[Chapter-delegates] Arnoud van Wijk leaving ISOC HQ

[Gunela Astbrink]

Dear Arnoud,

On behalf of ISOC-AU, I wish you well in your new role as Director of 
R3TF. This is a very important initiative and will make a huge 
difference to many people.

As you know, we in Australia will continue lobbying for the 
implementation of real-time text. We certainly have the attention of 
many stakeholders!

And on a personal level, it was a pleasure to meet you at IGF and see 
for myself the passion you have for driving real-time text forwards.

All the very best in your future endeavours!

Regards,
Gunela

Director, ISOC Australia

Arnoud van Wijk wrote:
> Dear Chapters.
> 
> I have for almost 2 years worked with ISOC as a coordinator for 
> disability projects. It has indeed been an interesting and great time. I 
> have met several of you in person. And I have been working together with 
> several ISOC Chapters as well e.g. ISOC-Argentina, ISOC-Australia, 
> ISOC-Colombia and the Disability and Special Needs Chapter.
> One of my biggest activities with ISOC has and is the Real-Time Text 
> Taskforce (R3TF), www.realtimetext.org. It started as a project 
> incubated by ISOC. The focus in the beginning was mainly on standards. 
> With the Real-Time Text standards now in place (RFC4103 and ITU T. 140), 
> the focus will now move towards:
> 
> • Implementing Real-Time Text (RTT)
> • Promoting interoperability of the different RTT systems and services and
> • Expanding creating awareness of RTT towards the industry, 
> organizations, end-users and governments.
> 
> To pursue these goals, I am pleased to share with you that the R3TF has 
> been established as an independent organisation to provide an open forum 
> for engineers, experts, motivated individuals, companies and 
> organisations who want to help to test, implement, and advance the 
> wide-spread adoption of Real-Time Text (RTT). As an international 
> non-profit foundation based in the Netherlands it will have additional 
> flexibility to pursue its mission. I am also pleased to share that I 
> will take the position as the Director of the R3TF.
> 
> As a result, I regret that my role as Disability Project Coordinator 
> will not be possible anymore. But I am glad to see that the awareness of 
> an accessible Internet is high within ISOC and with the continued work 
> of the Chapters I am sure it will continue to be so! And without the 
> support of ISOC, the R3TF would not have happened. Together, we can 
> continue to grow and develop the R3TF to become a significant actor in 
> the Accessibility and ICT field.
> 
> I enjoyed working with you and I really want to continue being involved 
> with the ISOC community involved in disabilities work as an ISOC member. 
> I would, of course, be particularly happy to discuss with you issues 
> related to Real-Time Text and to have your participation in R3TF 
> activities. Other Disability work is possible with me via my own 
> consulting company GreenGiraffe.
> I am still looking how I can stay in touch with all of you and I am open 
> to your suggestions and advice. In the meantime, I wish all of you the 
> best and look forward to talking with you all again soon.
> You can always e-mail me at arnoud at realtimetext.org and feel free to ask 
> me anything about the R3TF or to discuss possibilities with me.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Arnoud van Wijk
> Director
> Real-Time Text Taskforce
> http://www.realtimetext.org/
> 
> PS You can still find me on the chapters-disability-nexus mailing list, 
> where I will contribute as an individual ISOC member. 
> http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapters-disability-nexus
> 
> 
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