It has now been ten eventful years since the formation of the Internet Society of Australia on 27 November 1996, and I will take a little time in this report to recall some of its almost-forgotten birth-pangs.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Australian network engineers, system administrators and computer scientists with an interest in the fledgling Internet, found common cause in the development of AARNet, which had grown out of the joint efforts of AARNet engineers such as Geoff Huston, Peter Elford and Andy Linton, and the technical staff of CSIRO and Australian universities.
In early 1995, the commercial customers of AARNet were sold by the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee to Telstra, which set off bitter divisions within the local Internet community. At a meeting in September 1995 of AUUG in Sydney (memorable as the first time that new-fangled upstart, the World Wide Web, took centre stage), a small group of friends began talking about setting up an Australian body to tackle the fraught technical and political issues surrounding domain names and IP addresses.
In late 1995 they started a mailing list called inet-issues, which gradually got people talking constructively to each other again, helping the Internet community get over the divisions of the preceding year. The convenors of inet-issues were George Michaelson (who did all of the technical setup), Kate Lance, Andy Linton, David "Bambi" Hughes, Ian Hoyle, and Craig Bishop, with valuable input from Hugh Irvine and Simon Hackett.
Hugh Irvine was one of the founders of connect.com.au Pty Ltd, the first commercial ISP in Australia. In-mid 1996 he sent inet-issues a 'Call for Formation ... for a body that concerns itself with Internet issues, for and on behalf of the people who actually use the Internet on a regular basis.' He set up a shell company for the Internet Society of Australia (paying for all of the legal and other expenses), to be structured according to community opinion on the inet-issues list.
After much agonised debate it was decided that the new company would become a Chapter of the global Internet Society rather than a stand-alone body. At the time I was System Manager at connect.com.au, and in early October 1996 Hugh asked me to take over organising the legal formalities, elections and setting up of the IGM. It was a frantic and extraordinary time, but also a great demonstration of getting work done via mailing-lists.
The subscribers to the Memorandum of Association to form the company 'Internet Society of Australia', were Geoff Huston, Hugh Irvine, Bob Kummerfeld, Kate Lance and George Michaelson. Geoff, Hugh and Bob were the three inaugural directors, who admitted the over 350 Founding Members to the Society, then called elections for twelve new directors to form the Board, a complicated but necessary manoeuver to get it all going properly. Here is a report from the Australian Financial Review, 28 November 1996, with a photo of the directors.
That original decision to become a Chapter of ISOC seems to have been the right one - especially given the dozens of congratulatory messages we recently received for our tenth anniversary, from ISOC Chapters all over the world stating how helpful and inspiring our work has been to them.
Now, a decade after that amazing beginning, 2006 has been another year of achievement for the Society, particularly in our work with other organisations in bringing special Internet events and projects to fruition.
In February 2006, with the Asia & Pacific Internet Association (APIA) we organised a one-day Open Forum at APRICOT on the process of communicating Internet principles and developments to governments and other stakeholders.
We have spent much of the year organising the 2006 Australian IPv6 Summit, with the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (AEEMA) and the Smart Internet Technology CRC, which is taking place at the moment. It has been a big undertaking but also appears to be a great success, attracting substantial government support and major local and international speakers.
In July, Justin Milne, Group Managing Director BigPond, addressed the Board teleconference and some of our Organisational members on the topics Fibre to the node (FTTN), content & censorship, content filters, net neutrality.
Directors have provided an ISOC-AU presence at numerous meetings during the year, including the Consumers' Telecommunications Network, au Domain Administration, auDA Community Domains, ACIF-Consumer Advisory Council, Telstra Consumer Consultative Council, IEEE, Australian Unix and Open Systems Users Group, Australian Services Roundtable, the National ICT Alliance, IPv6 World Congress, ICANN & ISOC Wellington.
In April we held a TCCM meeting in Sydney jointly with Maddocks, which was attended by the President of ISOC France, Sebastien Bachollet. Attendees were able to compare telecommunication consumer activities in Europe with the local situation. In May we also held a very successful and interesting TCCM in Canberra, and full reports of both meetings are available on the website.
An entirely new activity this year was to apply for ITOL (Internet Technology On-Line) funding from DCITA, in conjunction with auDA, AEEMA, ADIESA and BuildersNet. Our application was successful, and we have now embarked on the large IPv6 for e-Business Project, to document, develop business tools, raise awareness and assess readiness for Internet Protocol version 6 in Australia.
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.
This has been my fifth, and final, Executive Director's report for an ISOC-AU Annual General Meeting, as I am retiring from the position in January 2007 to concentrate on maritime writing. We are currently recruiting another Executive Director, who will bring new talents and perspectives to the Society. I will continue to run our variuos websites, so hope to still remain involved in the evolution of ISOC-AU for the next ten years.
I would like to end with the words I wrote in 1996 for the introduction to the Objects of the Society - even now they seem as relevant as ever:
The fundamental human desire for communication has been the engine driving social, cultural, scientific, and economic development throughout history. The new medium of the Internet has brought about widespread, creative communication between individuals and groups that previously had little chance of contact.The overriding objective of the Society is to give expression to the needs and wishes of individuals, groups, or organisations that have a common interest in the viability of the Internet in Australia, so that all Australian users of the Internet may continue to benefit from, and contribute to its applications, technologies, and evolution.