AuDA
 | |
| Type: | Non-profit |
| Industry: | Internet |
| Founded: | 1997 |
| Headquarters: | 114 Cardigan Street, Carlton VIC 3053 |
| Country: | Australia |
| Website: | auda.org.au |
| Blog: | blog |
| Key People | |
| Chris Disspain, Chief Executive Officer Tony Staley, Chairman | |
.au Doma- (auDA) is a self-regulatory body, which administers and manages the operations of the Australian .au ccTLD.
History
.au ccTLD
The .au ccTLD was established in 1986 and it was delegated to Robert Elz, a network programmer at the University of Melbourne. He served as manager of .au ccTLD in a volunteer capacity. During his management of the ccTLD, it underwent a tremendous growth. As a result, eleven second-level domains were established under .au, which include asn.au, com.au, conf.au, csiro.au, edu.au, gov.au, id.au, info.au, net.au, org.au, and oz.au.[1]
Australian Domain Name Administration
The Australian Internet community realized that the responsibility of administering the .au ccTLD can no longer be handled by Mr. Elz alone, due to the increasing number of registrants, and decided to establish a private-sector self-regulatory body capable of administering the ccTLD. The new body would be more accountable to the community through the assistance of the Australian government.[2]
In 1997, the Australian Domain Name Administration (ADNA) was formed to ensure the operations of a functional Internet naming system in Australia for the .au domain. However,the ADNA Board eventually concluded that organization did not have the necessary authority to effectively operate and be accountable to the local Internet community. They decided to seek the assistance of the Australian National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) and the Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts to facilitate the development of an effective Internet industry self-regulatory body and to supervise the transfer of delegation for the administration of the .au domain space to the new organization.[3]
.auDA
In 1999, the .au Domain Administration was created after the Australian government, through the NOIE, agreed to help in developing a self-regulatory body to assume the responsibilities of Mr. Elz to manage the .au ccTLD. Mr. Elz sub-delegated to auDA on November 15, 1999. In October, 2000, .auDA submitted a comprehensive report that the organization met the objectives necessary to receive government endorsement to assume the responsibilities to manage the .au ccTLD. By December, 2000, Sen. Richard Alston, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts formally endorsed auDA as the appropriate entity to administer of the .au ccTLD.[4]
Role of auDA
As the administrator and manager of the .au ccTLD, auDA performs the following functions:[5]
- Develop and implement domain name policy
- License 2LD registry operators
- Accredit and license registrars
- Implement consumer safeguards
- Facilitate the .au Dispute Resolution Policy
- Represent .au during ICANN meetings & activities as well as in other international Internet organizations
.auDA and ICANN
On May 28, 2001, .auDA requested IANA to re-delegate the .au ccTLD to the organization and subsequently, on June 18th, 2001, Chris Disspain, auDA's CEO, asked the Australian government through Senator Alston to communicate its endorsement to ICANN.[6]
On July 4th, 2001, Senator Alston wrote to ICANN and formally confirmed the Australian government's endorsement to auDA as the new organization responsible in managing the .au ccTLD.[7]
On October 25, 2001, ICANN approved the redelegation of the .au ccTLD to .auDA under a sponsorship agreement.[8]
Membership
auDA is a member of the APTLD.
auDA Foundation
In 2005, auDA established the auDA Foundation, a charitable trust to promote and encourage educational and research activities that will enhance the utility of the Internet for the benefit of the Australian community. The foundations objectives include:[9]
- Provision of open scholarships and prize funds to encourage and reward academic and applied excellence
- Funding of pure and applied research including academic positions and the publication of results for the benefit of the Australian community
- Funding of community demonstration projects and the publication of results for the benefit of the Australian community
- Funding of public education and awareness initiatives through all relevant mediums and institutions