Verbatim Q & A with Registry.pro about state of .pro TLD

[sky]

I've sent e-mail to EnCirca and Registry.pro about the status of the .pro
domain and their dispostion with regard to them.

Support at EnCirca told me they'd forwarded my questons to Tom Barret,
president of EnCirca, and I haven't heard back yet (sent this morning).

Catherine Sigmar, the General Manager of Registry.pro responded very
quickly to my e-mail to [email protected], with the following
answers. (Very appreciated).

Below I've interleaved my original questions (verbatim) with her answers
(verbatim) for the benefit of all. My questions are tagged with "Q#:".
Catherine's answers are prefixed with "A#".


vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Thanks for your inquiry.

I can answer some of your questions, but not all.

=======================================

Q1> Is it really true that only about 5000 .pro domains are currently
Q1> registered? One person says that's the implication of the monthly
Q1> ICANN reports.

A1> It is true that there are only about 5,000 names registered. At latest
A1> count there were 4,636. The number has been going up for the last 4
A1> months.

=======================================

Q2> My understanding is that the .pro TLD is due for renewal in 2009.
Q2> is there any risk that it won't be or something would happen that
Q2> would compromise the existing 2nd and 3rd level .pro registrants?

A2> The TLD is up for renewal in 2009. I don't know of any risk that it
A2> won't be renewed. If it were up to the registry, it would be renewed.
A2> However, these decisions are made by ICANN and not the registry.

=======================================

Q3> Apparently EnCirca has been making 2nd level TLDs available
Q3> to the public. Is there any reason to believe those will be in jeopardy
Q3> or to get a sense of the commitment level of ICANN and registry.pro
Q3> to those customers?

A3> This question can't really be answered without coordination between
A3> ICANN, the registry and EnCirca. To date these three parties have not
A3> addressed this issue specifically.

=======================================

Q4> Is there any chance now that the .pro TLD will be re-thought
Q4> so that the pricing and renewal fees will go down, and the domain
Q4> will be more accessible to the general public?

A4> The registry and ICANN are working to make some changes to the
A4> registry. If the changes proposed by the registry are accepted by
A4> ICANN, more professionals will have access to the .pro TLD.
A4> However, the changes have not yet been accepted. Pricing will not
A4> be revisited unless and until the changes have been evaluated and
A4> accepted by ICANN.

==============================================

Q5> Is there any effort being made to really promote the domain at this
Q5> point, and is it still seen as useful and valuable by the authorities? I've
Q5> heard some negative reviews and I'm trying to dispel the myths
Q5> and deal with the rumors.

A5> The registry has recently (6 months ago) come under new management
A5> whose mandate it is to promote and grow the registry. The first step
A5> is to get changes made to the restrictions on the type of professional
A5> that can hold the .pro TLD. In the mean time, efforts are underway to
A5> address issues with registrars and registrants so that approval by ICANN
A5> clears the way to a far more successful TLD. .Pro TLD name holders
A5> find the name to be useful and valuable.

==============================================

Q6> If you can give me any URLs of where to look, or meeting times
Q6> or places where I can track the important decisions about the .pro
Q6> domains, I'd be grateful.

A6> I don't have URLs or meeting times and places available to you to track
A6> progress on the changes that have been submitted to ICANN. I can
A6> assure you that the registry is working hard to have those changes
A6> accepted and that ICANN has been very responsive and supportive.
A6>
A6> Check our site for updates.

 

[dotprofan]

Great interview thanks! Very interesting to hear about the efforts underway to make the extension more widely available. I hope this really means "available to everybody". Nice work sky!

 

[seeker]

good work on sending that email.
Your efforts are greatly appreciated!

 

[akcampbell]

Vey useful information Sky. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Great interview thanks! Very interesting to hear about the efforts underway to make the extension more widely available. I hope this really means "available to everybody". Nice work sky!

Don't count on the "available to everybody" part. From what I've read they will likely open it up to professionals other than med, eng, law, and cpa. If I were to guess, I'd say they will open it to professionals such as stock brokers, certified financial planners, etc. I can see them allowing some "professionals" like pro golfers, members of some other professional group such a league or union.I don't foresee them officially saying that the McDonalds frycook is a professional cook and sanctioning .pro registrations to burgerflipper.pro.

I also think they'll look at other certifying agencies in other countries.

I just don't see them opening it up like .name did with fully open second level registrations. That's my prediciton anyway.

 

[dotprofan]

What have you read that has lead you to these conclusions?

Don't count on the "available to everybody" part. From what I've read they will likely open it up to professionals other than med, eng, law, and cpa. If I were to guess, I'd say they will open it to professionals such as stock brokers, certified financial planners, etc. I can see them allowing some "professionals" like pro golfers, members of some other professional group such a league or union.I don't foresee them officially saying that the McDonalds frycook is a professional cook and sanctioning .pro registrations to burgerflipper.pro.

I also think they'll look at other certifying agencies in other countries.

I just don't see them opening it up like .name did with fully open second level registrations. That's my prediciton anyway.

 

[akcampbell]

"If the changes proposed by the registry are accepted by ICANN, more professionals will have access to the .pro TLD."

Presumably, that means more professions will be covered in more countries. I don't think that would make any difference to the popularity of the extension.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

What have you read that has lead you to these conclusions?

Well, just from the answers above I see this (note emphasis by me):

A4> The registry and ICANN are working to make some changes to the
A4> registry. If the changes proposed by the registry are accepted by
A4> ICANN, more professionals will have access to the .pro TLD.

The first step
A5> is to get changes made to the restrictions on the type of professional
A5> that can hold the .pro TLD.

Those answers seem to be very carefully worded to me.

From general talk and opinion, the forum they put up to discuss the encirca issue (which seems to have been taken down), and from the above, I don't think they will ask or ICANN would allow such a major change as to allow totally open registrations. it's too much change from the original concept in one step. I think the definition of "professional" will be relaxed quite a bit, but not to the point that anyone who works at all is considered a "professional".

 

[dotprofan]

I see. Based on your reply it sounded like you had read something in addition to the initial post which we all read.

My understanding is that .org, .us and .name were all restricted at one point and now have no restrictions whatsoever.

Well, just from the answers above I see this (note emphasis by me):

A4> The registry and ICANN are working to make some changes to the
A4> registry. If the changes proposed by the registry are accepted by
A4> ICANN, more professionals will have access to the .pro TLD.

The first step
A5> is to get changes made to the restrictions on the type of professional
A5> that can hold the .pro TLD.

Those answers seem to be very carefully worded to me.

From general talk and opinion, the forum they put up to discuss the encirca issue (which seems to have been taken down), and from the above, I don't think they will ask or ICANN would allow such a major change as to allow totally open registrations. it's too much change from the original concept in one step. I think the definition of "professional" will be relaxed quite a bit, but not to the point that anyone who works at all is considered a "professional".

 

[sky]

From general talk and opinion, the forum they put up to discuss the encirca issue (which seems to have been taken down),
.

You're not referring to this are you?
http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/385206-encirca-solicits-pro-questions.html

 

[AdoptableDomains]

You're not referring to this are you?
http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/385206-encirca-solicits-pro-questions.html

No, when encirca started taking the promo registrations and acting as proxy owner well over a year ago, registrypro had a phpBB forum on their website with comments. It seems to be long gone now.

You can see it used to be here:
http://www.registrypro.pro/forum/


And you can see the link on this archive.org page.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060618084653/www.registrypro.pro/
And the forum main page here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060208093510/www.registrypro.pro/forum/

Being a database, archive.org does not have the content archived.