Maximising Benefits of the Internet

ISOC-AU aims to foster high-quality development of the Internet to deliver its benefits to all Australians. Drawing on the support of our organisational and individual members we have developed the following key steps for maximising the potential of the Internet. At the time of the 2001 Election we requested comments on these points from all of the political parties, and from each link below you may also see the responses of those who replied.

Access

1. Getting online: assist Australian households and businesses to get online through a First Time Online incentive and support program.



2. Better speed online: provide fast, reliable and affordable data networks through support for fair and effective competition and through improved lines and connections and establishing a definition of quality settings for connections.



3. Support access for all: provide inclusive policies and technology programs offering Internet access for all Australians.




Innovation

4. Collaboration: foster online collaboration, research and development with financial incentives for academic and business innovation, particularly through development of the Internet as a key supporting element for national innovation.



5. Australian knowledge base: provide freely-available educational, social, government and commercial information resources through the Internet.



6. Open Source: support cost-effective and Open Source software as the driver of Internet growth and innovation.




Content

7. Public communications: direct a proportion of government public information budgets towards online communication, training and industry development.



8. Australian cultural heritage: support digitisation and online public access to national archives and collections.




Policy

9. Consistency: provide online content with the same protections and penalties as offline content; do not subject it to confusing different legislation.



10. Privacy: ensure that individual and corporate privacy is protected online, to promote confidence in Internet transactions, whether social or economic, national or international.



11. User voice: provide support for both individual users and user organisations to help drive the development of Internet self-regulation and increase awareness and use of Internet technology.



12. Standards: further Australia's role in the Internet with improvments to local domain-name services, and support global Internet development with non-political, international standards bodies like the IETF - Internet Engineering Task Force.



13. Bridge the global digital divide: support international initiatives to provide universal access to the Internet.

ISOC-AU has developed the above points by drawing on the knowledge and experience of our members in development and operation of the Internet. In addition, we have worked in cooperation with our organisational members who have also drawn on the expertise of their members. Together this represents a consultation with thousands of Australian Internet users.

As we worked on this policy development process, we have been drawing together a range of supporting material, practical implementation steps and analysis that support the above key points. This supporting material can be accessed through the links from each key point above. The process of drawing this material together is not complete and we would like to see it continue. We encourage all Australians and organisations to contribute to the process of developing these policy positions by providing further information, ideas and links.

(c) Internet Society of Australia 2001
This material has been produced by the Internet Society of Australia and its members. The material may be used by any other organisation for genuine policy development and development of the Internet provided that the source is fully acknowledged and a copy of the quoting material is forwarded to the Internet Society of Australia free of charge. Acknowledgement as part of in-confidence policy development will be accepted in certain circumstances provided there is full acknowledgement and notification to ISOC-AU would be appreciated.