Oh yeah, I'm famous

[Jay Link <jlink@interlink-bbs.com>]

*** Too bad I sound like a big ol' dork (and I don't have $50K, either) 


ICANN sets ground rules for proposing new domain-name registries

BY PATRICK THIBODEAU 
(August 04, 2000) 

The organization charged with managing the Internet domain name system has
started setting ground rules for the groups or companies that want to
manage new top-level domains to join existing ones such as .com, .org and
.net. And for some people, such as Jay Link, it's an opportunity -- but an
expensive one.

Link, the owner of Interlink BBS in Springfield, Ill., today said he
plans to send the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) a nonrefundable $50,000 application fee to establish a registry
under which he wants to operate a new .inc top-level domain.

If Link's proposal is approved by ICANN, his company -- currently a
small Internet service provider -- would collect fees from any individuals
or companies that wanted to register Web addresses under the .inc domain
name. That could be a lucrative business for Link. "I think whoever is
approved will be big time very quickly," he said.

ICANN, a nonprofit group based in Marina del Rey, Calif., yesterday posted
on its Web site an initial set of guidelines for companies that want to
sponsor or operate new top-level domains. ICANN will begin accepting
applications to become a domain-name registry on Sept. 5, and the deadline
for submitting one is Oct. 2.

Selecting the companies that will handle domain-name registration is a
must before ICANN can move forward with a plan for adding new top-level
domains that was approved last month at a series of meetings in Japan.

ICANN has received a slew of proposals for new top-level domains, but
most analysts expect that it will only endorse a handful of added ones at
first. Among the proposed additions are: .web, .biz, union, .customers,
.complaints, .ecology, .shareholder, .taxpayer, .biz, .ecom and .firm

Gilbert Bede, information technology manager at the Calgary Public
Library in Alberta, has proposed a .lib top-level domain. Bede said he
believes that would make it easier for people to locate his library's Web
site and would also help to improve libraries in general from "an image
and status point of view."

The Calgary library originally wanted to register www.cpl.org as
the Web address for its site, but Bede said the Cleveland Public Library
got that one first. Visitors to the Calgary site now must type
http://public-library.calgary.ab.ca, a Web address that isn't easy
to remember.

The library's Web site still had about two million page views last
year, with 780,000 unique visitors. But if a simpler address such as
cpl.lib becomes available, site traffic is "definitely going to go up,"
Bede said.

The U.S. Small Business Administration, in a letter to ICANN last
month, said it wants to see more top-level domains to help avoid
domain-name clutter under existing ones such as .com.

Good .com domain names already have been used up, according to the
letter. "While there are many technically feasible names remaining in
.com, names that have high numbers of characters are not viable in a
competitive market," the government agency said.

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