>
>Sorry Gary - what is the question? If it is how do we proceed from here, I 
>would suggest that something like acn.au, with a completely different mode of 
>operation would be an interesting first step. As Simon has already said, the 
>advantage of this particular domain (and I realise that it doesn't solve all 
>problems) is that there can be *no* argument or discussion about entries 
>therein, and an extremely effective search tool can be implemented directly by 
>the ASC (or at least from their public information). As I have said before, 
>this is not a complete solution to the problem, however I would suggest that 
>there is *no* single solution and this would be a useful alternative approach 
>that is worth exploring.
>

... and just to underscore this, we (Hugh and I) stand ready to provide the
resources to implement acn.au if we can get it approved by Robert Elz. I
don't think there is any actual objection from Robert to our ideas here,
other than a probable belief that noone would use it. No loss there if we
try and fail - that's what the Internet is about - *doing* things.

It would form a decent example of a domain that "just plain worked", and if
nobody cared - well, there would be no damaging effects from this either.

Consider that most business cards in Australia already contain the ACN (I
think they might have to as a legal requirement for that matter). Consider
being able to derive a domain name for that company directly from that ACN.
Consider that in ADDITION to whatever other domains the company has, as a
backstop which "always works" based on the business card in your drawer.

We (Hugh and I) suspect we could full automate a lot of this by using
electronic copies of the ASC database, which are likely to be obtainable
from the ASC as they are effectively a public register.

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