Board Minutes - 14 August 2006
Public Version
Meeting of the .au Domain Administration Board
14 August 2006 - 1.00pm
Maddocks. Level 7, 140 William Street. Melbourne VIC 3000
Present:
Greg Crew, Chris Disspain, Brett Fenton, David Goldstein, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Jo Lim, Bennett Oprysa, Peter Shilling and Tony Staley
Observers:
Brenton Thomas (DCITA)
Apologies:
Roger Dean, Josh Rowe and Greg Watson
1. Continuous Disclosure
There were no matters to be disclosed.
2. Confirmation of Minutes
The minutes of the June 2006 meeting were confirmed.
3. EGM Results
All resolutions put to members were carried (refer to EGM Minutes). The changes to the constitution take immediate effect.
Action: Representative Association members to be notified of changes to their membership.
4. Finance Report
The board noted the July accounts.
5. CEO Report
The following issues were noted:
• Market share statistics
auDA has provided an annual report to ACMA as part of its telecommunications industry performance report. The market share statistics included in the annual report will be published to registrars later this month, and the full report to ACMA will be included in auDA’s AGM report.
• Domain drops
AusRegistry experienced service degradation during July caused by some registrars performing excessive create commands in an attempt to register a number of high-value domain names that were policy deleted by auDA.
This raises two issues:
o Technical – AusRegistry is drafting an acceptable use policy that governs how registrars connect to the registry, and is also considering technical solutions for handling increased registry load when high-value domains drop.
o Policy – within the current review of the Domain Expiry, Renewal and Deletion Policy, auDA is considering ways of handling deleted domain names that would ensure a level playing field among registrars.
• auDA recruitment
auDA has advertised for a compliance officer to assist in complaints-handling and general administration.
6. DCITA Review of .au
Senator Helen Coonan, Minister for Communications, IT and the Arts, wrote to TS in July inviting auDA to participate in a proposed review of the .au environment. Further details of the review, including terms of reference, are to be announced by the Minister at a later date.
The board was advised that Brenton Thomas and Don Williams have replaced Ashley Cross and Andrew Maurer as government observers.
7. Policy Development
• Advisory Panel on name policy
The board agreed to delay further action on the Advisory Panel until the terms of reference of the DCITA review have been announced, in case of potential conflict and confusion between the two processes.
• Other scheduled policy reviews
auDA is currently conducting a review of the Domain Expiry, Renewal and Deletion Policy. Reviews of the auDRP and legacy 2LDs conf.au and info.au are also scheduled to commence before the end of the year. The board agreed that the next consideration of new 2LD proposals should be delayed until after the Advisory Panel and DCITA review have been completed.
• edu.au
The Sub-Sponsorship Agreement with AICTEC has been extended to 31 March 2007. auDA staff met with eDAC in July to discuss next steps for introducing policy changes to edu.au.
8. auDA Foundation Report
The Foundation has received 51 grant applications totalling $818,000 in funding, of which 33 applications have been shortlisted for further consideration. The Foundation board expects to announce the first round of grant recipients in October.
9. auCD Report
Community geographic domain names (CGDNs) were officially launched in Sydney on 8 August. The national launch is being followed up by a roadshow to all capital cities during August. auCD has received 13 CGDN applications to date, one of which has also applied for the optional “site in a box” product.
10. Membership Applications
The members below were approved in the classes indicated:
Kamdha Pty Ltd (Demand)
J B Duncan Pty Ltd (Demand)
Ronald Burnstein (Demand)
Brendan Lewis (Demand)
11. Board Correspondence
Correspondence from Senator Coonan was noted under agenda item 6.
12. Other Business
• ICANN Marrakech Meeting
TS advised that he attended the ICANN Marrakech meeting in July. He noted the important role played by Australia at ICANN, in particular by CD as chair of the ccNSO.
• Registry IDN upgrade
BO advised that some registrars have raised objections to the proposed registry upgrade to accommodate IDN hosts and contacts. CD advised that the upgrade is mandated in the registry technical specification, which was drafted by auDA’s technical committee and released for public comment prior to the registry tender last year.
Action: CD to conduct further discussions with AusRegistry and registrars about the IDN upgrade.
13. Next Meeting
The next board meeting will be held on Monday 9 October at 10.30am.