Just heading off to Tasmania this morning with my wife, and so I’m writing this brief piece on the way to the airport.
I’m going to be writing a few articles about the auDA AGM over the next few days, but as a first up, I just wanted to say that, in my opinion, the future of the .au domain space is bright. I come to this view after a great AGM yesterday. The difference between previous years and this year was literally chalk and cheese. Questions on everything were allowed and encouraged. No one was shut down. Answers were given – and there was little “ducking and diving”. There was only one unsavoury incident after the election of Directors, and I will be devoting a separate article to that.
There are many members like me that will always hold auDA to account – without fear or favour. But I also think it’s important to acknowledge the good stuff that is happening. So today I just wanted to emphasise as what I see are the positives in the year ahead:
- A Chairman and CEO who have heard loud and clear that communication (and transparency) with members is paramount. I think we will see some significant changes in this regard.
- The CEO is committed to ensuring that before any possible introduction of direct registrations, a full business case study will be undertaken. (The CEO said he was meeting with Deloitte yesterday afternoon).
- Before the upcoming registry contract is put out to tender, the issue of direct registrations (and any implementation thereof) would need to have been sorted out.
- They Board are fully cognisant that there needs to be confidence in the marketplace; and I expect to see several announcements in this regard in the near future.
- As a holder of over 6000 com.au domains, I am genuinely excited about the future – and intend to put my hand up at every opportunity to have input into the how, why and when.
More to follow.
Ned O’Meara – 29th November 2016
Disclaimer
myself and everyone i spoke to agreed it was a very productive and positive AGM.
ned “transparency” should be in bold not brackets ! imo
tim
Whoooooohhhh….look out Ned, the power is turned on….hehehehe
Glad to hear it went well and that due scrutiny is being applied at this important point in AU registry future.
That is excellent news, thank you for the update Ned.
Looking forward to the other AGM articles.
Hope you’re having an awesome time in Tasmania!!
Thanks Nikki – having a great time. 🙂 Sorry I haven’t been donating to your coffers though! 😉 I’m almost getting withdrawal symptoms from not bidding, but at least I’m giving others a free run!
Looking forward to the updates Ned,
“The CEO is committed to ensuring that before any possible introduction of direct registrations, a full business case study will be undertaken. (The CEO said he was meeting with Deloitte yesterday afternoon).”
To me this sounds a bit like the survey that was done, i.e. they are getting advice on whether Auda will make money, the answer to that is obvious (since AUDA will simply collect a whole lot of fees from Austregistry as opposed to actually doing anything) so it needs no case study. Sounds like Auda is once again forgetting it is a non profit rather than a business, it exists to serve the public.
Excellent point Snoopy! But perhaps instead of the commonsense meaning of “a full business case study” to determine viability (cough, cough profitability), auDA’s CEO could have meant, being that auDA is a non-profit whose sole purpose is to promote the objects as laid out in its constitution, including how the organisation can best serve the public’s interest, the purpose of the pending case study could really be to determine what is best for the community (including end-users, businesses and consumers) — This would be contrary to past surveys and media on the matter, which for the most part appear to have had the agenda: how to get away with filling the pockets of a select few Supply members. That is how, until now, this debacle appears to have unfolded to an outsider like me. Anyway, if it is a fair and balanced (impartial) case study that takes all the facts and auDA’s purpose into account, its findings and conclusion should result in a back-flip.
🙂 You can be sure it won’t be that Michael, go with the commonsense meaning of business case study.
@Snoopy
About 5 weeks ago Cameron Boardman phoned me and we had a long chat. I appreciated it. One of the things I mentioned was Edwin Hayward’s article where he had a smack at Nominet. I then sent him this email on the 25th October (you can almost substitute auDA for Nominet!):
Yep the business case study will just be an arse covering exercise. Check the terms of reference for confirmation.
Anyway he’s been told to implement it by the board and that’s what he is going to do.
Interesting, If Deloitte were to green light .au – it would go against its own findings [see, Connected Small Business 2016]
@ small business struggles with access to innovation, innovation funding and digital engagement, [skills and skill development pathways are barriers] implementing a new .au into market that is not rigorously engaged in digital markets is contradicting the market maturity for digital engagement – if anything, auDA would be wiser to work towards Increasing Awareness of internet utilisation for small business rather than, flogging a dead horse for the sake of minority stakeholders like crazydomains and MelbIT that are bound by public offers to pursue profits for investors.
@Scott – that is an amazing find. Do you have a link to it? Or could you email it to me perhaps and I can publish it?
As Ned said great find. I think you’ll soon see Deloitte go against its own findings 🙂
If AUDA is getting a business case study done Deloitte is not going to say anything negative about their own client. I think they’ll simply do a profit analysis, find AUDA is going to make a tonne of money and pat them on the back for coming up with a great idea. AUDA will then use the report as another reason as to why .au should come in, as David said this is an “arse covering exercise”.
I’m not really convinced that new CEO motivations will be any different to the old in terms of outcomes. So far all that I can see is that he is willing to answer questions and speak to people. But he is a politician and that is what he is exactly what he is trained to do, stand in the middle of a room listen to a mob of angry people and tell them he is open to be engaged, that things will change. It does not mean he will actually take any of this stuff on board or that AUDA will somehow morph from a greedy cash machine to something else.
I think registrants are going to be screwed over by AUDA, but in the nicest way possible and we’ll all get some lovely phone calls from them while this is taking place 🙂