[At-Large] Thoughts on Delaying New gTLDs

[Adam Peake]

>Bret Fausett wrote:
>>  > The idea that there are tiny language groups hanging around saying "oh,
>>>  if only we had a TLD then we would do all sorts of Internet stuff" is
>>>  rather implausible.
>>
>>I'm not sure what you mean by "tiny language 
>>groups," but I had in mind languages like 
>>Chinese.
>I think John was referring to most of the 
>entries at 
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.cym#Language_and_community


And in dismissing them he's serious, or 
attempting to write a gag for Saturday Night Live 
as the Ugly American? If serious then how sad, 
small minded and dumb.



>In Paris I attended a reception staged by 
>proponents of .bzh , and at the gala of the 
>Cairo meeting I shared a table with the 
>delegation pushing for .cym -- the points of 
>view of both groups of TLD advocates were 
>astoundingly similar.
>
>Most non-Europeans would have to look them up to 
>even know that .cym is for Welsh language 
>culture and .bzh is for the Brittany area of 
>France.
>The efforts are very real, and issues of pride 
>and cultural survival appear to be overriding 
>mundane concerns such as business models and 
>long-term stability. There seems to be a sincere 
>-- but ill-advised, IMO belief that a cultural 
>TLD will offer a technology haven in which 
>native-language and cultural websites will be 
>able to flourish, or at least slow down 
>assimilation.


In Paris you might also have heard Amadeu talking 
about the impact of .cat, massive increase in 
Catalan content.  Copied his comments below.  Dot 
cat at least seems to suggest less ill advised 
than you thought.


>>And I don't think anyone claims that TLDs 
>>enable Internet access or the creation of 
>>Internet content, but they may enable identity 
>>and branding and ease of communication, for 
>>IDNs.
>Such claims exist. Usually, as I've heard them, 
>they take the form that a native TLD would 
>facilitate the assertion of identity, at very 
>least by making it easier to get relevant 
>native-language domain names through explicit 
>anti-squatter policies. As an example, consider 
>that the Welsh word for "Wales" is "Cymru (see 
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/), yet "cymru.com" 
>(despite its Welsh dragon logo) points to an 
>American IT security form and "cymru.org" is 
>unused but owned (according to WHOIS data) by 
>someone in Switzerland. There may be a feeling 
>that cultural identity is being hijacked, 
>without the trademark protections offered to 
>commercial interests or the reserved phrases 
>requested by governments.


Good you mention the BBC, creation of Welsh 
language television and radio channels led to a 
resurgence in the use of the Welsh. What had been 
a near dead language no longer is.  No reason to 
think that . cym, .bzh might not have the same 
success online.


>The feeling is real and in some cases justified. 
>But this of course begs the question of whether 
>the answer is creation of a TLD for every 
>national cultural/linguistic minority. Most 
>current efforts share the wishful thinking that 
>their TLD will also be valued (and domain 
>registrations purchased) by their respective 
>diasporas (ie, North Americans of Welsh 
>background).
>
>I can't see any of these TLDs attracting more 
>than a few thousand registrations and in some 
>cases even that is optimistic.


So what?  Go to the transcripts and listen to 
Amadeu's explanation of .cat - small number of 
names, a lot of new content.

It's not our job to pre-judge business plans.


>I almost wish that there was a single TLD, let's 
>say ".nation" for instance, under which all of 
>these could be placed.... maybe then there would 
>be enough volume to sustain a stable TLD and 
>reasonably priced domains.


So people who want to develop Welsh language 
content will find a home at the second level 
under the English word "nation". I'm sure you can 
see the attraction in that...  But perhaps your 
right, find the cash and put in an application, 
but don't write a business plan that limit the 
rights of others to innovate.



>The new gTLD plans make specific mention of 
>these "cultural" TLDs; by encouraging and not 
>dissuading their creation, arguably ICANN could 
>be seen to be exploiting cultural pride in order 
>to gain the revenue from the new registrations.
>
>>  > new TLDs may exist mostly to shake down existing registrants who'd want
>>>  defensive registrations in new domains.
>>
>>Every executive at a registry or prospective 
>>registry I know thinks defensive registrations 
>>are one of the worst things for their business, 
>>because they tie up quality names in the hands 
>>of people who don't use them or simply redirect 
>>them to the .COM. It is awful advertising for 
>>your namespace if most instances of it redirect 
>>to a .COM. Believe it or not, the goal is *not* 
>>to sell to the existing .COM registrants. If I 
>>am .WEB or .INFO or something, I'd much rather 
>>have the Idaho Butter Manufacturers actually 
>>use IBM.WEB than let International Business 
>>Machines register it defensively.
>The goal for some TLDs is to maximize revenue as 
>a business model. They don't care who owns 
>IBM.<tld> so long as it's taken. Of course, 
>defensive registrations don't have to happen. 
>Does IBM really need ibm.<everything>?


No.  But even if it decides it does, what's the 
cost -- small % of any typical marketing 
campaign?  The Internet provides opportunities 
and costs, IBM and other companies gain enormous 
benefits from the domain name system.  Costs here 
seem minimal, they are businesses, let them seek 
opportunities.

Adam

(Amadeu's comment from Paris below.)


>In the case of ccTLDs they may be seen like 
>virtual branch offices, and there may be special 
>purpose ones (like.mobi) make sense. But the 
>trademark owners can do at least as much as 
>registries to curb defensive registrations.
>
>- Evan
>
>
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https://par.icann.org/files/paris/ParisWSNewgTLDS_23June08.txt

>>AMADEU ABRIL I ABRIL:   Okay, I'm Amadeu Abril i Abril. 

A disclaimer.  I have not been working for dot 
cat for the last year and a half, so I am not 
just claiming my success at all. Now, I just 
wanted to show you some data.  But as it's 
impossible to have a browser on the Web, we would 
need probably something like a technician or 
somebody who knows the Internet.  Let me just 
explain that to you.  You can do that at home. 
It's funny.  Go to Google, and in the case, you 
put site, colon, dot cat, for instance.  See how 
many results, how many pages are indexed by 
Google as belonging to dot cat domains. 
9,400,000, something like that.  It changes each 
hour, but over 9 million.  Now do the same with 
all the other sTLDs or gTLDs, dot biz, whatever. 
You will be surprised.

  Now, do the next thing.  Go to preferences, say, 
search in language Catalan.  Do that for dot com, 
dot info, dot net, dot org -- sorry, dot org, not 
dot info -- and dot ES.  The only ones over one 
million, dot EDU and dot info are the only ones 
close to half a million.  All the rest are below 
one hundred thousand.  The result is, since the 
appearance of dot cat two years ago, there are 
nearly double content in Catalan on the Internet. 

  You know why?  Because this filled up, people 
realized they have a place in the first division, 
not just in the second division.  That special 
language.  We're all bilingual in different 
languages.  We all speak Catalan and Spanish or 
Catalan and French or Catalan and Italian, and 
sometimes some other languages.

  So, for these kind of communities, it's just an 
example, if you provide the right resource, 
managed the right way, this boosts contents, 
which is what the user wants.  They don't want to 
buy domains.  There's only 30,000 domains.  But 
there's huge content, new content, in that 
language for people that like using their 
language.  That's important.

  Then you can export that to real communities 
that exist offline.  And they have a common life 
online.  People tend to go to places that are -- 
you know, that use the languages they understand. 
I don't go very often to the, let's say, Korean 
district of the Internet, because I can't read a 
single word of Korean.  It's my fault, I know.

  And I know that's much better than the things -- 
the places I go normally.  But I cannot, because 
I don't speak this language.  So there is an 
online community that uses that language and goes 
normally there.

  This one we should ask about trait branches or 
families or whatever.  I'm not saying it's not. 
But is there a common life online that, you know, 
there's a purpose online that we serve not 
offline.  Yes.   Why not, then, go for it?  It 
will work.

  Last thing.  Dot cat only had 85 defensive 
registrations.  Why?  Tight control on pirates. 
There are some of them, but they're very 
marginal.  Two UDRP cases, only one of them being 
a real cybersquatting, the other one being a 
contractual dispute with a terminated dealer that 
was also a licensee for the trademark.  So it was 
not a clear case.

  So the question here is, this is just for 
minority languages, so on, but you can export 
that to many other communities, with (inaudible) 
or wherever, where there's a real interest in 
real common activities online, you will boost the 
content for these people.  Okay?

END