Internet Service Providers' Association

Guide to ISPAs Working Groups:

ISPA runs a number of very active working groups and we hope that you will give favourable consideration to participating in the association's activities by joining at least one of the WGs. An overview is appended below together with a table for easy reference.

ISPA communicates through mailing lists and each working group has been assigned a dedicated list name and mailing address. There are several other lists, which have also been explained below for your information.

Working Groups

Anti-Spam

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members. If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/antispam or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to examine potential anti-spam initiatives for ISPA.

The activities of this working group include:

• Taking steps to stamp out local spam before it becomes a serious problem
• Educating spammers who don’t know any better
• Sharing information about deliberate local spammers
• Launching and maintaining a Hall of Shame on the ISPA web site accessible to ISPA members listing known South African spammers
• Examining the possibility of running a RBL at some point in the future
• Reviewing the possibility of entering into MoUs with other anti-spam initiatives such as Spamhaus

Code of Conduct

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members. If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/code or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to maintain ISPA's Code of Conduct and the complaints process.

The activities of this working group include:

• Undertaking periodic reviews of the Code of Conduct and associated processes
• Providing support to the Code of Conduct compliance officer
• Assisting ISPA's members in becoming compliant with the Code of Conduct
• Providing feedback to ISPA members on the operation of the Code of Conduct

Events

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members. If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/events or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to develop and execute ISPA events, including iWeek.

The activities of this working group include:

• Planning and organising the annual iWeek conference
• Planning and organising other ISPA events

Fair competition

Access: This is a closed working group, made up of Management Committee members.

Its purpose is to ensure that ISPA makes optimal use of all available channels to promote fair competition in the Internet access market.

The activities of this working group include:

• Managing any existing or new complaints lodged with regulatory or competition authorities
• Working with legal advisors to determine a sound pro-competition strategy

Finance

Access: This is a closed working group, made up of Management Committee members.

Its purpose is to develop budgets for ISPA activities.

The activities of this working group include:

• Soliciting requests for financial resources from other working groups
• Preparing forward-looking budgets for ManCom to review
• Ongoing monitoring of ISPA's finances
• Making recommendations to ManCom regarding financial matters

JINX

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members primarily the organisations connected to the eXchange. If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/jinx or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to manage the Johannesburg Internet exchange (JINX) and related issues.

The activities of this working group include:

• Ensuring that JINX remains operational at all times
• Ensuring that information regarding JINX, including relevant statistics, is available to ISPA members
• Providing recommendations to ManCom on JINX policy and billing models
• Encouraging participation at JINX
• Developing JINX to deal with new technologies and services
• Liaising with related international organisations (in co-operation with the Partnerships WG)

Membership

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members. If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/membership or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to maintain and grow ISPA's membership and keep members informed of the associations activities.

The activities of this working group include:

• Reviewing new membership applications
• Assisting new members joining ISPA
• Developing and publishing a monthly newsletter for ISPA's members
• Undertaking periodic reviews of ISPA's membership criteria and categories

Operators Liaison

Access: This is a closed working group, made up of Management Committee members.

Its purpose is to engage with communications operators to ensure that members are provided with fair and reasonably priced services, and build strong relationships with those operators.

The activities of this working group include:

• Identifying the responsible Telkom executive for ISP issues
• Meeting regularly with the relevant Telkom executive to monitor issued raised by members
• Building relationships with other communications operators

Partnerships

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members. If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/partners or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to forge and maintain partnerships with other organisations.

The activities of this working group include:

• Communicating regularly with ISPA's partners
• Exploring opportunities for co-operation with ISPA's partners
• Forging new partnerships with related organisations

Public Relations

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members. If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/pr or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to manage ISPAs presence in the media.

The activities of this working group include:

• Developing regular, relevant press releases on ISPA activities
• Monitoring current industry developments and perceptions, and responding accordingly
• Responding to queries from the media
• Ensuring that an archive of ISPA press articles is maintained on the web site

Regulatory Submissions

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members. If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/submissions or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to ensure that ISPA provides relevant input into legislative and regulatory processes.

The activities of this working group include:

• Identifying legislative processes that require ISPA input
• Drafting written submissions
• Soliciting input from ISPA's members on draft submissions
• Submitting written submissions timeously
• Providing oral submissions where necessary
• Preparing member advisories on key issues
• Providing report-backs on the impact of ISPA's submissions

Teachers Training

Access: This is an open working group, made up of volunteers from ISPA's members and some other organisations involved with the initiative (UniForum SA and NetDay). If you are interested in joining, visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/training or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to provide computer and Internet training to teachers.

The activities of this working group include:

• Managing ISPA's established teachers' training programme
• Investigating and pursuing additional sources of funding for the programme

Mailing lists

ISPA operates the following additional mailing lists.

Announce

Description: this list is used for ISPA announcements, minutes of meetings and important notices.

Access: Only the ISPA Secretariat can post to this list and any replies are redirected to the Secretariat to keep the traffic volumes low. All ISPA members are required to have at least one representative subscribed to the Announce list. On application, the primary contact person listed on the form will be subscribed by the Secretariat. Should you wish to subscribe additional staff members to this list visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/announce or send a mail to the Secretariat.

ISPA

Description: This list is a discussion list for ISPA's members.

Access: This list is open to all ISPA members. As this list is used for important ISPA announcements, each member company must have at least one representative subscribed to the list. On application, the primary contact person listed on the form will be subscribed by the Secretariat. Should you wish to subscribe additional staff members to this list visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/ispa or send a mail to the Secretariat.

IPv6

Description: This is a discussion list for those interested in IPv6 issues and is intended to focus on the implementation of IPv6 in South Africa, but is also open to general IPv6 questions and discussions.

Access: This list is open to all ISPA members. Should you wish to subscribe to this list visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/ipv6 or send a mail to the Secretariat.

iWeek

Description: This list is used for the distribution of information regarding ISPA's annual iWeek conference. It is a broadcast only list, so you will not be able to post to this list. If you have any questions about iWeek, please contact the events WG at iweek (at) events.org.za.

Access: If you are interested in joining and would like to be on this list, please visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/iweek-news or send a mail to the Secretariat.

ADSL

Description: This is a list for the discussion of adsl issues relating to pricing, traffic shaping & peering.

Access: If you are from an ISPA member company and you would like to be on this list, please visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/adsl or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Adverts

Description: This is an open free-for-all list. Anyone can join, anyone can post and anyone can leave. This list is used for any marketing information sent to queries (at) ispa.org.za.

On application, the primary contact person listed on the form will be subscribed to the list by the Secretariat. Should you wish to subscribe additional staff members to this list visit the subscription page at http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo/adverts or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Management Committee

ManCom

Description: This list is used by ISPA's Management Committee to manage the association and co-ordinate the associations activities.

Access: Only members of the Management Committee may join this list.

If you experience problems with any of the lists, please contact the webmaster at webmaster (at) ispa.org.za.

Easy Reference Table

For more information on ISPAs lists visit: http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo

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Description	List name	Access	Chairpersons
Working Groups:
Antispam	antispam	Open to members only	Rob Hunter
Code of Conduct	Code	Open to members only	Lynne Orrock
Events	Events	Open to members only	Elaine Zinn
Fair competition	Competition	ManCom members only	Marc Furman
Finance	Finance	ManCom members only	William Stucke
JINX	Jinx	Open to members only	Rob Hunter
Membership	Membership	Open to members only	Jenny King
Operators Liaison	Operators	ManCom members only	Edwin Thompson
Partnerships	Partners	Open to members only	Alan Levin
Public Relations	PR	Open to members only	Dave Gale
Regulatory Submissions	Submissions	Open to members only	Richard Heath Lynne Orrock
Teachers Training	Training	Open to members only	Bernie Amler
Mailing lists:
Announce (primary list)	announce	Open to members only
ISPA (discussion list)	ispa	Open to members only
iWeek-news (distribution list)	iweek-news	Open to past attendees / interested parties
ADSL (discussion list)	adsl	Open to members only
Adverts (open list)	adverts	Anyone is welcome
Committee:
ISPA Management	mancom	ManCom members only	Joint-chairs of ISPA: Edwin Thompson & Lynne Orrock Treasurer: William Stucke