At 10:03 PM 3/07/97 +0800, Michael Malone wrote:
>It is ADNA's goal to become the .AU top level policy body.
>
>It is understood that this will require much more work and a solid
>track record of achievement.  However, this is specifically what
>ADNA was created for, and this should remain its long term goal.

And a fine long-term goal it is too. Unfortunately ADNA has yet to
acknowledge that it is more than just a lack of track record that people are
concerned about. It is a structural problem.

Hard work can't change lead into gold. ADNA needs to *change*, not just work
hard. And it needs to change in response to a process of genuine consultation.
ADNA should now be asking the Australian Internet community the question
that it failed to ask before it incorporated with such indecent haste,
namely  "what do you want us to be?".

>> ADNA should stick to .COM.AU.
>
>No.  You were pretty close up to this point.  ADNA is not, and was
>never intended to be, a body to keep an eye on Melbourne IT.

Right now, that is all ADNA has any ability or support to do - keep an eye
on .COM.AU and all who sail in her. At the moment that's just Melbourne IT.
If other DNAs come into that namespace (and by all accounts they are needed
badly), then it should be ADNA's role to keep an eye on them, too.

What ADNA *intends* to be is another matter. My above comments regarding
change apply there too.

The absolute statement "it is ADNA's goal to become the .AU top level policy
body" is too bald, too threatening. It implies that there are only external
obstacles preventing ADNA taking those reins right now. That's threatening
because the most important obstacles for ADNA are not external, but structural.

If your statement was qualified by something like "but we realise that we
have to build better support, create consultative frameworks, put policy
first and action second and address the issue of meaningful representation
of all sectors of the Australian Internet namespace before that can happen"
a lot of people would be a lot happier.

If you further added "and we have no intention of making any moves towards
policy oversight of .AU until all those things are in place, supported by
the community and to some extent proven in .COM.AU", I suspect that there
might even be dancing in the streets.

But those sorts of statements just aren't coming out. Basically the feeling
we are getting is a hardline one; not something to inspire confidence in
ADNA's willingness to accept ideas and criticism from its claimed constituency.

>There is no room for any body, and I include
>both ADNA and ISOC-AU, to claim any god given right to simply
>walk in and take over.

Indeed not. However ISOC-AU is claiming no such right. On the contrary, it
is  saying "listen, involve, include, consult".

Sadly all ADNA seems to be saying is "shut up, you are in the way". 

Regards, K.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer: kauer§pcug.org.au                    +61-6-2494627 (bh)
           http://www.pcug.org.au/~kauer/       +61-6-2486607 (ah)

Join the Internet Society of Australia! http://www.isoc-au.org.au