Details
Date: Tuesday 9 May 2023
Time: 5:30pm AEST Registration Opens | 6:00pm AEST Presentation | 7:00pm AEST Social
Location: Garden State Hotel | The Observatory | 101 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC

Join us for our in-person Convergent 2023 Melbourne event! We’ll hear from Dr Darryl Veitch who is set to discuss Network Time Protocol and its worthiness as a synchronisation tool for equipment and services. Garden State Hotel’s premier function space, The Observatory, will provide the backdrop as Dr Veitch details his extensive measurements, taken over many years, that demonstrate just how bad Network Time Protocol is, and proposes a new way forward. 

Registrations open at 5:30pm. Enjoy complimentary beverages and canapes before Dr Veitch’s talk, taking place from 6pm to 7pm, and at the IAA social event that immediately follows. 

IAA members are welcome to invite guests. Corporate members can register themselves and an additional 7 guests, either internal or external to their organisation. Professional members are able to invite one additional guest. All registrations need to be completed via the IAA portal by the inviting member.
 

By RSVPing for this event, you are agreeing to comply with IAA’s Code of Conduct – Events

ACCESS NOTES: The Observatory is accessible through a lift located inside the hotel’s restaurant Tippy Tay. There will be a functions bollard sign positioned outside the venue and  guests will  be escorted to the lift area by host.

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We’re excited to announce the very first Convergent event: Malicious Domains: Where they are, and what we can do about them.

Details
Date: Wednesday 22 March 2023
Time: 9:00am AWST / 12:00pm AEDT
Location: Online via Zoom

During this event we’ll hear from DNS experts, Graeme Bunton and Rowena Schoo, from the DNS Abuse Institute and moderator, IAA CEO Narelle Clark, as they discuss the topic of malicious domains. This event is not to be missed!

Presentation slide deck available here.

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Moderator
Narelle Clark, CEO, Internet Association of Australia Ltd
Narelle Clark is the Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Association of Australia, a not-for-profit telecommunications carrier operating internet exchanges across Australia and New Zealand. Ms Clark has a broad technical and strategic view of Internet scale ICT delivery having been a user, builder, operator and researcher of Internet networks through her extensive career with major telecommunications companies, research agencies and consumer bodies, as well as a leadership and governance background in the not-for-profit sector. She is an Honorary Fellow with the University of Wollongong and holds a seat on the board of the Public Interest Registry which operates the .Org top-level domain. Ms Clark was also a Trustee of the global Internet Society from 2010-2016.

Speakers
Graeme Bunton, Executive Director, DNS Abuse Institute
Graeme Bunton is the Executive Director of the DNS Abuse Institute, an initiative dedicated to developing collaborative and innovative methods of reducing DNS abuse.  Graeme has over 11 years of DNS policy experience. Prior to heading the DNS Abuse Institute, he was the Head of Policy for Tucows and served as Chair of the Registrar Stakeholder Group for four years. Graeme was one of the driving forces behind the ‘Framework to Address Abuse’, a new set of guidelines and principles for addressing online harms, which was adopted by more than 50 registries and registrars.  He helped found the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, and served on the Board of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition for 6 years.

Rowena Schoo, Director of Programs and Policy, DNS Abuse Institute
Rowena Schoo is Director, Programs and Policy at the DNS Abuse Institute. Prior to joining the Institute, she worked for Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, Nominet UK, and the UK government at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. Rowena has over a decade of experience in and around policy, and holds two degrees – Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts (International Relations and Political Science) – from the Australian National University (ANU).

During this event, we heard from the incredible René Fichtmüller, as he shared his experience on building and operating a network in a war zone. We spent the hour learning about how the Keep Ukraine Connected task force came together, from planning and organising to delivering equipment. We took a technical deep dive to learn more about the infrastructure, how the task force mapped the backbone dataline, the supply and demand tool they’re still using to determine the equipment needed to keep communications going, and so much more! 

Date: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Time: 3:00pm AWST / 6:00pm AEDT
Location: Online via Zoom* 

*Members, please note that an email with your unique Zoom link will be emailed to you one day in advance and one hour prior to event start.

Moderator
Narelle Clark, IAA CEO
Narelle Clark is Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Association of Australia, a not-for-profit telecommunications carrier operating internet exchanges across Australia and New Zealand. Ms Clark has a broad technical and strategic view of Internet scale ICT delivery having been a user, builder, operator and researcher of Internet networks through her extensive career with major telecommunications companies, research agencies and consumer bodies, as well as a leadership and governance background in the not-for-profit sector. She is an Honorary Fellow with the University of Wollongong and holds a seat on the board of the Public Interest Registry which operates the .Org top-level domain. Ms Clark was also a Trustee of the global Internet Society from 2010 to 2016. 

Speaker
René Fichtmüller, Chairperson of Global NOG Alliance
Rene is not only an Aspirant Optician at Flexoptix, but also Chairman of the Board of the Global NOG Alliance. He has been in the Internet industry since 2015 and has an IXP background. When he’s not representing Flexoptix around the world, he spends his time helping network operators get the most value from their regional groups. In 2022, he volunteered to drive a truckload of humanitarian supplies to Ukraine. This inspired him to create the Keep Ukraine Connected Taskforce along with his teammates in the Global NOG Alliance, which to date has collected and delivered more than a million dollars worth of network equipment and raised funds for the necessary tools to keep the Ukrainian Internet to keep running operation.” 

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Watch our NetThing panel discussion, where we seek to unpack the long-debated question of how to balance the responsibilities placed on different sections of the Internet industry to appropriately protect individual end-users while also ensuring the smooth running of the Internet.

Date: Friday, 28 October 2022
Time: 3:00pm AEDT / 12:00pm AWST
Location: online
Registration: NetThing website

The accessibility and unique nature of the Internet has greatly affected the volume of potentially defamatory material online, as well as raised new questions of how we understand the basic legal principles underpinning defamation law. With recent High Court decisions and ongoing law reform in Australia, the application of defamation law for different sections of the internet industry is a live issue for the Internet industry. This question, however, also points to a broader consideration of what extent to which internet intermediaries should be liable for what happens on the ‘content layer’ of the Internet. Due to the complex roles that each section of the internet industry play means that laws regulating the industry is complex and must be nuanced to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

This panel discussion will seek to unpack the long-debated question of how to balance the responsibilities placed on different sections of the internet industry to appropriately protect individual end-users, while also ensuring the smooth running of the Internet.

Moderator:

• Sophia Joo (IAA)

Panellists:

• Michael Douglas (UWA)
• Sophie Dawson (Bird & Bird)
• Sunita Bose (DiGI)
• Christiane Gillepsie-Jones (Comms Alliance)

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