ICANN Approves Historic Change to Internet's Domain Name System

ICANN's Board of Directors has approved a plan to usher in one of the biggest changes ever to the Internet's Domain Name System.

During a special meeting, the Board approved a plan to dramatically increase the number of Internet domain name endings -- called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) -- from the current 22, which includes such familiar domains as .com, .org and .net.

"ICANN has opened the Internet's naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today's decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind," said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN.

New gTLDs will change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways.

The decision to proceed with the gTLD program follows many years of discussion, debate and deliberation with the Internet community, business groups and governments. The Applicant Guidebook, a rulebook explaining how to apply for a new gTLD, went through seven significant revisions to incorporate more than 1,000 comments from the public. Strong efforts were made to address the concerns of all interested parties, and to ensure that the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet are not compromised.

ICANN will soon begin a global campaign to tell the world about this dramatic change in Internet names and to raise awareness of the opportunities afforded by new gTLDs. Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012.

It will cost $185,000 to apply for the suffixes, and companies would need to show they have a legitimate claim to the name they are buying.

Analysts say it is a price that global giants might be willing to pay - in order to maximise their internet presence.

The money will be used to cover costs incurred by Icann in developing the new gTLDs and employing experts to scrutinise the many thousands of expected applications.

A portion will be set-aside to deal with potential legal actions, raised by parties who fail to get the domains they want.

Vodacom South Africa low uptake of MPESA

I was quite surprised to read elsewhere that Vodacom SA has had such a poor uptake of MPESA unlike its sister companies in East Africa.

So far it had only registered about 100,000 MPESA users since August 2010, whereas it had expected to registered 10 million MPESA users within the next three years. Compare this with 8.6 million registered users in Tanzania and 12 million registered users in Kenya.

Guess that is due to the level of economic development and sophistication of the banking sector in SA compared to what we have in Eastern and Central Africa, where a majority of the populace was unbanked till the other day when banking responded to the needs of the mass and low income segment, which supported by Safaricom’s MPESA, has seen it moving close to Ksh 600 million monthly.

Mobile phones and the link to cancer

Though at this stage a WHO study says that mobile phones are possibly carcinogenic, it just confirms what has been fears of the estimated five billion mobile phone users globally.

The link seems to point at a type of brain tumour especially for the mobile phone addicts who cannot help put down their phones from their ears. Advise now is text more and text less especially in this era where talking over the mobile phone is far cheaper than texting.

So next time you want to chase after those free calls all night long, think twice, you never know!