DNC Newsletter - July 2002

During July, key members of the SRS implementation team were on the road, presenting an implementation update at public meetings in main centres throughout the country. The speakers were Debbie Monahan (the Domain Name Commissioner), Derek Locke (CEO of Domainz), and Doug Mercer (Technical Project Manager). Nick Griffin, the newly appointed Registry manager, also attended. Meetings were held in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, New Plymouth, Hamilton, and Auckland. A lot of valuable feedback was received, which the team will use to fine-tune the implementation to the benefit of all concerned.

.nz
It was announced at the presentations that the SRS implementation would be in October this year, with Domainz as the stablising registrar. Other parties will be able to apply for authorisation as a registrar from this date, and the first competitive registrars will be able to connect to the SRS from early December.

Copies of the Agreements that registrars will need to sign will be included as part of the Registrar Implementation Kit (RIK), along with all the technical information. Also contained in the RIK will be the policies and procedures that will apply to the .nz environment so that potential registrars will have all the information they need to make a decision as to whether to become a registrar or not. The RIK will be released on 6 September.

The next meeting of the .nz Oversight Committee will be held on 5 August. The minutes of the last meeting were published on the web site under the Domain Name Commissioner category. It is planned to publish the minutes of all meetings there.

NZRS (.nz Registry Services)
Nick Griffin, the Registry Manager, took up his appointment in early July. Most of his first two weeks involved traveling with the Implementation Presentation, meeting many of the people with whom he will have a future commercial relationship. Since then, Nick has been full on, establishing the operational framework NZRS requires to manage the SRS. Hardware orders have been placed and detailed discussions are taking place concerning hosting, support, contract management, and a number of other high priority areas. August will be a busy time for Nick, with most NZRS implementation arrangements requiring finalisation during that month.

Technical Implementation
July was an important and busy month for the technical team. By the end of the month, the major SRS transactions were developed and the Registrar Implementation Kit (RIK) was well advanced. Beta-testing began early in the month. Several requests were received from people wanting an early look at the RIK software, to enable detailed assessment of how their interfaces might work. Although the software will not be available until the RIK is formally released in early September, the detailed technical specifications in the RIK will be published on the web site this week. A new, updated, version of the Detailed Requirements Specification will also be published. Both of these are living documents which will be progressively updated throughout the project and beyond.

The primary focus of the technical team during August will be implementation planning. The Migration Plan will be signed-off soon and the Acceptance Test Plan is being developed. Acceptance testing at both Domainz and NZRS will begin in August.

Any comments?
If you have any questions or concerns about the SRS implementation, please don't hesitate to contact us. For technical matters, contact Doug Mercer. For all other matters, contact Debbie Monahan

Please note
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