The ICANNblog

ICANN Turns 10 Years Old.

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…….

1 comment September 30th, 2008

Sedo and DotAsia - Doing What They Did Not Have to Do.

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.

3 comments September 2nd, 2008

“Your Community”

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”!

Add comment August 18th, 2008

The Domain Roundtable; Fostering Entrepreneurs.

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.

2 comments May 12th, 2008

Domainer Industry Alive and Thriving at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

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 “tasting”, “kiting” and “cybersquatting”. 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 grade”.

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.

1 comment October 17th, 2007

Domain Name Alliance Registry Formed.