Internet Society of Australia
A Chapter of the Internet Society
ABN 36 076 406 801

Executive Director's Report for the AGM 2004

It has been another busy year for ISOC-AU. Our directors continue to donate their time and resources in specialist areas, attending meetings and providing advice and services to a wide variety of Internet organisations.

Requests for media comments have been continuous throughout the year, on topics as diverse as the death of CDs, broadband product launches, broadband uptake, online dating sites and downloading films. Major events for the year were the five meetings we held to consult with Internet users in cities all over Australia.

[A] Working with Our Members

We are slowly building up our member numbers again after the technology sector slump of the last few years. A pleasing area of growth has been that of the Organisational Members.

We have not only welcomed a number of new Foundation members during the year, but the major organisations Optus and Australian Telecommunications CRC have also joined our existing Enterprise members AARNet, Australian Communication Exchange, Australian Computer Society, Australian Services Roundtable, Australian Telecommunications Users Group, Melbourne IT,Smart Internet Technology CRC and the West Australian Internet Association.

We continue to offer substantial benefits to our Organisational members, with publicity for their Internet-oriented activities, and invitations to special directors' teleconferences with guest speakers, who this year included Peter Triantafilou on South Australian broadband, John Tierney, Acting CEO of Comindico, and Leith Campbell, CEO ATcrc - see:
Minutes February 2004
Minutes April 2004
Minutes October 2004

We also promoted a number of events (many with concessions for our own members) for Organisational Members such as ATUG and Telecommunications Society of Australia, and on behalf of individual members associated with Web Accessibility Workshops, the history of the Internet, and the ATP Open Day.

[B] Meetings and Submissions

Directors have provided an ISOC-AU presence at numerous meetings during the year, including the Consumers' Telecommunications Network, au Domain Administration, the auDA National Reference Group for New Community Geographic Names, the Teleconferencing Association, ACIF-Consumer Advisory Council, Asia Telstra Consumer Consultative Council, Pacific Advanced Network, ICANN, Telcommunications Society of Australia, Australian Unix and Open Systems Users Group, ACIF Consumer Consultation, ACA consultation, Australian Services Roundtable, the Dept of Victorian Communities and the National ICT Alliance.

A major area of commitment continues to be the involvement of directors Cheryl Langdon-Orr, George Fong and Craig Ng with auDA, and Ross Kelso was also recently appointed to the CTN board. See here for more on the extensive industry involvements of the directors.

Spam has continued to be a major problem this year, and spyware has joined it as an area of major concern for Internet users. We provided front-page links to the Australian Communications Authority spam information site and to the RDN Virtual Training Suite to help users develop their understanding of the Internet.

[C] Telecommunications Consumer Consultation Meetings

In 2003 we secured additional funding 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.

Our objectives were:
(a) to foster consumer input into the development of the Internet and self-regulation of the Internet industry in Australia, to fulfil the vision that `the Internet is for everyone!' and,
(b) to ensure that maximum benefits flow to individuals and businesses as participants in society and the global information economy, and to draw input from all relevant stakeholders and organisations.

Since the AGM last December we have held the following meetings:
Ballarat, Vic - 25 February 2004
Hobart, Tas - 17 March 2004
Canberra, ACT - 22 April 2004
Newcastle, NSW - 23 June 2004
Brisbane, QLD - 28 October 2004

The meetings were helpfully facilitated by local members and directors and here are the full reports.

[D] Sponsors and Supporters

ISOC-AU could not operate without much-appreciated sponsorship from our Platinum sponsors Telstra and Cisco, and in-kind support from Maddocks, Connect Internet Solutions, Hovtek Pty Ltd, and Kildanet Productions. Our thanks to them all.

[E] Administration

Once again the directors would like to place on record their heart-felt gratitude for the hard work of Honorary Treasurer Cheryl Langdon-Orr for her work with the membership, and together with Honorary Secretary Craig Ng, their maintenance of our legal and statutory obligations to ASIC and the ATO.

This year our previously open directors' mailing-list was forced to become subscription-only, like the members' list, to avoid a deluge of spam. However any member email addressed to the directors at iaboard (at) isoc-au.org.au will still be forwarded to the list.

We continue to strongly encourage members to use their list to discuss ideas and issues with each other. 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.

Kate Lance
Executive Director
Internet Society of Australia