Domain Auction to Raise Funds for Haiti Earthquake Victims + Why Rick Latona  is Riding a Bicycle from Atlanta to New Orleans

I returned from my 10-day west coast conference swing over the weekend and immediately started whittling away at the work that piled up while I was away covering the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas and DOMAINfest Global conferences (we expect to publish comprehensive review articles of both shows within the next 7 days). During the trip, my Lowdown posts were focused on bringing you daily photos and highlights from the conferences. Now that I'm back I want to bring you up to date on some other happenings around the industry.  

First, on Friday of this week (Feb. 5), Sweden's MissDomain.com will open a special week-long online charity domain auction with all proceeds going to Haiti earthquake relief efforts being undertaken by UNICEF. Domain donations are being accepted until Feb. 4 (email [email protected] for donation details). The auction is being supported by both the .SE and .NU domain registries. You can get more details on the auction here.

In another piece of news from Europe, the sunrise period for .LU (Luxembourg ccTLD) IDN domains opened today and will continue through March 31. This sunrise period if open only to those who already hold a .LU domain and want to register IDN equivalents that will allow companies and individuals to acquire names in their own languages and alphabets (Three languages are widely used in Luxembourg; Luxembourgish, French and German). In a related note, as of today, domain registrants who live outside Luxembourg are no longer required to give power of attorney to a Luxembourg based agent in order to register and manage .LU domains.

I was surprised and impressed to see a post on Rick Latona's blog today announcing that he and Latonas.com President David Clements have begun a 10-day bike ride from their homes in Atlanta to New Orleans where they will celebrate completion of their journey at the Domainer Mardi Gras conference that opens Feb. 11. 

Rick Latona (left) and David Clements are riding bikes from Atlanta to New Orleans.

Latona explained that he decided the marathon bike ride was the best way to get in shape for next month's Kili 2010 Climb. On March 1st Latona will join several other domainers, Internet professionals and adventurers from around the world who will be climbing the great Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa in an effort to raise awareness and funding for sustainable clean water solutions (via The Water School) on that continent. I wish Rick and David a safe ride across the deep south and congratulate them for what they are doing to draw attention to this very worthy charity.