Sunday, August 12, 2001
The great YOU HEAR THE STAMPING of hooves out there, the jingle of harnesses, the excited murmurs of throngs massed on the starting line? Listen carefully. Within the next month will begin a frenzied property grab that will make the Oklahoma Land Rush seem like a schoolyard race.
domain rush
Starting immediately and known only to
computer nerds and speculators, the scramble
has begun to reserve unique domain names
on the Internet. The catch is, the names
up for grabs are your own. Those who
dawdle will remain anonymous.By Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.comIt's for the most elemental property of all -- ownership of your name.
This isn't property you can hold in your hand, although it can slip through your fingers if you aren't quick about it. It's a corner of the Internet that's yours as long as you want it, and it's an e-mail address that's yours for life -- no matter who your server is.
Like most revolutions, it's a complex issue that boils down to a simple concept. From that, you can decide whether to be panicked, thrilled or indifferent. But first, some background:
When the 'Net was created by Department of Defense 'puter wranglers, a system of addresses was needed and so was born the Generic Top Level Domain, or GTLD. This was a cyberspace "location" that existed outside geographic and political boundaries, a zip-coding that allowed those online to locate each other efficiently by attaching itself to the end of a unique phrase, linked by a punctuation mark, a period in keyboard terms, and called a "dot."
The 'Net inventors, unsure of how popular the new medium would be, settled on ".com" for commercial uses, ".edu" for educational institutes, ".mil" for military, ".org" for organizations and ".net" for network uses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, comprised of volunteer professionals from all over the globe, was created to watchdog the system. What makes these GTLDs "generic" is that they exist outside of international borders. Countries have an appended code that identifies their origin, which is actually outmoded in the electronic age. Japan, for example, adds .jp, Britain is .uk.
Flash-forward a millennium in computer time, or five years in real time, and the "dot coms" have become the gold standard of the nascent industry. A new name is registered every second or so. No one can keep up. ICANN became ICANN't, and there was squabbling and lawsuits and threatened governmental action if the 'Net playing field wasn't opened up. In the squeeze, countries like Tuvalu cashed in by selling its .tv domain name to television companies, or mean-nothing designations like .cc were drafted.Earlier this year, ICANN settled on seven new GTLDs to accommodate the demand.
Four are supposed to be tightly controlled: ".pro" for doctors, lawyers and accountants, ".aero" for the aerospace industry, ".coop" for cooperatives and ".museum" for, well, for museums.
Two are fairly generic, and are already available through accredited ICANN registrars -- ".biz" and ".info" for various flavors of business.
The seventh is the one that affects all of us. It's dubbed ".name" and is intended for individuals to stake out their own corner of the Internet. More than that, it will become the de facto standard for individuals' relationship to the cyber-age, likely for the rest of our lives.
It is so important that a single agency was created to handle the load. Situated in London, TheGlobalName.org this week completed negotiations with ICANN for control of the .name GTLD.
Once registered, and as long as an annual fee is paid, your personal .name title is yours for life. The extension is known as a third-level domain, meaning that it must be used in conjunction with at least two elements.
For example, "Fasi.name" will not be registerable, although "Frank.Fasi.name" will be, as well as sub-levels such as "campaign.2002.Frank.Fasi.name." This is so domain cybersquatters can't buy up and hoard popular surnames. Only two names are not going to be available -- Santa Claus and Jesus Christ.
Even so, we're going to run out of room soon. There can only be one Frank Fasi -- if we're lucky -- but there's likely to be a passel of Jeremy Harrises. Only the first Jeremy Harris to register will get his name exactly the way he wants it.
What about John Smith? The old gag about having "more Chins than a Chinese phone book" isn't funny in countries where folks have less variety in surnames. America's immigrant heritage has given us a lot, and it's given us decreased competition in the name-calling department.
Still it's going to be a donnybrook for names. Last May, the Federal Trade Commission warned cyber-consumers not to be taken in by Internet scam artists guaranteeing name registration for a fee.
The only way to register is with a ICANN-approved registrar (http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html). A check this week showed only a handful are geared up to take .name pre-registrations.
Expect that to change immediately. These companies will take name pre-registrations and forward them at start-up to TheGlobalName for random selection, so it's not guaranteed. But you can't get picked if your name isn't in the hopper.
The "sunrise" period has already started, in which trademark holders -- think Marilyn.Monroe.name or Mickey.Mouse.name -- will begin "defensive" registrations.
The "land-rush" period begins almost immediately, in which the pre-registrations and new registrations flood TheGlobalName registry, and "winners" are announced by late October. By the end of the year, you'll be able to register your .name "live," knowing immediately whether or not it's available.
Applicants are not to be charged by the registrar unless the .name registration is successful. Fees vary, but it will likely be under $20 a year.
Since an appellation like "Jeremy.Harris.name" is a Web address, it can be used for a web site. TheGlobalName.org will be able to redirect your e-mail no matter who your server is. The permanent address would be something like "Jeremy@Harris.name." E-mailer spammers are going to love this -- they can guess addresses just by name lists.
While this will vastly simplify e-mail for many, and be the primary reason to register your name, things aren't that easy. Suppose there are two Jeremy Harrises? Or 50? Or 500? It's not only possible, it's likely. Jeremy-come-latelys will have to pick variations they can live with, like Jeremy501.Harris.name or Joseph.Jeremy.Harris.name or Jeremy.Jingleheimer.Harris.name.
Even so, within a few weeks, your.name may be on everyone's lips. The land rush starts now.