George Michaelson wrote:
> Read the IAHC report Skeeve. all new gTLD need to be shared. anternic and
> related people don't get an exclusive. Your au.web might be visible, but it
> might not if the policy issues for .web dictate otherwise.

The report is extremely interesting.  4 domain administrators are to be
set up in each of seven global regions: North America, Latin America
(which includes South America), West Europe, East Europe plus the CIS,
the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.  The groupings seem a little strange
when you consider the relevant spread of Internet users.  I mean, four
for the Middle East and four for the whole of Asia??!

These administrators would eventually have control over every
international domain.  The technical issues are a nightmare, I'm sure.

Added to this is the fact that administrators need to have a liquidity
of at least half a million dollars US to compete for a spot.  THis might
be the biggest stumbling block for an organisation like AlterNIC.  Is
there such a body in Australia that is independent and free from
commercial pressures?

The language of the report is tentative at times, as this passage shows:

    The choices include a sampling of names, some of which are highly
    non-specific and others of which give substantive indication of the
activity
    in which the named organization engages. At this point in time, it
is not
    clear what types of names will prove popular and the IAHC feels that
a
    mixture of names will permit useful exploration by the community.
Later
    choices will reflect experience gained from this set.

The IAHC is playing dice with the universe.  What can the IntIAA's DNS
taskforce do now?  Are they irrelevant after all this restructuring?  Is
everyone going to migrate to au.web instead of com.au or biz.au?  Skeeve
would hope so ;-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Montgomery, Internet Journalist for Computer Week - APN Computing
E: monty§apnpc.com.au    Ph: +61 2 9936 8793    Fax: +61 2 9955 8871
------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS I'm not sure about this de-lurking business, with me being a
journalist and all, so please excuse me if I don't reply.