Stephane Van Gelder - .FR

Cars boost .FR's desirability

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:48:20 +0200

Two record setting .FR sales have just been announced. The names voitures.fr ("cars" in French) and auto.fr were sold by different people but were both bought by the same buyer. Expect to see a new car-themed Internet portal or website around these names soon.

Voitures.fr was sold for 50,000 euros (around 78,000 USD at today's rate) while the shorter and more international auto.fr went for double that amount at 100,000 euros (nearly 157,000 USD).

These sales comfortably trounce the previous official .FR record which was held by porn.fr (sold for 30,000 euros or close to 50,000 USD). Nice to see cars in front of sex for once

World watching French "registry campaign"

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:01:48 +0200

Several sites and blogs around the world have picked on the public consultation launched by the French government to determine the best way in which .FR should be run and what the upcoming Request For Proposals to run the French registry should focus on.

This process is bound to be fascinating to follow worldwide for people interested in the domain name industry. France has often shown itself to be as modern and innovative as it is set in its ways and hard to decipher.

On this issue, seeing a government asking in a very public way the question – "has our Internet suffix been run right and what could be done to improve it?" – has to appear very positive. Especially when that government puts the position of registry up for grabs after a decade with an existing organisation, AFNIC, who's always seemed as safe as houses.

All well and good, but only if the French government's intent really is to launch a fair RFP in which every candidate has an equal chance. If this turns out to be just a "make-up" exercise to consolidate AFNIC's position as the French registry, then the French authorities will have lost a lot of credibility as far as the worldwide Internet community is concerned.

But let's not draw any hasty conclusions here. The first step in the process, the current consultation, has a June 24 deadline. No date has yet been announced for publication of the answers that will be sent in, but I for one can't wait to read them. Here's hoping some will come from outside France…

Oh, and BTW, a quick wave to the guys at Domainnews.com who ran my previous post on the consultation and to Michele who also mentioned it in an great post about the current "fun and games" in the ccTLD wolrd

French government launches public consultation on who should run .FR

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:11:10 +0200

Is France gearing up to change its registry? That question has been bugging the people at AFNIC ever since the French government published a decree on February 8th 2007 in which it was clearly stipulated that there would soon be an RFP (request for proposals) for the management of .FR.

AFNIC was both surprised and angered at the government's move, which clearly undermines its position as France's registry. Those reactions are understandable as AFNIC, since its creation on January 1st 1998, has always been state run. Its board has 10 members, four of which are elected. All the others are nominated representatives of various ministries and state institutions. The board's president (who enjoys a double vote) can only be chosen amongst the elected member. And an extra representative of the government sits in at every board meeting and has veto power over any decision the board makes.

The elected board members are representatives of the registrars and users communities. I have sat on the AFNIC board since 2004 as one of the two registrar representatives and I am currently serving my second consecutive term (the maximum allowed under AFNIC rules). In that time, I have seen first hand a system that, while giving registrars and Internet users the opportunity to voice their opinions, remains firmly in government control.

So when that same government decided a fresh look was needed on how the French namespace is run, it was a bit of a bombshell for AFNIC.

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