Community domain name policy development

In August 2006, auDA launched a new domain name space designed specifically for community groups to develop community websites for the benefit of the local community. This paper presents an overview of the scheme, and identifies the changes made to the governing policies since they were initially proposed. A comparison of the proposed and implemented policies is presented, and the potential effects of these changes on a ‘world first’ community website scheme are considered. The changes made by the administrators to the scheme were in the following areas: local focus; sale of geographic .com.au and .net.au domains; management and licensing; website management groups; marketing and publicity; state and national portals; fourth level domains; and licensing costs. Test case communities’ responses to the issues are also considered.