auDA Board Elections

[Cooper Mills DomainLawyer]

Hi guys

I have updated my website: vote1ek.com.au

My website has all the information you need - if you have any further queries feel free to call me.

Erhan Karabardak

 

[neddy]

My website has all the information you need - if you have any further queries feel free to call me.

Erhan Karabardak

Hi Erhan - as I said to Simon, given that other candidates have posted their statements on this thread, I have reprinted your candidate statement verbatim below.

It is fairer and easier for everyone if we confine all questions and answers in one place imho.

Thanks.

-----------------------------------------------------------

About me and what I stand for

By Erhan Karabardak on September 9, 2011

I am a prominent domain name lawyer and over the past 15 years have regularly worked with SME Business, Trade Mark Owners, Domain Name Registrants and Charities. I regularly act for clients in all types of domain name law areas, including policy and regulatory advice, domain name litigation, trade mark infringement, and auDRP proceedings. I am regularly asked to provide expert comment on technology and internet law issues, in both television and print media.

I have also been a member of auDA since approximately 2004 and have served on the 2004 Names Policy Panel, and the 2010 Names Policy Panel. I have always made a positive contribution to the discussion and debate about the .au domain name space through direct submissions to auDA and auDA Policy Panels.

I have a very keen interest in advancing the .au name space and making a positive contribution to the operation of auDA. If elected I intend to campaign for:

• The introduction of a functional appeals process for Registrants effected by auDA decisions;
• Greater involvement of members in auDA and its operations;
• Improvement of auDA Policy to promote innovation, accessibility and fairness;
• Improve accessibility to information about domain name regulation and policy for Small Business and Domain Name Registrants in general;
• The abolition of harsh and unfair policies – auDA Policy needs to strike a balance between integrity of the name space, while having a fair and transparent policy base to help small business and consumers freely use the internet.
• Greater accessibility of the industry and public to auDA Directors

Internet users, whether they be Small Business, Trade Mark Owners, Consumers and Domain Name Registrants need a strong voice on the auDA Board, which is lacking.

I have a positive and fresh approach, and seek your support to improve the .au domain name space. Together with your support we can achieve more.

If you have any questions feel free to call me on 03 9866 8850.

------------------------------------------------------

I ask for your support to make a difference.

How can you help:

1. Send in a signed and completed Proxy Form appointing me Erhan Karabardak of Level 4, 459 Little Collins St Melbourne as your Proxy – fax (if you fax please keep you transmission confirmation) or post the completed proxy to:

auDA Company Secretary
c/- Robert Gregory, Maddocks Lawyers
Postal Address: 140 William St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Fax Number: 03 9288 0666

2. Attend at the AGM and vote for me:

Date: Monday 17 October 2011
Time: 2.00pm
Venue: Maddocks, 140 William Street, Melbourne

This election gives you a clear choice – between my positive fresh ideas and vision and more of the same.

Vote 1 Erhan Karabardak

I look forward to your support.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me on (03) 9866 8850.

 

[DomainNames]

Thanks ADMIN it makes it a lot easier to read it all here. Erhan and Simon are looking pretty good for my vote from what they wrote and their long term efforts, support of and posts on dntrade. George Pongas also looks like the obvious best choice for supply from his experience and action in getting much needed changes implemented in Policy and the aftermarket... original drops services etc.

Sadly newcombers looking for forum member votes or support if they have never been active here and those who are are hostile to domainers, any questions and any change might find it harder this year with the great candidate competition this year. Then again lets see.... maybe some cadidates can update their opinions after they look around dntrade and see there are other opinions and facts about changes being needed they have not considered before .. There are now over 600 active forum members here. Many Forum members have great info, questions, experience and posts for all candidates to read...DNtrade has been a great open to all forum (and sometimes debate platform)for the Australian domain industry. Thanks ADMIN for keeping this forum growing with new members and info

 

[Simon Johnson]

Erhan and Simon are looking pretty good for my vote from what they wrote and their long term efforts, support of and posts on dntrade. George Pongas also looks like the obvious best choice for supply from his experience and action in getting much needed changes implemented in Policy and the aftermarket... original drops services etc.

Thanks for your support DomainNames. I agree with your assessment.

 

[Lemon]

Hi Simon,
Thanks for posting your candidate statement (and Erhan). I am still awaiting the others board candidates to do the same.

Could you please clarify the following points for me.

Candidate Statement – 2011 auDA Board Election
by Simon Johnson on September 17, 2011

1. Domain Name Registration Costs

In comparison to the rest of the world, the price for an Australian .au domain name is far too high. I’d like to bring costs down, to ensure that small businesses have an incentive to choose Australian over other TLD’s.

Are you sure about this one?

From the VentraIP.com.au site for 2 years
.com.au $19.95
.net.au $19.95
.com $19.90
.net $15.90

14. Changing the auDA Constitution

At the 2011 AGM, auDA is proposing to change the constitution. The voting form shows you three boxes (packages) to tick:

PACKAGE 1: Introduction of “Life Member” class of members
PACKAGE 2: Streamlining removal of members for non-payment
PACKAGE 3: Housekeeping and clarifying amendments

I encourage you to VOTE AGAINST all of these measures.

Why would you encourage this?

Package 1 : I am 50/50 on this and need some clarification.
Package 2 : 60/40 against so would need convincing to vote for it but probably will as I see no harm in it.
Package 3: These changes just brings the legal jargon up to current practices so I see no issue voting for this.

Thanks
Lemon

 

[Lemon]

Hi Erhan,

What is your opinion on the introduction of "life Members"?

Would this mean that they can attend and speak at board meeting as I am not sure what a "General Meeting" is.

Thanks
Lemon

 

[DomainNames]

Hi Erhan,

What is your opinion on the introduction of "life Members"?

Would this mean that they can attend and speak at board meeting as I am not sure what a "General Meeting" is.

Thanks
Lemon

For Lemon. This is what the AUDA General meeting is:

http://www.auda.org.au/agm/agm2011-notice/

 

[Cooper Mills DomainLawyer]

Hi Erhan,

What is your opinion on the introduction of "life Members"?

Would this mean that they can attend and speak at board meeting as I am not sure what a "General Meeting" is.

Thanks
Lemon

Hi Lemon

I have reviewed the life member provisions, but I am not convinced that there is a need to appoint life members. In the explanatory memorandum the board says "auDA's Board considers that it is appropriate to introduce a class of Life Members of auDA to recognise outstanding contributions made by certain individuals to the .au ccTLD.". This is very light on, and doesn't provide a sound basis to make the amendments.

This amendment may create more of a 'boys club' perception, and besides, someone who is passionate and interested in the .au space can simply pay the small membership fee and have membership rights to speak and participate.

Frankly I cant see that the current board would appoint any domainers as life members

As for the General Meeting, it is the meeting that is held once a year to do a number of things such as vote on the board and audited financials. As an auDA member you can attend the meeting and ask questions of the board.

In the meantime I will be reviewing the remainder of the proposed amendments.

 

[Simon Johnson]

Are you sure about this one? From the VentraIP.com.au site for 2 years
.com.au $19.95
.net.au $19.95
.com $19.90
.net $15.90

Yes I am sure. For example:

TPP - 24 months - $99.00
enetica - 2yr - $69.00

Package 1 : I am 50/50 on this and need some clarification.
Package 2 : 60/40 against so would need convincing to vote for it but probably will as I see no harm in it.
Package 3: These changes just brings the legal jargon up to current practices so I see no issue voting for this.

Package 1.

* What is the benefit to the members in having the auDA board appoint "life members"?

* Why does the auDA Board propose that they appoint life members? I would have thought that auDA members would be the people to appoint life members?

* Unfortunately this is another measure which demonstrates the current perception of a "boys club".

* Can you honestly name anyone who has (seriously) "made an outstanding contribution" to .au ? What I'm talking about here, are benefits to .au, not benefits to the person nominating them, not benefits to a 3rd party organisation, but real, tangible benefits to auDA Members and the general public.

Unless auDA can clearly articulate what the benefits are (to the members - not the Board), there is no reason to support this change to the constitution.

Package 2.

Earlier this year, auDA experienced delays in signing up new members. As such, I believe that one (1) month is too soon. The reality is that things get lost in the mail, on the fax machine, people have questions, life happens. I would support (2) months, but not one.

Package 3.

This is a "mixed bag" of clauses. While I agree that most of them shouldn't have been in there in the first place, the reason for deleting them should be explained to the members in plain English.

For example: 21.4 - Why is this being deleted? "Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this clause, a Director may make a decision in the interest of the Legal Person which appointed that Director".

In the explanatory memorandum, the reason behind deleting this clause was given as "deleting the final sentence".

How does this change impact upon these "Independent Directors" who are "appointed by the elected Directors". As many DNTrade members are new to the industry, I'd note that at the 2006 AGM, auDA wanted to "increase in the amount payable to the independent directors for the next 12 months from $60,000 to $100,000.".

Hope this puts things into perspective.

 

[Lemon]

Yes I am sure. For example:
TPP - 24 months - $99.00
enetica - 2yr - $69.00

I can't see how you can force registrars to bring prices down as they can charge whatever they like it is up to the public to shop around for the best price. After all they pay the same registry fee and if they have chosen their price point and target market then good luck to them.

Personally I pay for service so saving a few dollars here and there has little impact on my business.

Lemon

 

[Lemon]

Hope this puts things into perspective.

Thanks Simon,

It does give me something to think about.
1:IMO I think "Life Members" is a bit premature at this point, (most orgs I am in give life membership for 25 years service), and would create the impression of a boys club. Also I think members should nominate and vote whom they wish as life members.

2:2 months would be better.

3:I will look more closely at the changes proposed.

I hope you are also talking to other members, including supply, to promote your views as they also vote on these resolutions and I would not think that domainers have the numbers.

Lemon

 

[David Goldstein]

Simon,

A number of your statements are either untrue or have no evidence to back them up. The main issues I have are as follows:

+ You claim that allowing direct registrations in .AU, second level registrations, will create confusion. What is your evidence. Evidence around the world with ccTLDs that have done this show this is not the case. In fact, it is obvious registrants PREFER to be able to register names at the second level. And it is simpler.

+ You claim .AU domains are overpriced. Yet if I go to Asia Registry, where I register my domains, both .COM and .COM.AU are $20 per domain. And checking out EuroDNS, while they don't list .AU names, .AU names appear to be some of the cheapest of the larger ccTLDs. There is no reason they can't be cheaper and they have been getting progressively cheaper, but some perspective would be good.

+ On domain monetisation, did you support the abolition of the close and substantiation rule on the last names policy panel?

+ On new TLDs - you are supporting organisations that have had years to voice opposition to new TLDs and with one exception ignored the process. And then they had to be reminded they had put in a submission in 1998 by ICANN's CEO - recent correspondence is on the ICANN correspondence page. Any dilution of .AU as a result of new gTLDs will only come about because .AU became complacent and ignored reality. Such as not modifying policies to reflect a changing environment. Further, new TLDs are totally irrelevant when it comes to auDA. I was one of the only people on the panel who did advocate policies that would have dealt with these issues.

+ AuDA Foundation: no matter what company gives to a charitable cause, the money is paid for by the consumer of the product.

+ As for your desire to reduce barriers to registering domain names, I was the only person on the panel constantly requesting barriers be broken down. You were quite silent on a lot of these issues Simon.

Your policies are a mixture of populism and dealing with reality Simon. And when you had a chance on the Names Policy Panel to advocate policies to achieve what you say you want to achieve, my understanding is you were quiet on several issues as I have outlined.

David

 

[brettf]

Just so we are comparing apples and apples, as I think it's a bit pointless to compare retail domain pricing.

Wholesale in .com/.net is around $7US per domain per year
Wholesale (ex GST) in .com.au, and .net.au is $17.00AU (or $8.50AU)

Obviously there are currency fluctuations etc. But give or take wholesale is reasonably close. How that converts to retail pricing is a different story. As an example TPP retail is artificially high, as it's primarily a wholesale brand, and wholesale partners demand a significant price differential.

Should we get caught up in the minutate of saying .au is over priced or not and take people to task over is this entirely accurate? I think you're better off always looking at ways of reducing cost, period. There are numerous ways this can be addressed at the board level, such as reducing auDA opex (the number of staff they have, auCD, the travel budget etc etc), the foundation tax, then past that, running a competitive tender for the registry, which didn't happen last time round, it just got 'extended' for another term, without a competitive process.

IMHO the auDA operating budget, should probably be around 2/3 of what it currently, but like most NFP's they have no problem spending money.

 

[Cooper Mills DomainLawyer]

Hi guys

Further to Lemon's questions, I have taken a look through the proposed constitutional changes.

I personally dont see any harm in Packages 2 and 3. I don't agree with Package 1 for the reasons I have previously outlined.

Package 2 is changing the default period from 3 months to 1 month, which is in line with many commercial agreements. The key protection members have is that a default notice must be issued, so a member will be on notice before they lose membership.

Package 3 is really a refresh to bring the constitution into line with the current law, Corporations Act 2001 rather than the Corporations Law, and irrelevant provisions dealing with an interim board and first board etc.

Hope that clarifies...

 

[neddy]

Just an update ....

Thanks for all the questions to candidates so far. I will be posting an initial batch of 5 later today (to make it easy for everyone to give an answer).

This way you can compare answers - apples with apples.

If anyone has any other questions they would like addressed, please let me know by PM or post.

 

[neddy]

Candidate update

As I mentioned, I invited all candidates to post their views.

I was unable to personally contact Rosemary Sinclair (incumbent Director), though Jo Lim from auDA did confirm that she had forwarded my email to her.

Therefore my opinion is that someone who doesn't even have the courtesy to introduce herself to "voters" (and we have some sizable numbers)
is not worthy of even being considered. She no doubt regards us as unimportant in the scheme of things. You can draw your own conclusions of course.

I did get hold of Paul Levins, and he has signed up here with the intention of introducing himself. Just got an email from him this morning that he is in NZ on
business, and will be posting soon.

 

[brettf]

If anyone has any other questions they would like addressed, please let me know by PM or post.

I'd be interested to know the following:

a) Views on the current levels of expenditure within auDA, including the 'travel budget', staffing levels etc. Also the awarding (without tender) of outsourced contracts, for things like legal, accountancy etc as some of these (legal) are substantial lines in the budget.

b) Views on the push to require DNSSEC in the .au space

c) Views on maximum terms for directors on the board

d) Views on fixed term contracts for the CEO, with set performance indicators

e) Views on the creation and implementation of a domain industry ombudsman

f) Views on the auDA foundation

g) Views on the continuance of auCD in the absence of any remaining allocated funding from the geographic domain auctions

Obviously a lot of the specific domain policy type matters have generally already been raised and answered by candidates who have participated in the forum.

 

[DomainNames]

I'd be interested to know the following:

a) Views on the current levels of expenditure within auDA, including the 'travel budget', staffing levels etc. Also the awarding (without tender) of outsourced contracts, for things like legal, accountancy etc as some of these (legal) are substantial lines in the budget.

b) Views on the push to require DNSSEC in the .au space

c) Views on maximum terms for directors on the board

d) Views on fixed term contracts for the CEO, with set performance indicators

e) Views on the creation and implementation of a domain industry ombudsman

f) Views on the auDA foundation

g) Views on the continuance of auCD in the absence of any remaining allocated funding from the geographic domain auctions

Obviously a lot of the specific domain policy type matters have generally already been raised and answered by candidates who have participated in the forum.

Wish you joined this forum a long time ago.. Your questions are excellent.. You obviously know your stuff and where things need changing.. Keep posting please!! Voices like yours need to be heard

 

[FirstPageResults]

.. Your questions are excellent.. You obviously know your stuff and where things need changing..

Couldn't agree more

 

[neddy]

There are a whole host of questions that have arisen in the past week.

So what I intend doing is compiling a short list of top questions, and then posting them into a separate thread. I will then ask each candidate
to give a short answer as to where they stand on each issue. I think that is a fair and pragmatic way to do it.

Just an update ....

Thanks for all the questions to candidates so far. I will be posting an initial batch of 5 later today (to make it easy for everyone to give an answer).

This way you can compare answers - apples with apples.

If anyone has any other questions they would like addressed, please let me know by PM or post.

The first set of questions have been put up for our candidates - more to follow. Thank you in advance!

Please go to this new thread: http://www.dntrade.com.au/candidate-questions-t3822.html?p=26187#post26187

Cheers, Ned