New Book: Connecting the Clouds: The Internet in New Zealand

A new book from Activity Press documents the rise of the Internet in New Zealand and looks to its future as it becomes an increasingly vital part of our economic and social infrastructure.

Controversial and enlightening, Connecting the Clouds takes us from small beginnings to today’s borderless world where fast, pervasive always-on Internet has arrived at our digital doorstep.

It backgrounds the evolution of electronic communications in New Zealand from the telegraph and telephone, through to advances in computer and Internet technology which continue to transform government, business, communities and our personal lives.

[UPDATE: Connecting the Clouds is now online in its entirety at nethistory.org.nz.  It is available in Wiki format, allowing visitors to comment and contribute to it, as well as read the book].

From promising beginnings—New Zealand was the first nation in Asia-Pacific to fully connect to the US-based Internet backbone—we’re lead to the question of what went so wrong that a nation of early adopters of technology and the Internet plummeted to the bottom of the OECD scorecard for broadband, research development and technology reinvestment. We look at just why New Zealand has had to re-regulate the telecommunications market and, looking ahead, examine what happens when telecommunications, broadcasting, entertainment and computing converge on a common platform.

Connecting the Clouds takes the reader on an informative and entertaining ride through our telecommunications history and the people who have shaped it. This comprehensive, thoroughly researched and illustrated book provides invaluable insights into the evolving communications framework that helped New Zealand shift from an isolated outpost of the British Empire to a nation of digital pioneers intimately connected and active in the emerging global village.

Writer Keith Newman has conducted over 100 interviews with visionaries and scientists, computer programmers, telecommunications experts, engineers, business leaders and politicians, including those who have played a part in the rise of the Internet and those who will drive it forward into the next wave. The result is a fascinating, highly readable account that marks a key chapter in New Zealand’s development as a modern nation.

Appropriately for a book about the the internet in New Zealand, Connecting the Clouds will be simultaneously published as a book and as a Wiki, a website in which the book’s entire content can be viewed, commented on and contributed to by the public.

THE AUTHOR

Keith Newman is an Auckland-based journalist with over 30-years experience. He is a former news editor of Computerworld, editor of Network World and founding editor of PC Magazine New Zealand. His journalistic awards include the Qantas Media Award for Best Magazine Feature Writer in information technology and communications as well as the Telecommunications Users Association (TUANZ) Journalist of the Year Award. His last book was Ratana Revisited (Reed 2006). Newman is married with two children.

Connecting the Clouds: The Internet in New Zealand, ISBN 9780958263443, Paperback 230 x 170mm, 720pp, NZ$49.99

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Table of Contents	Page
1 The tyranny of distance: Reaching out to the world	2
2 Battling with big iron: Unscrambling the code	24
3 No. 8 wire networks: Patchwork quilt of protocols	39
4 Nuclear free reforms: Nothing is what it seems	64
5 Selling the family jewels: Telecom holds back the tide	84
6 Craving for connection: Dawn of the dial-up community	109
7 Craving for connection II: The pioneering ISPs	133
8 The rhythm method: Regulation by litigation	158
9 Local loop languishing: Battling bandwidth blues	185
10 Diminished capacity: Whose foot is on the hose?	202
11 Deluge in a paper cup: Knowledge wave wake-up	220
12 E-government lumbers on-line: Presenting a public face	241
13 Clicks and mortar: Beyond on-line pamphlets	261
14 Battle of the names: Taming of the domains	278
15 The proxy revolution: Changing of the guard	303
16 Cyberspace junk: Nailing Net nasties	330
17 Bitstream boundaries: Sorting out speed bumps	356
18 Download culture: Infotainment on demand	376
19 Mobile momentum: Weaned off the wires	403
20 Digital refresh required: Government learns to share	430
21 Broadband breakthrough: The battle to unbundle	459
22 In the recovery room: Remedial reading required	485
23 IP channel surfing: Digital vision evolving	514
24 Leaping the loop: Cloud cover continues	540
25 Next step: Internet High-fibre diet required	578
26 20/20 visionaries: Beyond the seven Cs	612
Bibliography
Footnotes
Index

People appearing in Connecting the Clouds: The Internet in New Zealand (NB List is not exhaustive)
Alan Brown	Alan Marston	Alan McCormick	Allan Freeth
Andrisha Kambaran	Andy Linton	Andy Williamson	Angus Tait
Annette Presley	Anthony Flannery	Arron Scott	Bart Kindt
Bill Birch	Bob Gray	Bob Johnstone	Brendan Kelly
Brian Eardley-Wilmot	Brian Sweeney	Bruce Simpson	Cecil Alexander
Chris Kelliher	Chris Loh	Chris Thompson	Colin Beardon
Colin Jackson	Colin Yates	Darian Bird	David Baragwanath
David Cunliffe	David Diprose	David Dix	David Farrar
David Russell	David Skilling	David Zanetti	Debbie Monahan
Dipankar Raychaudhuri	Dmitry Shapiro	Don Wallace	Donald Clark
Doug Graham	Doug Stevens	Dougal McKechnie	Edwin Bruce
Ernie Newman	Ewan McNeil	Frank March	Garry Sheeran
Garth Biggs	Gavin Adlam	Geoff Cossey	Graeme Rowe
Graham Walmsley	Greg Patchell	Greg Winn	Helen Clark
Ian Quinn	Jack Matthews	Jamie Baddeley	Janet Mazenier
Jenny Shipley	Jim Anderton	Jim Higgins	Jim O’Neill
Jim Sutton	Jim Tocher	John Blackham	John Fellet
John Hine	John Houlker	John Thackray	John Vorstermans
Jonathan Coleman	Jonathon Cooke	Jordan Carter	Jos Van Herk
Judith Tizard	Judy Speight	Julius Vogel	Katherine Rich
Keith Davidson	Keith Davis	Kerry Prendergast	Kevin Roberts
Larrie Moore	Larry Smarr	Laurence Zwimpfer	Lawrence Lessig
Leanne Buer	Lyall Watson	Maarten Kleintjes	Malcolm Dick
Marc Corlett	Marian Hobbs	Mark Burton	Mark Gosche
Mark Mackay	Mark Ottaway	Mark Ratcliffe	Mark Rushworth
Marko Bogoievski	Martin Wylie	Matt Crockett	Matt Freeman
Matthew Bolland	Maurice Williamson	Max Ehrmann	Michael Foley
Michael Newbery	Mike Cranna	Mikki Barry	Murray Brown
Murray Jurgeleit	Murray Milner	Nathan Torkington	Neil de Wit
Patrick O’Brien	Patrick Pilcher	Paul Allen	Paul Budde
Paul Cressey	Paul Ducklin	Paul Gillingwater	Paul Norris
Paul Reynolds	Paul Swain	Paul Twomey	Pete Hodgson
Peter Dengate Thrush	Peter Drucker	Peter Gutmann	Peter Macaulay
Peter Mott	Peter Shirtcliffe	Peter Sykes	Peter Whimp
Phil Harpur	Philip Burdon	Philip King	Ralph Little
Ramin Marzbani	Ray Delany	Ray Kurzweil	Richard Hulse
Richard Naylor	Richard Simpson	Richard Uechtritz	Rick Barker
Rick Ellis	Rick Shera	Rob Sweet	Rod Drury
Rod Snodgrass	Roderick Deane	Roger de Salis	Roger Hicks
Rosemary Howard	Ross Patterson	Ross Pfeffer	Russell Stanners
Scott Bartlett	Scott Mathias	Sean Weekes	Seeby Woodhouse
Shane Cole	Simon McCallum	Simon Riley	Stanley Milgram
Stephen Bell	Stephen Marshall	Stephen Selwood	Steve Browning
Steve Canny	Steve Maharey	Steve O’Brien	Steven Clift
Sue Leader	Suzanne Chetwin	Terence O’Neill-Joyce	Theresa Gattung
Tim Berners-Lee	Tim O’Reilly	Tone Borren	Tony Ryall
Tony Villasenor	Trevor Mallard	Wamberto Vasconcelos	Warren Sanders
Wayne Boyd	Wayne Toddun	William Renwick

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The entire contents of Connecting the Clouds is available as a Wiki at nethistory.org.nz