auDA boss: Public interest before politics
Summary Description The new domain name registration body's CEO tells Newswire how he will tackle the job.
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Roullas Top10 Simon Vandore

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Editorial InformationArticle Location http://www.newswire.com.au/0002/audabos.htm
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Story Group 000213
Post Date 11/02/2000 02:14 PM Status Posted Entered by Simon Vandore on 09/02/2000 01:14 PM


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Introduction
As the new regulatory body for Australian domain name registration practices, auDA aims to introduce competition and dispute resolution into '.com.au' domain allocation.

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Last Friday auDA appointed Joseph O'Reilly as its new CEO (see story). O'Reilly was previously executive director of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties and president of the Victorian AIDS Council. He stood down from these positions before running as a Labor candidate in last year's Victorian state election.
Newswire caught up with O'Reilly earlier this week to find out his priorities.
You're going to be introducing a competitive model for domain name registration. When's that happening?
That'll happen over the course of the next 12 months. The first thing that we need to do is develop a competition policy framework. There are a variety of ways that could be configured and so we've got to go through the process where we establish what the framework's going to be before we actually introduce competition.
How long will it take to work that out?
We're giving ourselves between eight and 12 months for the policy development process and for bedding down the model.
You are also in charge of creating a process to resolve disputes over domain names. Is there a schedule for that?
Much the same schedule really, although I think that will be a little sooner. Although one of the areas of dispute is in fact a policy-related area which is about name allocation, and so the first-order issue there is a policy development process around the allocation of domain names. And once that's been achieved, we'll be able to move on and create a dispute resolution scheme which is linked to the policy.
auDA is taking over from people like Robert Elz and Geoff Huston, who've done a lot of work and have been real Internet figures in Australia. Sometimes people like Robert Elz have come in for a lot of flak -- what's your opinion on that?
I think we're seeing massive change in the industry. And any change process is difficult and it often involves people who've been involved in it being criticised. But having said that, I think that both Robert and Geoff are kind of the forefathers of the Internet in Australia and really do deserve a lot of admiration and support for the sort of work they've done. They are in the process of handing it over, and that's going to be a challenging process as well. But hopefully one of the things that we will deliver is stability, certainty and efficiency in terms of the services that we offer.
Do you think it's been a difficult process handing it all over? It's taken us a lot longer than the US and meanwhile there's been controversy, and Melbourne IT has been accused of exploiting its monopoly.
Look, I think that slow and steady wins the race, although we do have to make sure that we are up-to-date. I'm not too anxious about having taken as long as we have. The task is doing it well, and that's the task that falls to me now.
The Internet used to be all about non-profit and helping each other out. Now everything's about '.com' and doing business online. Do you think the Internet of today is a better place or a bit too much of a shark pool?
I think it's a different place to where it started. But aren't we all? The community is, and as individuals we also grow and develop. But the reality is in terms of a change process, yes, the Internet was a creature of community-based organisations, often dominated by not-for-profits and cause-related activities. What we saw was the extension of that into other areas like education, and now massive growth in ecommerce. And that really is a big intrusion into the traditional Internet domain. And it's something which has to be mediated and that's one of the things which we are charged with doing. That is, trying to find the best public interest outcome for the Internet so that it can continue to do the sorts of not-for-profit, public interest activities that it pioneered. But also facilitate commerce and business. And they're different but not necessarily mutually exclusive objectives.
You have a background in civil liberties, you've been involved with local councils, the Victorian AIDS Council, public health advisory bodies and so on. [O'Reilly was also ALP candidate for the seat of Prahran in last year's Victorian state election, and ran for the Australian Republican Movement in the Constitutional Convention ballot.] Do you think the Internet industry, being a strongly capitalist environment, will see you as a bit of a leftie?
I don't think so. I think that one of the things is that I've got a really broad background in public policy, having been involved in all of the things that you mentioned, but also some like the National Public Health Partnership, they're important statutory bodies which are charged with very important tasks. And it is about bringing various interests together and looking for public interest outcomes, where the interest serves the most people in the best possible way. And I certainly think that kind of framework needs to be applied to the Net.
Anything else you'd like to say about yourself that hasn't been put out in media releases?
[Laughs] I've said enough! No, not really. It's a great opportunity. I'm already enjoying it and I'm looking forward to the new developments that will be occurring. And it is a vast part of Australia's infrastructure, it hasn't been regulated to date in a corporate sense. Regulation's only occurred from people like Robert Elz and Geoff Huston exercising their own personal discretion. And we do need to bring a more open, transparent process to bear on that and being part of it's going to be fascinating.


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auDA appoints boss

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Bulletin SummaryauDA boss: Public interest not politics
Last Friday the domain name body appointed Joseph O'Reilly as its new CEO. O'Reilly was previously executive director of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties and president of the Victorian AIDS Council. He stood down from these positions before running as a Labor candidate in last year's Victorian state election. Newswire caught up with O'Reilly earlier this week to find out his priorities.

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auDA: Public interest not politics

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