Giles Donovan wrote:
> 
> >    aust.com
> >    au.com
> >    au.tm
> 
> Rick, I understand your concerns about confusion over the name spaces that
> are springing up.

I ain't the one that's confused! The general lay public is. Take it from
me, one in the business. I run an ISP. I talk to the punters.


> Australia already has over 10 name spaces under .au, and
> is introducing another 2 for trademarks and products. The international
> name spaces will also be rising in number to 10. It's all getting a bit
> confusing , but the Internet is getting no less popular and demand for new
> name spaces will go on ad infinitum.

No, the ABOVE stuff isn't all getting confusing in the least bit.
The 2LD's in Austrlia are very clearly and quite simply stated
as follows:

	.com.au
	.org.au
	.net.au
	.gov.au
	:
	:

See tha pattern? xxxx.au ... belongs to the Austrlian 2LD.
And, quite amazingly enough, with a few notable exceptions
like co.uk or ab.ca, the same system applies world wide!

Amazing: .xxx.CC where CC=country code. Couldn't get much
simpler than that. Not confusion whatsover. Most people
understand it wihtin minutes of being told ;-)

<diversion>

The reason for this DNS system and its inherent simplicity?
Network and logical hierarchical organisation. Here are
some of the things the DNS is NOT:

- the DNS is NOT a disorganised mishmash of conflicting
  commercial concerns each trying to get a bigger slice of
  the DNS registration pie (although I wonder sometimes!)
- the DNS is NOT a database of companies on the net 
- the DNS is NOT a product identification system

But the DNS is the following things:

- mnemonic memory device since people remember names
  better than numbers
- a HIERARCHICAL system which in a funny way parallels   
  the IP addressing scheme, but for different reasons

The hierarchy is there for a reason: logical organisation.
Thus, the component name parts that make up a domain name
are clearly in ascending order of generality:

  games.minitech.com.au

  games:     a host machine
  minitech:  a company
  com:       all companies
  au:        in Australia
  games.minitech.com.au

or even better:

  dpws.nsw.gov.au

  dpws:      Dept Public Works & Services
  nsw:       IN the state of NSW
  gov:       IN the government
  au:        IN Australia

The following construct is baffling, to say the least:

  mycompany.subcontractor.au.com

  mycompany  the intention here is to somehow
             piggyback on someone else's domain (silly, really)
  subcontractor  is someone registered in the .com domain
                 I guess!
  au         in australia
  com        what-the-f? 

You may snear at the above example, but it will happen.
BUT! Just because you can do something with the DNS,
doesn't mean you should ;-)

</diversion>


And in the near future, the following additions to the Australian
domain space can only be described as clear, unambiguous and rather
natural to follow, even for lay people:

	.tm.au		Ah, the trademarks domain
	.web.au		Uh huh ... web sites
	.firm.au	Hmmm .. business firms

With this well-established, and readily recognised STANDARD
system, even a neophyte would not have trouble with any of the
following:

	toyota.com.au     ah, a company called Toyota is on the net
	dot.net.au        a network provider called Dot [ until recently,
                          -- now .net.au has opened the floodgates! ]
	sites.r.us.web.au  ah, a Web publishing house

etc.etc.

No confusion there, Giles.

The problem arises with such atrocities as:

	.au.com     Huh? Yank domain? International? Whatizziit?!?
	            viz. aol.com.au VS aol.au.com

	.aust.com   Ditto ... and NON portable!

	.au.tm      Huh? Turkmenistan has a company called "au" regist...
                    wait a minute .. it's got Australia regis ... huh?
I''m lost

	donuts.r.us.au.tm  oh yeah.. you might laugh now .. but ... it'll
happen!

Sad, isn't it. 

 
> au.com is being introduced to meet demand for a more flexible Australian
> domain, and to address the lack of available domains in the .com name
> space. PISP's will be able to offer their customers a variety of options,
> explain the merits of them all, and let the customer decide. The customer
> gets choice and that can't be bad.

au.com is being introduced to make quick bucks ;-)

BTW: how on earth can the customer decide? They wouldn't have a clue.
I've been registering domains for three years now for heaps of different
firms, and I'd say under 10% understand the DNS. These customers are NOT
the
kind of people equipped with knowledge and networking experience that
can ask
intelligent questions like:

   - can I move MY domain name to other servers whenever I chose?
   - will my 2LD be guaranteed to be operating two years from now?
   - will I be forced into paying exhorbitant prices in the future
     for my domain name?
   - is the 2LD authority server of sufficient capacity and grunt
     and connected to a big enough pipe to provide a good enough
     level of response to clients of the domains that are in the 2LD?
     [sure hope it's not a dinky NT box!]
   - can the security of the authoritative domain server be trusted
     i.e. can it be compromised? [ thinking of NT again, sorry ]

amongst many other questions I sure the list will be asking about this.

Giles, you've given me the doublespeak "Bill Gates" style answer of
"I'm providing a needed service that the public wants" when in reality 
you've never even asked the public what it wants. You couldn't have,
since
they wouldn't even know :-(


Regards to the list,
Rick Welykochy