Impact 08 – Social Interaction
The fifth Impact 08 seminar was run in mid August over the high-speed Access Grid network, with participation from four universities nationwide. Chaired by Donald Matheson of Canterbury University the seminar featured three academics speaking on the impact of ICTs on ‘Social Interaction’.
Mary Allan, a post doctoral Fellow in the Social Science Research Centre at Canterbury University, began with a short presentation on video conferencing and initial results from an investigation of user experience with the technology.
Over the years, video conferencing has been touted as perfect for cutting down on business travel to increasing collaboration and reducing carbon footprints. But, despite the hype, take up has inexplicibly been lower than anticipated. Read more
InternetNZ awards research project to Network Strategies
InternetNZ is pleased to announce that it has engaged Auckland-based Network Strategies to produce a report assessing broadband strategy options for New Zealand. This follows an RFP process begun in June, which attracted 10 respondents.
InternetNZ Executive Director Keith Davidson congratulates Network Strategies and notes the quality of all the responses to the RFP was high. “We chose Network Strategies because of the breadth of its experience across engineering, finance and economics.” Read more
InternetNZ announces publication of Internet history book
InternetNZ is pleased to announce the publication of ‘Connecting the Clouds - The Internet in New Zealand’ - a history of the New Zealand Internet by author and freelance journalist Keith Newman.
The book was commissioned by the Society in 2006 to chronicle the people, activities and events that contributed to the creation, then growth, of telecommunications and Internet technology in this country. It has been published by Auckland-based Activity Press. Read more
The Browser - July 2008
The July 2008 issue of InternetNZ’s monthly newsletter, The Browser, is now available on the InternetNZ website at:
http://www.internetnz.net.nz/media/browser/2008
If you are not a member of InternetNZ and would like to receive a copy of The Browser each month then email office@internetnz.net.nz.
Peter Dengate Thrush named InternetNZ Fellow
InternetNZ has bestowed its highest honour upon longstanding member Peter Dengate Thrush who was made an InternetNZ Fellow at the Society’s Annual General Meeting last week.
InternetNZ Fellowships recognise members of the Internet industry who have made an outstanding contribution to the development of the Internet in New Zealand or to the Society.
InternetNZ Vice President Frank March says Dengate Thrush was recognised because of his long and distinguished record of contribution to Internet policy issues both nationally and internationally. Read more
InternetNZ announces Council election results
Interim election results were announced at the Society’s Annual General Meeting last week and confirmed on Friday. There were nine nominations for six vacancies on Council, with official results as follows:
REANNZ Chief Executive Donald Clark and InternetNZ Fellow Neil James have been elected as new Councillors. Jamie Baddeley, Michael Wallmannsberger, Chris Streatfield and Jonny Martin have been re-elected to their Councillor positions. Read more
InternetNZ encouraged by broadband subscriber growth
InternetNZ is encouraged by a Statistics New Zealand survey that shows the number of broadband subscribers has increased 10.7 percent to 891,000.
The results, for the six month period ending March 2008, also show there are over 1.5 million Internet users in New Zealand and that the number of dial-up subscribers has fallen 9.3 percent, indicating positive transition from dial-up to broadband.
InternetNZ Executive Director Keith Davidson says New Zealand rates well against other countries in terms of its overall Internet penetration but while the rest of the world is embracing advanced broadband, many New Zealanders are making do with last century technology. Read more
ISPs encouraged to self-regulate – NetSafe and InternetNZ
NetSafe, New Zealand’s cybersafety organisation, and InternetNZ have called on New Zealand telecommunications firms and Internet Service Providers to implement a full self-regulatory framework for the good of the Internet and its users.
This follows NetSafe’s 2008 Conference “Cybercitizens: Risks, Rights and Responsibilities for participation in the Information Age” in Queenstown, which included extensive discussion on cybersafety issues. Read more
Asia Pacific Internet Community to descend on Christchurch
Next month, InternetNZ and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) will jointly host APNIC 26. The meeting is being held in Christchurch from 25 to 29 August 2008.
The five-day meeting will continue the ongoing policy development process for the allocation of Internet resources, such as IP addresses in the Asia Pacific region.
It also gives members of the Internet technical community the opportunity to continue to contribute to the ongoing development of the Internet, the importance of which is
recognized by both the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the OECD. Read more