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.au's Reclusive Administrator Elz Deposed
Disco Stu writes: "The Sydney Morning Herald has the following story: 'The reclusive programmer Mr Robert Elz has lost control of Australia's domain name system to a private-sector body after the Federal Government rejected his request for the Government to take over the custodianship instead.' I've had to wait months for this guy to get around to approving domains in the past ... but I still can't decide if this is good or not." Sounds bad to me -- or at least Elz sounds good, principled and unconventional.
Asking THIS federal govt to take responsibility for something which could be flogged off to some mates... you've got to be pulling my chain!
Deposed by reason of insanity perhaps.
Buckets,
pompomtom
"There's an exception to every rule. Except for some rules"
Aussie seems to have some wierd internet policies. First the pass big brotherish computer laws that basically allow computer spying, and now the refusal to maintain the .au domain system. I think this improper management of the internet gives greater calling for some global standards.. ones better than ICANN
But, then, does it really matter much anyway? .com.au doesn't seem like prime internet real-estate anyway and there are more TLDs on the way, as well as numerous "slightly used" .com domains.
The words: obstructionist, rude, arrogant, overbearing (and others that are unprintable) have all been used to describe Elz.
Whatever people may like to think about Elz and his policies (some of which were good), the fact of the matter is that the Internet is not (and hasn't been for several years) a private little network which can be run by an academic with no connection to the real world.
Whether we like it or not, the Internet is an essential tool for many businesses, organisations and people - it is completely unacceptable that it could take months for register a
As far as I am concerned, and I'm pretty sure anyone who has had to liase with Elz would agree - it's a case of good riddance.
After reading Timothy's comment, I realised that he has no idea why Elz is detested by people who need to register or transfer .org.au domains.
.org.au transfer to occur ... if Elz felt like it ... sometimes it could take months. And if you got into an argument with Elz, you could forget about anything happening to your domain request for months and months.
.org.au, it is his responsibility to provide a certain level of service - he didn't do this and is therefore a hinderance to the further development of the Internet industry in Australia - good riddance Elz.
Let's face reality, the Internet is no longer a simple little network which is a curiosity. For many business/organisations/people, it is an essential part of their operations.
The problem with Elz is not so much his policies, but his attitude and response times. It often took a couple of weeks for a
And if it was a once off case, people could turn a blind eye to the problem - but it wasn't a once off case. Ask anyone who actively has to deal with Elz on a regular basis and you will most likely hear a story of frustration and irritation.
So, ignore the high moral ground that Elz has staked out by refusing to profit from the IPO of MelbourneIT - frankly I couldn't care if he did or not - the real reason Elz is detested is because as the domain administrator for
At least its a little more appropriate...
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
This guy did the whole .au domain authority without making any money? He should of started a business off the get go. The best way to make the rules is to be the one in power, and now he is force to hand the keys to the kingdom over to IANA.
The SMH link was down, check out the Australian IT news site out.
ICANN said that as Internet names increasingly had commercial value, decisions could not be made on an ad hoc basis by individuals that were not formally accountable.
Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black. What was ICANN's reason for now allowing the TLD iii? "It looks too difficult to pronouce." And who exactly is ICANN accountable to? Well...oh yeah, that's right no one.
Give me a break. When was the last time there was a problem with the way this guy was running things? When was the last time you read a story about some lame cybersquatting issue from AU? I don't think I've ever seen one. And, to close with another adage...if it isn't broke, don't fix it.
- JoeShmoe
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
Domain registration / administration in australia sucks. I'm happy about any change in who's in charge, it'd have to be really shitful to be any worse than Elz. Apart from the attitude, and delays that have been posted about here by others, the .au policy is downright terrible. You can't have any domain that's in the dictionary, or any suburb name as listed as having a postcode in the white pages. This basically means that no businesses can get their own name, making domain names redundant since you can't as easily guess them, and it's harder for clients to remember something that's not very similar to your business name, or just too damned long which is the approach many australian businesses have taken.
Now if we could only do something about the BAS.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Given the fights between ICANN and the ccTLDs about funding, isn't there a conflict of interest in ICANN being able to review the appointment of ccTLD managers?
Yeah... deregulation and privatisation is the only way to go if you want better and faster service. Just look how smoothly the UK railways work now years after the privatisation.
*rolls eyes*
is it really to hard to read the posts?
Fascinating though your comments on Austria are, this thread is not about Austria, it's about Australia.
I think if you link to old slashdot articles you should link to the part with all the comments.
h tm l
9 24 8
;P
so instead of linking to:
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/12/19/0729248.s
you should link to:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/19/072
This makes it easier for those of us without karma to copy and paste one of the +5 insightful comments to the current discussion and thereby gleaning a little karma for ourselves. Or instead the insightful comments, someone could link to this comment and get modded +1 funny.
I'd suggest you read IANA's report which is a lot more comprehensive than the media reports.
.au at heart and I think this is a very positive move.
.au are already available on the Internet and were formed through open public processes earlier in the year. The primary result will be competition in the domain registration area. Currently the domains under .au (com.au, net.au) etc are run by parallel monopolies, but this will be opened up to a competitive environment under the plan. The competition report is here.
The news article says it is a private-sector body, but it is an open body formed of stakeholders including domain registrars, users, and Internet organisations (e.g. the Internet Society and Electronic Frontiers are on the board).
I am on the board of auDA, elected as a user representative. I am not from a registrar or any commercial interest. I can say that everyone has the best interests of
auDA's plans for
So he needs to pick and assistant, or a couple of them. If no one is faulting his decision-making then he seems like the right person to choose a replacement/supplement.
.au domain seems a choice between being ruled by an understanding and benevolent monarch or by democracy where only businesses got to vote. Not being Australian, I had no idea what the former is really like, but I know what the latter is like and I can't imagine anything worse.
I don't see the value in bringing a for-profit enterprise + ICANN bureaucracy into it. If one guy has been doing it since 1986 it can't possible require more than two or three.
My point was that from what I can tell, it seems that the cure is worse than the disease. What good is getting that domain right away if it gets taken two weeks later by some big corporation that considers it a trademark violation and has the money to drag you through a long drawn-out arbitration process?
To me, the decision to privatize/ICANNize the
- JoeShmoe
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
I'd like to speak in support of Mr Elz.
.com instead of .com.au because the au was just too hard to get. My wife owns the company but we wanted a different name because the company has changed in nature (from dtp to web animation). The registered name didn't suit.
.com. It is bloody hard to get a .com.au. You have to show company papers and everything. To have a .au is a sign of respect in Australia and I think that it should stay that way. It is only because of Robert Elz that this exists. Now that he is gone we are going to see names like sexsexsex.com.au and godownonyourgoodtimebuddy.com.au. Terrific...not!
I am Australian and I share a company with my wife. We use
Anyone can have a
You don't live in Australia (mostly) but it is important to us to be proud and do things right. We make mistakes and our government (all parties fellers) does everything to make us seem like mental midgets. We still want to rise above our politicians and rise above our organistations who are a bunch of sycophants. Want to contribute as an equal partner to the world knowledge despite our IT organisations and despite our politicians.
We think that we belong in the larger world but the people that we would have respected forty years are the ones who make us a laughing stock. Australians stand proud by the acts of individuals and are ashamed by the people who represent those individuals.
Thank you Robert Elz. We respect what you have done and are grateful for your legacy.
If Mr. Elz no longer has the .au domain, I say he should get .Elz to rule as he pleases! All those for, say ".Aye!"
Canada had a similar arrangement as Australia it would appear, with registrations happening through a guy at Simon Fraser University. Things could be very frustrating registering .ca domains; many people just gave up and went .com. Anyway, eventually they shifted control to a .com arrangement (more deregulation, really) and things are now very easy to register .ca. So I think the Aussies will find that this is a good thing.
I've met very few people for whom money *really* doesn't matter at all to them. kre was one of them.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Not one post has bothered to note Elz served the Aussie internet for FREE for many years without credit.
.org.au nazi like policies and repsonse times upset a lot of ppl, it did get the job done.
.org.au domain, then hiring Melbourne IT students to sit outside Elz's door day after day demanding it be done NOW, till he delegates the domain. What would you do? Where does it stop? These are the ppl/orgs he has had to deal with over the years on a regular basis.
.org.au namespace in responsible hands. auDA will never be able to provide the same service Elz has. Sure they claim to be non-profit, but that's also how the .com.au space started, which has now degraded into a $ driven "if you have enough money, you can get any domain regardless of the policies" domain.
.org.au was managed in the way it was.
While his
You too would have the same attitude to idiots who go full-house into an advertising campaign only to forget about securing a
Anyone who took the time to realize this was a free service, showed a little courtesy and got their nameservers setup correctly the first time got there domain delegated on time.
It's a real pitty Senator Alston and his Liberal government cronies have failed to keep the
So before anyone else decides get on the "BAG Elz wagon", take a minute to think why the
Rob.
www.area51.org.au
Area51 - We are watching...
Truth: auDA is not a private body. It is a government institued body, funded by (well, this bit needs to be worked out, as per Southpark's "1. Underpants 2. ? 3. Profit!")
kre, despite the incredibly long times it takes him to register .org.au, is actually a good bloke if you've met him. He's active in NetBSD development, and has a fair enough reason to dislike the media, as blatent unresearched and unprofessional misrepresentations like this prove.
However, it is time to move on. munnari served Australia well, but now its time to have technical standards, high availability, consumer and privacy protection. auDA, through the names and competition panel have made these changes. kre had the opportunity to do so through his agreements with the various registries, but didn't. auDA will be forcing the issue.
auDA has gone through two (and a bit) very open, accountable and public processes to determine what's right for the future. I think if you read our reports, the membership of each of the panels, how auDA's board is constructed, and contrast them to the kre way, there's a lot of change, but not a lot of philosophical change. But where there is change, it is for the better.
For example, we recommended:
Read our reports to find out what we've changed. The executive summary is fairly accurate in each, so it shouldn't tax you terribly.
Unlike most of you, I've had the chance to have lunch with kre, and he is no ogre. I publically thank kre for his stewardship of .au and the fostering of the Internet in Australia. But I also think it's time for .au to move into modern times.
Andrew van der Stock
Oh, yeah -- I can just see trying to get all Australians and Austrians who already have nationalistic domain names to switch over to a new suffex! One of my former employers is relinquishing it's old Domain name next month. They started hounding customers to switch their email addresses almost 2 years ago (they're an ISP). They are STILL fighting to get people to switch.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
It will be interesting to see if any australians challenge this action by filing an ICANN reconsideration request during the next
I have a blog.
if it could drive from Australia to southern Germany... or any part of Germany