Posts filed under 'ICANN Community'
by Chuck Kisselburg
There is no doubt THE hot topic for ICANN’s conference in Cairo, held November 1 through 7, was with the proposed gTLD process. Prior to the conference ICANN produced a comprehensive draft document for the new gTLD program. It was nice to see the document had a great amount of detail where people could actually see, discuss and debate the emerging structure of the program. True, with a price tag of $185,000 per gTLD application (one gTLD string per application), along with additional fees detailed in the document, those who are working towards a community-based gTLD had the wind taken from their sails as the pricing was far more than expected. As heard many times from ICANN staff the document is only a draft and the final document may look completely different than the draft document. Either way, the time frame for accepting applications was mentioned to be around September of 2009. It is quite possible this time frame “may” drift as, during one meeting, it was mentioned that it is “possible” that another comment period may be added between the next document and the final document.
The other interesting part of the new gTLD process is the culmination of programs for IDNs and ccTLDs – all with goal of having things in place for when applications can be accepted for new gTLD strings. In other words, quite a bit of activity is going on at ICANN these days.
Another item I found interesting dealt with security. DNSSEC continues to move forward with further movement regarding acquiring information about the SSAC. However one of the more realistic aspects of security dealt with working with registries and registrars regarding disaster recovery and mitigation. This is a great way for such organizations to practice what they should do in case a disaster of sorts happens to their organization.
For more quick summaries regarding the conference, please read the Daily Conference Summaries, which may be found in the “Announcement” section of the wiki’s main page.
At the June conference in Paris I was enthused by the fact that you had three conferences occurring within two days of each other. You had the Egeni conference, a domainer conference and then ICANN’s conference. The reason for my enthusiasm was due to the fact that at one time you had the entire ICANN “community” under one roof. For those of you who understand this know that this is a rather huge statement. I am talking ICANN “academics”, those working with Internet governance, registrars, registries AND domainers. It was good to see EVERYONE talking. While in Paris I heard of people talking about increasing their involvement within the ICANN process so the “voice” in ICANN’s various committees are more representative of the whole community. So I headed off to Cairo with the anticipation of seeing more people from the various groups. I must say I was disappointed by not seeing what I had hoped. Could it have been due to the economy? Possibly Could it have been the location? Perhaps, but who hasn’t wanted to go to Cairo? Either way my hope continues. I hope to see a greater representation from ALL groups in Mexico City.
December 4th, 2008
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
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
There is no doubt I continue to be fascinated by this community of ours. It is rare to find a community that involves the growth of an in industry before our very eyes! An industry that affects large numbers of this globe’s population; whether directly or indirectly. You’ve heard me mention this several times, but I get energized by the entrepreneurial spirit found in the overall ICANN community.
When thinking about this further, it all seems to boil down to (for me, anyway) the name space or the domain name. What IS a domain name? This is where I like to also use the term name space as we are all using the Internet based on how we name the space of our destinations.
What does such a “name space” consist of? Is it the simple URL followed by the traditional .com, .net, .biz, .info, .org, etc… ? For many the term “name space” can mean “brand”. It is because of such branding that we see the various UDRP cases to clear up who owns the brand, or the “name” for such a brand, or any “names” that may be “confusingly similar” to such brands.
For me it goes deeper than brand. For me it means identity. Not only does our industry help define identity within this virtual universe we call the Internet, it can be used to identify to this virtual universe who “WE” are. Who I am. Who you are. So in my earlier reference of how we name the space of our destinations, that is only part true. There is a whole emerging industry that focuses on the other half of the name space and that is the space that identifies NOT the destination, but the originator. In other words, the part of the industry where the name space identifies who YOU, the individual, are.
OpenID is one such aspect of the industry that is growing rapidly. As stated in my earlier post from this year many large organizations have adopted the use of OpenID. Two camps have been helping identify the OpenID movement. While you have one camp, called “OpenID” you have another that provides a more secure form of OpenID known as the iname.
The whole purpose of OpenID is to allow you to use your same OpenID, or iname at any site that supports the general OpenID specification. The roadmap for the whole OpenID movement is for you to be able to customize attributes of YOUR OpenID or iname so not only can sites learn more about you with only the information you provide in your various attributes, it becomes YOUR identity, or trusted name space when accessing destinations around our virtual universe. It also serves as a way for people you know who tend to visit the same sites as you, they will see input from the use of your iname or OpenID. Being that you can use the same iname or OpenID across many sites, it is a good way for your friends to validate information that came from YOU, a trusted source.
So just as the ICANN community “traditionally” thinks of the name space as a domain name for a destination on the net, we need to start thinking about the name space for the originator on the net. The nice thing about inames is you can acquire your iname just like you can with destination name spaces, or domain names. Earlier I mentioned the iname concept being more secure than the original OpenID movement. This is true because inames were developed with security in mind. Meaning, once you acquire your iname, the secure number generated with that iname is yours forever. If you allow your iname to lapse where it is later picked up by someone else, that “someone else” receives a newly generated identification number. This way when that “someone else” uses the iname you allowed to lapse, it can never be fully tied to you as the generated secure ID numbers are different, and will forever be different.
The other thing that inames allows is for multiple structures for the use of an iname. For example NeuStar and 1id are allowing ICANNWiki users to pick up their own ICANNWiki community iname. So, for example, my ICANNWiki community iname is “@icannwiki*chuck”. So as part of the ICANNWiki community I specify myself (“*chuck”) as being a member of the ICANNWiki community (“@icannwiki”). Now I can go to any site that supports the general OpenID movement and use my ICANNWiki community iname to log in. Sweet!
If you don’t already have your iname, check it out for yourself and use the other half of our virtual universe’s name space! Obtain your ICANNWiki community iname by going here or obtain your own personal iname by going here.
August 25th, 2008
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
As you can see from information about the wiki, ICANNWiki.org is based in the city of Portland, in the state of Oregon.
Oregon is one of the world leaders for the Open Source community. In fact, it is not uncommon for companies from around the globe to open up a research and development arm here in Oregon to take advantage of Oregon’s Open Source community.
Portland, Oregon’s largest city, is home to many people who actively work with and develop for the Open Source community. As such there are many ideas and conversations regarding community. From my perspective, with my position at ICANNWiki, I can not think of a better city in which to be located to have active, ongoing conversations with other members of the Open Source community.
With that said I was at an informal after-hours event a couple of days ago where I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman whose business profession is that of copy writing. I have always viewed copy writers of any country as the unofficial keepers of their respective language. A good copy writer ensures what we read not only conveys the message properly, they ensure that what is conveyed is grammatically correct.
After learning about ICANNWiki.org and how it is a neutral resource for the various communities that make up the overall ICANN community, those being ICANN academics, registries, registrars and domainers, he could not help but refer to this community as “Your Community”. He was not referring to “Your Community” in a bad way, just his way of referencing the whole ICANN community in our conversation.
The reason I thought this conversation was interesting enough for a separate post is every language, in some way or another is adaptable over time. English is one of the more flexible, or adaptable languages out there. He noted that as time has progressed the English language has evolved very rapidly in the last decade. True, the advent of computers have brought English terms to English and other languages, such as “PC”, “hard disk” and “mouse”, to name a few. Also, through “Your Community” new words have emerged, such as “Google”, “Twitter” and “Yelp”, also to name a few. However this gentleman felt that “Your Community”, or the overall ICANN community, has done more for bringing change to, or “influencing” the English language than any other such “influencer”. What he was referring to was how the Internet has brought people together, locally as well as globally and how communication can take place NOW as opposed to later. People can text, call, IM (instant message), e-mail, play games, connect with other networks, etc… FAR more easily than they could a little over a decade ago. Think back to your communication habits or capabilities back in 1995.
ICANN has created the standards and stability for the Internet. Companies and domainers, through development, provide the content and applications people use while registries and registrars provide the naming conventions people use to access applications. So, in a nut shell, “Your Community” has done a lot to advance the evolution of the English language.
With that said I could not help but wonder if a person, whose profession is copy writer in the English language, has already seen a quicker evolution of English, what will other copy writers experience of their respective languages once IDNs have been implemented for 5 years?
So while he kept referring to “Your Community” in our conversation, I couldn’t help but think about “Our Community” and how often can you be part of something where “Your Community” can have such an influence on the evolution of languages and how people communicate. So, hat’s off to “Our Community”!
August 18th, 2008
By Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
The below is what was printed in today’s Sedo newsletter, with content assembled by Crystal Peterson of The Public Interest Registry.
With the increased focus on the importance of corporate social responsibility and green issues, businesses are reaping the rewards of maintaining a separate .org website alongside their commercial .com.
What better way to clearly differentiate charitable and social initiatives from commercial initiatives than by operating a .org to highlight a corporate foundation’s mission?
Just look at these leading companies for examples of the trend to utilize their .org for corporate foundations:
• WholeFoodsMarket.com runs the WholePlanetFoundation.org to provide “innovative assistance for entrepreneurship - including direct microcredit loans and tangible support for other community partnership projects…to create wealth and prosperity in emerging economies;” and
• Google.com operates Google.org, which “aspires to use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age: climate change, poverty and emerging disease.”
“Google and Whole Foods are just two of the innovative corporations that are branding their green initiatives, philanthropic efforts and outreach activities behind the Trustmark of .org to gain more attention and traffic,” says Alexa Raad, CEO of .org, The Public Interest Registry.
Most organizations, who have a .org in conjunction with other TLDs, point their .org to their principle TLD to maximize the number of eyeballs to their core product. However, with ICANNWiki.org’s focus being “community”, many organizations miss a golden opportunity – the opportunity to enhance their brand and loyalty through highlighting their involvement with the community.
How does your business interact with the community? Utilizing a .org is the best way to highlight the community-minded aspect of your business!
August 13th, 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
of ICANNWiki.org
In my morning read I ran across the following article that announces the debut of “Cuil”, a new search engine.
The creator of this search engine, Anna Patterson, is no stranger to search engines as she once had a search engine company that was apparently impressive enough for Google to purchase in 2004 to upgrade their own system.
After working at Google for a while, she and a couple of Google’s engineers left Google to create another search engine that is to better Google.
So I headed over to “Cuil” to check it out. I proceeded to do a VERY scientific number of searches to arrive at an authoritative opinion. (ok, ok, so I did a couple of searches…..)
True, I tried my test search of “Bill Chase”, the founder and leader of my first favorite rock band back in the 70s before Bill and most of his band, “Chase” were killed in a plane crash in 1974 – hence a somewhat obscure search. I was amazed by the content delivered and the speed was amazing!
True, Cuil has a way to go, but impressive none-the-less.
However, while doing other searches I found things don’t rank like you typically find on Google or Yahoo. This lead me to realize that what we find today, through searches on Google and Yahoo, are what has developed over time. By time I am referring to ranking based upon change, thus relevance.
So what might this mean for those organizations who have worked to ensure higher placement? How long will it take for sites, or pages, to once again rank higher? Does a new search engine mean a new way of search engine optimization? How should an “optimizer” approach Cuil differently than Google? For that matter, how should an optimizer approach Cuil differently than Yahoo? Another way of looking at this is while a site may have accrued a lot of “Google Juice” or “Yahoo Juice”, what does it take to accrue an equal amount of “Cuil Juice”?
With that said, what impact will this have on businesses who work with optimization specialists to rank high to bring in the proverbial “eye balls”? Same with those in the domaining community.
True, Yahoo and Google are not going away ANYTIME soon. OPPORTUNITY? The opportunity I see with Cuil is how often do we have a search engine “petrie dish” to examine and watch how sites initially as well as evolve in rank? How cuil is that?!!!!
July 28th, 2008
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