Hate and the Internet

I was part of a panel today run by InternetNZ on Hate and the Internet.  The event was framed as follows: There is increasing discussion about hate speech and the issues associated with the publishing and circulation of hateful content online. But what is hate speech? And what does it mean in a New Zealand…

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NetHui 2014 reflections

This year’s NetHui, InternetNZ‘s annual multistakeholder meeting, was the best yet. Multistakeholder meeting? Wasn’t it a conference? Yes and no. It was a conference in the sense that it was held at the SkyCity Convention Centre, some sessions had speakers with questions and answers, and people walked around with name tags.  But it was much…

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InternetNZ Election Statement

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…

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Government Surveillance

Do you have strong feelings about government surveillance?  Ever since the release of information about government surveillance by Edward Snowden, I feel that the nature of the relationship of trust between governments and their citizens has changed. It’s thrown into sharp relief the uneasy balance between citizens’ right to privacy, and governments’ obligations to provide…

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Digital Literacy at NetHui

InternetNZ held NetHui this year, a multistakeholder conference in which we tried to take the Internet out of the server room and to the nation.  After all, just about everybody is a stakeholder in the Internet, and there are big opportunities to be uncovered in getting together to discuss how the Internet is governed and…

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InternetNZ Council Candidacy

Last year, I was elected to the InternetNZ Council for a one-year term, as the result of the early resignation of Chris Streatfield. After one amazing but short year in office, I’m pleased to offer my services again as a councillor. In the last year I have Made significant contributions to the development of the…

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Domain names, now with mācrons!

From next week, .nz domain names will have the ability to contain macrons. I’m really pleased to have lent a hand to the process which has enabled the complete Māori alphabet to be used in .nz domain names; I was on the “IDN” (Internationalised Domain Name) committee at InternetNZ which set up the policy and…

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