Internet Governance

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Internet Governance
A New Zealand perspective
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Introduction

• New Zealand Internet governance.
• The following case studies
• .nz ccTLD management
• Telecommunications regulation
• Digital Strategy
• Anti-Spam
• ENUM
• Outreach
• Conclusion

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Where in the world is New Zealand?
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Government with its hands off

• Internet Governance in New Zealand is Government
  hands off, stakeholder driven, best practice
  based.
• Governments preference is to avoid regulation or
  legislation where it can, and to intervene only
  when absolutely necessary
• Follows a common theme in New Zealand policy and
  regulation development.
• Some case studies explain this further

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General Position

• The NZ Government would rather not regulate,
  where it can avoid doing so.
• Preference is to leave it to the experts.
• InternetNZ is one expert, along with other
  organisations like TUANZ, Computer Society, ICTNZ
  and Internet Safety Group.
• Government seeks to empower InternetNZ to do the
  job, on behalf of the local Internet community.

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What is InternetNZ?

• We are a not-for-profit Incorporated Society
  governed by members and volunteers.
• We manage the .nz domain name space, and own the
  .nz domain name registry, which provides most of
  our funding.
• We are involved in a wide range of public policy
  and technical issues relating to the Internet.
  (e.g. WHOIS)
• Our constitution requires us to act in the best
  interests of the local Internet community rather
  than in the best interests of our members.
• The Internet, open and uncaptureable, offering
  high performance and unfettered access to all.

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.nz ccTLD management

• A good example of hands off.
• NO legislation or regulations.
• Managed by a series of contracts and agreements
  between relevant parties, with defined policies
  and procedures.
• Governed by an InternetNZ Committee (the .nz
  Oversight Committee).
• Regulated by the worlds first privately
  appointed Domain Name Commissioner.

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The .nz Domain Name Space
InternetNZ
NZOC
DNC
Service Level Agreement
Authorisation Agreement
Authorised Registrars
Registrant Agreement
Registrants
NZRS
Connection Agreement
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Consultation

• Our rule is to consult with all stakeholders
  always.
• In our monopoly .nz registry, we have 85 of
  registrants satisfied.
• Registrants have approved up to NZ6 per annum
  for use on non .nz related INZ activities.

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Telecoms Regulation

• Telecom NZ privatised in 1990
• Now joined by TelstraClear and other, smaller
  telco providers
• No specific sector regulation ordinary
  competition law only until 2001
• 2001 Telecommunications Act still extremely
  light-handed by international standards
• This follows the hands off approach already
  discussed.
• InternetNZ, a civil society body, made high
  quality submissions on a review of the Acts
  framework

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Telecoms Regulation

• Recently engaged in an ongoing determination on
  Unbundled Bitstream Service the local
  substitute for local loop unbundling.
• Why InternetNZ involvement? It was seen as
  important to provide a voice for consumers and
  small ISPs, whose views have not been represented
  in regulatory proceedings before.
• Only likely threat to the regulatory status quo
  (hands-off) is the (monopoly-like) behaviour of
  the incumbent telco.

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Digital Strategy

• Government produced a draft Digital Strategy for
  public feedback in June 2004, final version
  released in May 2005.
• Specific outcomes linked to specific funding, and
  agencies held accountable for delivery.
• Strong preference for private sector delivery
  e.g. 24m fund for development of local
  open-access fibre networks by community
  organisations local govt, not central govt.
• Once again, a hands off approach. The Strategy
  facilitates, but does not control, development.

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Anti-Spam

• Key initiative where InternetNZ has sought
  legislative back-up for an Anti-Spam Code of
  Practice.
• Unusual for InternetNZ to promote the concept of
  legislation on anything.
• Legislation should be before Parliament this year.

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Cyber Law

• InternetNZ and Victoria University (Wellington)
  School of Law joint venture to appoint a Fellow
  of Cyberlaw.
• Worldwide search expect to announce first Fellow
  next week.
• InternetNZ contributes NZ85k per year, VUW
  contributes resources and management.
• Output is a major research paper on issue in
  cyberlaw.

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ENUM

• InternetNZ has held multi-stakeholder workshops
  on ENUM
• InternetNZ has scripted and trialled use of PUA /
  UCI in NZ.
• Releasing report on wooden-man model for ENUM
  trial in NZ.
• InternetNZ and TCF have a joint ENUM Task Force.

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Parliamentary Internet Caucus

• Establishment process nearly complete.
• Any Members of Parliament with an interest in
  Internet activities can belong.
• InternetNZ provides access to expertise in the
  MPs expressed areas of interest.

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Outreach

• Committed to open source solutions
• Released source code for Shared Registry System
• Releasing source code for PUA for ENUM
• Codes of Practice
• ISP CoP consultation completed and will be
  launched in next quarter
• Commencing Internet Café CoP consultation soon
• InternetNZ will be hosting the ICANN meeting in
  Wellington, March 2006.

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Outreach

• InternetNZ is a provider of funding for many
  Internet related activities, including
• Seed funding for Interoperability testing
  laboratory
• Seed funding for Next Generation Internet
  consortium
• Secretariat to APTLD, APCAUCE and other Asia
  Pacific based organisations
• Co-sponsor with NZ Government to recruit entries
  to the WSA web site awards for Tunisia

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Outreach

• Pacific Internet Partnership (PIP) programme
  evolved as part of outreach for technical
  excellence in the Pacific Islands
• UNESCO and UNDP partner with InternetNZ and
  jointly fund
• Recognises the place of NZ in the South Pacific

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Pacific Island Outreach
NZ Population Island Population
Samoa 115,817 170,900
Cook 52,569 19,300
Tonga 40,716 99,400
Niue 20,148 1,900
Fiji 7,041 -
Tokelau 6,204 1,500
Tuvalu 1,965 10,000
TOTAL 244,460 303,000
Source NZ Department of Statistics (Census
2001) Source South Pacific Commission
Demographic / Population programme
(2001 Estimate)
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Summary

• In New Zealand, Internet Governance is
  dominated by non-state actors.
• Relationship between government and the local
  Internet community is stable, healthy and
  functional.
• No major drivers for change to this status quo
  are apparent.

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Conclusion

• A different example of a fully functional public
  private partnership.
• Small, but perfectly formed. ?

23
Thank you

• Keith Davidson
• Executive Director
• keith_at_internetnz.net.nz
• www.internetnz.net.nz