Guide to ISPA’s 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

Enterprise development

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/edev or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to help ISPA’s members invest in enterprise development to improve their BBBEE ratings and meet their BBBEE goals.

The activities of this working group include:

• To steer ISPA’s participation in the establishment of an Internet industry vehicle for the promotion of enterprise development.
• To advise and assist ISPA’s members in their enterprise development goals.
• To work with UniForum SA and other ICT organisations to set-up a non-profit vehicle for the purpose of administering funds earmarked for enterprise development.

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

INX

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

Its purpose is to manage the Johannesburg Internet exchange (JINX) and the Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX) as well as related issues.

The activities of this working group include:

• Ensuring that the INXes remain operational at all times
• Ensuring that relevant information (including statistics) is made available to ISPA members
• Providing recommendations to ManCom on INX policy and billing models
• Encouraging participation at the exchanges
• Developing the exchanges 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 association’s 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 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 issues 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 ISPA’s 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.  Subscribing to this WG will however need approval from the Management Committee.  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

Training

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/training or send a mail to the Secretariat.

Its purpose is to facilitate Internet-related training for strategic partners, ISPA’s members and new entrants into the Internet industry.

The activities of this working group include:

• Schedule and conduct future ISP entrepreneur training courses
• SAPS training and eCrime unit
• Training for ISPA’s members (e.g. regulatory course)
• Collaboration with other training courses (e.g. UniForum’s DNS course, training provided by AfrISPA, AfriNIC and AFNOG)
• Act as custodian of the Entrepreneurs mailing list
• Internet news/interesting sites should be posted to the list
• List should not become a marketing platform, but discussion of opportunities and business co-operation is appropriate.
• We should try to encourage the lurkers to participate

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

Posting address:

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

Posting address:

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

Access: This list is open to all ISPA members and any member is welcome to subscribe to and post to this list.  On application, the primary contact person listed on the form will be subscribed by the Secretariat.  However, if you are getting too much mail, you are welcome to unsubscribe. As long as you are subscribed to the Announce list, you will not miss any important notices.  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.

iWeek

Posting address:

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 .

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.

Adverts

Posting address:

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

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.

ManCom

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

Please find the easy reference table on the next page.

Reference Table

For more information on ISPA’s lists visit: http://lists.ispa.org.za/mailman/listinfo

Description	List name	Access	Chairpersons
Working Groups:
Anti-Spam	antispam	Open to members only	Rob Hunter
Code of Conduct	code	Open to members only	Lynne Orrock
Enterprise development	edev	Open to members only	Jenny King
Events	events	Open to members only	Jenny King
Fair competition	competition	ManCom members only	Marc Furman
Finance	finance	ManCom members only	William Stucke
INX	inx	Open to members only	Rob Hunter
Membership	membership	Open to members only	Lynne Orrock
Operators Liaison	operators	ManCom members only	Lynne Orrock
Partnerships	partners	Open to members only	Alan Levin
Public Relations	pr	Open to members only	Greg Massel
Regulatory Submissions	submissions	Open to members only	Mike Silber
Teachers Training	teachers	Open to members only	Fiona Wallace
Training	training	Open to members only	William Stucke
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
Adverts – open list	adverts	Anyone welcome