After the New 2LDs Advisory Panel, I was interested in participating in a larger auDA panel, so I applied for the 2010 Names Policy Panel. I has previously applied and nearly been accepted for the 2007 Names Policy Panel and was nearly selected, but was dropped at the last minute. I’m happy I had the chance to participate this time, although I initially found the size and constituent of the panel to be intimidating. As with the New 2LDs Panel, I learnt a lot about the processes and different ways people would negotiate and push their agendas. Being one of the younger panel members, I found a few of the conversations centred around events that happened while I was still in high school. I often found it frustrating, because the panel had stakeholders representing groups with opposing agendas, there were minimal changes proposed that would please everybody and a lot of changes proposed that would only please a few.

In terms of the outcomes the panel achieved, below is a quick summary:

• Retain the requirement for Registrants to be Australian (or be registered to trade within Australia).
• Improve clarify of definition for eligibility criteria in .org.au and .asn.au TLDs.
• Publish compliance audit results.
• Allow 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 year registration terms.
• Publish auDA’s position on 3rd party rights and leasing.
• Release single letter domains.
• Expand .id.au to allow hobby and special interest registrations.
• Do not allow direct registrations under .au.
• Retain and update Reserved List policy to ensure consistency with Commonwealth legislation.
• Keep states and territories on reserved list but review if permission granted by relevant state/territory government body.
• Abolish the monetisation policy, then alter the Eligibility & Allocation Policy to include monetisation as a close & substantial connection, and to expand the definition of monetisation to include permissible practices.
• Keep the misspellings policy as it is now.

It will be interesting to see how these recommendations make their way into policies over the coming months. I am also wondering whether the auDA board will accept the 1-5 year registration terms, having previously rejected similar proposals in the past.

In 2009 – 2010, I participated in auDA’s New 2LDs Advisory Panel. The purpose of the panel was to review submissions for new second level domain names in the .au name space and to consider re-activating info.au and .conf.au. It was the first panel I participated in, and I learnt a lot about the panel process. The primary outcomes were that the panel recommended future panels be given discretion to complete their own research with respect to new 2LD proposals, that .blog.au not be accepted, that .event.au not be accepted, and not to re-activate .conf.au or .info.au. The outcomes were a little disappointing (ie – maintain status quo), but there wasn’t enough industry support to justify introduction or re-activation of new TLDs in the open .au space.