[LINK] Happy birthday .au

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Australia celebrates 25 years of Au

Jun 03, 2011 6:13am 

IT'S something close to almost all our hearts, with Aussies clocking the 
highest per capita use in the world, and it's turning 25.

It is 25 years since the .au domain name came into being, sparking a 
revolution to which Australia succumbed with more enthusiasm than any 
nation on earth - or, presumably, in cyberspace.

Australia has some 10.4 million active internet users and a further 4.2 
million wireless broadband users, the highest rate per capita in the 
world.

The internet became widely identifiable in Australia with the placing in 
1986 of the .au appendage in the hands of Melbourne University academic 
Robert Elz.

The internet, a name derived from the 1960s term "internetworking", had 
been in operation as we know it since 1982 and had existed in one form or 
another for more than 20 years before that.

But the decision of the University of Southern California's Information 
Sciences Institute to hand control of Australian domain names to Mr Elz 
brought organisation to its local evolution.

As the internet in Australia grew from a project involving a handful of 
organisations like universities and the CSIRO, the assignation of .au 
domain names passed from Mr Elz to such organisations as AusRegistry 
and .au Domain Administration (.auDA).

The .au domain is now a part of almost 2.1 million websites, has the 
highest pro-rata penetration rate in the world and is regarded as one of 
the internet's most secure and trusted namespaces, according to 
AusRegistry CEO Adrian Kinderis.

The internet integrity of Australia also benefits the country by 
attracting commerce, tourism and investment.

"Just as Australia has a proud identity that it projects to the world, 
the .au space does the same for our online presence," said auDA CEO Chris 
Disspain. "The .au domain name is Australia's home on the internet. It's 
a safe, reputable environment."

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Cheers,
Stephen