[Announce] linux.conf.au domain

[John Ferlito]

Howdy,

This announcement is a bit late in coming and the more astute of you
may have noticed a mention or two in the council meeting minutes.

In August 2010 the auDA New 2LDs Advisory Panel handed over its
recommendations to the auDA Board. One of the items under
consideration was the fate of the conf.au 2LD.

In their final report [1] the advisory panel recommended that the
conf.au domain should not be reactivated. However the report did make
one other recommendation.

    2.14 The Panel acknowledges that the Linux conference has established
    a long-standing online identity through the use of linux.conf.au. The
    Panel notes that it is not within its terms of reference to make
    recommendations with respect to specific domain names, however its
    view is that there is a strong case for grandfathering linux.conf.au.

The auDA board then met mid August [2] and made the following
decision.

  That the board agreed to grandfather linux.conf.au, with the CEO to
  determine the most appropriate operational arrangements - Carried.

So I'm very pleased to announce that, from this point onwards, the
linux.conf.au domain will be available all year round, rather than the
somewhat traditional 6 monthly on/off cycle that many conference
regulars have become familiar with.

Linux Australia has signed an agreement with auDA which now grants us use
of this domain for the foreseeable future.

We even have a proper whois record now [3], which might make it a bit
easier to get an SSL certificate!

I would like to thank Steve Walsh and Mark Tearle who both made
submissions to the panel as well as the many members who filled in the
auDA survey.

I'd especially like to thank Steve for going through the very tedious
process for the last few years to ensure that linux.conf.au was
actually available for the 6 months each year that we were allowed to
use it.

Cheers,
John


[1] http://www.auda.org.au/pdf/new2ldsap-final-report.pdf
[2] http://www.auda.org.au/minutes/audaboardminutes16August10/
[3] http://whois.ausregistry.com.au/whois/whois_local.jsp?qry=linux.conf.au

-- 
John
Blog                             http://www.inodes.org
LCA2012                          http://lcaunderthestars.org.au