Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Celebrated on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service.

The human loss at war rose dramatically in the 20th century; due to the effectiveness of weapons of mass destruction, bigger planes, heavier bombs, more lethal munitions.

Even today, ten years into the 21st century we somehow manage to trade in our civilization for our early caveman days, to cash in our humanity in exchange for the madness of bloodbath. The closer we have come to one another, the harder we fight to separate – as if each one of us is of the same polarity.

Memorial Day is not about being brave and dying in battle, about reaching summits to plant the national flag. It’s not about who killed the most, not about how many died and for what cause and purpose.

Memorial Day is mostly about those who returned home and what happened from that point on in their lives.

Memorial Day is about the wounded, physically and emotionally. It’s about those that witnessed war brutality first hand and swore “never again”. It’s about those that cried when they killed another human being. It’s about those that returned to their families and taught their children that there is no victory for humanity that stems from war.

Tomorrow – on Memorial Day – please don’t watch Rambo movies, save them for when there is no football on television. But try to watch “The Best Years of Our Lives” instead, a 1946 movie that honors humanity as a whole – those that were lost in the war and those that returned from it with a renewed hunger for life.

I’ve no doubt that on July 20, hordes of domain investors will attempt to secure a portion of the new ccTLD pie, .co

Staged as the new alternative to .com, the Colombian national TLD understandably launched an intense marketing campaign to ensure that it is not going to fall flat on its face, like other registries did in the past.

Highlighting a built-in provision that will protect the rights of trademark holders from ‘squatters‘, the .co Registry is also a proud sponsor of several domain events and conferences, including the upcoming ICANN meeting in Carthagena, Colombia.

As part of the .co marketing campaign – other than paying bloggers $80 /month for 125 x 125 square ads – the .co Registry decided to put on the chopping block one of its biggest assets: the domain e.co

Instead of waiting several years after the launch of the .co TLD, the .co Registry is actually doing something smart – at least from a marketing standpoint.

So e.co will go on auction, via Sedo and according to the web site at http://e.co the proceeds of the auction will go to a global charity of the winning bidder’s choice. The .co Registry does not shy away from stating the fact that the single letter plus the extension form the word “eco” – a term popular with today’s green-focused economy, the environment and ecology in general.

Sounds like an angelic world, with charities and good intentions.

However, at least 1,300 trademarks that contain the word “eco” exist in the USPTO database, all of which would most likely object to seeing their mark be used as a global URL. Several hundred of these trademarks are indeed of ecological focus which would bring them directly interested in both obtaining and objecting this unique match of URL/trademark.

If that weren’t big enough of a reason to be skeptical about the upcoming auction of e.co consider that there is also an active and rather large initiative about the gTLD .eco in the works.

Supported by no other than former US vice president and Nobel Peace prize winner, Al Gore, the Dot Eco initiative is the single largest force behind the launch of this generic TLD; promoting green energy, alternative power sources, the environment and a global policy against pollution.

A few questions arise:

• Is the .co Registry wrapping up the sellout of e.co as a “charity event” in order to avoid direct repercussions from the “eco” trademark holders?
• How is this going to affect the ICANN application for .eco by the Dot Eco initiative, especially since the Colombian TLD is the shortest possible form of the applied gTLD?
• Is there already an agreement between the .co Registry and Dot Eco and the auction is simply a trick to attract more attention to the launch a national TLD which will face several critical issues in the future?

One thing is certain: domain holders are witnessing their revenue drop constantly, all while large brokerage and PPC companies announce record profit and sales. As the Registries increase their profits by raising prices for the most commonly used TLDs, the cost of owning and monetizing a large number of domains is increasing.

Perhaps, it’s time for justice to begin at home instead of next door.

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The news lately seem to follow a pattern with regards to human achievement: progressively younger people attempt things once reserved for experienced adults or individuals who were missing a ‘screw‘ or two from their head.

The era of daredevils is upon us.

A sixteen year old Australian girl circumnavigated the globe in a boat, alone. A guy from the UK, barely eighteen years old did the same. A thirteen year old boy from the US just climbed Mt. Everest, after having conquered Mt. Kilimanjaro at the age of nine.

In a few weeks, a man from Austria will attempt to free-fall from space, breaking the sound barrier. No, there will not be a spacecraft to ride into, just a heavily modified pressurized bodysuit.

It is clear that certain elements inside the human psyche are meant to push the limits of human success further and further, to achieve bigger and better things.

In everyday life, doing what’s been done before, what has been achieved before, what has been experienced before seems to be a sure path to death through boredom. Our 9 to 5 job days and our secure, reclusive lives are taking us along the same safe paths, with no new horizons to seek and no hidden treasures to go after.

In the world of domaining, we don’t stand out from the rest of the crowd unless we take chances, seek the opportunities; unless we dig into the core of events, unless we chase the unreachable, the seemingly unattainable.

All around us, exist opportunities that will take us to the Himalayas of Domaining, paths and routes and venues we never thought that they existed.

Once we step outside the box of conservative thinking, once we free ourselves from the limits set by fear – then we become free entrepreneurs of our own lives.

We become daredevil domainers and we take the future in our own hands.

When Rick Schwartz writes a blog post it’s usually some time in the early morning. His unique, direct style is what makes the readers of his blog going back for more.

At Rick’s blog there’s a lot of motivational information, dished with what I’d like to call ‘domainer tough love‘. Not everyone likes that approach; still, it worked wonders for many of us. The drill sergeant in the army did it for me, so did my teachers at school.

I’m not sure what would take for Rick Schwartz to become irritated but perhaps a hefty serving of bullshit would do it. After reading several comments that were attacking Rick’s intentions and overall sentiment in the domain industry, I was left with the impression that Rick is once again about to start telling it like it is.

And that is good.

TRAFFIC has faded as an institution in the eyes of many newcomers and outsiders to the domain industry. Not because of any lack of organization; both times that I attended the event was nothing short of superb.

The main problem appears to be the open door policy of the conference. For several years since it started, TRAFFIC was by invitation only. It was the type of VIP event that required a virtual tuxedo and a certain attitude; it was an initiation, if you must, to the domain brotherhood.

The comments at Rick’s latest post indicate that the amount of disrespect towards the organizers of TRAFFIC and Rick in person is increasing. It’s unfortunate that this is happening and I’m sure that Rick will be cracking the whip pretty soon.

It’s time for TRAFFIC to be by invitation only, once again.

I’ll end this post with a little story for entertainment purposes.

The potato was introduced to Greece in the late 1820′s by its newly elected governor, John Kapodistrias. Having ordered a shipment of potatoes, at first he ordered that they be offered to anyone interested. However the potatoes were met with indifference by the population and the whole scheme seemed to be failing. Therefore Kapodistrias, aware of the contemporary Greek attitude, ordered that the whole shipment of potatoes be unloaded in public display on the docks and placed severe-looking guards guarding it. Soon, rumors circulated that for the potatoes to be so well guarded they had to be of great importance. People would gather to look at the so-important potatoes and soon some tried to steal them. The guards had been ordered in advance to turn a blind eye to such behavior and soon the potatoes had all been “stolen” and Kapodistrias’ plan to introduce them to Greece had succeeded.

What is the moral of this story?

Today’s lesson is about realizing your limits and restrictions. It’s about knowing when you should zip it and listen instead of talking. It’s also about not letting white noise change your state of mind through some promised magic.

It’s about putting down the domainer ‘crack pipe’.

So you were told you will make a fortune with domains, a killing – unlike in any other market. They sold you the eBooks and the seminars, they gave you free accounts at PPC providers.

You read the eBooks and attended the seminars, then you parked your domains and did your very own mini-sites. Then waited patiently for the golden shower from heavens to arrive.

It never did.

Exactly what is the domainer ‘crack pipe’ and who is smoking it?

There are a lot of domainer ‘crack pipe‘ smokers – they promise to make you rich overnight. Do a simple check about their personal achievements and domain portfolios and think for  a second: if they were as successful as they professed, would they really pass the riches on to you?

What they pass on is the domainer ‘crack pipe‘ – the illusion of success and grandeur. Which is fine, as long as they pull those blinds over people that have nothing better to do with their time.

But your time is valuable and you should be able to be successful without all this noise and second hand smoke. And since I mentioned smoke, beware of the mirrors as well – they go together in a seamless pair.

It’s very easy to fall prey to domainer ‘crack pipe‘ smokers: the promises alone make you stop in your feet, all while you were casually strolling downtown Domain Avenue. And sometimes, while looking around the marketplace with all the peddlers yelling their wares you can lose both your wallet and shirt in mere minutes.

In a nutshell: be vigilant. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Take what is promised to you with a pinch of salt. Add your own spices in whatever you do. Acquire chameleon skin.

And most importantly, don’t smoke the domainer ‘crack pipe’.