Be ready to prove you’re part of the .shop community if you want to register a .shop domain.
One of the biggest problems I’ve had with the new TLD applicant guidebook is preference given to applications representing a so-called community. This is ripe for gaming.
Consider these applications that say they are representing a “community”:
.Music – .music LLC from Far Further and CGR E-Commerce LTD
.eco from Big Room Inc.
.Shop from Commercial Connect and GMO Registry
.Corp, .Inc, .LLC, .LLP from Dot Registry LLC
.Kids from DotKids Foundation Limited
.Art from eFlux.art, LLC
.Radio from European Broadcasting Union
.Hotel from HOTEL Top-Level-Domain GmbH
.Sport from SportAccord
.Ski from Starting Dot
.Tennis from Tennis Australia LTD
.GMBH from TLDDOT GmbH
.Webs from VistaPrint/Webs.com
How do these applicants suggest their domains represent communities?
Let’s start with the last one, .webs. VistaPrint owns webs.com. It applied both as a community and a regular applicant. What exactly is the .webs community? Apparently people who have used the Webs.com web site:
The Applicant is committing to serve the ‘WEBS’ community. The ‘WEBS’ community was created in late 2005 by Freewebs, now called Webs, Inc. Webs, Inc. presently is a subsidiary of the Applicant. In August 2006, Business Wire reported on this stating that “new Freewebs tools and features put the ‘We’ in Web for world’s largest Web Publisher; import tools, profile pages and ratings & comments help enhance online experience, engage website fvistors and create a single web presence for millions of users” (Document 20.a.1). Since 2006, the Applicant started by giving its users the option to publish their myWebs profile as a page on their website, making it accessible and searchable to all Freewebs – and later on Webs – visitors. The Applicant invested in creating the tools necessary for its members to simply create their Web presence and share their passions with the world.
Since its inception, the name of the community was ‘WEBS’. This is shown by the mention of ‘myWebs’ and the mention of the name ‘Webs’ as such to refer to the blog that was used by the community to communicate with each other to share Webs experiences
Give me a freakin’ break.
.Kids says it represents the entire community of people under the age of 18. Um, OK.
.Corp serves the “Community of Registered Corporations. Members of the community are defined as businesses registered as corporations within the United States or its territories.”
If you want to register a .ski domain, you “will have to be verifiable members of the ski community”. What, do I have to show my lift ticket or something?
You get the point…
It does not really matter if any of these are a community. If they can make that case in the application, props to them, but if they cannot, it will be treated like all other applications. So no harm done.
That said, it depends on how you define community. I think a case can be made for many of these.
.Shop: Shopowners
.Corp, .Inc, .LLC, .LLP: Companies incorporated with that designation
.Kids “You know, for kids!”
.Radio: Radiostations
.Hotel: Owners of Hotels, members of hotel-associations
.Ski: Ski resorts
.GMBH : Companies registered as this corporate form in the respective trade registers
Some of these have natural divisions that plausibly define a community:
.Radio – broadcast license holders
.corp/.gmbh – chartered entities
I agree that most of the others are junk.
“Music” – any community that includes, say, Yoko Ono and the Marine Corps Brass Band as “members” is a bit stretched, IMHO.
looking at who is trying to grab .kids… maybe we would rather have the non-profit run it than Google or Amazon who are also fighting over .kids…
Hey Andrew, can you please state any conflicts of interests you may have regarding any of the mentioned applications?
Best,
Tina
@ Tina Dam – I’m not aware of any.
I am a newbie. Even at my level of experience this is nonsense. Can ICANN and the pro domain world get together and clean this mess up. Squatters, sites that have not been updated in years etc. AM I out of line or missing something?
KBMH
@ Andrew, sorry if I was wrong. I thought you were working for one of the competing applicants to one of these strings…
@ Tina Dam – fair point, I hadn’t gone through the list to compare.
I do work for Directi’s advertising businesses including Media.net. I haven’t been involved with their Radix offering, but I see your point.
For what it’s worth, this has been my opinion on community applications (as well as my opposition to TLD trademark “frontrunning”) for a long time. I think it’s going to be a big point of contention in the process, and I think claims around community for these domains are quite a stretch.
@ Andrew, thanks, that’s what I thought. It is of course convenient to have the same opinion as the company you work for – but if that was not the case I think you would change your mind once you see our application 🙂
While I know no details of the other community applications you mention it might be useful to also lok at the details of them before discarding them as community.
Tina,
I have mixed feelings about your .music application.
On the one hand, kudos to Constantinos for what he’s been able to do trying to create momentum around .music. I hope you guys are involved in whatever application goes through, whether that’s yours or someone else’s.
On the other hand, I think Constatinos’ activities around trademarking .music (which I see is mentioned in your application) to get a leg up in the process is troubling. He has even come out and said he’d use his trademarks to prevent others from running .music. Do you think that’s a fair thing to do before anyone could even apply for .music?
Yes (that’s called protecting the community we are serving, not frontrunning nor a joke).
The chorus line coming out of ICANN over the new TLD process has been making sure it doesn’t seem like insiders have a leg up. I know Constantine that you don’t feel like an insider, but this is how your argument sounds to me:
1. If you were involved early in the process, you should get a leg up (I believe it was Peter Dengate Thrush whom you asked this of — for extra consideration on your application for being involved early).
2. If you announced your plans early and started marketing them, you should have an advantage over people who waited until the profess was finalized. How is this fair to people who just found out about the new TLD program during the communication period, which is what the communication period was designed for?
3. That you can create a community and trademark around a non-existent TLD. To me if sounds like you’ve created a community around .music, not music.
Again, I think you’ve done a heck of a job marketing a non-existent TLD. I’m just not sure why that should give you a leg up against any of the other applicants. Should the first company who announced .eco and started marketing itget priority? Same for .green? Should the company that just found out about new TLDs during the communication period be at a disadvantage?
Thanks Andrew for disclosing that you are involved with a competing commercial .MUSIC bid under Directi. Your “About” page clearly says “Allemann works for Directi
Andrew,
We are simply following the ICANN process that has been constantly developing and changing. You can mention a whole series of advantages that applicants might have over other applicants, ranging from higher funding to even technical expertise in domain dropping (that you can argue gives them an advantage in the Digital Archery batching process). The ICANN new TLD program has been evolving and all community applicants has to follow the process that ICANN gives us in terms of community evaluation. We are plainly doing the best we can for the music community and confident that we can achieve what is in the best interests of our community.
Best