Internet Society of Australia
A Chapter of the Internet Society
ABN 36 076 406 801
Executive Director's Report for the AGM 2005
It has been a year of substantial achievement for ISOC-AU, culminating in the very successful First Australian IPv6 Summit, held jointly with GrangeNet, TeleConnections and Smart Internet Technology CRC, in Canberra on 31 October to 1 November 2005.We have held a number of other events throughout the year. One series has been the successful Internet Update forums, with Maddocks, Lawyers. Others have been one-off events held with various other Internet organisations (see below).
Our directors continue to voluntarily donate their time and resources in specialist areas, attending meetings and providing advice and services to a wide variety of Internet organisations.
[A] Working with Our Members
A growing membership area has been that of the Organisational Enterprise Members. This year we have been very pleased to welcome Ball Solutions Group, Internode, National ICT Australia, PPS Internet, and Verisign Australia as new Enterprise members of ISOC-AU.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. We also promoted a number of events (many with concessions for our own members) on behalf of our Organisational members.
[B] Meetings and Events
Maddocks Lawyers have held a number of Internet Updates in conjunction with ISOC-AU. On 15 March Chris Disspain, CEO of auDA spoke on domain issues; on 4 August we had a joint session with Tony Hill on Internet developments and Alastair MacGibbon on Cyberfraud. On 29 September Michael Nelson, IBM, spoke on Internet Policy, Internet Governance, and the Internet Society.A very popular event was Dr Radia Perlman, speaking on the Mythology of Network Protocols on 29 November, an event sponsored by Optus and hosted by ISOC-AU, TSA, IEEE and AUUG.
We held another of our one-day annual forums, Designing the Future'05, on 6 April with AC3 and the Smart Internet Technology CRC, which focussed on 'Ultra-Bandwidth and the Internet.' Another excellent one-day event was the Convergence, Content, Carriage and Regulation forum on 19 August. On May 10 an IPv6 Seminar took place under the ISOC-AU banner in Ballarat.
The most ambitious and successful meeting we have ever held was the First Australian IPv6 Summit, 31 October to 1 November, organised in conjunction with GrangeNet, TeleConnections and Smart Internet Technology CRC. It attracted substantial government support and major local and international speakers, and participants were strongly in favour of it becoming an annual event. An IPv6 SIG has now been set up by ISOC-AU, endorsed as the vehicle for the IPv6 Forum Downunder.
[C] Director Activities
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, ACIF-Consumer Advisory Council, Telstra Consumer Consultative Council, Australian Unix and Open Systems Users Group, ACIF Consumer Consultation, Australian Services Roundtable, the National ICT Alliance, Professionalism in ICT, IPv6 Washington, Australia/Korea Broadband Summit, and the World Summit on the Information Society.
A major area of commitment continues to be the involvement of directors in other organisations and events. Cheryl Langdon-Orr continues her extensive work with auDA, while President Tony Hill became chair of NICTIA, the National ICT Industry Alliance.
At the AUUG annual conference in October, directors Andrew McRae and Tony Hill, and member Ian Peter spoke in an ISOC-AU stream. Director Gunela Astbrink received a small grant from the TCCC on behalf of ISOC-AU to study user implications, specifically in accessibility and usability relating to IPv6 based applications. Kevin Karp has established an ISOC-AU Skills and Expertise SIG, and applied for funding from ISOC for the establishment of a Skills Register.
Adam Creed drove ISOC-AU's successful application to be accredited by ICANN's Interim At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) as one of its At-Large Structures (the only Australian organisation to gain this accreditation to date). The ALAC provides advice to ICANN's Board and other constituencies on the activities of ICANN that relate to the interests of individual Internet users. ISOC-AU is also participating in discussions to establish the Asia Pacific Regional At-Large Organisation for ICANN.
See here for more on the extensive industry involvements of the directors.
[D] Telecommunications Consumer Consultation Meetings
In 2004/05 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.Our TCCM program is now three meetings per year, and the first was held on 21 June 2005 at Geelong. The event was very well attended, and included a number of enthusiastic knowledgable students studying computing at the College, as well as local business, health and education workers. The meeting was facilitated by local members and directors, and here are all the TCCM reports.
[E] Sponsors and Supporters
ISOC-AU could not operate without much-appreciated sponsorship from our Platinum sponsor Cisco, and in-kind support from Optus, Maddocks, Connect Internet Solutions, Hovtek Pty Ltd, PPS Internet and Kildanet Productions. Our thanks to them all.
[F] Administration
Once again the directors would like to place on record their enormous gratitude for the hard work of Honorary Treasurer Cheryl Langdon-Orr. Regrettably this year our Honorary Secretary Craig Ng departed the board, but his role has been taken on by new director Kevin Karp, who has offered a number of innovations to improve the efficiency of director teleconferences.We continue to 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 all other relevant information available on the site.
Kate Lance
Executive Director
Internet Society of Australia