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Departing ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé has penned a goodbye letter to the organisation's Board as he prepares to leave this March. The 7-page letter reads like a long list of Chehadé's achievements since he took over the helm in 2012. Whilst there can be little doubt about Chehadé's tireless energy and dedication to making ICANN a more effective governance mechanism for the Internet, his celebration of the last four years seems to overlook one important opportunity. more
The much-maligned Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) is not only failing to catch on -- it's actually starting to fade. Once envisioned as a popular rights-protection mechanism for trademark owners under the new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), the URS instead is seldom used. In fact, despite the growth in new gTLD registrations, the URS is in decline. more
It's a story told a thousand times: founder of a company ousted by investors. It's a story so common you can find it any day of the week as a minor headline in a tech blog. Not much of a story at all really, until it happened to me. Minds + Machines, the company I founded in 2009, informed me last week that I was no longer wanted as CEO. Without going into details, which I can't, there were differences and disagreements. Still, it was a surprise. All the plans, the hopes -- pfhhht! into thin air. It sucked. Now what? more
As promised, 2016 is off to a busy start at ICANN, with important discussions about Whois/Registration Directory Services, subsequent rounds of the New gTLD Program and internet governance already underway, and more to come. Brand owner concerns will be front and center in the coming months, as community stakeholders set priorities and begin discussions of key challenges and desired results. more
Marketers and advertisers across the world pay close attention to Super Bowl ads, for good reason. At a cost of up to $5 million for a 30-second spot, Super Bowl ads represent the world's biggest stage for high-reach, large-impact marketing. The best practices seen on Sunday will set the standard across the industry and influence marketing behavior around the world. The call to action used in any Super Bowl spot can make or break the investment. more
EURid, who run the .eu registry, have finally been delegated .?? (Cyrillic for .eu). Punycode xn--e1a4c. One of the things that EURid is chartered to do under its contract to the European Commission was to get the extension in scripts other than Latin. EURid used ICANN's IDN ccTLD "Fast Track" process, though whether the process is truly "fast" or not is debatable, as it is still quite a long process. more
ICANN has now published the results of the auction for .SHOP, an eye-popping $41,501,000. This pushes the ICANN's auction pot over $100 million. That's a lot of money. There are eighteen more name contention sets that are on hold for various reasons, of which a few such as .WEB look likely to generate even more money once the hold issues are resolved. more
2015 was a challenging yet exciting year for brand owners. While new gTLDs continue to consume much of the news in the domain industry, there were other notable highlights. Global domain registrations reached nearly 300 million; ICANN had several initiatives in motion that were of particular concern to brand owners; and companies continued to face threats to their brand reputation, revenue and customer trust. Here's my top 5 domain highlights from 2015. more
This week, I had the privilege of presenting at NamesCon on behalf of the Domain Name Association (DNA) -- in my position as Chair of the Board -- to provide an update on our activities and an assessment of our progress as an industry in light of the goals of the DNA. In summary, there is still a long way to go with many challenges to address. Despite this, there is much to be excited about and incredible opportunity for our combined success. Included here is a transcript of my speech. I welcome feedback and comments. more
The crème de la crème, the good, the bad, even the ugly of the Domain Name Industry are attending NamesCon in Vegas this week. 2016 will be a very challenging, absolutely critical year for those attendees and their corporate employers as the Domain Name System (DNS) faces a massive shakeup. In 2015, 287 global brands, worth $trillions headed by Google, Amazon, had their new TLD Registries delegated into the root zone of the Internet. more
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