1.
gTLD Update
ICANN
and Afilias sign off on .info
Afilias,
of which NetNames is a member, this week announced the execution
of its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) to operate .info - the first global,
unrestricted top-level domain to be created since .com.
Afilias expects to begin accepting the first .info domain
name applications in late June.
Following
the approval of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Afilias
will move forward with the development of its registry operations.
By late June, Afilias expects to begin its first registration
phase, the Sunrise Period. The Sunrise Period is a 30 day
period prior to the opening of public registration during
which eligible registered trademark and service mark holders
will be able to apply for their trademarks as domain names
in the .info gTLD.
After
the end of the Sunrise Period, and following any system
evaluation, Afilias will begin accepting .info domain name
applications from the general public. These applications
will be submitted by ICANN-accredited registrars that are
authorised by Afilias to submit applications for .info domain
names.
2.
Nic
News
Korean
cyberunification one step closer
A firm
based in South Korea is seeking to secure the '.ko' domain
jointly with North Korea in a symbolic step towards cyber
unification.
South
Korea currently uses the '.kr' suffix, whilst the North
has registered '.kp'. As political ties are slowly strengthened,
the president of the Korea Network Information Center has
suggested reserving a new national extension for when the
Koreas are unified.
3.
NetNames News
Political
parties confuse voters online
~ newlabour.co.uk points to the Conservative Party web site
and other gaffes ~
Political
parties are failing to make the most of the Internet in
the run-up to the general election, following research into
the main political parties' web sites, by Internet brand
management company, NetNames.
The
company found that many sites which surfers would assume
would pertain to particular parties, were either dormant,
or actively diverted surfers away to their rival organisations.
Newlabour.co.uk
points to the Conservative Party's official site, with a
holding banner asking surfers to "please wait while
we redirect you to common sense". Meanwhile tory-party.co.uk
directs surfers to the Socialist Worker's web site, and
toryparty.co.uk is a spoof political web site. The aim of
lib-dems.com is 'to counter misleading information put out
by the Liberal Democrats'.
"In
the run-up to the first general election in which the Internet
will play a real part, the main political parties should
have taken more care to ensure that supporters, and more
importantly, floating voters, get the information they're
looking for," said Jonathan Robinson, CEO of NetNames,
part of the NetBenefit Group.
4.
Fact of the week
NetNames
has just published the latest edition of N3Lite's sister
publication, N3. CLICK
HERE to download the magazine in .pdf format.
If you would like to be added to the mailing list for future
editions of the magazine, which is published quarterly,
please email n3lite@netnames.com
with the following details:
- Name
- Company name
- Position
- Postal address
