MEDIA ADVISORY AARNet, Australia’s National Research and Education Network (NREN) convened its first IPv6 Project Group meeting on 22 July 2003. The meeting was co-chaired by Brook Schofield from the University of South Australia, who initiated the creation of the IPv6 Project Group and Glen Turner from AARNet. Other representatives present at the inaugural meeting included Australian Communications and Media Authority, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, IPv6 Forum Downunder, Monash University, University of Queensland and the University of Southern Queensland. The meeting discussed the charter of the IPv6 Project Group and how the Group will interact with universities and other IPv6-related communities such as the APNIC, IPv6 Forum and ISPs. Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet said, “AARNet supports the deployment of IPv6 as part of our roadmap to encourage collaboration and experimentation in research and education organisations. We have established the IPv6 Project Group to assist our members in their deployment of IPv6. Within AARNet, we use IPv6 as a native protocol, provide support to our members and collaborate with other IPv6 ISPs in Australia.” The Group will reach these aims by: • Lobbying university managers to allocate resources to complete IPv6 deployments prior to the exhaustion of IPv4 address allocations, which the industry estimates could happen in 2011. • Plugging the information gap by developing and hosting technical information for IPv6 deployments by universities and the wider community. • Monitoring the status of IPv6 deployments across AARNet’s customers, major national ISPs and major websites. • Leveraging on the work of the IPv6 Project Group to engage and energise similar forums that currently exists to further the development of IPv6 in Australia and internationally. Information about AARNet’s IPv6 services can be found at http://www.aarnet.edu.au/Content.aspx?p=39 and the AARNet IPv6 Project Group at https://wiki.aarnet.edu.au/display/IPV6/Home. AARNet welcomes new members to the IPv6 Project Group it is open to any interested parties. To participate in the Group, visit the e-meetings section of the wiki or contact Glen Turner at [email protected]. - ENDS - For further information, please contact: Gabriel Wong Max Australia +61 2 9954 3492 [email protected] About AARNet AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au. .