.us More Good News for Dot US

[Fundraiser]

The folks at Prophet Partners made a nice discovery on the NTIA site which hosts the information regarding the Dot US registry. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/
The US Gov is requesting bids for a new operator for the registry.


I also saw an emphasis, I hope, on the marketing of the extension to increase its use. More detail can be found in the links provided by Prophet (nice post) but here is the pdf of the request for proposal http://www.ntia.doc.gov/vendors/usTLD_RFQ_070707.pdf

The description of work begins on page 29. A nice background and history on the tld starts on page 35 and the scope of services requested begins on 37.

2.) Promote increased use of the usTLD, including kids.us, by the Internet community of the United States (including small businesses, consumers, not-for-profit organizations, and state and local governments), with a residence or bona fide presence in the United States by introducing enhanced technical and other services, disseminating information about the usTLD, and improving registration and customer services.

 

[DomainMayhem.com]

That does look promising! Thanks for the info, rep points added.

 

[dsiomtw]

Only a matter of time ... Neustar blows. That's all .US needs - watch out .US haters it's getting closer and closer every day lol.

 

[airwav]

:kickass:
It's about time! Yippe for the DoC... :D

 

[Lasher]

It would be controversial, but imagine if Godaddy applied and won this. GD likes to spend money on Superbowl ads, what better place to promote the American country code?

 

[E-Thunder]

Nice post. Thanks.

 

[airwav]

It would be controversial, but imagine if Godaddy applied and won this. GD likes to spend money on Superbowl ads, what better place to promote the American country code?

Imagine if Google decided to bid on the the RFQ :bingo:

Here is an interesting request in the RFQ:

As the Internet and the Domain Name System have evolved certain practices have emerged that may harm, mislead, or confuse consumers and misuse intellectual property in the usTLD. These practices may include the misuse of automated registration technologies, and the add/drop grace period, and these have been given various names such as tasting, kiting, and spying. The DoC seeks proposals that include a set of policies and mechanisms to prevent and combat abuses of the usTLD registration system.

A standardized drop time (maybe) and no "tasting" ...

 

[htmlindex]

Thanks for sharing this with us!

 

[Lasher]

Let's hope they don't go too far in determining what is "abusive practice" or we may all be forced to do some very quick development, which in itself wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing but I'd prefer to do it on my own timetable.

 

[duceman]

thanks

 

[sirengirl]

Excellent thanks for sharing rep added!

 

[Fundraiser]

Let's hope they don't go too far in determining what is "abusive practice" or we may all be forced to do some very quick development, which in itself wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing but I'd prefer to do it on my own timetable.

I don't think the USudrp will change in any detimental way. For a measure of protection, I try to create an account on my server for each valuable domain, place some kind of brief text like "we have great plans under development for this domain and welcome any inquires from potential development partners - call (number from the whois)"

I then print the page which includes the url and a date and place it in a file as proof of planning for development and an offer of a business opportunity to potential partners. I'm not a lawyer, but that seems to cover legitimate planned use. The site can then be taken down after printing and the domains can be parked as you have proof you are working on development and other legitimate business use (seeking partners) but also decided to earn a little rent until the plans were ready for deployment or until determining the best opportunity was to sell.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

I then print the page which includes the url and a date and place it in a file as proof of planning for development and an offer of a business opportunity to potential partners. I'm not a lawyer, but that seems to cover legitimate planned use. The site can then be taken down after printing and the domains can be parked as you have proof you are working on development and other legitimate business use (seeking partners) but also decided to earn a little rent until the plans were ready for deployment or until determining the best opportunity was to sell.

Better yet, make it a live page and submit to archive.org. Third party proof would be much better than a printed page which can be altered or faked.

It would be nice to see a company actually promote the usTLD better. Many will disagree, but as a US citizen, I'd also like to see the Nexus requirement better enforced since the TLD is an asset of the United States. Unfortunately, I don't see many good alternatives coming forward in what's a pretty small industry. Things could get worse if Verisign put in a bid. It may be hard for a company with no TLD management experience to get the contract unless they decide to Market the TLD and subcontract the back end to neustar, affilias, or Verisign.

By the way, Neustar has recently announced that the wholesale price of kids.us domains has dropped from $60 to $6. Encirca is offering a 3 year reg at $8.99/year. They also dropped the annual fee for approving kids content dropped from $250 to $125. Could this be a last ditch effort to show goodwill and keep the registry?

http://www.neustar.biz/pressroom/announcements/press_release.cfm?press_id=1255

http://www.neustar.biz/pressroom/files/announcements/KidsDotUS.doc

 

[dna]

Whats wrong with Neustar?
It seems to me we could get someone awful really easily.

 

[.X.]

Thanks for the update .It sounds promising, I myself have developed a few of my Dot US names, More people need to develope, Rather than park, Get em out there where people can see them.