Posts filed under 'Business Strategy'
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
In recent days we learned that the London-based registry for .Name has been acquired by VeriSign.
To me this is a rather landmark move for a couple of reasons.
First of all, there are not that many TLDs in the market to begin with.
Secondly, from what I have witnessed, for TLDs to switch hands, or operators, it has typically been done through ICANN going through the RFP process to see who should be awarded the next contract to take over operation of the TLD. .ORG is a classic example of this, with it now being under the operation of the Public Interest Registry. Other examples are a handful of ccTLDs, such as .TV.
What we are seeing with the .Name acquisition is simply a business acquisition, plain and simple. This is the same as businesses in other industries acquiring other businesses. We see this everyday.
What makes this a landmark move for me is I did not hear of a formal process through ICANN for ICANN’s approval, thus awarding of this move. Instead, it was just a simple business acquisition. We will soon see new gTLDs emerge on the Internet in late 2009 or 2010. I can see TLDs/registries being born and developed with companies wishing to acquire registries just as businesses today seek acquisitions of other companies. Will there be a few top registries looking to purchase only those emerging TLDs that do well? Will TLDs emerge solely for the purpose of executing a possible exit strategy a couple of years down the road? As the number of registries go from a few to many, will we eventually see them then go back to a few?
Do I think this is a good move? Yes and here is why. First of all we are at the threshold of seeing the emergence of many TLDs. I believe someone mentioned a “possible” number being 18,700 applications, when you include large corporations that would submit TLDs for purposes of brand protection, such as .IBM, .Microsoft, .Exxon-Mobile, to name a few. Aside from the large corporate, brand-protection initiatives, there will be the entrepreneurial startups that will come up with the full gamut of ideas; much like what we saw in the late ‘90s when the dotcom boom was getting started. Out of the MANY ideas that emerged then, there were still a lot of great ideas then. As mentioned, these TLDs will all be a startup of some sort. The fees associated with becoming a full fledged registry is far more than what simple boot strapping allows. Funds will need to be secured from outside sources. Investors, whether angel investors or venture capitalists will need to come together to help these new TLDs come to fruition. Where there is outside investment there will more often then not be the need to understand the new organization’s exit strategy.
So did the VeriSign acquisition of .Name lay the foundation for how future acquisitions can occur? I think so. There is no doubt this is a safe move; one registry being acquired by another registry. What can we, as an industry, learn from the full integration from such an acquisition? How can the industry apply what was learned from this acquisition when, in the future, a registry is acquired by a corporation that is not a registry, does not even play within this industry, but wishes to diversify its portfolio? What implications will such acquisitions have on the Internet?
So let’s watch and analyze the lifecycle of this acquisition to understand what the future holds!
October 6th, 2008
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
Today ICANN turns 10 years old!
While many may wish ICANN never existed to begin with I can’t help but reflect on the industry as a whole. In the last couple of months, when talking with people, I would ask them to think back to what the Internet was like 10 years ago for them. That usually follows with a “wow” like facial expression. In other words, they are in agreement that the Internet has progressed greatly in the last 10 years.
When you look at this industry from ICANNWiki’s perspective, the entire ICANN community includes not only the ICANN “academics”, but the registries, registrars and Domainer communities as well. I should also note that I also view ICANN “academics” apart from the global movement centered around Internet Governance.
Not only has ICANN built structure to support the survival of the Internet, but the other communities associated have created a whole new multi-billion dollar industry. As with several of my previous posts one thing I find energizing about this community is the very fact that it is entrepreneurial. Overall this community of ours is still in its infancy, working to move forward while at the same time helping to define its future.
And, from my perspective, the future looks even brighter with the work that is being done towards opening up the market for new gTLDs and, of course, the vast impact the Internet will have on those with the introduction of IDNs.
As we take this time to reflect over the previous 10 years, what about looking ahead? What would you like to see? Personally speaking I feel that the whole ICANN community is in a TREMENDOUS position to utilize its vast contacts to assist in more humanitarian efforts, whether that be in areas of charitable fund raising, such as what Sedo has done with its “SedoCares” initiative or in developing programs whose goal is to assist in disaster relief efforts, such as what DotAsia has done with “Relief.Asia” and their mindset in giving back to the .Asia community.
So as the day goes with the world’s financial markets reeling from recent events, wars in other countries and the world watching and waiting for a new US president to be elected, ICANN turns 10 years old today. For some this is a celebration. For others this may only fuel their dislike of the organization. However, travel back to your experience with the Internet 10 years ago today. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but marvel over the organization and efforts that have brought the overall ICANN community, not to mention the Internet itself, to where it is today.
Happy birthday, ICANN!
Now, I’ve got to go. A phone call is coming in on my PC…….
September 30th, 2008
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki
I have been reading several blog posts concerning ICANN’s possible adoption of the auction model to help solve disputes regarding applications submitted for the same, new gTLDs. To be specific, the concept of an auction was raised through the efforts of auction design firm PowerAuctions LLC with the assistance of ICANN staff, resulting in a paper regarding the auctioning process for new gTLDs. In other words, multiple organizations can submit applications for the potential gTLD, “.bank”. To resolve the issue “.bank” would be sent to auction for resolution.
For me several things come to mind…..
WHY NOT?
First of all I would have to say, “Why not?” At the conference in New Delhi Peter Dengate-Thrush, ICANN’s Board Chair, complimented those from the DotAsia organization for the fantastic job they had done and that, through the use of the auctioning system implemented by DotAsia, all domain names that were requested by more than one entity were handled through the auction with none having to go through a dispute resolution process. The auction process seemed quicker with less fuss associated. Case closed.
So from the standpoint of DotAsia successfully handling duplicate requests quickly and easily without having to go through the normal dispute resolution process, why shouldn’t ICANN take note of such efficiencies?
JUSTIFYING AN AUCTION BID?
As noted from reading the paper this process can get expensive for those submitting applications and wind up in the auction process – kind of. “Huh?”
When reading the paper the three bullet areas succinctly summarize the use of the auction process.
• Applicants whose true intentions or abilities are to serve many users would be able to justify higher bids than applicants who will serve few users;
• Applicants capable of providing high-quality service at low cost would be able to justify higher bids than low-quality, high-cost applicants; and
• Applicants who intend to develop the gTLD immediately would be able to justify higher bids than applicants whose purpose is to hold the gTLD, unused, for speculative purposes.
The question that comes to mind revolves around the word “bid”. In other words, “… justify higher bids… “
So instead of a typical auction process whereby users can bid as high as the price will go, there appears to be some form of justification required for one to add a higher bid. In other words, with each potential increase in the bid price, competing organizations need to justify why their bid should be taken over the others. In other words this could be a long drawn out process. The nice thing about this is it serves to guide the awarding of the gTLD to an organization that will do something with their new gTLD. However, it still remains to be seen that if someone goes through all the justification and receives the highest bid to receive the new gTLD, can they truly be held to the deployment of the new gTLD or can they simply sit back on their new gTLD, doing the minimum amount of sales, if possible, knowing that it may become more valuable later? Valuable to whom? But that is under ICANN’s control, correct? Perhaps as long as it is under an ICANN controlled Internet.
BUSINESS!
The other part of me looks upon this as a way for ICANN to increase its health. Commercial or not, ICANN is still an operating organization that has bills and employees to pay. Bottom line (pun intended) ICANN still lives by a profit and loss statement.
When in Paris I overheard someone say that ICANN has sunk a lot of cost into developing the gTLD process and will continue to do so to finalize the process before organizations can submit applications. As such ICANN will need to recoup their costs. From a business perspective that makes sense to me as companies who wish to stay alive need to have income to recoup their costs, especially for development. In some cases startups will acquire the funding through key organizations becoming customers to help with the development of their product before they have a fully deployable product ready to be purchased by the whole world.
When reading ICANN’s 2007-2008 budget there were a couple of things that stood out to me……
“New gTLD Process” section:
“The process for the introduction of new gTLDs must be robust in form, timely and predictable to administer, and scalable to accommodate the numbers and variety of potential applications. The global nature and complexity of the project have direct bearing on the program’s start-up and recurring costs. ICANN anticipates a significant investment in the project, in year one, to create the gTLD program office.
The new gTLD process costs are intended to be fully self-funded and off-set by the application fees. It is anticipated that first-round costs will be significant due to one-time start-up expenses and that subsequent rounds will be less expensive to administer. Start-up costs include, but are not limited to: recruitment of new employees to staff the gTLD program office, professional services fees associated with production of the applicant request for proposal (RFP), development of the objections filed/dispute resolution model, retention of resources to conduct technical and business/financial reviews, and recruitment costs associated with the creation of an independent panel or series of panels to provide adjudication services around dispute resolution and string contention.
A significant component to start-up costs is the creation and implementation of a communications strategy, across many different languages, to announce and promote the first round to the global Internet community. ICANN will incur media costs when it publishes applications following conclusion of the application window. If ICANN is to foster a geographically diverse representation of service providers on the Internet, it first must communicate and educate them about the gTLD process.”
OK, so the above makes sense to me.
The other item that stood out in the budget was found in the “gTLD Registry Fees” section:
“In fulfilment of its obligation to develop alternate sources of revenue, ICANN has proposed the implementation of registry-level transaction fees. Transaction fees will serve to increase ICANN revenues and enable revenues to grow in proportion to growth in the DNS.”
“In fulfillment of its obligation to develop alternate sources of revenue…”. Hmmmmmm.
So, again speaking from the business perspective, I can understand where an organization would need to recoup its startup costs. I can see that as the costs are recouped the costs for new applicants will go down. I can also see a business always looking for alternate sources of revenue.
GENERAL THOUGHTS:
So after thinking about, “Why Not?”, “Justifying an Auction Bid” and “Business”, general thoughts come to mind……
1). If all of this is to shore up the expense of developing the process, then what was not learned through the awarding of new gTLDs for .asia, .aero, .coop, .org, .travel, .tel, .com, .net., .mobi, .biz, .net, .name, .museum, .edu and .info to name a few. There are also some applications that have been in limbo for several years, such as .berlin, .paris, .cat and .nyc, to also name a few. So with all of those that have signed registry agreements and have been placed in the root servers, and with those applications that are in approval limbo, I can only wonder what has NOT been learned that requires the recouping the costs for establishing a new gTLD process?
2). Only those that have significant amounts of funding will be able to submit an application for processing, let along survive the bidding process to win if submitted through auction.
3). Organizations who win the approval and sign the registry agreement with ICANN regarding their new gTLD will also have to recoup their costs, thus passing the costs of their gTLD acquisition cost to those purchasing domain name(s) for the respective, new gTLD.
4). I know there is a big question mark as to ICANN’s future. How much longer will they be under the US’ Department of Commerce? Will ICANN emerge from the Department of Commerce to be a separate entity that can, or will be allowed to survive outside the grips of the US government? In other words, will ICANN be able to move its operations to any location around the globe, such as Belgium? I know the question was raised directly to ICANN’s Board in Paris by Elliot Noss. The exchange between Elliot and the Board was frustrating as it was NOT like peeling away layers of an onion, but more like peeling away layers of an onion made of dense, tightly closed rusted iron. It was that exchange that points to the ongoing suspicion people have of ICANN.
5). What is the magic number that, once reached, the price for applications will go down? Through my reading of various blogs on the topic of new TLDs we could see larger organizations going after TLDs as part of their normal brand protection processes. One blog mentioned that such efforts of brand protection through TLD acquisition “could” mean a total of 18,500 applications submitted. At $50,000 a pop, NOT to mention the extra amount received via the auction process, any recouping of upfront costs could be accomplished very quickly!
6). With the amount of money ICANN is envisioned to bring in, might it then be able to take a good portion of that funding and turn it into global charitable initiatives, such as Sedo has done with their SedoCares program or how DotAsia – Giving Back to the Community is living up to one of their three mission statements through their Relief.Asia program? (see September 2nd blog post on “Sedo and DotAsia - Doing What They Did Not Have to Do“)
SUMMARY:
So to summarize, there are quite a few reasons that call for the need for an auction. However, with what I have read and heard, as well as NOT heard, business is business. Such a process will ultimately aid in the strength of ICANN’s bottom line, but will also need to be passed through to the those seeking domain names as the registry needs to recoup its costs. Also, as costs are recouped how much will the costs of applications go down? In other words, applications for new gTLDs will become like a “quasi” commodity as the process “should” be nailed down soon, however, it will never become a true commodity as a commodity implies competition. How can there be competition when applications can only go through ICANN?
So, will an auction help make the process smoother? I have no doubt it will. Will it also help ICANN’s bottom line? I also have no doubt it will. Should ICANN be able to conduct business and aid their bottom line through an auction? From a pure business perspective I can only say, “I have no doubt they should”.
September 8th, 2008
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
In the last two decades I have had the privilege of traveling outside of the US. Being one who appreciates architecture I am well aware of the typical architecture one finds here in the States. Yes, there are architectural gems, but when I head to Europe or India I am blown away by the architectural details that abound. In other words, attention to detail seems to be more the norm than what you find here in the US. True, I am looking at VERY OLD architecture versus new, but what keeps coming to mind, hence my appreciation for architectural detail, is the simple thought of “This was something they did not have to do.” In other words, did builders HAVE to add such levels of detail to their architectural creations? No. It was something they did not have to do. When looking at the majority of the architecture here in the US, not only is the style “something they did not have to do”, it is more like, “they didn’t even attempt!” With that said, from my travels I have truly come to appreciate what people did not have to do, but did. For me this line of thinking extends beyond architecture. It extends to not only what organizations do, but what people do as well.
With that said I can’t help but apply the same thinking to the ICANNWiki community. What is it people, or organizations do that they don’t have to do? Two organizations stand out to me for things they have done that they did not have to do. The two organizations are Sedo and DotAsia.
Sedo has created a separate initiative known as “Sedo Cares”. It is through “Sedo Cares” that Sedo is able to give back to humanity. This initially started with programs internal to Sedo where employees, through donations, could reach out to those less fortunate. Last year the “Sedo Cares” program, through an internal Sedo drive, provided donations to “SOS Children’s Villages” whereby orphans in Europe would have gifts over the holiday season. Sedo has extended this program so that through normal business a portion of the business proceeds can be attributed to initiatives driven by Sedo Cares. Why thread this program in with normal business efforts? It’s a way to increase the amount of funds that could be going to charity. In the latest program a portion of the proceeds from certain levels of transactions closed will be sent to CHF International for establishing a well for safe drinking water for the village of Dhabardulel, Ethiopia. While this specific program will come to a close “Sedo Cares” will continue to, through programs, find ways of contributing proceeds back to those in need. This is something Sedo did not have to do, but did.
The other organization I see taking “the extra step” is DotAsia. Before DotAsia was given the green light to operate as a fully functional registry, they formed the three basic points that form DotAsia’s mission. Out of the three items one is fully devoted to giving back to the DotAsia community. To be specific this specific portion of their mission states:
“To contribute proceeds in socio-technological advancement initiatives relevant to the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific Internet community.”
While DotAsia has been busy launching its business, it has already put its money where its mouth is by establishing “Relief .Asia” in providing technological relief to those affected by the typhoon that hit Myanmar as well as the quake that hit China’s Sichuan province.
More steps will be taken to further develop DotAsia’s process for giving back. More information for how DotAsia targets funds for community efforts can be found by reading, “DotAsia – Giving Back to the Community”.
So again, whether it is Sedo through its Sedo Cares initiative or DotAsia holding to its mission of giving back, I can’t help but think that this is something they did not have to do.
When you think about the general ICANN “community”, it is a global community with many connections at various levels around the globe. How can we utilize our connections and various riches to help give back to those in need?
Because both Sedo and DotAsia have taken the steps many have not taken, I hope we, in the ICANN community, can look at these two examples of what we can all do to help towards global betterment.
September 2nd, 2008
Conversation with Edmon Chung of DotAsia
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
The month of May proved to be a disastrous month for many living along Myanmar’s coast and in China’s Sichuan province. It was during this time we saw Relief.Asia, through the DotAsia Organisation, mobilize to help provide relief efforts to those in the disaster areas.
Today the Sichuan province was struck by a 6.0 aftershock of May’s original quake.
Because of this I wanted to talk with Edmon Chung, DotAsia’s CEO, as such efforts not only shed light on what others within the ICANN Community can do, but what the ICANN “Community” can do in providing international relief efforts.
What is “Relief.Asia”?
Relief.Asia is a platform bringing together the Internet community around Asia for relief and rebuild efforts. While the portal itself is being built into a social network site, Relief.Asia is more than an online information or discussion forum. Relief.Asia is also a platform bringing together open source and open knowledge technologies to support relief and rebuild efforts. Today, a number of technologies such as SAHANA — a web-based disaster relief management system (with features such as missing people registry, victims registry, inventory system, aid request/pledge/procurement system, etc.), DUMBO — an emergency mobile network infrastructure, as well as GPS tracking and SOS devices, are being coordinated through Relief.Asia and deployed into Myanmar and Sichuan to help relief teams in the field.
Furthermore, Relief.Asia is a platform for driving online donations. As we progress, Relief.Asia intends not only to be facilitating the deployment of these technologies but also become a platform for open development, sharing and enhancement of software, technologies and experiences on relief and rebuild efforts.
The vision for Relief.Asia is that information technology saves lives. In the wake of natural or other disasters, information technology can deliver the efficiency and effectiveness at a time when it matters most, and at a time when it could mean life or death. The previous experiences of disaster recovery had often been local and seldom shared. Technologies were often built for specific tasks on ad hoc basis. Relief.Asia hopes to provide a platform for integrating and learning from these experiences. It is also meant to be a social network which could help in driving volunteers as well as ongoing support such as psychological support which is not always well planned at the initial often chaotic rescue phase.
Relief.Asia is an Internet platform that facilitates relief response, rebuild efforts and knowledge sharing for disaster recovery by leveraging the social and technological networks of the Internet community.
Who started Relief.Asia?
DotAsia could be said to be the host and coordinator for Relief.Asia. The DotAsia team grafted together the platform in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar during May 2-3, 2008. Without the collaborative efforts from organisations and institutions from around Asia, or the open technologies already being developed since the 2004 Asia Tsunami, for which the origins of Relief.Asia owes its conception, it could not have happened nevertheless. Most notably the participation and help from Charles Mok of ISOC HK, the Asia Institute of Technology (AIT), APNG (Asia Pacific Networking Group), APNIC and the Museum of World Religion (MWR) has been instrumental to the early developments of Relief.Asia.
While running a relief effort can take a major effort, why start Relief.Asia?
Relief.Asia exemplifies DotAsia’s commitment to the Asia community. It is a major and ongoing effort. As mentioned, the vision of Relief.Asia is to build a platform that can deliver open technologies and expertise when it matters most in relief and rebuild efforts. We feel that Relief.Asia is a meaningful project and the whole team at DotAsia was working overtime from our already packed launch schedule for the ongoing auctions and our commitments such as at www.think.asia, yet we all felt it was well worth our time as we were truly able to provide help, leveraging our expertise and network, to the relief efforts in Myanmar and Sichuan. Through the partnership with the Museum of World Religion (MWR), who was a .Asia Pioneer, we have been able to secure cargo space and channels into the hardest hit areas in Myanmar and were one of the very few international efforts being able to deliver relief materials in. The project while demanding was refreshing for our morale. This would be one of the first times DotAsia really made some difference for the Asia community.
I see there are several partnerships in place for Relief.Asia. Were the partnerships in place prior to the Myanmar and China natural disasters or were they established during the creation of Relief.Asia?
The origins of Relief.Asia can be traced back to the 2004 Asia Tsunami.
DotAsia at that time was still organized around volunteer efforts and toiling through the ICANN TLD process. The team at that time nevertheless still tried to facilitate and drive donations where possible. Some of the core technologies being coordinated through DotAsia to Myanmar and Sichuan also had its roots from the aftermath of the 2004 Asia Tsunami. For donation drives, we work specifically with partners when disasters hit.
While Relief.Asia quickly integrated in the wake of the Myanmar Cyclone, plans have been in place throughout the preparatory phases at DotAsia even as we were launching the .Asia registry, as can be evidenced by our own pioneer domain application for the domain “relief.asia”.
The DotAsia footprint is quite large. Given the natural disasters that occurred in both Myanmar and China, would Relief.Asia be able to handle other disasters in Bangladesh, Iran and New Zealand? If so have the relationships been developed with the various organizations in countries throughout the whole DotAsia footprint?
We certainly hope that disasters would not hit so often and so closely with each other. The Myanmar Cyclone and then the Sichuan Earthquake did present great challenge for us. Just as we had put together the platform for Myanmar, the Sichuan Earthquake hit. It was not an easy decision, but one which I believe is correct, when we made commitments to exert as much efforts to both disaster areas. Besides working with local and international charities and NGO, DotAsia will continue to utilize its relationship with its member ccTLDs and other ccTLDs in the region. For our efforts in Myanmar, we had, with the help of the .MM registry been able to better deliver materials into the affected areas. As for Sichuan, we worked with CNNIC (.CN) and the Internet Society of China. In the future, we will continue to use this model to reach out to the local communities when and if disasters hit. On top of which, we intend to strengthen our relationships with international organisations such as World Vision, Oxfam and Red Cross to leverage their footprint around the world as well. But as the case in Myanmar shows, being able to leverage local presence through our online platform can be extremely critical for relief and rebuild efforts.
Have other regionally-based TLDs created a formalized relief effort before?
I am not sure. For DotAsia, this is consistent with our mandate and vision.
For others who wish to do the same, what were the major barriers you encountered that made establishing Relief.Asia difficult? In other words, if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
A major barrier is driving online donations. Both setting it up as well as driving actual donations. In setting up the system, the payment gateway and processing was troublesome and expensive. This cascades to the issue of driving donations as well because of the high overhead. As a new online platform, there will of course be an issue of trust, which we understand. Nevertheless, we are glad that there are people who believe in our cause and also we were able to drive donations through our partners as well.
For regionally-based TLDs, existing and new, do you foresee the need for such organizations to budget for, if not have a person covering a “Relief Coordinator” role?
I think it really depends on the mission and vision of a TLD.
While there are many aspects to a complete relief effort, what can Relief.Asia do well and what should one NOT expect Relief.Asia to handle?
The vision of Relief.Asia is that information technology can save lives.
Relief.Asia leverages the technology and social network over the Internet community to bring together people and open technology to contribute to relief and rebuild efforts. Also, Relief.Asia is a platform that facilitates collaboration and sharing, and is focused on supporting relief and rebuild teams with technology. We will continue to work with other organisations such as World Vision, Oxfam and Red Cross to drive donations and support their operations for more general relief work.
I have heard of many organizations that organize relief efforts around natural disasters. This is the first time I have personally heard of any organization within the general ICANN community organizing a relief effort. What might organizations within the general ICANN community bring to disaster relief that traditional organizations struggle with?
Many organisations in the ICANN community has extensive networks within their locality and industry. Often, great work can be built from these social and technological networks. I think those are the types of thing the ICANN community can really make a difference. I believe there has been different initiatives in the past as well. As I recall, Afilias and PIR also contributed efforts in the wake of the 2004 Asia Tsunami.
Anything else I may not have covered that you wish to be told?
If you feel that Relief.Asia is a meaningful project, please support us by adding a button or ribbon to your website! See http://support.relief.asia.
The children of the disaster ridden areas need your help! Relief.Asia will focus not only on relief efforts but also rebuild and through your help, we can bring better technology to these deprived children, and give them a better hope for a better future!
August 5th, 2008
By Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
Last August I blogged about “.asia, A Social Networking Goldmine”. While the gist of the post centered around the new .asia TLD (its value with the advent of IDNs and how it can foster community) the underlying theme has been, and continues to be for me the value of what such regionally focused TLDs can bring to the “community”.
In previous posts also I discussed the value IDNs bring not only from the perspective of DotAsia, but from the perspective of India. To be specific, “What IDNs Mean to DotAsia: A Conversation with Edmon Chung of DotAsia” and “IDNs and India: A Conversation with Rajesh Aggarwal of NIXI”.
Again, the underlying theme being that of “Community”.
Recently we were able to witness the power of what such a regionally-based TLD, such as the DotAsia organization can accomplish when trying to support the community.
May 3, 2008 a cyclone hit Myanmar. At the time of this writing 78,000 are dead with 56,000 still missing.
May 12, 2008, an earthquake hit China’s Sichuan province. At the time of this writing 40,000 are dead with 32,000 still missing.
Shortly after the cyclone hit Myanmar and before the quake hit in China, Edmon Chung and his organization, DotAsia lead the charge of forming “Relief.Asia”. The Relief.Asia website, “… was deployed as a tool and platform to drive awareness and community contribution towards the rebuilding of nature-savaged regions such as Myanmar (also known as Burma) and Sichuan, through the application of Information Technology. Other organizations that jumped in to form a working, cohesive partnership include Internet Society Hong Kong (ISOC HK), The Professional Commons, Asia Pacific Networking Group (APNG), intERLab of Asian Institute of Technology, Myanmar Egress, APNIC, and Museum of World Religions, amongst others.”
Through the relationships developed among the various partners, Relief.Asia was able to secure one of the first planes into Myanmar with relief supplies.
As we have seen with Myanmar, politically speaking Myanmar and the US do not have the best of relationships, thus making it difficult for the US to provide relief supplies to Myanmar. Where governments fail in this regard it helps when organizations have relationships within governments, but are not part of a government agency themselves. With that said, DotAsia is not a governmental, or political organization. However, with the establishment of the .asia TLD they have relationships with members of a country’s respective government. I can’t say such relationships helped with Myanmar or Sichuan, but I do know progress towards relief efforts were made due to the relationships established with the various partners of Relief.Asia.
With the development and deployment of regionally-based TLDs on the horizon, I can only wonder if the world has a new avenue for marshalling resources through partnerships to aid in geographically-based relief efforts.
May 21st, 2008
By Chuck Kisselburg
I recently attended the Domain Roundtable conference. As with my attendance last year I walked away impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit of people coming together to constructively define and grow an entire industry. With last year’s attendance of the conference I approached the conference expecting to see the wild west of the Internet. What I found was basically no difference in working with general entrepreneurs.
The key word I heard over and over was, “Development”. “Development, Development, Development!”
Parking of domain names, while a way for domainers to monetize their domains, is not necessarily the best use of domains because:
1). Visitors are not receiving that much value from a “traditionally” parked page.
2). Visitors are recognizing a “traditional” parked page and thus getting more irritated and seeing less value.
3). Development means more than simply parking a page.
As stated by Dan Warner, “Something that is rare AND valuable equals sustainable”
The basic principles of domain development include:
1). Obtaining unique and “clean” assets of domains.
2). Provide content that is original.
3). Develop community around your respective domain.
Development means finding a way to provide better, more relevant content that brings value to the visitor. Value means creating something where visitors to a particular domain will want to return. Return means value and value means return. So whether that is development through continually working to find a continual means for providing “relevant” content or developing partnerships with other organizations that may benefit the visitor, suddenly the definition of “development” looks like the more traditional forms of an entrepreneur developing and growing their business.
One of the speakers at the conference was Matt Cutts of Google. Matt’s basic recommendations to the Domainer community were:
1). If a user lands on a page, will that user be happy? Does the page match the topic the user was expecting? Is the content for the visitor relevant?
2). How much unique content might there be when compared with other sites? In other words, is your content stale or is it constantly being updated?
3). Bottom line, for the visitor, does your site add value and is the content unique?
Another speaker at the conference was Gary Kremen. Gary may be most notable to some through his ownership, and subsequent legal battles over sex.com. However, Gary also took one of his domain names, “Match.com” and developed this into a complete business. The basic nuggets of information I took from Gary’s talk were:
1). Is there a business that can be created using a domain that is more than the domain name it was built upon? From my perspective, Match.com is a classic example of this.
2). Are you creating other intellectual property along the way as you develop your domain name(s)?
3). Think about how this business will solve a problem and use this to develop your business plan.
Gary added another element to his discussion that I had never heard before at other domain conferences I had attended and that was “VCs” – Venture Capitalists. This gets into the whole discussion of should you continue to bootstrap what you are doing or does the next step of development require having an outside investment strategy and how outside investment can affect the company you are developing.
While I have the extreme benefit of talking with people across the entire ICANN “community”, I hear peoples’ perspective on what they think of ALL “domainers”. However, when attending a Domain Roundtable conference where speakers come from outside of the “traditional” sense of the Domainer community, I continue to respect the fact that:
1). An industry has formed with little guidance or direction.
2). This industry is trying to provide its own guidance for the betterment of the industry.
3). This industry is more than simply acquiring domain names, sitting on them and later selling them for a profit.
If a Domainer is to be successful, it is simple:
1). Have a “clean” domain portfolio that does not infringe on any trademarks.
2). Trademark your domain.
3). Develop your domain so that what is developed brings value to the visitor, both through adding value and uniqueness of content.
4). Develop your domain such that it solves a problem for visitors to your site.
5). Develop your domain so that you are creating intellectual property along the way.
As such it is my personal opinion to see more of the traditional organizations starting to diversify their portfolios through acquiring their own domain portfolios.
As for the conference itself, it was held to coincide with the AdTech conference. Smart move as several who attended did so because they were able to bundle this in with their trip to AdTech. Another new thing for this conference was the addition of daily passes. While attendance at the conference “appeared” light I ran into numerous attendees who took advantage of purchasing a daily pass so as to attend what was of interest to them. So while the conference as a whole did not seem to have the normal crowd, the “crowd” was there, only more strategic.
May 12th, 2008
By Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
Last week I attended T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East, held just north of Miami. The brainchild of Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu the conference was very well attended by domainers, parking firms, registrars and other companies from around the globe. While this is T.R.A.F.F.I.C.’s ninth conference, the success of this conference continues to underline the need for organized conferences for this segment of the Internet industry. New to the family is John Epp, T.R.A.F.F.I.C.’s new Executive Director.
As with my blog after the Domain Roundtable, this conference was made up of a solid group of entrepreneurs.
The format of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. continues to be seminars with industry experts along with healthy amounts of time set aside for networking and developing relationships/partnerships. The conference ended with an auction of domains.
In attending the sessions and talking with people during each of the networking events, I heard a couple of themes:
1). Transparency
2). Development
3). Code of ethics
4). Representation
1). Transparency: There appears to be a growing need within the domainer community for there to be greater transparency with the parking companies. The reason behind this is as Google and Yahoo have driven down the costs associated with advertising clicks, owners of parked domains are, on an average, seeing decreasing revenues on their investments. The only thing this points to are the parking companies and how much money might be staying with these companies. As such parking companies are seeing the need for becoming more transparent regarding costs associated with managing parked domains.
2). Development: Almost every domainer at the conference wishes to develop, where possible, their domains. Realistically it will be difficult for a domainer to develop all of their domains as it takes time and resources to develop even one domain. Think of development as creating and executing a business plan. Also note that while some may think of a domainer as owning huge amounts of domain names, in truth there are domainers present who own a small number. However, everyone sees the value of developing their domains. True, it does increase the value of their domain, but people really want to utilize their domains where they are actually providing value to the end user.
I had the pleasure of talking with quite a few people at this conference and found those in attendance spanned the gamut of domaining and development. On one extreme I talked with one person who is all about domain tasting. He “tastes†anywhere from 35,000 to 40,000 domains a day. On the other extreme a former CEO, who has a small portfolio of domains, wishes to create a full blown business with each domain. With the exception of the one domain taster in attendance, everyone wanted to develop their domains as much as possible. I also heard LOUD AND CLEAR that people are really against the concept and practice of domain tasting.
3). Code of ethics: As this community continues to evolve, domainers, and the organizations that support them, feel they have been tainted by the activity of a minority, and that deals with “tastingâ€, “kiting†and “cybersquattingâ€. There is a strong current to help further define this community through the establishment of standards as well as a code of ethics. This means that not only should there be a code of ethics for domainers, there should also be a code of ethics for registrars and parking companies, with the goal being to set the standard as well as weed out those who don’t “pass the gradeâ€.
4). Representation: There is a strong undercurrent that those of this community are not listened to by ICANN. When ever I ask a simple question about this I can usually get blasted with a cadre of examples. You can tell the frustration level is quite high. There is work to be done, but I strongly feel that with open communication ICANN and the domainer community can work together. Aside from ICANNWiki being able to provide a platform for communication among those who fall within the overall ICANN community, the Internet Commerce Association, or the ICA, has gained heavy support from the various groups attending T.R.A.F.F.I.C. to be the official association to work with ICANN to ensure the domainer community is represented and heard. Personally speaking, I see the need for ICANN to have representation at each of these domainer conferences as this can only help continue the conversations and mutual education.
For those reading this blog who don’t live within the domainer’s world, here are a couple of blogs to view:
Frager Factor
Conceptualist.com
Seven Mile
Ron Jackson’s Blog
Whizzbangsblog.com
Rick’s blog
Jay Westerdal’s blog
The keynote speaker to the conference was Steve Forbes. Steve’s speech centered around the entrepreneurial spirit and how such spirit created turbulence over the centuries, however, each time such entrepreneurs help define the industry. The domainer community is in such a space where they are working in a world that is still very young, helping to create and shape the industry.
One of the “Ah-Ha†moments for me was hearing where one organization, who has a sizeable domain portfolio, found it best to “park†their domains due to the “traditional†way the financial world views the domainer world. In other words, investors don’t look at the “value†of what developed domains can bring. Instead investors look at the historical data of what domains have sold for as well as what money the domains are bringing in today. Thus, when working with the financial world, it appears best to park domains instead of develop the domain.
As mentioned earlier, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. continues to grow, thus showing the need for such events. It was mentioned today that Fabulous.com will be the first organization to be a licensee of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and is now slated to hold a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in Australia in November of 2008.
October 17th, 2007
Great news!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Hong Kong, 24 August, 2007 — DotAsia, the registry operator of the “.Asia†Internet domain, today announced a landmark partnership with ICANNWiki, a grassroots domain collaborative website and industry resource for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) stakeholders, that will leverage the Web 2.0 web-based communities to expand online community participation for DotAsia’s .Asia Pioneer Domains Program.
This initiative marks the first time in the history of the Internet that the online public, including ICANN stakeholders from both inside and outside of ICANN, will play a major role in deciding who will be awarded the best cyber real estate in a domain, in this case, the new .Asia domain name. ICANN is responsible for managing the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses, including the introduction of new generic top-level domains.
At the same time, DotAsia said it will extend the application period for the Pioneer Domains Program to September 10, 2007.
“The partnership between the team at ICANNWiki and DotAsia enables greater participation from the overall community in the launch of .Asia. With this, DotAsia is again setting a new benchmark for community participation by managing the entire process in a more Web 2.0 way then a typical new domain registry,†said Dan Mendell, the Executive Director of ICANNwiki and the CEO of Neutral Space, Inc., the organization that maintains the Wiki for the ICANN community.
“A great promise of the Internet is the enablement of mass participation. The partnership with ICANNwiki enables us to engage the community to express their thoughts on voting for the best creative ideas for the best .Asia domains,†said Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia.
“This sort of democratization has never been done before when there has been so much still on the table.†said Dan Mendell CEO of Neutral Space, Inc. “Edmon and his team are true believers in the .Asia domains and this sort of balanced commitment to the process shows that they really mean it.â€
The online polling will be global through the ICANNWiki website www.ICANNWiki.org. Results will be maintained online and will provide input to the Pioneers Commission — the evaluation committee — in the consideration of Pioneer applications.
The posting of the Pioneer applications on the ICANNWiki website will also assist in the challenge process, enhancing the procedures for the allocation of domain names. In an announcement earlier, DotAsia has partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Organisation a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to the maintenance of a balanced and effective international intellectual property system, to be the Challenge Resolution Provider for the Pioneer Domains Program.
The .Asia Pioneer Domains Program offers the ultimate first-mover advantage for brand development and e-commerce in Asia. Applicants are invited to submit a brief proposal for the domain of their choice and measures are in place to protect the rights of others and curb abusive registrations. This concept marks a departure from the conventional first-come-first-served allocation model to directly motivate the adoption and positive usage of the domain names. The best ideas win the right to operate the best .Asia domains. “This is the overall key to any rollout in business,†said Dan Mendell. “Anything you can do to kick off usage, verses encourage long term holding of the domain, is good for the registrar’s branding and good for it’s supporting community.â€
After the deadline for the Pioneer Domains’ Program, the DotAsia organisation will launch the Sunrise (i.e. priority registration period for prior rights holders) registration of names for the .Asia domain on October 9, 2007.
To summarize some of the advantages of the Pioneer Domains Program over the Sunrise:
- Before the Sunrise begins, Pioneer applicants may propose the best .Asia domain names
- The Sunrise process requires evidential proof of rights in the form of Trademark registrations. The Domain name applied for must match with the trademark. For the Pioneer Domains Program, applicants can apply for additional domain names such as common typos of a brand or variants that are commonly used but not trademarked. Brand owners can apply to use an abbreviation or variation of their brand as the chosen domain name, and the name thus applied for is not required to have a registered trademark.
- The .Asia sunrise process requires for a trademark to be applied for before certain cut-off dates. For the Pioneer Domains Program, there is no such requirement, especially for common words and phrases.
- Applying for .Asia domains under the Pioneer Domains Program is free of charge. Trademark verification fees, which are required for Sunrise applications, will be waived by the DotAsia Organisation for the Pioneer Domains Program. Applicants under the Pioner Domains Program are however required to place a Marketing Commitment Deposit of US$10,000, and will be promptly refunded for marketing of the proposed businesses upon documented proof.
- DotAsia will work with Pioneers on co-marketing and other joint promotional activities, highlighting the commitment to the Asia community.
About DotAsia
The DotAsia Organisation is a not-for-profit community-based organisation incorporated in Hong Kong with a focused mission to operate the .Asia Registry. It is the sponsoring organization and registry operator for the .Asia sponsored generic top level domain. The DotAsia Organisation has a purposeful mandate to direct surplus proceeds to initiatives that benefit the community in the region, such as projects to bridge the digital divide and regional research development projects.
About ICANNwiki.org
This fabulous resource was put together by ICANNWIKI Volunteers suach as Ray King amd Dan Mendell, with the belief that a public facing wiki could be a real benefit to the ICANN community At Large. A wiki is a medium for “peer production”, where the act of building and using the site as a community will create a valuable common asset. This “lasting work” made up of our industry’s collective intelligence can then be used to further the common mission of making the Internet a better place to live and work. This site and all proceeds collected by the site are used to further these important goals
All DotAsia media queries please contact:
Amanda de Silva or Cherry Velarde at Upstream Asia, Tel: (852) 2973 0222.
Email: amanda.desilva@upstreamasia.com / cherry.velarde@upstreamasia.com
All ICANNwiki.org media queries please contact:
Chuck Kisselburg (ICANNwiki Director) Tel: (503) 869-9025
Email: Chuck@ICANNwiki.org
August 27th, 2007
Last week I attended the Domain Roundtable Conference in Seattle. The conference focused on the owning and managing of domain names. In attendance were those who own domains, otherwise known as domainers, as well as the organizations who manage the portfolios of the domainers.
In a sense, this is where you meet the true cowboys and cowgirls of the Internet. I have heard people say of domainers that they are all about grabbing as many domains as possible with the goal being profits. Some people I talked with did not like the fact that there may be factors that may limit when they may acquire available domain names. In other words, every person for themselves! Thus should I screem, “Yeeeeha!“?
Yet as I sat through various sessions, I heard presenters discuss:
- Establishing a business plan
- Creating LLCs
- Developing domain names to create greater value and branding
- Apply for patents around developed domains
- Domain name financing
- Asset evaluation
- Understand foreign legal and political structures when acquiring domain names with country code extensions
- What is a domain name’s ROI?
- Valuation metrics
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Domain name portfolios
- Exit strategies
The more I listened, the more I understood that domainers are not the lawless, wild-west figures some come to believe, but entrepreneurs. Yes, you can follow the link to “entrepreneurâ€, but within that post you will find the following:
An entrepreneur is someone who seeks to capitalize on new and profitable endeavors or business; usually with considerable initiative and risk.
There are some domainers who have been wildly successful in acquiring, developing and selling domain names, while others are just starting out – have a few domain names, but limited cash that prevents them from developing domains.
There is no doubt domain names equate with money. Just check Jay Westerdal’s blog on the auction, held at the end of the Domain Roundtable Conference, to gain a sense of the value of some domain names up for auction.
So is the Wild-Wild-West still alive on the Internet? I believe there is a bit of the Wild-West in every entrepreneurial venture/market. Are the domainers the “cowpoke†pushing the envelope regarding Internet “real estate� I think so. Is this a bad thing? I think not, especially when domainers work to develop a brand/market for domain names owned. This is no different than a typical “Mom & Pop shop†trying to develop and grow their business. Now, for those out for pure personal greed such as the domain tasters, yes, I see no community value in such practice. However, my perspective is many good things have evolved by pushing the envelope.
What are your thoughts? Do you see domainers as traditional entrepreneurs? I would like to hear from you.
August 21st, 2007
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