Report to the ISOCNZ AGM

After a considerable period of delay and inactivity the SRS Implementation Oversight Committee has started to make some progress.

• At the end of January 2001 a Green Paper commissioned by the Oversight Committee to outline further issues was published by the Executive Director. Whilst the paper met the brief of the Oversight Committee and garnered some submissions, it did little to advance actual implementation and was criticised for not offering any solutions to questions which had been discussed previously. It therefore did not provide the focus necessary to progress implementation (although the submissions received may prove useful at a later stage in looking at what should happen to the registrar function of Domainz)
• In February the council approved the SRS Working Group's report and the appointment of an Implementation Manager
• In March a list of potential registry software suppliers was compiled and a Request for Proposal document issued to determine what existing systems were available and at what cost.
• Peter Dengate-Thrush stepped down as chair of the SRS Implementation Oversight Committee and was replaced by Bob Gray in mid April
• Rose Percival started as Implementation Manager at the end April

Progress made

• A number of organisations involved in registration activity have been visited by Bob Gray and Rose Percival
• A paper was presented to ISOCNZ Council on 25 May which outlined the proposed approach for the early phases of the project. This is to have several strands of activity running concurrently covering:
• the Office of the ccTLD manager
• the SRS software and interface with registrars
• the registry management arrangements
• registrars - remaining issues
• registrants - remaining issues.

• Council agreed that the SRS Implementation Manager should work co-operatively with all stakeholders, including Domainz, in the selection and implementation of the SRS system
• Draft papers have been prepared on the Office of the ccTLD Manager, SRS Model and High Level Requirements. These will be used as a starting point in the consultation process with stakeholders over the next few weeks.

Commenced preparing the project plan. Detailed planning on the system implementation is dependent on whether an SRS package is purchased or a design/build is required

Activities Planned

• Consultation on the draft high level specifications and preparing the SRS functional specifications
• Appointment of a technical (IT) project manager to evaluate the possible solutions, make recommendations and implement (July)
• Complete the overall project planning (dependent on purchase/design and build selection)
• Registrar contract outline (July)
• Registry business model (August)
• Office of the ccTLD manager - finalise functions, outline of location and ownership options and registrar relationship options (accreditation versus commercial contract)
• Draft statement of registrant rights (July)

Indicative Timing

It is not possible at this stage to give any realistic indication of timing and the last thing that Implementation Oversight Committee wish to do is create false expectations. This lack of clarity is primarily because all timeframes will depend on the software solution chosen for the new registry.

The timeline for deployment of an "off the shelf" system is entirely different to that which would be necessary if we were obliged to design our own system.

Obviously, the sooner the transition to an SRS can be made the better and both the SRS Implementation Oversight Committee and Rose Percival, the Implementation Manager, are working to that end. However, our prime focus is on achieving a system which in terms of its reliability, scalability and customer usefulness recognises the business critical nature of a domain name registry and the obligations of the Society as trustee of the dot nz delegation.

It is also crucial that all parties wishing to become registrars have a proper opportunity to be involved with the system selection, implementation and testing and have adequate time to develop their own business processes.

In that light, and given that a transfer to the SRS would not be appropriate in the two months prior to Christmas, our expectation is that the transition will take place no earlier than February 2002. This timeframe will be confirmed over the next few months once a technical solution has been selected.

© 2001 The Internet Society of New Zealand
Last updated 21 June 2001