I don't make this prediction without having something to back it up. If anyone can
refute these comments, by all means let's discuss it. The reason I make such
a prediction is for the following reasons:1) IOD has a legitimate following
from small business, academia, and corporations. This is important in the coming
days, as legitimate support for a TLD and company to run it will be imperative.
Image Online Design is the only 1st round applicant to come out and officially support
the single root concept--a system that will provide stability to the DNS. That
is attractive to me as business owner as well as legions of others around the globe.
2)
I think ICANN will take a look back at the decisions they made, and realize they
were ill informed on who could do what. I really think the "experts" missed
their targets by a mile. Everything in IOD's application was there for the
taking, but was overlooked. This isn't sour grapes, but just a reality check.
The information about their ability to handle whois requests, as well as real time
applications was there. Their stance on Intellectual Property protection (as
I have always said) was light years ahead of what the other applicants promised.
What the applicants (that were approved) promised was something they "knew" could
possibly not happen (to police millions if not billions of trademarks during a sunrise)...and
as far as Security goes (something often overlooked)...IOD outlayed an equitable
solution described in detail in their application that stops hackers, and "would
be" domain hijackers at the door. This is very appealing to me, and mostly
likely will resonate well with ICANN.
3) IOD has a history. That history
involves many years of helping to formulate responsible DNS management. Working
with the key people in the early days, and right up until today, they still are working
to perserve the integrity of the internet for future generations. Isn't that
what this is about, to make sure that future generations will have a system that
offers them the world at their fingertips???
4) The people involved at IOD are
top notch. Why is that important??? Trust.....ICANN will want to make
sure whoever gets selected in the future can be trusted (at least I hope they do)...One
thing about the internet community they can smell a "rat" a mile away. One
thing that is interesting, is that on the ICANN message board last year, IOD had
far more positive comments from different individuals than any other applicant...
The only company that even came close was IATA, for dot travel....Look for these
companies in the next round.
5) Lastly, the most important thing that will
assure IOD's approval is THEIR top level domain, dot web. They have cultivated
a domain into something that will be universal and popular. I think it was
o.k for ICANN to do this test-bed as it will eventually lead to more TLDs, but it's
effectiveness cannot be accurately measured due to the fact the domains that were
selected are not representative of what the internet population wanted (except for
dot info...I think that this TLD will do well)....Popularity is important for several
reasons...Stability, long-term acceptance, etc. Dot Com needs competition and
so does Verisign frankly! It's simply the law of supply and demand. In
a non-competitive market (among TLDs) this will not help future "internet business
owners"....It will hurt their chances of success. This IS something we know
to be true..A good domain name is a big part of a companies' success--millions spent
just trying to find the "right" domain. Dot biz contrary to what Neulevel thinks,
will not compete with dot com in my view, and will only receive a luke-warm reception--even
though there is a **dot com shortage. Dot Shop will not compete with Dot Com
either (sorry new.net, and name-space) Again, the internet community smoked this
one out last year during the time in which the community made comments on ICANN's
message board. It is imperative that ICANN listen to its constituents....I
think the next time around they will...
Congratulations Image Online Design,
this is a open-and-shut case! A case based on fact, not inneundo or hype.
Again, the information is there for the taking. GO to http://www.webtld.com
and see for yourselves.
Gregory
**dot com shortage: i.e A shortage of Good, marketable sounding
dot com domains. Also those hypenated "key word" dot coms that would help in
high placement in Google or Yahoo.