Report on Darwin Consumer Consultation Meeting, 24 June 2003
The meeting was held in Darwin, Northern Territory, at the Harbour View Plaza on 23 June 2003. ISOC-AU is very grateful to the ICT Division, Department of Corporate and Information Services, NT Government, for facilitating the meeting; and particularly wishes to thank Janine Harper for her assistance. Participants were advised that this consultation process is supported by funding from the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts.
Darwin offered a unique perspective on the importance of Internet
connectivity, both for the city itself and for the remote areas of the
Northern Territory. After a brief discussion on ISOC-AU and the work
of the Internet Engineering Task Force, we enjoyed a wide-ranging
meeting that discussed attendees' experiences of Internet services over
the years, their usages and difficulties, and what they hope will
develop over time for their own services and also for their local
communities. Below is a report of our discussion.
Usage of the Internet
Attendees had a very wide range of experience with the Internet, from relatively recent, to involvement with long-ago AARNet steering committees. All had found it had enhanced both their work and personal activities. A major theme was education in many areas:- self-education in computer technology.
- continuing professional education.
- as an everyday working tool, such as using search engines.
- accessing remote library and museum databases.
- in academic teaching itself, submission of assignments in email attachments.
- in student life, study and research.
- delivery of online training modules to remote parts of the Territory.
- using eBay, for instance to locate rare books unobtainable in Darwin on topics such as historical chemistry.
- locating worldwide research on harbour safety, for recent protests over potentially dangerous gas storage facilities close to Darwin.
- distance education "has changed all the options" - NT students can now study at remote universities that otherwise they could never have "attended".
- cultural collections are being set up, both repositories of knowledge for indigenous communities and means of educating non-indigenous people.
- access for remote communities is slowly being developed despite small resources, but there have been some very effective uses of Networking the Nation funds - such as the NT government's Electronic Outback Project, and the recent Outback Digital Network (www.odn.net.au), eventually planned to link communities from Cape York across the Top End to the Kimberley.
Personal usage was also very important, given the isolation of the NT and its popularity as a tourist destination:
- keeping in touch with children and friends ("over three generations and five countries").
- backpackers and tourists from all over the world are a major component of the NT economy, and Internet cafes are heavily used in keeping travellers in touch with their families.
- connectivity available now even to friends in Antarctica.
- socially, in committees, with family - it "brings things together"
- the "anarchy" and creativity of the Internet is much appreciated, for instance in areas such as self-publishing and the propagation of new ideas and applications.
Issues and Problems with the Internet
- Delivering services to the public needs to be effective and secure.
- Services need to be accessible, to provide for users with disabilities.
- Verification and authentication are essential components.
- System security (access, permissions, virus-detection etc) is fundamentally important, especially in government services.
- We've become very dependent upon the Intenet - people "freeze when it's down", can't do their work.
- There is a need to get away from it sometimes to work effectively - email can take two hours a day to handle.
- Spam as always is a major problem, but the quantity depends upon the length of time an email address has been exposed on the Internet.
- Spyware, code that embeds itself into systems then sends information back to some other site, was predicted to become a major source of future concern - hopefully software that can identify and neutralise spyware will soon become as common as virus checkers.
- While bandwidth is continually increasing, applications keep coming along that gobble up all the bandwidth - where does it end?
- Video and graphics are very important in remote regions, as many people are not literate or fluent with text-based communication. Video is being used in remote delivery of essential services such as health consultation, education and justice (where family or witnesses may be widely dispersed).
- So graphics and video must continue to be made as highly efficient as possible, for transmission over sometimes low-capacity, unreliable networks.
- Wireless connectivity is not widely used yet, but may become important in the future.
- Web pages can be removed without notice, even when they are academic references. (However it was noted that copies will remain in various places, such as the Wayback Machine, www.archive.org, which keeps copies of (currently) 10 billion web pages, all freely accessible. The National Library of Australia also has a Pandora project to archive significant pages as well.)
Hopes for the Future Internet
We discussed what people wanted for their own Internet usage, and what developments they would like to see more generally.- Better network speeds and more affordable bandwidth was a common expectation.
- Broadband caps should be lifted or priced more reasonably - teleworking and software upgrades quickly hit limits.
- Better access for people with special needs.
- More attention to system security, note dangers of spyware.
- More availablility of training, both for current users and for children now in primary schools.
- Better access for people in indigenous communities.
- In general, narrowing the increasing digital divide, keeping in mind that physical improvements (water, power) in remote communities should not be forgotten in the rush to technology.
- Worldwide, more connectivity for poorer countries.
- Maintaining the anarchic, creative aspects of the Internet.
Summary
While Darwin itself has many of the Internet connectivity options of the other capital cities, there are parts of the Territory the size of European countries that still barely have phone lines, let alone a range of options for Internet access. Yet despite the drawbacks of distance and climatic extremes, Internet connectivity has grown to improve the working and personal lives of many of the NT's inhabitants, and hopefully all of its benefits will become available to the more remote communities over time.
Kate Lance
Executive Director ISOC-AU
24 June 2003