Successful SRS Project Comes To An End

Successful SRS Project Comes To An End

With the sale of Domainz on Friday 5 September 2003, InternetNZ has seen the final act in the transition to open competition of the .nz domain name space.

The move to a competitive shared registry system started back in December 1999, with an AGM resolution that "Council set up an open working group to investigate a full proposal on possible shared registration systems and other registry models" and has been the major focus for InternetNZ over the last three and a half years.

"The end of the SRS project allows InternetNZ to focus more energy on other internet issues such as spam, IPv6, Enum, Internet Code of Practice etc. InternetNZ will of course remain a vigilant owner of the registry and .nz market regulator through .nz Registry Services and the .nz Oversight Committee," said InternetNZ President Keith Davidson.

"InternetNZ is today publishing a final report by Doug Mercer, the SRS Implementation Technical Manager focusing on the approach to the technical aspects of the SRS implementation. This report shows that the SRS was successfully delivered within budget and on time - a rare feat for IT projects," said David Farrar, InternetNZ Vice-President.

(Report is linked from http://www.internetnz.net.nz/public/committee-reports/ctte-srs-implementation/srs-final-report-cover030908.html)

As at 31 August 2003, 30 organisations were authorised as nz registrars and connected to the SRS providing direct .nz domain name registration services. A further 10 organisations were authorised as registrars, and were preparing to connect to the production environment.

"There is now a broad range of registrars for registrants to select from, with a range of prices and services that reflect a competitive market. Actions taken by InternetNZ to decrease the number of names with Domainz allowed InternetNZ to sell Domainz without negatively impacting the newly competitive market, even though this reduced the amount of money InternetNZ could have made from a sale." stated Keith Davidson.

It is almost a year since the first stage of the SRS went live, back in October 2002. Doug Mercer's report, and subsequent events, indicate the success of the SRS implementation. All those involved should be proud of its success.

We would like to pay special tribute to the professional staff that evolved the Hine Report into reality. Our gratitude goes to:

Rose Percival, SRS Implementation Manager Doug Mercer, SRS Technical Project Manager Debbie Monahan, Domain Name Commissioner Derek Locke, CEO, Domainz Ltd Nick Griffin, Registry Manager, .nz Registry Services

"We also extend our gratitude to all the other staff, volunteers and stakeholders who contributed positively to this successful project. The sale of Domainz and the agreement from the Registry to release the SRS source code this week marks the end of a long and often difficult path to achieving the truly competitive and pro-registrant Shared Registry Service for the.nz namespace." concluded Keith Davidson and David Farrar

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