The Pilot

A pilot project developing a gateway web structure for all communities, using geographic names. The pilot project is sponsored by the NSW Office of Information Technology and auDA.

The pilot aims to provide communities with the opportunity to establish an online presence by developing a structure that is logical, marketable and financially viable – delivering social, cultural and economic benefits to all communities.

The pilot will conduct test cases with NSW communities and communities in other states and territories where resources are allocated.

The Model

Based on the work of the NSW One City One Site working party from 2000-2002, the pilot proposes a fair and equitable domain name system for reservation, and restricted use, of geographic names that both protect and promote the geographical area and its community. It takes the simple structure of: www.placename.state.au eg: www.bathurst.nsw.au.

The structure creates a web protocol that marries the community’s exact physical address with their web address. The structure links all online communities, such as www.bathurst.nsw.au, back to a central state/territory based directory site, such as www.nsw.au, allowing simple and logical access to any community online.

The pilot will involve the continued creation and development of this structure and system including state and national policy, domain and web structures, funding models and community development, liaison and test cases.

Pilot Project Plan

The pilot aims to develop a best practice model for the implementation of community portals for NSW and Australia using and implementing a linked system of geographic domains, broadly based on the pioneering work of the One City One Site Working Party.

The development and testing of this model is a world first, creating a logical geographic portal structure supporting communities by providing a valuable asset, which can be used to create strong social, cultural and economic benefits

Current Activities

The OCOS Project commenced in January this year. Strategy, policy and systems development will take place from July 2003, prior to the formal implementation of community consultation and test case web portal development with the selected communities around October 2003.

Information and consultation

Further information is available on our web site: http://www.auda.org.au/policy/geographic-2LDs-2003/

For consultation or discussion on the project please contact:
Natasha McGuire
Senior Project Manager
One City - One Site / Community Gateways pilot project
Office of Information Technology
T. (02) 6332 8193
F. (02) 6332 8188
M. 0425 211 859
E. natasha.mcguire@ditm.nsw.gov.au