helpful organisations and a paper on
the problem by director Jeremy Malcolm. We submitted comments to NOIE
on proposed anti-spam legislation in August and further comments in
October. We also provided a submission on peering and interconnection
to the ACCC in June.
[C] Forums
~~~~~~~~~~
Together with AC3 and the Smart Internet Technology CRC we organised
Connecting the Future'03, on new mobile, web and Internet services,
smart networks and IPv6. We were addressed by an amazing range of
excellent speakers, and were kindly sponsored by Optus, Cisco and
T-Systems. The day was a great success - educational, enjoyable and
thought-provoking - see www.isoc-au.org.au/CTF03
[D]Telecommunications Consumer Consultation Meetings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In mid 2002 we secured funding of $25,000 through the Telecommunications
Consumer Representation Grant Program of the Department of Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts, to carry out a program of discussions
with users of Internet services across Australia. We were awarded the
same funding this year to continue the program, and since the AGM last
December we have held the following meetings:
* Sydney, NSW - 17 December 2002
* Perth, WA - 23 January 2003
* Adelaide, SA - 27 March 2003
* Brisbane, Qld - 01 May 2003
* Melbourne, Vic - 21 May 2003
* Darwin, NT - 24 June 2003
* Sydney, NSW - 26 June 2003
* Perth, WA - 05 November 2003
* Broome, WA - 11 November 2003
The meetings were helpfully facilitated by local members or directors
and full reports are at www.isoc-au.org.au/TCCM - the contrasts in
requirements and priorities between major cities and the more remote
areas such as Broome and Darwin make extremely interesting reading.
[E]Sponsors
~~~~~~~~~~~
In addition to the much-appreciated efforts of our Platinum sponsors
Telstra and Cisco, we were also fortunate to be sponsored for a year by
Comindico, and we are grateful for the vision and support of all of our
sponsors during 2003.
[F] Administration
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We moved our banking and accounting activities to more efficient and
functional systems, an arduous task undertaken with great energy by
Treasurer Cheryl Langdon-Orr, and all of the directors would like to
place on record their appreciation for her efforts during this difficult
period. We have also provided our own membership cards for the first
time and have new invoice and payment systems in place.
The fact that our membership mailing-list is by moderated subscription
only means that it has been spared the appalling increase in spam we
are seeing on many other open lists. We strongly encourage our members
to use the list to discuss ideas and issues with each other and with
the directors, it is a great resource of people with extensive Internet
experience.
We keep our web page as up-to-date as possible, with the approved
minutes of directors' meetings, our annual accounts, reports of our
activities and much other relevant information available on the site.
This year for the first time we were pleased to be able to offer
members small ISOC-AU logos to put on their own websites to show that
they are an individual or organisational member, something that had
been requested often over the years.
Regards,
Kate Lance
+ Kate Lance -------------------- Executive Director ISOC-AU +
| lance@cyber.com.au Internet Society of Australia |
| Tel +61 3 9525 7574 PO Box 152 Civic Square ACT 2608 |
+ www.isoc-au.org.au --------- The Internet is for everyone! +