Activity report Q2 2024–25
Kia ora,
In Q2, we focussed on our key strategic priorities. This report introduces these priorities and sets out some of the achievements and things to come.
Q2 and Q3 are the work engine parts of the year, with a strong focus on business-as-usual and strategic projects. Q4 sees us working toward the next year's strategic goals/strategy and working through budget scenarios, and Q1 is a planning and preparation quarter.
Conflicted Names processes and .nz Rules came into focus over Q2 and we can expect to see this focus continue. New domain name level abuse has thrown into focus our very manual systems, so from a commercial, safety and security lens, this remains a priority.
We have made strong progress in our Centering Te Tiriti Goal this quarter and are well set up for further work over Q4 and 2025/26. Cultural change work for us as a small but critical community organisation in the Aotearoa landscape remains challenging. Our wānanga at the beginning of 2025, creating a vision for what centering Te Tiriti looks like in Ipurangi Aotearoa, will be critical to keeping our values and culture work a priority. Both Goals 4 and 5 have seen substantive effort and outcomes in this quarter.
The staff involved in International Internet Governance and particularly the work supporting multistakeholderism must be congratulated. Likewise, the key people in the Constitutional Review and Co-Design processes have delivered incredible work in complex legal, relational and cultural contexts. Engagement with members has been through a series of one to one conversations and a survey. The .nz Operations team made a significant shift this quarter to spending Fridays working on projects, experiments, technical debt, and areas of work that are hard to prioritise but are critical to being future focussed and working with a strong, clean technical base. We will review this shift in February during Q4 to explore the next steps.
Of course, this quarter would have been the final preparation work in the lead-up to NetHui, if it hadn’t been postponed. I am satisfied we made the right decision based on feedback from other event organisers in the technical space. We are planning activities in 2025 and 2026 for members and the NZ Tech community.
Work began across the InternetNZ Group on the Strategic Goals for 2025/26 and on planning the approach to the 2026–2030 Strategic Plan.
Vivien Maidaborn
Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive
InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa
Rei kura: treasured teeth — The focus of our action and mahi
Our plan for 2024–2025 includes seven key strategic goals.
The status of our work is summarised below:
Goal 1: A thriving .nz operation that is resilient and sustainable
| Goals and Value | Progress | ||||||||||||||||||||
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InternetNZ provides .nz as a public good. Aotearoa New Zealand has a high-trust domain name service, and a well-functioning internet as
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Following the conclusion of the DNSSEC return to operations work (“RTO”), an evaluation of the remaining work required in the legacy DNSSEC systems was performed to identify what is the critical path work that was unblocked by RTO, before shifting focus back to the Replacement HSM and DNSSEC Systems Project, that kicked off in late 2023. The remaining work, as partially mentioned in the Q1 update, included a ZSK (Zone Signing Key) roll of the backup chain, which has been completed, as well as repeating the same work on the active chain after it has transitioned to backup, which has been scheduled to be completed late 2024 early 2025. A small amount of additional work was identified to update settings we use for DNSSEC signing to match best practice, The depreciation of SHA-1 based Delegation Signer records as per RFC 8624 and new guidance of NSEC3 use as per BCP 236 / RFC 9276 In June, InternetNZ held a public consultation on proposed amendments to tidy up the .nz Rules. The InternetNZ Council approved the changes in August 2024. The new rules come into effect on 1 November 2024. The results of the conflicted domain names survey of affected parties were published in August. At the 11 October InternetNZ Council meeting a preferred approach for future management of conflicted domain names was approved and released for public comment on 30 October. The review webpage will provide information on the public consultation. |
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| Service Availability |
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Goal 2: Revenue growth year-on-year by:
- Increase registrar engagement to support competitive market
- Provide wholesale domain name services to two other registries
| Goals and Value | Progress | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A focus on business growth through new services and stimulated growth will support InternetNZ’s
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In this quarter, InternetNZ ran its first registrar event since 2019—the .nz Registrar Summit, which took place alongside the APNIC 58 conference in Wellington. In total, 13 registrar companies attended the summit. Collectively, they represented 83% of the .nz namespace. There was a good mix of large and small, New Zealand-based and international, new and experienced registrars. We continued developing our capability to run scalable campaigns, preparing for launching our first campaign in the next Quarter. We progressed on developing the Registry Lock (Lite) add-on feature for .nz domains, in this quarter focussing on the .nz Rules amendments and internal testing. |
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| Revenue Growth — Domains |
*Domains Under Management |
Goal 3: Centering Te Tiriti o Waitangi in InternetNZ
| Goals and Value | Progress |
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InternetNZ strengthens Te Tiriti o Waitangi within our own internet community and internet governance.
Te Ao Māori perspectives increasingly inform our mahi. The comprehensive Te Tiriti Plan provides focus and definition of what Te Tiriti centred means for INZ Group in any particular year. |
Ngā Pae In August, InternetNZ successfully designed and approved the five-year Ngā Pae: Pathway for Growing our Te Tiriti Centric Vision (Ngā Pae). The process is underway to develop our shared Te Tiriti Vision, and wānanga are scheduled to take place in early 2025 with kaimahi (staff), Te Kōmiti Whakauru Māori and Council. Planning is underway to develop draft measures for Ngā Pae for 2025. The centring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi into organisational policies, has also begun.
Cultural Support / Upholding InternetNZ Mana and Reputation Through Te Puni Māori and Council/Te Kōmiti Whakauru Māori representation (Whetū Fala) InternetNZ provided cultural support and welcoming addresses at two international events locally hosted in Aotearoa New Zealand APNIC 58/PacIGF.
Strengthening of Māori relationships and strategic partnerships This strategy has been initiated, reaching out to local iwi in Te Whanganui-ā-Tara and Tāmaki Makaurau where our offices are located, National Māori organisations and Māori leaders in the sector. As a result, opportunities are being identified to deliver Māori cultural capability options for InternetNZ for 2025, identify potential partnership and collaborative opportunities to create greater impact and achieve positive outcomes for Māori communities. Fundamental to our approach is building trust and connections with tāngata whenua by InternetNZ, increasing greater visibility and brand familiarity of InternetNZ amongst the broader Māori community.
Indigenous International relationships & opportunities with Māori Tumu Kaupapa Māori attended the Asia Pacific IGF as part of the InternetNZ delegation. Relationships were initiated with Taiwan Council of Indigenous Peoples, TWNIC, .Asia regarding potential opportunities for Asia/Pacific collaboration in regards to Māori, indigenous peoples and rangatahi Māori, in Internet Governance and decision-making. This is informing our InternetNZ approach to working with Māori and how we deliberately and equitably support Māori voice and decision-making about the Internet in Aotearoa New Zealand, and international spaces, and in turn, indigenous voices. These insights and outcomes are supporting focus areas for delivering on Te Tiriti centring for 2025 — ‘Iwi Taketake ki te Ao’. Work is underway supported by Te Kōmiti Whakauru Māori, to hold a national Māori Internet Governance Forum hui and take steps to bring Māori together about Internet governance. Establishing fellowships for Māori to participate in and be involved in international conversations and forums is an enabler to help include the missing Māori and Indigenous voice in the multi-stakeholder interests of global Internet governance that InternetNZ can respond to.
Our very own unique Ipurangi Aotearoa waiata InternetNZ proudly launched its first two waiata to celebrate who we are, to support our uniqueness as InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa, and to create a taonga to connect us as a whānau and as we grow along our Tiriti pathway. These taonga were launched in celebration of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. |
Goal 4: New Zealand's voice is heard and contributes to good global internet governance
| Goals and Value | Progress |
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A clear NZ perspective and narrative on internet governance policy supports an open, free, secure and interoperable Internet because it’s critical to Aotearoa's economic growth and social and cultural wellbeing.
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Internet governance InternetNZ continued to engage in the Internet governance aspects of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) this Quarter, as part of our work to defend, evolve and strengthen multistakeholderism in decision-making and dialogues about the Internet. We provided direct input to the New Zealand government to support and inform GDC negotiators, as well as engaging in the GDC process as part of A Technical Community Coalition for Multistakeholderism (TCCM). The TCCM inputs to the GDC process during the quarter can be found on the TCCM website. The GDC was adopted by world leaders on 22 September in New York as an annex to the Pact for the Future. We are an active member of the Secretariat of the TCCM, and have continued to help grow and develop this coalition over the Quarter. Last month saw the launch of the TCCM’s new website, and InternetNZ spoke on panels in support of multistakeholder Internet governance and the work of the TCCM this Quarter at both the APrIGF and APTLD meetings. InternetNZ engaged in a number of Internet governance forums and meetings during the Quarter that support a multi-stakeholder system, maintain relationships with the international Internet community, and help shape the Internet’s development for the benefit of Aotearoa as part of Asia Pacific. This includes (in person and virtual) attendance at APrIGF 2024, APTLD 86, AusNOG 2024 and APNIC 58/PacIGF.
APNIC58 Over 2024, we have provided ongoing and specific support to APNIC58 (held in Wellington from 29 August to 6 September), including programme development, youth activities, cultural support, visa applications, and communications. We also provided funding to support the PacIGF Fellowships enabling attendance from across the Pacific region.
NetHui 2024 NetHui 2024 was postponed and communicated publicly. Work is underway to reframe NetHui's purpose and key framing questions, event design, and audiences. In October, we updated the Council on our approach to date and will report back to the Council in December on progress. |
Goal 5: Revitalised InternetNZ through:
- modernising our constitution
- refreshing our brand/identity
- Centering Te Tiriti
| Goals and Value | Progress |
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Modernise the InternetNZ Constitution to reflect the legal requirements and being a Te Tiriti centric organisation InternetNZ and our environment has changed since 2019. We need a refreshed brand that represents us as a Te Tiriti-centric organisation. |
A key focus in Q2 was within the co-design space, and preparing to engage with our members and community on the proposals the co-design has prepared. The co-design group met four times in Q2, concluding with a two-day face-to-face hui in September. This milestone led us into Q3, which is largely focused on testing the codesign group's proposals and writing the Drafting Instructions for the constitution. Draft objects were developed in Q2, which are now out for consultation and engagement. The writing group has worked through all parts of the constitution to understand what our gaps are in terms of the legislation. They continue to explore policy positions which will help us write the constitution. These policy papers will support greater understanding and provide reasoning for decisions regarding the specific content and structure we bring to the written Constitution. |
Goal 6: The role of the Domain Name Commission is valued by market participants
| Goals and Value | Progress |
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Registrars understand their obligations and implement best practices. Registrars are responsive to domain name holder requests.
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Link to DNC report |
Goal 7: Partnership and collaboration with diverse communities for an Internet that benefits all of Aotearoa
| Goals and Value | Progress |
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As a membership organisation InternetNZ continues to provide a number of avenues for membership to engage on accountability, strategy, public policy and key projects. InternetNZ builds strong reciprocal partnerships and relationships that support engagement with Māori communities and the Internet community. We ensure we have sustainable funding models into the future. Our internet governance role is supported through community partnerships and grants, relationships and collaborations. We demonstrate InternetNZ’s public good role through the sharing of insights, research, and case studies of impact. |
Sustainable public impact funding We have recently commenced the work on refreshing our funding approach for public impact by starting with a review of the granting and funding principles.
Membership Engagement Plan The membership engagement plan is underway, with the upgrade of the members platform Civi almost at implementation stage. A refresh of the Code of Conduct has begun and is currently at the internal review stage. We have also refreshed the cadence of the InternetNZ members Pānui.
Government Relationships We have focused on rebuilding government relationships during a turbulent time for many government agencies. This quarter, we have continued to hold and develop relationships with the government at both the ministerial level and the policy development level. We have had a wide range of engagements from ministerial meetings, submissions on policy issues, and kōrero with different government agencies (ie, DPMC, DIA, MBIE, MoE, NCSC) across .nz Rules, Internet governance and public policy areas over the last Quarter.
Funding Our focus this quarter has been on engaging with community groups at various stages of the funding lifecycle. This includes the two grant cohorts which have been busy working on web accessibility, and some tāngata whaikaha (disability) led groups interested in furthering programmes that increase their online safety. We are working to finalise several funding agreements which should see us allocating the bulk of our community funding by the end of the calendar year. To date, 21% of funding distributed so far in this financial year has gone to Māori organisations or individuals, and we are on track to meet the measure by year-end. Our work on place-based participatory granting with Tāiki e! is beginning to gather momentum after a phase of listening, learning and adapting to the needs of the community. The partnership process that eventuates will provide us with lessons on working alongside community-led initiatives. Currently, they are in the planning stages for a community-led digital equity innovation challenge during Global Entrepreneurs Week. We have appreciated the generous, thoughtful partnership with Tāiki e! and other groups in Te Tairāwhiti.
Sharing Insights In this quarter, we published a number of partner stories and case studies (More pūtea given for web accessibility, Powering communities—sit down with community groups (pt. 2)). In addition, planning has started on the annual Internet Insights report with a review of the questions. We propose to include more questions that elaborate on the AI question posed last year.
Broadband Map |