Shot in the arm for Internet researchers

Shot in the arm for Internet researchers

Research projects focussing on the Internet have been given a shot in the arm after InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) awarded over $50,000 to researchers around the country as part of its Internet Research Community Grants round.

Each year InternetNZ grants nearly half a million dollars to individuals and organisations who share its vision of a better world through a better Internet. The most recent funding round was for research projects that focussed on Internet access, policy, technologies, use, performance and impacts.

InternetNZ Chief Executive Jordan Carter said that this is one of the best parts of his job.

“Being able to fund research into ways we can improve the Internet is integral to who we are as an organisation. We know that the Internet can be used and improved so that all New Zealanders can benefit, and these projects can help make that happen.

“Being able to help people and organisations to improve the Internet is very important to us. As part of our commitment to research we recently we co-sponsored research with Google that showed that New Zealand’s economy could be $34 billion better off if we used the Internet in a more productive way,” said Mr Carter.

The following organisations received funding:

• Auckland University of Technology’s Awinder Kaur received $5000 for looking into whether New Zealand is picking up IPv6 and if not, why not. Internet Protocols are the communication rules that allow you to find your way around the Internet. In recent times the Internet was running short on IPv4 addresses so IPv6 was developed to accommodate this.

• AUT also received more funding, with Professor Richard Siegert, Dr Deborah Snell, Dr Martin Sullivan and Dr Duncan Babbage receiving $10,000 for a research project into Internet use by people with neurological conditions.

• The University of Auckland’s Etuate Cocker and Dave Saunders are the recipients of $20,000 to look at whether network coded TCP can improve the quality of streaming data across long distances in the South Pacific region. This project will use technology from MIT to test whether places such as Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Cook Islands can benefit from these cutting edge developments.

• Victoria University’s Qiang Fu also receives $20,000 for working on understanding the practical issues on the adoption of Software Defined Networking. SDN is technology to help network administrators manage network services. It stems from work done at Stanford and the University of California in the late 2000s.

• Finally Canterbury University’s Shao Wei receives $3000 to look at how the Internet is changing journalism – particularly managerial and journalistic practice in news rooms. The project will focus on administrative processes for the operation of the Internet in the newspaper industry.

“We look forward to the progress these projects will help create. We will have a new set of Community Funding rounds in 2014/15 – expect news of those in early May,” Jordan Carter says.

ENDS

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