Neu: 2002-04-03 Contents of this issue:
1. Porn Takes Backseat 2. Top Tourism Job 3. Membership Fee? 4. Election Preparation 5. Top Rugby ======================================================================== April 3rd, 2002 1. Porn Takes Backseat: Sex is finally losing its appeal on the net according to researchers in America. Interest in sex and entertainment had been replaced by more serious surfing, a study of 200,000 users conducted by Penn State University's School of Information Technology has found. The research, conducted over five years, found that in 1997 approximately one in six web queries to search engine Excite was about sex. By 2001 only one in 12 surfers was searching for sex and many of these enquiries were about human sexuality rather than pornography. During the same period searches related to commerce, travel and employment rose from 13.3% in 1997 to 24.7% in 2001. Results indicate that a significant percentage of users continue to have low tolerance for wading through large retrievals.Amanda Spink, Penn State University Researchers note that the increase interest in commerce and travel coincided with an 80% increase of commercial content on web servers by 1999.(BBC). 2. Top Tourism Job: The Niue Tourist Authority Board is readvertising its top job in the industry. The previous director Mrs Lofa Rex did not renew her contract and the position which was previously advertised was not filled due to a NZODA review of the performance of the national tourism office. The board is now calling for new applications. The director's salary is up to $NZ24,000 a year.the office has a staff of three - information, education and administration officers. 3. Membership Fee? The Niue Government may be asked to contribute to the operations of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) government advisory committee (GAC) when Australia pulls out of chairing the group. The Australian Financial Review newspaper reports that in June, Australia will stop funding the GAC after Australian Dr. Paul Twomey steps down as chairman. During the past three years Australia has spent about $US1.5m on GAC support, states the report by Nicole Lindsay. An Australian government spokesman said that it was "about time someone else funded the committee after three years." Its been reported that despite the price tag, "several other countries have reportedly expressed informal interest in taking over administration of the GAC a task that comes with the chairmanship of the committee." According to the Financial Review, Australia's chairmanship of the GAC was notable for "the sweetheart deal" by which ICANN re-delegated dot AU in violation of the rules on country-code re-delegation, gave it to the Australian government, which then became the first ccTLD to agree to ICANN's onerous model "pay and obey" contract for ccTLDs. The Niue government 's information technology committee headed by Premier Sani Lakatani applied for re-delegation of the dot NU in 2000 but the issue remains on the ICANN table.The government recently initiated a commission of inquiry into the island's e mail and internet services.(Various /ICANN Watch). 4. Election Preparation: Niue's chief electoral officer Togia Sioneholo is reminding all voters to register on the electoral roll before April 12. Everyone over the age of 18 and is a permanent resident can apply to register. Nominations for candidates seeking a seat in the Legislative Assembly close on April 4. the chief electoral officer said all campaigning for the election must cease 24 hours before voting day on April 20. The NPP has had meetings at several villages and last night met with Alofi North residents. Alofi North was captured by NPP's Va'ainga Tukuitonga 12 votes ahead of the independent Premier Frank Lui in 1999. The Alliance of Independents ventured into the NPP stronghold of Hakupu village on Monday evening in what spokesperson Mrs O'Love Jacobsen described as "an interesting experience." Last night the AOI campaigned at Makefu. 5. Top Rugby: This week's games in the Super 12 rugby - Highlanders v Hurricanes Thursday 8.35pm ( Niue time); Crusaders v Bulls Friday 8.35 pm Niue time). the games will be broadcast on TV Niue. __END__
