Report on Brisbane Consumer Consultation Meeting, 1 May 2003
The meeting was held in Brisbane at the City Library, on 1 May 2003.
Our thanks to ISOC-AU director Gunela Astbrink for facilitating the
meeting.
Participants were advised that this consultation process is supported by
funding from the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts.
Below is a report of our discussion.
Spam
SPAM (unsolicited bulk email) was identified as a major problem for Internet users and the prospect of legislative solutions was attractive. The forum was given an example of laws passed in the state of Virginia in the USA that criminalized SPAM and provided for seizure of assets created from SPAM.The attention of the meeting was drawn to the CAUBE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk Email) definition of SPAM, which is independent of content, as an email sent to many people who did not ask for it. This definition is valuable for being able to filter SPAM, rather than examining content. The meeting was provided with an example of legitimate emails showing up as SPAM following inappropriate classification through filtering tools.
It was explained to the meeting that the economics of email favours SPAM. Technical approaches are available but are not sufficient and many at the meeting supported the need for legislative action. Users have found that at the moment you can't get your address out of a SPAMmer's list. It is also offensive that much of SPAM also is scammed. Legislation is desirable - but could focus also on scams. Overseas attempts at identifying emails through ADV in the address won't work.
Generally it is understood to be difficult to track down the senders of
SPAM. But it was noted that services such as Yahoo mail are now
providing options to divide off the SPAM emails.
Some thought that it should make it illegal to have open email servers.
SPAM Assassin has been effective as a software tool, except for bounces,
but even it does not solve the problem because all the costs have been
paid already.
Broadband
Dial-up at home is too slow to be practical for many uses. But price continues to be a barrier to takeup of higher bandwidth access, so the office or university connection continues to be more attractive. Even so, dial-up continues to be quite adequate for some users and uses. We also need to look at the speed of servers, and users wonder if higher bandwidth connections would improve overall speed - without necessarily having had the option to try them. One example was provided that for home working, even a 1.5 meg access link is insufficient. Users are finding that advertising of broadband services is still confusing. Volume charging is a barrier and amounts of up to 30 cents per meg were quoted. In general, barriers to uptake of higher bandwidth services include, confusion, pricing, not available in all areas, reports about poor quality of technical service.
Users wondered if it is possible to obtain automatic notification of
download limits. The current download caps are seen as punitive rather
than a supportive or helpful approach. Some went so far as to describe
this as a scam approach. Access to DSL is difficult, even in some
central city locations. Potential uses and benefits include, research
is more practical, searching is more practical. Home work is possible
including the use of voice over IP (VOIP) - quality is found to be about
same as mobile using OpenH2H. Email is practical over dialup, but
research is not practical, faster download in schools is particularly
important. Good Web page design can produce under 1 sec pages over
dialup - but need to avoid fancy graphics. It was pointed out that
industry may have a conflict of interest to tolerate inadequate user
situations, for example: Scam mail produces need for bandwidth, viruses
produce the desire for a new computer.
Peering
WAIX has produced successful peering - effective bandwidth between ISPs. WA users are aware that they are travelling between WAIX sites. Desirable to move away from download caps, but to pay a more standard charge, large businesses outside the Internet sector are gaining benefit, eg the Internet slows when the stock exchange opens. At present, users find a flat rate for Australian and international sites. Peering disadvantages country people, because it was stated that they have little choice of provider.
Wireless
Perhaps a solution to the last mile access through WIFI - new standards will produce higher speeds. Some users think that the market will determine the demand for wireless. The US has coffee shop access. Brisbane City Mall is a managed network by the Brisbane City Coucil - initially would have been a demo which has been extended. It provides browsing, netbanking, size limit on files, webmail. Direct email may not be available. Nil security available through this service but it is a free service.
It was predicted that people would adapt to the wireless Internet as
they have adapted to mobile phones. Navigation devices are of
interest - eg re-routing trucks while on the highway. Wireless can
benefit accessibility eg laptop and printer without cords.
Security needs to be do it yourself. WIFI trials have been established
at QUT and other campuses.
Accessibility
Generally the flashy approaches to Web sites can be distracting, but it was noted that there are effective uses of flash. Software issues - some Web sites are designed so that they will only work on a particular version of Internet Explorer - need to follow the standards to achieve full interoperability - government agencies and large corporations are mandated to produce accessibility - SOCOG court case demonstrated effectiveness of Australian law. US Company law has accessibility requirements. Entertainment is a key element of usability - fun. Only short-term savings are available from ignoring accessibility issues.Making the Internet more accessible is very important and text help is becoming more widely available. Making accessible across the board is cheaper. Bobby software is available to assess accessibility of Web pages, and there are also other tools as well as accessibility guidelines from W3C. Correlation between casual users who like to surf and be entertained and multimedia graphics - perhaps older age users.
There is a need for writing skills in building Web pages - could take a
point from newspaper style writing.
auDA and domain names
Prices have come down under competition, previously $70 pa, now $80 for two years. There is still a policy regime in Australia that is more intrusive than global, but the rationale for this approach is acceptable.
Competition & Regulation
Tesltra has recently streamlined DSL handoff and should be congratulated.
Governance of the Internet is very important through existing
mechanisms. Maintaining the Internet in self-regulation is desirable -
there are effective mechanisms for self-regulation. The Internet should
not be differentiated from any existing laws, do not need any additional
laws, same laws should apply, perhaps application of the laws in the
context of the Internet should be a focus.
Privacy
o Includes the right to be left aloneo Personal details should not be able to be forwarded by corporations
o They should be required to keep a list of where records have been sent
o Unscrupulous computer programs that secretly transmit data from your computer should not be supported by vendors
Summary
Participants were eager to pursue issues of concern to Internet consumers and users and to exchange ideas and information. All strongly supported the value provided by Internet technology in a range of different applications from academic research to home business to investment activities. They were enthusiastic about finding out more on new developments such as wireless and higher bandwidth access, while pointing to barriers such as pricing, competition, SPAM and privacy.
Tony Hill
President ISOC-AU
1 May 2003