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Latona
team did a remarkable job in their first trip around the
track as a show promoter (they produced this conference
under a licensing agreement with T.R.A.F.F.I.C.). With T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
co-founder Howard Neu, his wife Barbara and
son Ray pitching in to help in Amsterdam the end
result was an exceptionally rewarding show filled
with fresh content, new faces and a series of
unforgettable social events in historically significant
locations. I
just scratched the surface in my daily Lowdown posts from
Amsterdam. We'll have much more detail and dozens of
previously unseen photos in the comprehensive conference
review article that we will be publishing at the end of
this week. With
this successful run in Amsterdam now completed, the folks
at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. now
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Rick
Latona speaking at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
ccTLDs conference last week in Amsterdam.
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turn
their attention to their final show of the year - T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
New York, coming up in Brooklyn this
fall (October 26-29 to be exact). Today show
organizers announced some major changes for the New York
conference. Early bird registration prices (good through
June 30 or until 100 tickets are sold - whichever comes
first) will be slashed to just $895 - an
unprecedented low for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. (the fee will rise to
$1495 by show time). The early bird fee to bring spouses
was also slashed to $199, a remarkable value
considering how much food, drink and entertainment is
included in the ticket price. If you want to go buy
your tickets now - the bargain prices go away July 1.
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The
next stop on the show circuit is the Domain
Roundtable conference that gets
underway Sunday evening at the Grand
Hyatt in Washington, D.C. I'll be
repacking my bags and heading to the nation's
capital to cover that event for you. Thought
Convergence is presenting this show
and in a very positive gesture for the industry,
they are making time available during their live
domain auction to sell donated
domains to raise funds for the Internet
Commerce Association (you can still
donate domains by writing [email protected]). |
The ICA proved how important
it is to keep their Legal Counsel, Phil Corwin, on
the job when a brief they filed helped the Coalition
for Internet Transparency (CFIT) win a key
court battle against Verisign that
could lead to lower domain registration fees for all
domain owners. Michael Berkens had a very good
breakdown on what is at stake in a post on his blog
last week.
The ICA has also pointed
out the many flaws in an Implementation
Recommendation Team (IRT) proposal to ICANN
that, if adopted, would leave domain owners at an unfair
and permanent disadvantage against frivolous
trademark objections aimed at separating legitimate
investors from their assets (You can read more about this
very serious issue in this thread
at ICANN.org. I think you will find the
arguments made by veteran domainer George Kirikos to
be particularly enlightening).
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The value of domain
names has become common knowledge and from now on
there are going to be covetous parties who want to
take away what you have without paying for it.
Without someone watching out for their interests
in Washington and before ICANN, there is no chance
domain owners are going to win the critical
battles ahead. |
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One
other note today. While I was in Amsterdam last
week, Verisign issued their quarterly Domain
Name Industry Brief, a report that is
always filled with interesting statistics and
domain registration trends. The latest DNIB report
shows that Q1-2009 ended with a total base nearly 183
million domain name registrations across all
of the Top Level Domains (TLDs), representing 3%
growth over Q4-2008 and a 12% growth over
the same quarter |
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from last year. Quite
impressive when you consider we are in the midst
of the most severe recession in decades and
further evidence that the Internet is one of the
safest harbors in the current economic storm.
That brings you up to
date on conference, company and community news.
Tomorrow I'll have several items about industry
people that are making headlines this month. |
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