insight 

Today saw the launch of .tel, a domain intended to act as a repository for contact data and an information sharing platform, rather than as an address for a web site.

Owners of .tel domains will be able to populate them with their contact details, such as their phone numbers, email addresses or GPS data and store this information directly into the Domain Name System.  The data is then displayed in a standard way for anyone visiting the .tel address, no matter what browser or device they are using.

Owners of .tel domains will be able to manage their contact details via a simple dashboard and include as much or as little information as they want to.

The “sunrise” phase for trademark owners to get domains related to their brands begins today, followed by a “landrush” phase open to anyone starting on 3 February 2009. The final general availability phase starts on 24 March 2009 when the domain will be open to all comers.

There will be a number of factors that have an impact on the success of .tel, most importantly how businesses react to this new top level domain (TLD).  Businesses will need to be aware of the potential uses of .tel and how it can work for them.  They should have a clear and robust domain name strategy in place, so that when new TLDs such as these (and there may be potentially many more coming with the new ICANN process for allocating TLDs opening up next year) come onto the market they are ready for them.

As can be seen from data within our recent domain name industry report the challenge for new top level domains is to serve a particular market need, increasing their usage over time and thus sustaining long-term popularity.  For instance, our report revealed that 81% of UK SMEs choose .uk as their primary web address and consumers choose to visit a .uk site because it shows a business is local and trusted. It will be interesting to track the success of .tel.

Tomorrow brings the start of the third meeting of the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum, a multi-stakeholder forum that debates a range of issues relating to Internet governance and works with all stakeholders to create a safe, fair and inclusive Internet experience.  This year’s event in early December will be held in Hyderabad, India.

Here at Nominet, we are saddened by the tragic events in Mumbai over the past week and offer our sympathies to the families of the victims and the wounded.

The IGF meeting is going ahead as scheduled and we wish all those taking part well.

Engaging UK stakeholders

Nominet, working with other partners, has been at the heart of preparing the UK for the Internet Governance Forum.  We see it as crucial to engage constructively with the IGF process, both in contributing to the discussions with ideas and in identifying examples of how to get the best out of the Internet.  With other UK stakeholders we are identifying “messages from the UK” and best practice case studies, using a partnership approach to making the Internet a better place, and keeping UK stakeholders engaged in the IGF process.

This approach has developed over the life of the IGF, and led us to launch the UK IGF in March this year.  This is an open partnership that provides a light and flexible framework for British stakeholders to work together to make the IGF a success.

We have recently launched a UK IGF web site and blog, which we hope will encourage the sharing of views and opinions of all stakeholders on the work of the UK IGF and emerging Internet Governance issues. It is also intended to be a mechanism to report updates from the UK IGF partners.

The challenge for the UK IGF is to create intelligent, collaborative solutions to problems of Internet governance and the outcomes of Nominet’s Best Practice Challenge clearly demonstrate to our international colleagues that we are making great strides in this area.

International participation

Other countries are seeing what we are doing and beginning to start running their own processes at the national level.  Each national process will of course be different, reflecting local priorities and concerns. We will be running a workshop in Hyderabad in collaboration with colleagues from Brazil, Finland and France to explore different national IGF approaches.

One key aspect of the UK’s engagement in the IGF is to work with parliamentarians.  This has been crucial in helping us develop our messages – in particular in helping understand the concerns and interests of the citizens.  Working with parliamentarians has helped us to focus our work on these key issues – like child Internet safety or fighting crime – and to engage with top decision makers from industry and civil society.  One British MP has been leading a multi-stakeholder dialogue using the IGF model to improve e-crime reduction in the UK.

The UK is proving that the Internet Governance Forum works, as a collaborative partnership between Government, business, civil society and academia, because it is not subject to Government legislation and is free from bureaucracy.