Domains

Dot Indigi

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

A top-level domain idea for indigenous peoples — .indigi.
There are many indigenous groups of people — American Indian tribes, for instance, or Australian aboriginal people — who would be great candidates for a new TLD, but can’t afford the steep ICANN fees. To give them at least some identity on the Internet, [...]

.NYC Gets Big Boost from New York City Gov’t

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

More than 8 years after we first proposed to New York City to start .NYC, the top-level domain for New York City, I got some satisfaction today when months of work with various NYC governmental agencies and affiliates paid off as New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced her strong support for .NYC

Interview with Bart Lieben, Trademark Verification Expert

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Bart Lieben is the world’s expert in trademark verification for the Sunrise Periods of new top-level domains. I conduct an extensive interview about his services, and he reveals a plan to make trademark verification cheap and easy.

That Letter to ICANN from the NTIA

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

A letter to ICANN from the NTIA, the part of the Department of Commerce that watches ICANN, has caused a lot of speculation about whether the new TLD process would be stopped, or significantly slowed. I don’t see that happening.

AFNIC may lose .FR

Monday, January 19th, 2009

The French government is asking for bids to run their top-level domain, .FR, along with all the other ccTLDs that France controls.

New ICANN Timeline with Likely Costs

Monday, December 15th, 2008

I’ve put together a timeline for getting a new TLD from ICANN, along with associated costs, both likely and contingent. Downloadable PDF.

Toxic Proposal to Reconstitute ICANN’s Board

Friday, December 12th, 2008

ICANN received an “Independent Report” containing recommendations for changing the membership of the Board of Directors and and other matters. Personally I found the report completely toxic and so I told them what I thought.

ICANN Meetings on Registry-Registrar Split (Better Hurry)

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

ICANN has announced two public meeting to gather opinion about the split between registries and registrars. The short notice (two days) is occasioning howls from those with something better to do.

Nigeria to auction top .ng names

Friday, December 5th, 2008

The Nigerian Internet Registration Authority (NIRA) is planning to auction off premium names directly under .ng, as well as under .com.ng, according to Computerworld Kenya. NIRA’s plan is to use the proceeds to keep other prices low.
Tags: .ng, dot ng, Nigeria domain names, NIRA

Re-Examining the Registry-Registrar Split

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

A report known as the CRAI Report, which recommends keeping most of the registry-registrar split now required of all gTLDs, doesn’t address the legitimate need of many potential registries for a business model that registrars are unlikely to implement — leaving these registries in the cold.