overview

This profile looks at auDA, the nonprofit body responsible for developing and administering policy regarding the dot-au domain space.

auDA is the national equivalent of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN), discussed in a separate profile. This site includes detailed information about domain names, network issues and governance of cyberspace.

     contents of this profile

This page provides an overview of auDA and its predecessors. The profile includes the following pages:

structure - auDA's constitution, Board and membership structure, administration and challenges

activity - what the organisation's done since its establishment

the new regime - the proposed (as of August 2001) shape of domain administration in dot-au, including registries, registrars, name eligibility and dispute resolution mechanisms

     auDA at a glance

The .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) is a nonprofit company responsible for administration of the dot-au space, i.e. the Australian ccTLD. It is based in Melbourne, with a small staff and a 13 member board of directors (most of whom were elected by the company's members).

It has assumed responsibility from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and operates under Commonwealth telecommunications legislation that reflects the federal government's powers under the Constitution for communications.

It is in the process of developing new policies and introducing competition for the delivery of domain-related services, in particular domain registration.

     predecessors

In the early 1980s Australian universities gained a permanent email connection to ARPANet, the US defence-aligned research network discussed in our profile of the web's evolution. The link reflected development by local universities and the Commonwealth Scientific & Industry Research Organisation of the Australian Computer Science network (ACSnet) and CSIROnet, two private computer networks.

During 1984 the dot-au TLD was delegated by the US to Robert Elz of Melbourne University. That delegation reflected delegation of responsibility to administrators in other national domain spaces, with academic and government institutions in around 240 countries becoming responsible for creating policy and registering domains in their respective spaces. The Commonwealth government was not closely involved, as the net was seen essentially as a noncommercial network under the auspices of what became the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet).

In 1990 he delegated some of his responsibility to Sydney University's Geoff Huston, who handled the 'edu' 2LD and the 'gov' 2LD. Mr Elz developed rules for the various Australian 2LDs and managed the other 2LDs, which included a 'com', 'org', 'oz', 'id', 'otc', 'net', 'telememo' and 'csiro'. During the mid-1990s the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee transferred commercial aspects of AARNet to Telstra. At the same time, in the face of growing demand, Mr Elz delegated administration of the 'net' 2LD and the new 'asn' 2LD to contacts in two ISPs.

Most growth occurred within the 'com' 2LD and in 1996 Mr Elz accordingly delegated responsibility (in the form of a non-exclusive 5 year licence) to a commercial unit of Melbourne University, subsequently floated as Melbourne IT.

During the following year the Australian Domain Name Administration (ADNA) was established as a nongovernment, internet industry body to explore policies for managing the dot-au space. Increasing commercial interest in the net and recognition of its economic significance meant that policy questions received progressively more government attention, particularly since ADNA's authority was not recognised and some of its proposals were strongly criticised.

Work by ADNA was inconclusive and a dot-AU Working Group was established under Commonwealth auspices to develop an organisation that would become responsible for policy development and administration. The target for establishment of that organisation - auDA - was April 1999.

The move reflected introduction of competition in the provision of telecommunication services (accompanied by part-privatisation of Telstra, the former monopoly telco) and an emphasis on industry self-regulation. It also reflected a global trend, away from a small number of skilled technicians and towards more formal - often more consultative - administration by specialist agencies.

A December 1998 media release from the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) indicated that

There is widespread agreement that the current administrative arrangements are no longer appropriate and that the .au domain space should be managed by an Internet self-regulatory body which is responsive and accountable to both the demand and supply sides of the Internet community.

NOIE has agreed to facilitate the creation of a new Internet self-regulatory regime and manage the transfer of authority from Robert Elz to the new regime.

In November 1999 Mr Elz delegated responsibility for the 'com' 2LD, retaining responsibility for the other 2LDs. auDA was established as a company, with an interim board of directors (an election was subsequently held) and individuals or organisations - among them Caslon Analytics - became members.

That development reflected similar changes in many countries, for example establishment of Nominet in the UK and CIRA in Canada. It was articulated in Principles for the Delegation & Administration of Country Code Top Level Domains, a February 2000 letter to the ICANN board from NOIE's CEO as chair of the international Government Advisory Committee (GAC).

auDA is not a government owned corporation and is not established by specific Commonwealth legislation. However its powers and responsibilities are circumscribed by federal law, in particular by the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment Act 2000, which amended the Telecommunications Act 1997 and the Australian Communications Authority Act 1997 regarding responsibilities of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) in relation to electronic addressing.

The expectation is that auDA will act in the national interest, funded by industry (through fees and membership charges) rather than by government. It will develop policy, set and monitor standards but not necessarily deliver all domain-related services. It has accordingly delegated maintenance of the AUNIC domain registry to a commercial service provider.

The following pages describe how it is structured, how it operates, what it has been doing and what the new regime may look like. We feature more detailed analysis of auDA documents and developments in Analysphere, our weekly journal.

     and the dot-au space

As at October 2001 the number of registrations for the dot-au space is

.com.au 229,339

.net.au 17,383

.org.au 7,841

.asn.au 2,532

.id.au 510

   next page  (structure, basis, powers)