I’m standing for the InternetNZ Council again. This is an important job in a great organisation. If you’re a member, I’d appreciate your vote. If you’re not a member, then I’d urge you to join (note you must have been a member for at least three months prior to the election to vote). It only costs $21, and is a great way to be involved in shaping the future of the Internet in New Zealand and globally.
Here’s my election statement (officially published on the InternetNZ web site), and I’d be happy to answer any questions here in the comments.
Hi, I’m Dave Moskovitz and I spend most of my life in startups at the busy intersection of technology, commerce, and making the world a better place. I’m a programmer by trade, but most of my work at present is in governance, investment, and education. You can find out more about me on my blog or my LinkedIn profile.
I have worked hard as a Councillor since my election in 2010. I currently serve on the Grants Committee and the Investment Committee, as well as being the Council-appointed director on the Domain Name Commission board. I have also volunteered to work on the NetHui programme planning group and will do whatever I can to make this year’s NetHui the best yet. I have also served on the Business Development Committee and the CEO review special committee. If you’re in doubt as to my contribution to any of these groups, just ask anyone who’s been involved.
During my tenure I have done my best to be available to members. I’ve participated on the members and Policy Advisory Group (PAG) email lists, trying to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible, also taking time to be present at member meetings and fora. I’m easy to find online if you’re trying to get in touch with me.
I am particularly pleased that during my time on council, our membership has nearly doubled. Our membership is becoming ever more diverse which is fitting as our stakeholders are really everyone in New Zealand. I strongly believe that InternetNZ is the kaitiaki, or guardian of this critical resource, for the benefit of everyone, and want to ensure that we act in the best interests of wider society, keeping the Internet open and uncaptureable, and promoting a better world through a better Internet. This affects everyone, and as the designated manager of the dot-NZ domain space under RFC1591, we have a sacrosanct responsibility to serve the community. We do this well, but we could be even better.
InternetNZ does a lot of good work, in the areas of promoting better rights and freedoms with respect to online security and surveillance, sensible protection of the fair use of copyrighted material, ensuring that citizens’ rights online are equivalent to their rights offline and more. We’ve worked hard to become the “go-to people” for information and policy advice about the Internet. We enable other organisations such as the 2020 Trust, Creative Commons Aotearoa/NZ, the World Internet Project, and Netsafe to improve access to the Internet, encourage free sharing of information, measure Internet usage, and provide public education about online safety. We also partnered with a number of organisations in Canterbury following the earthquake to do our bit to assist with the Christchurch rebuild. And we help connect our members and stakeholders with each other and wider society through events like NetHui.
I would like to see InternetNZ do even more by using a greater proportion of our resources to enable other organisations to make the Internet in New Zealand a better place, fulfilling our Constitutional object “to maintain and extend the availability of the Internet and its associated technologies and applications in New Zealand, both as an end in itself and as means of enabling organisations, professionals and individuals to more effectively collaborate, cooperate, communicate and innovate in their respective fields of interest.” That is our primary purpose, and that is where we should be focussing our attention.
If re-elected, I will continue to work hard, and strive to work better as a networked organisation, leveraging our resources to enable other aligned organisations to participate in and advance our mission.