"One day a rooster, the next day a feather duster!"
By AFILIAS | 5 July 2018
The transition of .au to the new Afilias system in Australia happened last weekend according to plan: no interruption of service to end users and minimal disruption to registrars. By all accounts, this historic event is a testament to auDA’s vision and determination to fulfill the goals of the project. Continue reading “Setting the record straight about Afilias Australia’s new .au service”
By LAURIE PATTON | 3 July 2018
As I’ve written previously, the Australian Government has given auDA – the company managing our Internet domain names – three months to develop new processes to redress historical weaknesses in its governance. The organisation has been mired in controversy in recent years. For quite some time, though, it had been seen as a tightly held fiefdom under the control of a board of directors elected from within the industry and fraught with conflicts of interest.
auDA brought in a team of external facilitators to run a member consultation session. Only about a dozen people showed up in person and about the same number attended online. This suggests to me that claims of widespread disquiet among the auDA constituency might be a tad overblown. Continue reading “auDA latest – All quiet on the western front (for now, at least)”
By auDA | 1 July 2018
The .au name space was transformed overnight with the seamless transition of 3.1 million domain names to a new registry and national domain name infrastructure. Continue reading “Australia’s .au name space transformed with new registry operator”
By LAURIE PATTON | 26 June 2018
Next week the group attempting to oust board directors at Internet domain names authority auDA will have an opportunity to explain in detail the reasons for their concern and their solutions.
The setting will be a meeting convened by auDA’s new Consultation Model Working Group and the venue is Melbourne’s La Trobe University – with the ability to join in online, as you’d expect from such an organisation. Continue reading “Showdown looming in domain names battle”
By LAURIE PATTON | 23 June 2018
It’s time we did something about the ‘keyboard cowards’ who post false and/or defamatory comments on social media.
The Australian newspaper recently reported Kerry Stokes, chairman of Australia’s largest commercial television network, calling for laws “preventing Facebook and other Internet media companies from publishing defamatory and false allegations with impunity”.
The paper notes that Stokes recently mounted a four-year-long defamation case against an online blogger, quoting him saying: “Everyone is vulnerable to nefarious material being published about them… It is time for governments to act to protect their citizens, creating similar laws that traditional publishers and broadcasters comply with every day”. Continue reading “#NoAnonymousSledging – Time to clean up the Internet?”
By LAURIE PATTON | 22 June 2018
In my opinion, the NBN will not be completed until everyone has access to fast, reliable broadband. On that basis the rollout will take us well beyond the current projected deadline of 2020. What’s worse, it will end up having cost more than the original 2009 version and far more than then communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was told to expect when he adopted his so-called multi-technology mix model.
The people who advised the Government back in 2013 are the ones to blame. They recommended using Telstra’s ageing copper (FTTN) network – but even worse, they failed to consider the run-down state of the Telstra and Optus HFC (Pay TV) networks. Optus HFC has been totally abandoned and Telstra HFC is in need of much repair. Both the FTTN and HFC decisions are at the heart of NBN Co’s current dilemma. Continue reading “NBN: Won’t be finished on time. Simple as that!”
By LAURIE PATTON | 20 June 2018
The ABC earns around $100 million a year from its commercial activities (mainly ABC shops). Its annual operating budget is more than a billion dollars.
The organisation would not exist without the triennial funding provided by taxpayers (not by Treasurer Scott Morrison, who this week ludicrously claimed that he funded the ABC). You can’t privatise a business that doesn’t make a profit. So let’s call the demand from last weekend’s Liberal Party conference for what it really is – effectively a proposal to close the ABC and sell off its assets, the prime of which would be its broadcast spectrum. Continue reading “ABC – You can’t privatise an organisation that doesn’t make a profit!”
By JOHN MENADUE | 19 June 2018
There are six major issues that dominate public life today and require resolution. Those issues are: the dire consequences following the Iraq invasion, tax cuts during the mining boom that result in continuing budget deficits and debt increases, the threat of climate change and increased carbon pollution, the NBN debacle, hostility to refugees and asylum seekers, and problems with foreign influence and political donations which are producing an anti-Chinese sentiment. Continue reading “Six major issues that dominate public life today and require resolution”
By LAURIE PATTON | 18 June 2018
.au Domain Administration Limited, commonly known as auDA, has announced a significant growth in membership, with a record 955 new members being admitted at a board meeting earlier today.
auDA is charged with overseeing domain names allocation in Australia. Continue reading “auDA membership grows as reform process takes shape”
by AFILIAS | 17 June 2019
This article addresses the technical portion of the .au Registry Transformation Project. In today’s post, we address our philosophy of continuous improvement.
One of the benefits Afilias brings as the new registry operator for .au is its pedigree of working with registrars on continuously improving the registry. Continue reading “Afilias brings continuous improvement to .au”