goon's Journal: MelbourneIT Lapse ... one of many

Slashdot story on MelbourneIT Lapse needs a repsonse.

• '... With universities forced increasingly to find creative new ways of fundraising, Melbourne Uni took an unprecedented step. It set up a new company, Melbourne IT, to run the .com.au names operation and, in December 1999, floated the body on the stock market. The stock rocketed far above the listing price. ... [ABC 4 Corners, Domain Games, 05/06/2000, Stephen McDonell]

So when you say ....

• ... Melbourne IT are very much a corporate entity now. They have share holders, and have a large emphasis internally on sales (much to the dismay of the employee I know). This so called "weekend rule" could be applied to many many other corporates as well .... The notion that this situation was bred from some type of government "weekend rule" is ridiculous.

I have a bit of a hard time thinking the core of the organisation retains its *sheltered* workshop origins. Of course MelboureIt is not exactly a *squeaky clean organisation* as they make out to be. Those with long enough memories remember the share allocation irregularities that resulted in the Domain Games story by ABC 4 Corners investigation.

• ... Four Corners explores the Melbourne IT float and asks whether the university may have undersold its domain names monopoly, which had been essentially a public asset. Is it better that such an asset is in public or private hands? ... [ABC 4 Corners, Domain Games, 05/06/2000, Stephen McDonell]

Those interested can read from the ABC 4 Corners investigation and some other snippits from the Auditors General report.

• ... The report also examines whether "hot floats" like Melbourne IT are executed to the benefit of a well-heeled and well-connected clique, with the "mums and dads" left out of the picture, or whether the Government's vision of a shareholders' democracy holds true. .." [ABC 4 Corners, Domain Games, 05/06/2000, Stephen McDonell]

For the non-Australians, a investigative story by 4 Corners is equivalent to say UK BBC, Horizon or US PBS or CBS 60 Minutes expose. As a *public listed company* it is not something you look forward to. I may be wrong, maybe it is just plain incompetence.