This Consumer Consulation meeting was held in Sydney to take advantage of a visit by the President of the French Chapter of the Internet Society, M. Sébastien Bachollet.

It took place at Maddocks Lawyers, Angel Place, 123 Pitt Street, Sydney 2000, from 5pm to 7pm, Monday 3 April 2006. ISOC-AU would like to thank David McAuley, Membership Director Internet Society, and ISOC-AU President Tony Hill for organising this event in conjunction with Maddocks, Lawyers.

Participants were advised that this consultation process is supported by funding from the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts.

Sébastien Bachollet
International Consumer Issues and Internet Governance

Activities of the Internet Society, France

• Users group of the AFNIC - registry for the .fr and .re domain names for France and Réunion Island.
• Involved with FING - Fondation Internet Nouvelle Génération - organisation for the next generation Internet.
• Belong to Internet Rights Forum.
• Member of the IPv6 Task Force France.
• Involved at many levels: ECC, Francophonie, ISOC World, ICANN, SMSI (WSIS) and Internet Governance Forum.
• Set up in March 1996, so 10th Anniversary this year.
• Based on Individual membership with some paying events.
• Annual Event: EGENI 2006 - 22 June 2006 in Paris, 24 June in Marrakesh - (États généraux européens du nommage et de l'adressage sur Internet)
• Sociétés de l'information - related activity, a French language publication that has been providing analysis of current Internet issues to its francophone readership for over two years.

Under discussion

• Links between regional 'chapters' and the world level?
• Links between ISOC Chapters and IETF researchers in each country?
• Links between ISOC chapters and ICANN?

Eurostat (European statistics agency)
Internet usage in Europe EU-25 (ie 25-member European Union)

• Large companies 99% usage, small and medium 89% usage.
• Males 51%, females 43% uptake.
• How effective is this use? - regarded as very important for companies, but individuals use it for a variety of reasons.
• Northern Europe has higher proportions of individual users.
• New members of EU have lower rates of business Internet use but still above 75%, but lower use by individuals.
• Take up of broadband has increased as the price has declined.
• Emphasis on younger age groups for Internet usage.
• Interaction with government - e-administration - higher usage for companies than individuals, but this year, tax can be done online.
• Use of e-commerce - a high proportion of companies are buying online compared to selling online.

Governance by and for the Internet - management of scarce resources

• Port numbers: well known, registered:
  • Well known - needs an RFC
  • Registered - needs an RFT
  • Dynamic and/or Private Ports - developer initiative
• IP Addresses
  • IPv4 - 32 bit
  • Allocation through IANA and RIR
  • Also NIR - National Internet Registry
  • Also LIR - Local Internet registry - eg Telcos, and can be outside of a country.
  • End-to-end management by private organisations.
  • Would the structure of address allocation need to be adjusted for IPv6?
  • Fixed IP addresses under IPv4 attract charges, what will be the situation under IPv6, also perhaps with a contract required?
• Domain names
  • Some new sponsored domains may not be well thought-through.
  • What are the rationales for membership?
  • What is the rationale allocation of domains?
  • Will this structure be in the interests of Internet users? eg .eu is a geographic name for Europe, .cat (Catalan) will be a sponsored third level domain.
• Root servers
  • Concentration in North America
  • In Asia-Pacific, 19 root servers are supported by APNIC, plus 13 other root servers.
• Phone numbers complex.
• Models of distribution are not easily interchangeable between resources.
• Many organisations have an interest in Internet governance issues now.

Tony Hill
President, ISOC-AU
April 2006