Geoff Huston, one of the handful of technicians who established the Internet in Australia, was chosen to become the new chair of the Internet Society (ISOC).
Huston said he would emphasise the theme “the Internet is for everyone”
when he was elected at ISOC’s INET’99 conference last week.
“I look forward to guiding our unique non-profit organisation to promote
the use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the
world,” he said.
Huston is now manager of Internet networks for Telstra Internet, Australia’s largest telecommunications carrier and second largest ISP, but he gained most fame from his days as an academic when he was a key participant in the birth of the first Internet networks.
While working at the Australian National University in Canberra in 1989, Huston was one of the first, along with Robert Elz at the University of Melbourne in a project called the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNET), to move from proprietary network technologies to the then-obscure Internet Protocol.
Huston is now in charge of technical management at the most complex
network in Australia, and regularly gives speeches on issue like quality of
service and ATM networking.
The appointment caps off a successful debut phase for the Australian chapter of the Internet Society, of which Huston is immediate past president.
Also announced by ISOC was its new vice chair, Christine Maxwell,
co-founder of the Magellan online directory and now president of Chiliad
Publishing.