Nice flame bait. Rather than biting by purely pulling out the 'ignorant' card, I'll let InternetNZ do it instead. =) http://www.internetnz.net.nz/about/people/fellows/ "InternetNZ decided in 1998 that it wished to honour the pioneers of the Internet in New Zealand. Fellowships were established so that the Society could "recognise members of the Internet industry who have made an outstanding contribution to the development of the Internet in New Zealand or the Society" Lets look at these people and where their past associations have been (Data from the page in question, so I appologise if I'm missing anything) * Joe Abley Clear and basically everywhere else. * Mark Davies VUW * Roger Hicks ISOCNZ * Jim Higgins ISOCNZ * Andy Linton VUW * Nevil Brownlee Auckland Uni * Rex Croft Waikato Uni * Dr John H Hine VUW * John Houlker Arranged link from Hawaii to Waikato Uni * Neil James Otago Uni * Dr Frank March VUW * Richard Naylor WCC - Althought the link in question was to VUW * Donald Neal Waikato * John Vorstermans Actrix (Who were colocated at VUW for a time in the early 90's) So out of the 14 names on that list, 9 work of have worked at a NZ University while they were being 'Pioneers of the NZ Internet'. Of the others, the Universities played a significant role. It's my opinion that the other players you're talking about (The Telecoms, The TelstraClears, and probably the IHUGS) did nothing more than provide what had already been developed on a larger scale for less money. There is a large amount of research and work being done at the universities on "The Next Big Thing"(tm). Maybe you just havn't seen it because it's hidden in journal articles and your ISP can't sell it at a profit yet. In short... "Other than about 20 guys between Auckland, VUW and Waikato the rest of the NZ Universities have less impact on the NZ Internet than The Linux User's groups" Just shows a lack of understanding about where the innovation has come from in the past, nor where it has the potential to come from in the future. If you meant that they use about the same amount of traffic as the Linux Users group, then you may have a point =) Dean Simon Lyall wrote:
On Tue, 6 Jun 2006, Andy Linton wrote:
Perhaps we need a similar event to give the REANNZ folk a kick up the backside!
The Universities did nothing in the Internet area for 10 years except play off Telecom and Telstra every couple of years for a connection.
About 3 years ago they had the bright idea to go for direct government funding of their Internet by sprouting a few buzzwords which will probably get their connections up to the speed of ADSL2 by the time half the country has it at home.
Other than about 20 guys between Auckland, VUW and Waikato the rest of the NZ Universities have less impact on the NZ Internet than The Linux User's groups [1].
[1] - To pick somebody at random.