Web 2.0.11562 beta

Here’s my experiment. I believe there’s an intrinsic value in .pro extension, when it’s used with a generic domain that makes sense. I plan to try foisting a few on the world and see if they take. Whether or not google will someday come to love them I don’t know. But I think they’re memorable and deserving. My first site to be released into the wild is Sushi.Pro. Check it out and we’ll see if it goes anywhere.

Here is my letter sent to my local congressmen and senators earlier today, in reaction to ICANN moving up their next meeting date when this issue will presumably be discussed. Not that I think the US congress should seek legislative solutions to force saneness on the part of ICANN, but the mere threat of action to pressure the commerce Dept. should help to compel ICANN to include language that people are more comfortable with. The main goal should be to find reasonable ways to allow registries to profit without putting the users if the system at such a high level of risk.

Read on to see the text of the letters. More to the point, if you agree please write to your congresspersons. You can do so at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=9002726&content_dir=ua_congressorg

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Proposed pricing changes in the upcoming contracts for .info .org and .biz would introduce chaos to the domain market. Here is a good article about it and here is the forum to comment on it.

Lots of folks were unhappy about the recent changes to Verisign’s contract for .com - well I can assure you the effects of that will be gradually impacting the market to the tune of 7% per year. This on the other hand creates the opportunity for dramatic changes. Registries are free to set arbitrary prices on domains they want to affect. Do you think a blog site criticizing PIR at some domain like pir-sucks-and-should-be-made-fun-of.org would be allowed to engage in free, albeit ignorant speech? No, the renewal price would simply be adjusted to, say $1 million and that would be the end of that. Not to pick on PIR too much, they’re really much better netizens than some of their competitors.