|> -----Original Message-----
|> From: Jon Lawrence [mailto:jon§jonlawrence.com] 
|> Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2002 12:25 AM
|> To: dns§lists.auda.org.au
|> Subject: RE: [DNS] RE: auDA to consider new names for .au
|> 
|> 
|> >You were equating the need for charging (higher) fees with the
provison
|> >of a professional service, as evidence in the past and present, this
|> >does not hold true and the level of fees charged has no bearing on
the
|> >service provided in most cases.
|> 
|> No I wasn't.  I simply said that I think the DNS should berun
professionally.
|> You assume that I think fees should rise, which I don't.  
|> For instance I think the US$6 per name per year that Verisign
Registry 
|> charge for .coms is way too high, especially as they have almost 30
million 
|> names under management.
<snip>

One thing we should bear in mind is the difference between AuDA and
Registries/Registrars operating within the .au namespace.  AuDA is
primarily concerned with the overall management of the namespace and the
fees they charge are to be used for different purposes to those charged
by Registries/Registrars operating within the namespace.

The $6USD fee you quote above is set by ICANN and is delivered into
their control, much like the $11AuD quoted to go towards AuDA.  When you
purchase a second level domain under .com $6USD goes to ICANN and the
rest of the registration fee goes to the Registry/Registrar.  Once you
have a second level domain name you can create all the sub-domains you
wish at no further cost other than bandwidth and infrastructure.

What I propose is that AuDA set some restrictions on how geographical
domains may be handled.  So that there is price fixing at the sub-domain
level and a standard practice on how they are managed and registered.
The whole process can be under control to the consumer level.

To expand:

AuDA releases states.au.
The Registry for each state.au allows registrations of towns.state.au
under specific conditions and the body who has the registration for
town.state.au becomes a Registry for that domain and allows
registrations under it within specific conditions.  We then have
individuals.town.state.au, businesses.town.state.au,
co-operatives.town.state.au, non-profit.town.state.au registrations.
There would need to be uniformity in how such consumer registrations are
formulated, for instance individual registrations may be allowed in the
form FirstName.Initial.LastName.town.state.au, with businesses etc
handled by trading name etc.  There would be duplication at the hostname
level across a number of town.state.au domains but the actual domain
would be the identifier and provide for unique hostnames across the
nation.

AuDA could take a slice of the states.au and towns.states.au
registrations.  At the consumer level, the Registry handling the
namespace would be the only body to benefit from any fee, which should
be set at something like the $5 mark.

The Registries for the towns.states.au domains could be anyone who
wishes to provide the service, providing they agree to the conditions
attached to the operation of the Registry including the price fixing.
There would need to be a complaints handling process and protection of
all namespaces with fall back provisions in the event any Registry goes
down.

The above is a simplified version but I'm sure you can get the gist of
the idea.  It is not new.

The main points are:

- Registries to be run under strict conditions
- Anyone can apply to act as a Registry for any town providing they
agree to meet the conditions
- Complaints handling to ensure conditions are met
- Fall back provided so consumers are not disadvantaged by Registry
failure
- Consistant formats for hostnames across all geographically based
domains
- Fixed low pricing at the consumer level.

Darryl (Dassa) Lynch.