Greetings - This notice is to alert you to a National Summit on changes to the way the Internet is governed. These changes will affect the way the Internet is allowed to run in New Zealand as well as the rest of the world. New Zealand has not had a chance to consult on these issues and they will impact our economy, the way we do business on the Internet, and the future development of Ecommerce and the Knowledge Economy. Your attendance at the Summit is therefore vital to ensure that we have a say in the future of the Internet in our country. BACKGROUND As you may have become aware, there are significant changes in process in the way the Internet is managed around the world. The formation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a key to the process. Although the Interim ICANN Board is still at the stage of setting up representative membership structures, it moved at the March 4 1999 meeting in Singapore into implementing Policy before the structures for making that Policy are in place. This means that the future of the Internet is being determined by a small group of interim appointees, not by the widely based representative membership structures as mandated. The ICANN Board next meets in Berlin on May 25 and looks set to adopt reccommedations on a variety of issues including compulsory Trade Mark arbitration processes and Registrar Accreditation guidelines. New Zealand needs to have at least begun the process of establishing a national position before that date. The proposed policies impact upon our national sovereignty, legal system, business certainty, privacy issues, and economy. Full background material is on our web-site at: http://www.isocnz.org.nz/summit99.html Please read the material thoroughly and pass this invitation to anyone you think fit. We encourage you to forward this notice to any other lists which you feel are relevant. We are aiming for representation at the Summit from as wide a cross-section of the New Zealand community as possible: Internet Industry, Business, Internet Users, Government, Academia, NGO's etc. NATIONAL INTERNET SUMMIT - APRIL 30th - AUCKLAND Venue to be confirmed. Thank you for giving your time to what may be the single biggest issue which the Internet in New Zealand has faced. Cordially Sue Leader - Executive Director ISOCNZ (Internet Society of New Zealand Inc) Exe.Dir(a)isocnz.org.nz Voice: +64-4-801-6256 http://www.isocnz.org.nz Postal: Level 1, (e)-Vision Centre, 282 Wakefield St, Wellington --------- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog