I would like to add some points to those made by Ian Smith:

1.  The process for choosing any new 2LDs (not who will administer them)
should soon be getting underway according to the auDA Board's Nov 2001
minutes <http://www.auda.org.au/about/minutes/board-200111.html>:  "... a
new Advisory Panel will be established in early 2002 to consider the
creation of new 2LDs.  Derek  Whitehead has indicated his willingness to
chair the new Panel.  Action: DW to be formally invited to chair the new
Panel.  auDA staff and DW to draft terms of reference for approval by the
board in February.

2.  Under the current policy geographic domain name licences are prohibited
in com.au and net.au, but allowed in all other .au 2LDs.  The Name Panel
agreed that the restriction on geographic domain names should be removed to
meet public demand
<http://www.auda.org.au/docs/auda-name-eligibility-final.html#TOC4.2>.  The
Board reserved its position on geographic domain names until it had received
a further report <http://www.auda.org.au/about/minutes/board-200105.html>.
Following consideration of this report, the position of the Board on removal
of this prohibition is unclear from its public records.  Removal of the
prohibition of geographic domain names in com.au and .net.au remains an open
question to be addressed by the Board in 2002.

3.  The auDA Board agreed to the Name Panel's recommendation to give high
priority to a new community-focused geographic 2LD or 2LDs in the process
for selecting new 2LDs
<http://www.auda.org.au/about/minutes/board-200108.html>.  Note the
reference to one or more 2LD.  The OCOS and other geographic proposals will
be presumably (re)considered by that new Panel.  Australia Post was reported
to have been working on a geographic proposal; perhaps Josh Rowe may be able
to shed some light on this.

Ian

--
Ian Johnston, Policy Consultant
Small Enterprise Telecommunications Centre Limited (SETEL)
http://www.setel.com.au   mailto:ian.johnston&#167;setel.com.au

SETEL is a national small business consumer association
Advancing and representing the interest of Australian small business
as telecommunications and electronic commerce consumers

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Smith [mailto:smithi&#167;nimnet.asn.au]
Sent: Saturday, 26 January 2002 2:04 AM
To: Rodney Swansborough
Cc: dns&#167;lists.auda.org.au
Subject: Re: [DNS] Geographical Names policy already endorsed


On Fri, 25 Jan 2002, Rodney Swansborough wrote:

 > A major submission has already been endorsed on Geographical
 > Place Names by
 > the Online Council of Australia and now awaits urgent
 > action from AUDA.

Well, I can see the urgency to get this bureaucratic nightmare through
before there's time for proper notification of and true consultation
with all of the communities to be appropriated by this 'Online Council'.

 > The proposal which the Online Council has approved and
 > recommended can be found at www.onecityonesite.org

This proposal has as its primary assumption that the Local Government
tier is the same thing as the communities (plural) who inhabit the city,
suburb, town or district that particular council has inherited or been
granted political control over by amalgamation by the state tier above,
who can by majority vote determine who will control locality licences.

This, to me at least, is a patently false premise; ask almost anyone but
politicians self-interested in promoting such ancient pre-industrial age
hierarchical models upon the DNS and internet communications in general.

Fortunately the internet design itself resists such attempts as this and
the so-called Community Technology Centres being installed by state and
federal government funding all over rural NSW at least, to centralise
access to and of community information resources under the ambit of the
ancient governmental structures, as more sensible alternatives evolve.

The Names Panel report quoted (presumably as supporting this proposal)
in fact says, as you quote, "the Panel cautions that proposals for new
geographic 2LDs should be carefully considered and widely canvassed.  In
particular, it is critical that new geographic 2LDs are
community-focused, _NOT_ government-focused." (my emphasis)

I can't see that the process of informing the public - not just 300 DNS
List-reading 'public' - regarding any such proposed appropriation of the
(in any case, largely discredited) local 'portal' model, has even begun.

Perhaps, after councils nationwide have issued proper notices of public
participation meetings to canvass discussion of the issues and options,
and sufficient time for (non-predetermined) outcomes of these meetings
to be compiled into an even vaguely representative report of the range
of views expressed and held by different sections of 'the community' has
elapsed, then it may indeed be time to seek 'urgent action from AuDA'.

(Not that I expect AuDA to pay more than lip service to consultation or
'wide canvassing' after this present .com.au generic domains debacle ..)

Cheers anyway, Ian


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
List policy, unsubscribing and archives => http://www.auda.org.au/list/dns/
Please do not retransmit articles on this list without permission of the
author, further information at the above URL.  (329 subscribers.)