by jothan | Sep 16, 2020 | Domain News, Domain Shows, Etc, ICANN, Jothan, NewTLDs, Speaking
At long last, an update.
I don’t update this blog very frequently, as I find myself quite busy with advisory and mentoring activities, but wanted to give a mega-update.
With the world in the ‘new normal’ of virtual meetings, webinars and zoom galore, a traveler like me has to slow down for a bit. I will be focusing on the continued interest in the MERGE conference (re-formatted to the new 2020 normal of virtual events), and my ICANN accredited registrar, and my new elected role within the ICANN Stakeholder Group executive committee, and co-chairing the Contracted Parties House (CPH – basically an acronym for Registries and Registrars) CPH Techops group with Marc Anderson from Verisign. I continue to do a lot of activity towards Universal Acceptance of TLDs and domain name advocacy.
I no longer hold the role of Executive Director with the Domain Name Association, where I had the privilege of working part time for the group of registries and registrars that shared my passion for elevating the domain name industry, DNS and top-level domain names. I was able to put it on an upward trajectory, but we opted to not renew my contract and instead migrate the association into the Internet Infrastructure Coalition where there are ample resources and a team of bright and well-connected technology thought leaders available to let the association continue in its important work.
I continue to contribute and work on GitHub to help maintain the Public Suffix List project, having helped ICANN’s SSAC with SAC070 and the ICANN OCTO with their documentation for TLD administrators on keeping their records up to date and understanding the benefits and drawbacks of how their listings are configured.
I have also been working with had the opportunity to help Page Howe launch https://thedomainshow.com and have been working with Arif from https://thedomainsocial.com to continue gatherings of like-minded technical enthusiasts that are developing domain names and capitalizing on the
by jothan | Jun 21, 2018 | Domain News, Domain Shows, Jothan, Speaking
Been hard at work with the team at The Domain Conference making great things happen for MERGE in Orlando.
This is a great opportunity to work with the Neu family, Barbara is the heart of the conference industry, Howard who everyone in the industry loves and respects as one of the most amazing subject matter experts on domains, finance and legal matters, and Ray who is a visionary in emerging technology with strong security and innovation focus.
Check it out, we’re bringing together amazing speakers and a multitude of content and shows under a single ticket price, in lovely Orlando, Florida.
by jothan | Mar 2, 2015 | Domain Aftermarket, Domain News, Domain Shows, ICANN, Meetings, NewTLDs, Speaking
NamesCon 2016 is already at 350+ attendees, and Jodi Chamberlain, Richard Lau and I are already working on NamesCon’s third year schedule and events.
The agenda is filling up, and we’re accepting speaker and session submissions at speakers2016 _at_ namescon.vegas – so submit your ideas, pitches, and session concepts.
Register today for NamesCon 2016 to view the agenda as it fills up!
by jothan | Jul 15, 2010 | Feature, ICANN, Meetings, NewTLDs
Two years ago, in 2008, I put together a session at the Paris ICANN meeting where I gathered new TLD applicants and service providers together in a room to meet each other.
Afterward, I put together a survey and then collected the information in to a grid so that potential new TLD applicants could see side by side comparisons of the many, many registry service providers, and make informed decisions about their initiatives.
I had my friend publish the results of the survey which I’d run personally, and many things grew from that in the two years since.
Some TLD applicants made technology selections, but many are still making decisions. Some new providers have started operations. Subtle new nuances have crept in to the application process which impact the questions that should be asked up front.
This is the 2010 version of the survey. I’ll collect the information until August 4th, 2010.
Participating registry service providers, I will interview you about the service you offer, then publish the information to this blog through August (and into September if the response volume is high).
This is an outstanding opportunity for registry service providers to make their technology known and attract potential applicants.
If you offer Registration Services for a potential new TLD or ccTLDs, please take some time and complete this survey:
Registry Service Provider Survey
by jothan | Jan 28, 2010 | ICANN
Thanks to those who took a moment to comment on the draft Expressions of Interest in new TLDs. If you’re unfamiliar with this, please read on.
Here is a link to the draft of the Expressions of Interest
Comments are listed here.
Some background:
Over a decade has passed since the formation of ICANN with the mandate to establish a process and get new Top Level Domains created to foster competition. New TLDs can offer a lot of benefit to consumers and internet users. They will compliment search as a means to get people to what they are looking for as resource pointers, and they will add semantic relevance to the email addresses and websites that they are used with.
Properly executed, the new TLDs can operate securely and ultimately deliver strong rankings in the search engines as we witness with .GOV or .EDU domains, where a user knows and trusts that the appearance of these TLDs in the results of a search on Yahoo!, Bing, or Google positively impact the overall psychology of the potential visitor so that they trust the relevance behind what their next click will bring.
Despite the promise and reward of new TLDs, there have been things to resolve. There have been proponents and opponents to the introductions of new TLDs, and there’s been a lot of evolution in the technologies, but the overall arguments have stayed the same. Existing registries and many of the attorneys from the Interbrand 100 brands seem to not want new TLDs and have woven tapestries to snare and slow the process of their introductions.
New applicants and groups, communities, and future users of the new TLDs are interested in ending a ten year stalemate in the introductions of new domains.
In the recent Seoul ICANN meeting last October, I had the privilege of speaking on behalf of many interested parties, communities, applicants, businesses, groups, and cities to propose the concept of an Expression of Interest in a new TLD that someone could file as an interested party.
The concept is simple… There had been a process under way to compile an Applicant Guidebook, currently in its third revision. There were a growing number of things to sort out as the drafting continued, and these drafts seem to continue well into this summer 2010. Meanwhile the delays are impacting a number of interested parties and their communities.
Taking an inspiration from a number of the registry service providers, we gathered in Seoul to come up with some ways to get the process under way of a very lightweight ‘Expression of Interest’ process for identifying what TLDs and who would apply for them, so that ICANN would be able to resource and staff accordingly. This could be done, if appropriately executed, in parallel with some of the outstanding issues that were being resolved as the Applicant Guidebook made its transition to becoming finalized.
The net product of that exercise, which took many sleepless nights, conference calls, and involvement from many different stakeholders, was the EoI proposal.
There has been a lot of careful thought put into the EoI, and it is something that the community and general internet users can benefit from.
Thanks again to those who took some time to comment on the Expressions of Interest in new TLDs. We set up the form to work so folks could voice whatever opinion they had.
Thanks for your time, and I appreciate you reading my blog.
-Jothan
