Ellen Strickland
As we wind down the final days of 2024, I wanted to share a bit about an exciting new research project getting underway for next year. The project focuses on growing the resilience of New Zealand’s Internet infrastructure in a world of climate change and extreme weather.
I’m particularly excited for this project because Internet infrastructure is something I’m passionate about, both nerding out about cables and satellites and signals and also caring deeply about how connectivity can support communities. Also, like more people than ever, I’ve recently been personally impacted by extreme weather events; I was caught in a dangerous flash flood event while driving through Northland in February 2023 and then recently in October this year I was with family at their home in Florida during Hurricane Milton, the quickest growing Category 5 hurricane on record. In both these instances, Internet infrastructure was impacted, making a stressful, dangerous, and physically difficult experience all the worse due to connectivity issues.
Many people and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand experienced extreme weather events in early 2023, including experiencing impacts on Internet infrastructure and disruption to connectivity, which can be vital for enabling response and supporting community needs. This project will learn from these recent experiences.
Many within industry, government, in research, and in communities have insights they’ve gained, as well as things they are currently doing and more they want to do in this area. The project will work to convene some of these people and organisations for action-focused and collaborative research. Its core component will be a national Internet Infrastructure Climate Resilience Coalition, which will convene in early 2025 with work extending into 2026, alongside desk research.
I’ve played a role in leading a few collaborative cross-sector initiatives around Internet related issues, through structures like New Zealand’s NetHui and a range of global Internet governance initiatives. One of the things I find most satisfying in my work life has been bringing people together who are passionate about a topic and facilitating collaborative learning and action. This action-focused research project will use that kind of approach to help build understanding around the vulnerabilities and context of New Zealand internet infrastructure by bringing together people from across sectors to learn from each other and to take action, together and separately, to improve resilience of our Internet in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This project is being made possible through funding from the Internet Society Foundation. The project grant application was supported by the Brainbox Institute and the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum, who will both be involved in the project. The project was inspired and informed by my recent fellowship with the Critical Infrastructure Lab at the University of Amsterdam.
We’ll have a lot more to say about the project in early 2025 but I’m keen to hear from any people and organisations working in this area who might be interested to engage in the project. There will be lots of ways to provide input into the research project and the coalition, so if you or your organisation are interested in hearing updates about the project next year or would be interested in engaging in its work, you can use the sign-up form below, or email coalition@brainbox.institute
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