>Please pardon my ignorance, but why not?
>
>It seems that there is intended to be multiple DNA's within the .COM.AU
>domain. It seems the only thing holding this back is the unavailability of
>the tools and policies to make it possible.

The problems here are not technical, they are political and policy based.
Organizing a fair access to a common technical resource for the competing
DNA's (i.e. to a visible primary DNS for, say, com.au) is *not* the problem.
Politics and policy are the issues. 

I would encourage people on this list to appreciate this and not derail the
arguments related to competing DNA's for technical reasons. I am *not*
saying the problems are trivial, but I *AM* saying they aren't large and
have largely been solved by code that already exists behind the aunic.net
web pages, and that the harder problems are non-technical.

>
>If you are able to implement the tools and policies required to enable
>multiple concurrent DNA's in a single 2LD, why not implement them in the
>COM.AU domain instead of in a new 2LD?

Love to!

>
>By investing your time and resources into such development, you would be
>helping to establish yourself as a worthy candidate for becoming a
>competing DNA in the .COM.AU domain.

Note in the proposal for BIZ.AU we have offered to provide our tools to
other registries for use in the same or other name spaces. So we *are*
investing our time and resources for everyone's benefit in this respect, not
limited to, but including, potential use in com.au.

>
>At this time the .COM.AU domain needs multiple competing DNA's really
>badly. Offering competition in the form of a second 2LD is a second best
>option to actually competing within the domain. There is already
>competition in the form of alternative domains (.NET.AU, .COM .nf etc).

Strongly agree. We're just waiting to be able to do it. 

>
>I think it is worth making every effort to offer competition within the
>COM.AU domain as soon as possible.
>

Strongly agree!

>
>>Hopefully before they screw people into paying for the next year.
>
>MelbourneIT's bulk renewal incentive is very attractive. I suggest you
>have about a week to have a proposal finalised and approved in principle
>before a large percentage of domains are renewed taking advantage of this
>limited offer.

I suggest you consider that a large chunk of the larger ISP's, ourselves
included, have zero intention of paying large sums of money in one lump
until the issues of competing registries are resolved a little better and we
have an official response from Melbourne IT about the anti-competitive
practice of forcing existing, working, undisturbed delegations to be
pre-paid for the next two years, right now, or else. See my previous mail on
this topic.

By the way, and in case others haven't noted it, you have the option to
"license" names with Melbourne IT for just one year, not two, if you wish,
if you look through the Melbourne IT web pages you will find statements like
this one:

"... and may be renewed annually or biennially as requred by the applicants", 
However only *some* of the pricing tables on the Melbourne IT web pages list
the one year renewal rates (and you have to look hard), with the majority
only listing rates for two year renewals, so I suspect many customers are
unaware that they have the option to renew for one year ($75 list price)
rather than two years ($125 list price) if you wish to only be locked in for
one year. Presumably similar discounts should apply to the
early-registration offer too... 

I wonder whether Melbourne IT provide pro-rata cash back if you change your
name to another DNA? 

Simon
---
Simon Hackett, Technical Director, Internode Systems Pty Ltd
31 York St [PO Box 284, Rundle Mall], Adelaide, SA 5000 Australia
Email: simon§internode.com.au  Web: http://www.on.net
Phone: +61-8-8223-2999          Fax: +61-8-8223-1777