The move was announced in a report from the New Names Advisory Panel, which was formed by auDA (the Australian Domain Administration) to oversee the formation of new 2LDs to complement existing ones, such as com.au and net.au.
The panel received 17 proposals for new 2LDs, and has already extended support for geographic domain names, which formed the basis of three proposals. However, of the other proposals only one - the retention of current domain conf.au - was accepted for recommendation to auDA. This domain is currently closed to new registrations.
Most of the 2LDs were rejected because there was no evidence of support for the domain from the intended user group. In December four domains were put on a short list: catholic.au, conf.au, research.au and uni.au/university.au. The catholic domain name was rejected because it conflicts with a "basic policy principle" that a 2LD should not be created for a single organisation. The only Australian domain created in this situation is for the CSIRO.
The domains proposed by the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee, research.au and uni.au/university.au, were rejected due to concerns about setting objective eligibility criteria coupled with concern over the closed nature of the domain.
The panel - as well as the auDA board - has indicated a clear preference for new domains to be "open", meaning they are open to all users subject to eligibility criteria and are administered by auDA. By contrast, "closed" domains are restricted for use by a defined community of interest, and each is administered by the relevant peak body of that community.
The panel also noted that a new 2LD should widen the choice of domain names available to users of the Australian DNS, and that domains that duplicated existing domains (for example biz.au duplicating com.au) did not increase that choice.
Although the panel did recommend conf.au be retained as a domain for short-term events such as conferences, it did have some provisos.
"The panel notes that auDA would need to undertake further consultation to develop suitable eligibility and allocation criteria for the 2LD, and that a marketing campaign would be useful in promoting its relevance among intended users," read the panel's report.
