Re: the process underway to make currently banned generic com.au domain
names available, if the widest possible group of potential generic domain
name owners is made aware of the process, then we should get the following
benefits:

1. Less chance for complaints afterwards by entities saying "I didn't know
about the process - if I had known I would have participated as I wanted and
am eligible for generic name "X".

2. Maximised income from the sale of the generic names, which will
contribute to covering the cost of auDA's operations, and therefore help to
keep to a minimum fees levied on other domain name owners - whether com.au
or org.au or asn.au, etc.  Note that although my personal opinion is that
generic names are worth sod all, I'd be perfectly happy to be proved wrong
and have auDA raise a squillion from the process and be able to announce a
lowering of the Domain Name fee.

Sooooo, with those two objectives - minimising complaints and maximising
revenue...............


It appears that there may be a genuine (i.e. non-scam) business opportunity
open to any entity wishing to avail themselves of it - that basically goes
like this:

Step 1.
Get the list of generic domain names, and a copy of the phone directory
(yellow pages & white pages) on CD or other searchable database.  Other
business databases might also be useful.

Step 2.
For each generic domain name, search the yellow pages for any business that
either has the generic in its name, or 'has a close connection to the domain
name'.  e.g., for banking.com.au, get the list of businesses that have
'bank', 'banking', 'building society', 'credit union' in their name.

Step 3.
Send to each of the businesses identified in Step 2 a letter addressed to
their Marketing / Sales Manager pointing out that:

* The generic domain name 'banking.com.au' is now available
* If they're interested in applying for the name, they need to act before 1
February
* That you (the company sending them this letter) would be happy to manage
the process for them, as you are a company that understands the process,
etc, etc
* That all they need to do to participate is to sign the form authorising
you to act on their behalf, and provide you with some money to cover your
costs of acting on their behalf, including the $110 minimum fee that will
need to be paid to auDA.

As long as you point out in the letter the process that will ensue if there
are multiple applicants for the domain name, then I think its all above
board - you're merely offering to provide a service for which you have some
expertise for a fee.

I reckon that for many of the generic domain names it'd be pretty simple to
identify a list of 50 or so organisations (many with substantial budgets)
that would qualify for the domain name.  Since you're working off existing
databases, they'd pretty much all meet the August 13 eligibility requirement
as they'd either have a company name, business name, or a 'close connection'
to the generic domain name.




Given that certain organisations (no names, no pack drill) have been sending
a veritable blizzard of paper mail to thousands of businesses offering to
handle their domain name renewals, my suggestion above appears to be a much
more targeted approach that involves sending a much smaller amount of paper
mail, and might give a higher response rate.





Regards, Mark

PS  Its possible that unscrupulous operators trying something similar to the
above will highlight what I believe is a flaw in the generic domain name
auction process, but I won't mention what it is since a) it might not happen
and b) I could easily be wrong :)

Mark Hughes
Effective Business Applications Pty Ltd
effectivebusiness§pplications.com.au
www.pplications.com.au
+61 4 1374 3959