Stephane Van Gelder - English

Cairo chosen for 3rd 2008 ICANN meeting

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:12:10 +0200

The ICANN Board met by teleconference on April 30th and discussed the issue of ICANN's international meetings at some length. Cairo was officially designated as the host city for the third and final ICANN meeting of the year.

Budgets were also discussed at length. The Paris meeting budget, which stood at USD 1.54 million when I last mentioned this topic, has now grown to USD 1.81 million. Cairo promises to be even more expensive with the Board approving a USD 2.03 million budget.

The Board also spent some time on the proposal to cut the number of annual ICANN meetings to 2 per year from the current 3. The minutes make fascinating reading. ICANN VP Paul Levins providing some clear and sensible explanations as to why this is being considered. ICANN clearly understands that with so many in the community devoting a fairly large amount of time and money to attending meetings, it might be a good idea to look at alternatives.

When asked if cost reduction was the main motivation, Paul Levins is quoted as saying that this is partly the case, but that it "was mainly about reform to the meetings process and the investment of time and anecdotal information received from the community that up to 20 days per year is a big investment in community time in meeting time, especially for a volunteer community many of whom had to rely upon their place of employment to support them."

Jobs.ca, Canada's record sale

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:08:21 +0200

Confirming the current trend for bigger and bigger sales of ccTLD domains, Internet real-estate developer Ogopogo Media has confirmed its 600,000 USD purchase of jobs.ca.

The name will become the core "of a planned job network, which will include JobSearch.ca and Resumes.ca that will cover all the needs of both job seekers and employers," claims the buyer.

This sale sets a new record for Canada's extension. It also provides clear confirmation (if any was needed) of the growing interest in ccTLDs. Investors are flocking to country codes for obvious reasons. The suffixes are less crowded that generics like .COM, giving them better chances of finding names that are still available. Furthermore, those names that are already taken tend to be cheaper to buy.

At INDOM, we're getting more and more volume buyers coming to us for ccTLDs. Their logic is sound. 600,000 might sound like a lot, but when you compare the sale price of .CA's most expensive domain ever to that of the record-setting .COM domains, there's obviously still a lot of potential left in going national rather than international for your choice of suffixes.

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.

Continue reading "French government launches public consultation on who should run .FR"

England wants its own domain

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:19:10 +0200

After reading this post's title, your first thought is probably "the English already have their own domain with .CO.UK, don't they?"

Well it appears they don't agree. An online petition has been launched the persuade ICANN to sanction a .ENG domain. "For many years the UK's online entity has been represented by the .CO.UK domain extension," claims the petition's website. "The Welsh and the Scots have been campaigning for their own country-specific domains .CYM and .SCO respectively, despite not being classed as independent countries. We believe that we - the English - should also be allowed our own independent voice on the internet and show our patriotism through our choice of domain name."

The petition is still young as it was launched on April 23rd of this year. Its creators hope to gather around 10,000 signatures before taking it to ICANN and, in their own words, "lobby ICANN to make .ENG available."

Seasoned ICANN watchers will no doubt consider this plan a little flawed. New TLDs such as .ENG can of course be okayed by ICANN, but only if they are part of the Internet overseer's official new TLD request for proposals (RFP). This means putting together a complete business plan, like .BERLIN or .PARIS are doing, so that the new TLD project can be submitted to ICANN when the RFP process begins (the next one is currently expected early in 2009). Doing so requires deep pockets and, if you're claiming to represent a nation such as England, clear support from national authorities or government.

In other words, although a nice try, it's very doubtful that a web petition would suffice, even if it does draw a large amount of signatures.

P.S.: Here are the links to the Welsh's and the Scot's attempt to get their own domains.

Selling bond!

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:23:42 +0200

Times are hard for Her Majesty's favourite spy. Not only has his Aston Martin just been crashed, but now his name is for sale on the Internet!

This week's high profile domain name auction (seems like there's one every single week at the moment) is bond.com. The name has 2 days left to run on its auction and currently stands at 70,000 USD. The name's current owner obviously thinks it's worth a lot more, as there's talk of a reserve set at 1 million USD for this sale!

Poor Bond. Not only has an Aston Martin engineer just wrecked his almost unique (the car maker has prepped 5 ultra special cars for the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace) car by plunging it into an Italian lake but now his name is up for sale. Of course, the domain bond.com could just as well refer to the famous London street or to the ties that two people might share. And it remains to be seen if domain investors will consider it as valuable as recent heavy hitters like pizza.com or vodka.com…

Dollars.com set to make lots of euros

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:42:51 +0200

Auction watching is getting to be a great sport these days. After the fun I had tracking pizza.com as it scaled to ever increasing heights before finally making its previous owner's fortune, I've now got a new hot sale in my sights. Dollars.com is currently being auctioned and I guess it must be a sign of the times that the auction is being handled in euros . So far, the name already stands at a quarter of a million euros. No doubt it will go higher before the auction ends on April 18th…

ICANN Paris agenda released

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:00:10 +0200

The Méridien Montparnasse towers will host ICANN's 32nd international meeting in Paris, for a shortened week, from Monday June 23 to Thursday June 26, 2008. Photo SVG.

ICANN has just put up the agenda for the Paris meeting. An agenda with several changes to the standard ICANN meeting format.

The first is a shortened meeting week. As I'd written on this blog a few days ago, Paris will end with a Board meeting on the Thursday instead of the traditional Friday morning. Cost issues are being put forward as an explanation for the change.

The Paris week will start on Sunday June 22 with a small number of closed meetings. For most participants therefore, main proceedings kick off on Monday with the early morning Welcome Ceremony.

Regular ICANN followers will be pleased to see all the current hot topics on the agenda, including new gTLDs, IDNs, WHOIS and IPV6. In an effort to increase the business community's involvement, a new "class" of work sessions dubbed "Business Access Agenda" is also being introduced for Paris.

.ARABIA, .RUSSIAN… a new run of TLDs?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:38:50 +0200

Dubai's famous 7-star Burj Al Arab hotel. A recent ICANN conference held in Dubai prompted suggestions of a new TLD linked to the Arabic region.

There's a lot of talk about the possible types of new TLDs that could be made available on the Internet in the near future.

Just days ago, stories coming out of Dubai, where ICANN has just held one of its outreach meetings, mentioned a possible .ARAB or .ARABIA for the region.

I've also been hearing of possible "linguistic" TLDs like .RUSSIAN, .CHINESE or .GREEK. The idea remains one of pushing for a more regional Internet, where local flavours are brought to the fore. And it's also a great way of pushing for IDN use, as obviously if we're talking regional or linguistic TLDs, they would need to be useable in the areas or languages they represent. In short, a perfect solution for killing two birds with one stone, both IDNs and the launch of new TLDs being hot topics at ICANN right now.

But the "fad" of the moment remains the "City TLDs" or "cTLDs" for short. Projects such as .BERLIN and .PARIS are known to be underway and would obviously be the first on the table should ICANN start a new official round of request for new TLD proposals.

When might that be? By latest estimates, not before the start of 2009…

Only two ICANN meetings a year from 2009?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:13:56 +0200

February's New Delhi meeting ran up a total budget of $1.7 million. Meeting costs are rising so much that ICANN is considering dropping from 3 to 2 meetings a year

There were a couple of interesting points re ICANN meetings during the last Board meeting, held via teleconference on March 27th. ICANN's Executive Officer and Vice President Paul Levins presented a plan to reduce the number of meetings from the current 3 per year to 2.

It seems the financial burden of organizing the meetings is just getting too much for ICANN. Since the end of last year, the corporation has already had to step in rather significantly as local hosts have found themselves less and less able to face mounting costs on their own.

The reason for the cost increases? Simply put: the success of the ICANN meetings. More and more people have been attending, and the forthcoming June Paris meeting is set to be ICANN's biggest yet.

Paul Levins advised the Board that there would have to be a transitional period, starting from June 2009, should the decision be taken to move away from the current 3 meetings a year format. He did not make it clear if such a decision would have to be green-lit by the Board.

He also gave some interesting budget figures. The full budget for New Delhi was $1.7 million and the current budget for Paris is $1.54 million.

That's quite a slice!

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:31:25 +0200

Everybody's been following the pizza.com auction these past few days, as the bids piled up and the price rose above the 2 million USD mark.

Well, the auction ended last night (French time) and the previous owner has got to be ecstatic with the final price: 2.6 million!

The domain's first owner is a one Christopher Clark who lives in Maryland and was tracked down by the Baltimore Sun newspaper. Clarck explained that he'd bought the name in 1994 (on July 17th according to the name's WHOIS) in a bid to get some consultancy work for his company from a local pizza firm. Clark sold his company in 2000 but kept the name.

There's a decision he probably doesn't regret today…

ICANN's brain drain?

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:23:14 +0200

Interested to learn, thanks to Francesco, that Tina Dam might soon be heading home. Since 2003, Tina has been a prominent member of ICANN's staff, first as liaison to the gTLD registries, and since 2006 as manager of the IDN program.

Nature has undoubtedly been kind to Tina, (who would rather not dwell on her past as an ex miss Denmark :-), a bright individual who has brought ICANN qualifications as diverse as maths, physics and business (she has a Master of Science in Mathematics and Physics and a BBA in Marketing Management and International Trade.)

She clearly understands the very difficult topic of IDNs better than most. Not only that, on several occasions she's actually managed to explain it to me in such a way as I could understand it as well! No mean feat.

And she's passionate about it, something which has fuelled the recent progress made by ICANN on IDN TLDs (making non-ASCII characters work for the part left of the dot, the suffix), culminating in the current successful live test of 11 non-English scripts as IDNs (two new scripts have just been added).

So if people like Tina are leaving ICANN, will the organisation suffer from it? And why would they be thinking about leaving in the first place? I can't say for the first question, but I do have an idea about the second...

Continue reading "ICANN's brain drain?"

Whoa, hold your horses there, Dot ME!

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:54:14 +0200

Francesco paints a humorous picture of .ME's launch programme, which we revealed at the end of March in the French edition of Domaines.Info.

His message to the Montenegrin powers-that-be: don't rush things and make sure you get the launch right. Sound advice. Even if the local registry's angst to open for business is understandable, mistakes made at the launch of a new extensions are generally then carried over for years before they can be fixed.

So let's hope the people at .ME do resist the temptation to rush things, because there's a domain with plenty of potential if I ever saw one (just think of all those possibilities with a "me" on the end...).

For those of you who don't understand French, here's the current launch schedule published in the March 27th edition of Domaines.Info.

From March 25 to April 16, a priority period will enable prior registrants of .YU domains (.ME is being migrated from the ex-Yugoslav suffix) to request the equivalent .ME name.

From May 1 to May 6, .ME's sunrise period will be restricted to Montenegrin nationals.

From June 6 to June 26, the registry has announced a landrush period, the precise rules of which are apparently not yet finalised. This, in part, is what prompted Francesco's warning to the registry to take its time and do a proper launch.

Go-live is planned from July 17th.

Quick photo tour of the Paris ICANN meeting venue hotel

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:18:59 +0100

Hope you're planning to be in Paris this June for the much-anticipated ICANN meeting. For those of you that are, I thought it might be nice for you to get an idea of where you're going and what the venue will be like. So here's a few shots of the Méridien Montparnasse, the hotel where the meeting will take place. And by the way, if you'd like to drop by and see us while you're in Paris, please do! INDOM's offices are right in the center of Paris, just next to the famous "Printemps" department store (see bottom pic).

The venue hotel's main entrance

Continue reading "Quick photo tour of the Paris ICANN meeting venue hotel"

ICANN considering shortened meeting week for Paris

stephane.vangelder@indom.com (Stephane Van Gelder) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:25:46 +0100

ICANN meetings are traditionally held over a full week, starting on a Monday and ending on the following Friday with a Board meeting. But ICANN is currently considering running a shortened program for the upcoming Paris meeting, which would thus end on Thursday June 26. Watch the official Paris meeting website for confirmation.