Future Digital: InternetNZ’s discussion starter

InternetNZ’s discussion paper for the NZ election lead-up is now online.

The paper, and it is a quick read, contains a lot of the themes that emerged from NetHui, which was an excellent event with engagement from across the industry, society and Government.

The key points for politicians and voters are:

• Embrace the fact that the Internet drives economic growth and invest accordingly.
• Guarantee a vibrant, multi-cultural identity with continued local funding but more importantly the next generation of copyright law and strong defense of initiatives from abroad.
• Become a digitally inclusive society, where everyone has the ability to connect to and open unencumbered Internet.
• Protect the environment for future generations through the obvious moves, including smart metering for all sorts of things
• And above all, for this election, have a Government that ‘gets’ the Internet – as part of everything they do.

There is plenty of opportunity for all parties to embrace and extend some of the themes in this document, and I am sure most voters would like to see that happen.