Paul,

>Why is NOIE trying to big-note itself by making such a hoo-hah about the
>GTLD controversy when we have a local domain structure, com.au, which
>desperately needs a kick in the backside? If Paul Twomey is serious
>about local Net ventures, how about getting ADNA to pull its finger out
>and introduce competition (read: local businesses making real Internet
>money) in [insert several commercial domains].au again instead of
>piddling about with pr.au.

Just thought I'd provide an update of ADNA progress
in providing competition in some of the SLDs under .au.
There are a few pre-requisites to enable this to happen:

1. Committment by existing Registrars to support
competition.  So far, they have made that committment on
the not-unreasonable proviso that if they give up their
monopoly, other Registrars also give up their existing
monopoly at the same time.  Speculation that the Registars
"don't really mean it" is..........speculation, and can't
be tested until the following steps are complete.

2. Development of Shared Registry Software (SRS).
Substantial work on this has been done.  Currently a
version is in use and being tested.  Substantial further
work may be required to ensure it meets User Requirements.

3. Development of Registrar Licence Conditions under
which multiple Registrars would operate.  Draft document
is available at:

http://www.adna.asn.au/Documents/RegistrarLicences.html

I have received feedback on the current draft and should
have a revision available in a day or so.

4. Development of a codified, agreed and public policy
for each SLD with multiple registrars.  Most but not all
of this work would be common across SLDs, and that
process is currently being undertaken using .pr.au as a
first example.  The draft document is available at:

http://www.adna.asn.au/Documents/pr.au.html

I have received feedback on the current draft and should
have a revision available tomorrow, plus comments and
my responses posted to dns§iia.net.au list server.

5. Actual implementation.  It may surprise some people,
but going live for the first time with .com.au, a
domain with over 80 percent of Users in the .au
namespace, may not actually be a clever strategy.
Unforseen problems with the SRS, while unlikely, would
affect a critical part of the namespace.

Users have indicated that a requirement for domain names
related to products and services cannot be met from the
current SLDs, so .pr.au is being proposed by ADNA to:

* Meet that User demand
* Be a trial SLD for development of a consistent public
  SLD policy that could be implemented by multiple
  Registrars
* Be the actual 'guinea pig' for the implementation
  of the SRS.

One of the major constraints to progress is lack of
resources.

If anyone would like to discuss the issue further,
may I suggest moving the discussion to the
dns§iia.net.au list server.

For the record, at the NOIE forum yesterday when .au
was under discussion I did raise the issue of NOIE
input.  As ADNA does not currently have support from
everyone in the internet community, I said that NOIE
participation might assist in resolving some
outstanding issues.  The initial response from Paul
Twomey, although I'm sure it was not intended to be the
definitive ex officio response, was that existing government
policy was clearly in favour of self-regulation rather
than government control.  The expectation appears
to be for the internet community to resolve the issues.

Regards, Mark