[Chapter-delegates] Arnoud van Wijk leaving ISOC HQ

[Arnoud van Wijk]

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