Stephane Van Gelder - English

UK Internet Governance Forum website now up

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:29:19 +0100

The launch of the UK IGF's website is a good opportunity to commend the Brits on getting their act together on the subject of Internet governance so quickly.

The original IGF was born out of the UN's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). It's function: to provide WSIS participants with a place to continue their discussions and for nations, NGOs and civil society representatives worldwide.

But pretty soon people involved in the IGF started feeling the need for having those discussions at a local level too. Enter the UK IGF initiative as a forum for British stakeholders to engage and help new ideas emerge.

Other countries are now starting to follow suit and work on setting up their own IGF at national level. If it can help bring people together to talk about the future of the Internet, then I'm all for it.

Success for ICANN's anti-domain tasting policy

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:18:19 +0100

ICANN figures comparing the number of AGP deletes for the major gTLDs in June and July 2008 show a marked decrease in such deletes after the new AGP policy was introduced in June.

The policy is a stop-gap measure before full AGP limits are implemented. In short, the same monthly limits of 50 names or 10% of the overall registration volumes for a given registrar are enforced. But if registrars go over these limits, they only pay the 20 cent (US) ICANN fee per name. Once the full AGP limits are implemented, they will not be able to get any refund at all, i.e. they will not get the ICANN fee or the domain name registration fee back.

Curbing AGP deletes was ICANN's answer to the practice of "domain tasting" which had become rampant. Using the 5-day Add Grace Period which allows registrars to claim a full refund for a newly-registered names, "tasters" registered massive amounts of domain names and released them before the 5-day AGP was over. Only the names which proved valuable (i.e. provided good pay-per-click returns when pointed to a parking page) were kept. As a result, a huge number of names had been "tasted", or tried, at no cost.

Domain tasting had a negative impact on the domain market by eroding consumer confidence in the system. Those who wanted to register names that were tasted and then let go, or those that saw their trademarks usurped during a tasting campaign… all were adversely impacted by domain tasting.

ICANN's answer was to severely limit the number of AGP deletes that a registrar can request in a given month. The new policy does seem to work, with an overall drop in the number of AGP deletes of close to 85% from June to July. .COM saw a similar percentage drop, while .NET's was actually over 85%.

Remarkable numbers really, which seem to show that the new policy is the right one to fight domain tasting.

Domain tasting to end on March 1st?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:44:56 +0100

ICANN has released a draft plan for implementing its Add Grace Period (AGP) limits policy.

The policy is designed to end domain tasting. Registrars will no longer be able to claim refunds on domains less than 5 days old if the claim is for 50 domains or more than 10% of the registrar's monthly registration volume, whichever is the highest.

The draft implementation plan lists the AGP limits start-date as March 1, 2009.

As the AGP's reason for being in the first place was to enable registrars to deal with payment defaults, and not as a means of gaming the domain name registration system through domain tasting, ICANN has chosen not to do away with it altogether. Registrars can claim exemption from the AGP limits provided they are able to justify them. Exemption is only granted for the request made. There is no blanket exemption possibility which would in effect allow a registrar to "opt-out" of AGP limits.

Will this work, i.e. will it make domain tasting a thing of the past? ICANN will monitor the new policy for two years and then report on its effectiveness to the GNSO. Changes to the policy may at that point be considered.

Continue reading "Domain tasting to end on March 1st?"

Politicians make domain name famous

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:58:16 +0200

Imagine that your domain name, currently unknown outside of your immediate circle of customers and friends, suddenly became THE byword in a presidential debate watched by the entire planet.

That's exactly what happened to JoeThePlumber.com owner Joe Francis. During the third Obama/McCain debate, both candidates mentioned "Joe The Plumber" a total of 26 times. The little frequented website suddenly saw its number of hits explode… And buy offers soon started pouring in. Francis is said to have received a top offer of $900,000 for his domain!

But the canny neighbourhood plumber isn't selling just yet. He first wants to look into marketing and licensing possibilities now that "Joe The Plumber, Friendliest Plumber in Town" is fast becoming America's catchphrase. T-shirts are already been sold on the JoeThePlumber.com website. Soon, the Joe The Plumber brand may become a fully-fledged franchise…

IDNs coming to .EU

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:35:29 +0200

EURid is technically ready to implement IDNs in a relatively short timeframe in .EU. However, there is still a certain amount of administrative work to be done, including several meetings with the European Commission.

One of the issues still to be finalised is the list of names that member states will request be reserved and not made available for general registration.

European registrants can therefore expect to see IDNs become available in .EU sometime next year.

EURid's new supporting organisation

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:28:21 +0200

Regular readers will know that I am a proud member of EURid's Requirements Panel (RP). In fact, I'm writing this on the train back from EURid's Brussels headquarters where the 5th meeting of this group, set up to help provide EURid with registrar input on improving their domain management systems and processes, was held.

In addition to the RP, EURid now has a second registrar group to work with. On October 8, the Registrar Advisory Board (RAB) had its first meeting. Nine registrar representatives serve on this RAB, the main function of which is to provide EURid's board with advice on its long-term business decisions. The RAB is very much a "supporting organisation" in the ICANN sense of the phrase, just like the GNSO for example exists to advise the ICANN board on issues and policies relating to the generic TLD namespace.

So where the RP will focus on practical implementation issues, the RAB will consider more long-term strategic decisions.

Continue reading "EURid's new supporting organisation"

The problem with IDNs

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:05:22 +0200

ICANN's IDN testbed page for Arabic script.

Last week, ICANN announced that it had added two new languages to its IDN testbed. Bengali and Khmer have thus become scripts number 16 and 17 to be supported as part of ICANN's global IDN experiment.

ICANN is testing IDN TLDs, i.e. a complete domain name written in a non-ASCII format. The Greek IDN test link (http://παράδειγμα.δοκιμή) serves as a good example: not only is the domain name (the left part after the dot) written in Greek, but so is the extension (the right part before the dot).

I see some irony in ICANN pushing its IDN testbed while at the same time, ccTLD managers are finding it harder and harder to decide what to do with IDNs. In July, the Belgium registry DnsBE announced that, having consulted the community, it had decided not to go ahead with an IDN implementation at this time.

And last week, at an AFNIC meeting, I learned that IDNs were not included in the French registry's action plan for 2009. That means no IDNs for .FR before 2010 at the earliest.

Admittedly, several European registries, including the Germans, the Swiss and the Austrians, have already launched IDNs. But I can't help thinking that IDNs are creating as many problems as they are solving, and that is why registries are having trouble implementing them. We can only hope that ICANN's current experimentation will lead to a simpler, more intuitive IDN system. That would increase the chances for widespread IDN adoption.

Unfortunately, there's some doubt cast on that as well. I was at a Eurolinc meeting last week (an organisation that promotes multilingualism on the Internet) and IDNs were discussed by technical people who know a lot more about them than I do. The consensus seemed to be that the current IDNA protocol, upon which ICANN's testbed is based and which relies on a form of coding called punycode to translate IDNs into ASCII-compatible data, is problematic. One suggestion I heard: dump punycode and use only UTF8 coding. A practical solution? I don't know to be honest, but it's nice to see people working an alternative ideas to make IDNs happen.

AFNIC exploring new avenues?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:07:04 +0200

The French registry AFNIC sent out a press release late last week to highlight its new partnership with GS1 France, the local chapter of a global network of more than a million companies whose aim is to promote technological standardisation.

GS1 is at the forefront of ONS, the Object Naming System often dubbed "the Internet of things" which uses RFID tags to label products. AFNIC and GS1 France have already started working together on the European ONS root.

While all this ONS talk is fascinating, the real point of interest for me here is the reason why AFNIC is branching out in this way. While obviously linked to DNS, ONS is a different kettle of fish. The reason AFNIC is getting into it is simple: the French registry is giving itself options and planning for the future.

AFNIC is still waiting on the French government to put the management of the French namespace out to tender (expect some kind of announcement early next year). Until that happens, its position as the .FR registry will remain, if not precarious, at least possibly unsafe. So AFNIC General manager Mathieu Weill is exploring new avenues and making sure that the expertise AFNIC has developed over the years is used for other things besides domain names.

A wise business decision I think. Even if some may ask if a not-for-profit registry should be run as a business…

Time to sell your domains?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:39:03 +0200

With the current financial crisis, the question a lot of domain investors are asking themselves is: "should I sell?".

It's easy to understand people getting jittery, but there really are no reasons so far to suspect that domain values will crash. Sure any meltdown of the magnitude that we're seeing right now in the banking industry is bound to have repercussions in all markets and sectors. But domain fundamentals shouldn't be affected that much.

Pay-per-click revenue could suffer to some extent, as all types of advertising take a hit, but it will remain one of the cheapest and most precise ways to reach your intended customer base. I worry a lot more for TV advertising execs than I do for domainers right now.

As ever in times like these, those who can stay calm and collected today will probably be the ones making obscene amounts of money tomorrow. I think DNW has a very good point saying that when the DotCOM bubble burst at the turn of the century, those rare (and brave) investors that bought all the good .COM names are the ones that have since become domain millionaires.

So is it time to sell your domains? I'd actually be tempted to say yes! Sell them to me at a much reduced price… and let me sell them back to you for a huge profit in a few years' time.

.TEL ramps up PR ahead of 2009 launch

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:30:58 +0200

.TEL registry Telnic is taking its "Tell The World" motto at face value and launching into a campaign to inform the general public about a new suffix based on technology that's difficult for non domain experts to understand.

Expect to hear a lot about .TEL in the next few days. Registry Telnic has been promoting the suffix at San Diego's Demo conference this week. The result is a string of news stories in papers like the Financial Times.

I really like the concept of a unique identifier behind .TEL and the clever way in which it takes an existing system – in this case the DNS – and gives it a new twist. But I have to admit that the benefits of .TEL aren't easy to explain to non-domain experts.

So Telnic are right to get the general media to explain it for them. Outside of our closed world of domain name professionals, people tend to talk normally instead of slipping a juicy bit of jargon like "zonefile" in every other sentence. That can only help everyday Internet users who don't care about what makes .TEL work and just want to get the best out of a good product.

.MOBI alive and kicking

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:34:38 +0200

DomainesInfo is running a little scoop today. They've learned from mTLD, the .MOBI registry, that the extension has now reached the magic ton, i.e. a million domains.

I have to put this in the context of another story I read on .MOBI a few days ago. Writing for the ClickZ Network, Rebecca Lieb argued quite simply that .MOBI is already dead!

How ironic, then, that days later the registry is set to officially publish registration numbers that most of the world's Internet suffixes can only dream of reaching one day.

The rationale behind Lieb's statement does, however, kind of click. She says that the latest mobile navigation devices such as Apple's iPhone make .MOBI redundant. Because users can upload standard web pages on such devices and therefore don't need specific web content designed for them, it's simpler for them and website publishers to stick with just the one extension (use only a .COM for example instead of having an additional .MOBI for small screens).

Is this really the case? I have an iPhone and I must admit I have never used it to go to a .MOBI website. But it's also true that many a time while browsing the web on my iPhone, I have wished for iPhone-specific content. Despite the iPhone's clever technology and big screen (for a phone), you're still not accessing the web in its natural environment.

So there it is. I think there's a clear case for .MOBI and that it's actually one of the most useful concepts for a new extension because it has a well-defined purpose. What do you think?

Les dangers des registrars américains

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:46:45 +0200

En mars, ici même, je posais la question de savoir si les noms de domaine enregistrés par le biais de registrars américains sont en sécurité. Une question amenée notamment par un cas de reprise arbitraire de noms liés à Cuba sur ordre du gouvernement américain.

Cette question semble plus que jamais d'actualité, comme l'illustre une récente chronique publiée par Cnet et écrite par un iranien. Derrière le titre "le cyber Iran, le pays le plus incompris et calomnié du monde", Reza Hashemi livre des informations fascinantes sur le quotidien des iraniens sur Internet.

Au-delà des blocages dont les Internautes de ce pays font l'objet de la part d'un nombre impressionnant d'éditeurs de logiciels, qui ne permettent pas le téléchargement de mises à jour par exemple, on y apprend que les noms de domaine détenus par des iraniens sont susceptibles d'être repris à n'importe quel moment s'ils sont enregistrés auprès de registrars américains.

L'auteur cite notamment des cas de "reprises" de noms gérés par GoDaddy, eNom et Network Solutions.

Toujours ces histoires de "listes noires" de l'administration américaine, qui obligent les sociétés sous juridiction américaine à ne pas traiter avec certains pays. A ma connaissance, aucune action de reprise de ce type n'a jamais été constatée en Europe…

Domain name comedian

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:20:59 +0200

Domain names, a laughing matter? Not in a million years, or so I thought. Turns out I was wrong. Either that or I've become such a complete DN anorak it's just too sad for words. Either way, I love this video that Cédric Manara (a clear DN anorak if ever there was one J) found and told me about. Enjoy.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Ill winds

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:02:42 +0200

You sometimes have to wonder about the world we live in. As Gustav prepares to pummel the very places that Katrina wrecked only 3 years ago, scam artists are already looking for ways to profit from other people's hardships.

Having noticed several new domain name registrations centered around hurricane Gustav in the past few days, the American authorities are warning people against potential email scams or phishing attacks.

Louisiana's Attorney General has even issued an advisory against a spam campaign currently ongoing and asking people to confirm their account information in preparation for Gustav.

The silver lining here is that domain names and the Internet are now well enough integrated into our daily lives that hopefully people can spot a scam of this kind a mile away and not get duped.

.ASIA makes more than US$7 million out of auctions

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:01:21 +0200

Yes, you've just read that right. According to the .ASIA registry's latest figures, total proceeds for the Sunrise and Landrush auctions were more than US$7.2 million!

That incredible number has DotAsia understandably waxing lyrical about an auction process that according to them "proved to be a vast improvement of the dispute ridden pure first-come-first-served approach, and has provided a strong foundation for growth for the .Asia domain."

Take that .EU!

DotAsia is obviously taking a swipe at the launch of the European domain with its talk of dispute-ridden prior approaches. But is their auction model any better. For them, the answer is a resounding yes. For the end-user fronting the extraordinary amount of cash these auctions have generated, I'm not so sure.

The actual auctions numbers are staggering. The top 10 names sold at auction averaged US$55,000. The most expensive name was discover.asia at US$112,111, followed by sex.asia at US$ 83,334 and buy.asia at US$73,000.