insight 

Occasionally domain name stories appear in the media solely because the name itself is of big enough interest, as was the case this week with a small spate of tales about the web site acdc.com, which has recently come into the hands of the band ACDC. It’s a bit of an amusing story but it nevertheless raises one of those important points regarding Trademarks, domain names and cybersquatting. Read more

On Thursday we held an interactive workshop about the key issues on Internet governance from a UK perspective. It was a surprisingly well-attended and really productive session. Several key messages emerged from the discussions which we will now be sharing alongside several examples of best practice in Internet governance from the UK at the next IGF in Rio in November. Read more

We’re watching the launch of .asia with interest. Yesterday saw the opening of the sunrise period during which organisations with Trademarks can register domain names. If there are multiple registrations for the same domain, then instead of the usual first come first served process as observed with the launch of .eu there’ll be an auction this time. Read more

I noticed with interest that NASK, the .pl Polish registry has made an announcement regarding a domain name tasting service. Read more

Earlier this month isnic, the .is Icelandic registry, relaxed its rules for overseas registrants.

“Foreign registrants of .IS domains have until now been required to confirm their ownership of the corresponding trademark at the Icelandic Patent Agency (Einkaleyfastofa) before the domain can be registered. This requirement has now been lifted. Read more

I see that the $100 laptop scheme has been given a boost with the upcoming introduction of a get one give one scheme (G1G1) in the US and Canada.

Hopefully this will help get the programme properly off the ground and help bring production levels to a cost that will ensure that the $100 target price becomes a reality sooner. Read more

There were a couple of interesting stories in the news last week – a new CEO at denic the German registry and the intended transition away from .su the old suffix for Russia.

New appointments at denic

The news of the new appointments at denic is welcome. Sabine Dolderer and Dr. Jörg Schweiger will manage the business of DENIC eG as of 1 October as CEO and CTO respectively. We welcome these appointments and knowing Sabine of old we are sure she will do a good job for this important registry.

Retiring .su

The Register are running a story on the intended transition away from .su . This is a challenging matter for ICANN. As the world and its boundaries change, so the ISO list of countries and their 2 character ccTLDs change. If a country is no more, such as Zaire or Yugoslavia, then the relevant suffix is closed down and all domain names transitioned away. However, it’s not a simple process, as can be seen with the .su suffix, which is still registering names.

The story comments on other parts of the ISO list that cause ICANN headaches, including the comment that the UK ccTLD is .uk not .gb, as it is appears in the list. This appears to have stirred up some debate amongst the readership of EL Reg with several comments from their readership regarding why .uk is more appropriate and the usual end ramble from both sides of the pond about who invented the Internet anyway. Anyway, with more than 6 million domains we can assure you that .uk is here to stay.

Just a quick plug for the ladies and gentleman who have put their jobs up on offer for our Yummy Mummy jobswap.

In support of CLIC Sargent, Nominet’s chosen charity of 06/07 we are auctioning off our senior management! Read more

It’s a week since we moved into our new building, Minerva House and I have to report that I’m impressed. Like moving house, there are two issues when you move – the disruption of the move itself and the impact of living in the new building. Let’s talk about the second of these two first:

What’s really important and noticeable for us is that we are all under one roof again. For the last few years we have been spread across two buildings, which has not been ideal, causing surprising communications issues and having to search for an umbrella if it’s raining. Now we’re under one roof, despite there being no new joiners, the company instantly feels bigger – we see faces we could have gone for days without seeing, there’s already better communication across the business and there’s a buzz about the eating area at lunchtime.

Also important for us is the look and feel of the new building. Being new, it’s modern, bright, and despite covering less square footage, appears significantly more spacious. I’ve heard comment about what a change it is, how re-invigorating an environment it is and it’s this energy we plan to harness as we move forward, ensuring that this remains an inspirational place, where everyone comes to work with a passion for the tasks they are undertaking.

The move itself was smooth. Speaking to the technical team who were in over the weekend of the move (apart from one minor scare early on the Friday night, which was swiftly resolved) all went according to plan. It would appear that all the testing that went in beforehand paid off. Lots of effort from a large group of people went into making this so smooth, too many to mention here – they know who they are and know how much their efforts have been appreciated.

I know there’ll be cynics out there who think that this shiny new building is a white elephant, however, this truly is a workplace that will inspire and we look forward to welcoming visitors over the years ahead.

We became aware of increased activity by the .tk registry (Tokehau – a small collection of islands in the South Pacific) recently when they opened their London office in August and have seen a real spike in media activity from them and massive increase in number of registrations.

There’s some interesting stuff about how they’re set up in terms of commercial arrangements and who makes what money (see http://www.dot.tk/en/pageC00.html), however, what’s interesting about them for me is the services they’re offering and how they’re getting people interested in the .tk name. They appear to have three core products:

1. a product that takes a long URL such as

http://www.nominet.org.uk/registrars/systems/serviceannouncements/

which then suggests a shorter easier to remember alternative, such as www.serviceannouncements.tk and sets it live for a 30 day period.

2. a free domain name registration service, which requires a level of visits and the .tk registry make their money by placing advertising on the site

3. paid for domain name registration which does not have to carry advertising

They appear to be selling direct and promoting themselves via PR and direct presence. I imagine they should get some good take up and that would certainly appear to be the case so far with their claims of 1.6m names already on the register and 10,000 new domains being registered per day. It would be interesting to know if they’re paid for domains or simply, the thirty day short URL product.

Other key questions for me are:

What will the take up be in terms of brands that actually use the domain as their primary domain?

How will they fair when it comes to renewals?

Will there be a secondary market and how will it fair in the long-term?