] I have a proposal:
] 
] * complete opening of .com.au to all names. The time has now passed to even
] pretend common words are restricted.
] 
] * a new domain space (perhaps firm.au?) which embodies the goal of .com.au.
] All Australian businesses are allocated space within this domain strictly in
] accordance with their business name.

This kind of thing has already been tried - for example plc.uk and ltd.uk.
Hardly anybody uses them, companies prefer co.uk instead.
 
] * The government would meet the cost of running the registrar.

I expect this idea would soon grind to a halt when it collides with the
concept of "user pays" (which you may have noticed is quite popular among
Governments for the last decade or so).  For example in Victoria, Business
Name registration costs about $70.  You seem to be proposing Government do
a fair bit more than just registering business names.

] * Of course, each business has the option to point the domain (including the
] subdomains such as www.) to any servers. They would not create new web pages
] in the majority of circumstances but simply link into their existing
] (www.business.com.au or whatever) site. Other subdomains (ftp., mail., etc.
] could be available free or at a small charge).

Would this domain pointing happen at the time of registration or later?

If its at the time of registration, the person applying for the name
is probably not going to know that kind of information (there are
probably higher priorities like getting a PO Box or office and a
telephone, for most business just being set up).

If it is later, you need to sort out some authentication scheme so
you can tell whether the person putting in DNS servers is somehow
related to the person who registered the business name.  Okay, so
you issue them a password at registration time.  Now what do you
do with the people who lose it (or change it and forget it)?  Even
if its only 5% of businesses, that is a lot of passwords to handle.

] * It becomes easy for the average user to understand that typing:
] 
] maggies-thai.nsw.firm.au
] 
] gets you the nice thai restaurant down the end of the street that you can't
] remember the phone/address/whatever of. Perhaps they have a home delivery
] web page, but at the least you know you'll get their registered business
] address and maybe phone.

If half the businesses aren't online at all, and half of the remainder
think com.au sounds better and don't bother with firm.au, you are going
to get a pretty low strike rate.  That means people won't try it as a
guess very much.  Which means there is not much incentive for business
owners to bother setting it up if they can get a com.au instead.
This is starting to look like a vicious cycle.

] * More costly again, this concept could be extended to a .name.au domain
] space for individuals. I haven't even begun to think about the problems this
] would entail. ari.maniatis.darghan.glebe.nsw.name.au ?????

You mean like id.au?  Except id.au isn't broken up by geography (people
tend to move interstate), instead it uses third level identifiers which are
basically interchangeable.  It's a fairly primitive form of competition,
but not so bad when you consider the alternatives in 1995.
 
] I certainly would not entrust the creation of such a system to private
] enterprise (even if there was money in it).

As far as I know it is only private enterprise which is seeking to set
up `competing' root name servers (in defiance of the IAB Technical Comment
on the Unique DNS Root and many would say common sense).  And that nonsense
seems to be the driving force behind Len Lindon's complaint to the ACCC.
(Perhaps if the ACCC doesn't take him seriously he will decide to set up
his own special ACCC as well, it makes as much sense.)

] I fear that the recent ICANN domains are more about profit
] possibility than utility.

Complaints I've seen about ICANN on TLDs seem to be that there aren't
enough domains like .com for any businesses to register in.  Perhaps it's
just a coincidence that such domains would probably be where registrars
expect to make the most money.

] We certainly need faster action by AuDa than this 12 month committee
] decision making process...

Would you prefer a dictactor/monarch system, with no opportunity for
public participation and input? 

] My $0.03. Flame away.

Sorry about shooting down your proposal.  Nothing personal. 
 
] Ari Maniatis
] 
] -------------------------->
] ish group pty ltd
] 7 Darghan St Glebe 2037 Australia
] phone +61 2 9660 1400   fax +61 2 9660 7400
] email info§ish.com.au
] PGP fingerprint 08 57 20 4B 80 69 59 E2  A9 BF 2D 48 C2 20 0C C8

__________________________________________________________________________
 David Keegel <djk&#167;cyber.com.au>  URL: http://www.cyber.com.au/users/djk/
Cybersource P/L: Unix Systems Administration and TCP/IP network management