The dawn of a new era is always seen with suspicion, reservation, conservatism and fear; sometimes with anger added to the mix.
People don’t like change, especially when it’s defined in a manner that affects their lifestyle.
As a kid, one of my favorite books was my dad’s single volume encyclopaedia about The Universe. Published in 1958, it barely included Sputnik’s launch, and predicted a moon landing around the year 2000.
It also included a disclaimer: “If certain parameters in research and development are met, we are confident that the time needed to land on the moon could be reduced by half.”
That notice put the expected moon landing to 1979 – a full decade after it eventually happened, but still, much closer than the mythical year 2000.
Change, particularly technological change, is inevitable. The machines have to change faster, because people change at a much slower pace; humans do evolve and even mutate, but such change is performed over several millennia and it goes by unnoticed.
Evolution in technology is controlled by the sharpest minds of the human race, those that can improve on the old and can devise new processes and products. The paradigm is accelerated in recent years; the twenty years from 1980 to 2000 were halved from 2000 to 2010 in how fast technology advanced.
The same pace, whether we like it or not, affects how we address communications and branding. The Internet is still an infant, but eventually it will become an adult; and as such, it will define its own preferences about life.
The introduction of gTLDs in the domain space is a reality shocking to even those of us that retain an open mind.
What is exciting about this new era, is the opportunity to venture into the unknown. If Christopher Columbus knew exactly what land laid across the Atlantic, he might have opted to go the opposite way – it wasn’t a shorter path to India, for sure.
Should we drop our support for what works about domain names at the moment? Do we have to adopt overnight every single introduction of a new approach to how we address domain name space and brands?
Absolutely not.
But we must accept change as an inevitable introduction to a brave new world that might offer a whole lot more than what we knew thus far. Evolution of technology requires an equally important evolution of the mind. By remaining open to change we remain able to advance as a society and as a human race.
A change, perhaps. A shift will require different actors than currently dominate…
Small event small impact. BIG event BIG impact. Advisors and event organizers are already the beneficiary of the GTLD based Internet movement.
Soon resellers, IM and SEO consulting, aftermarket, additional events, media, advertising, branding opportunities will follow.
Drops will become GTLD drops, parking will be one GTLD parking.
Some domain investors and business owners and registries will time the coming Internet change and hit a bullseye whe it comes to taking full advantage of never before seen profit opportunities.
Others (some we may know) will take the opportunity to leave the train rather than relearn the new Internet landscape.
New faces, new opportunities, new chances to succeed and fail. This as they say is the price we pay for progress.
Good luck to all who get on or stay on the Internet train as it leaves for new unchartered destinations.
Well said, Acro. I like change as it brings opportunities. It also allows late comers to come out first. For example, Microsoft was late to the game in the DOS world dominated by WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3 etc. MS shifted to the GUI environment and launched Office on Windows, thus defeating Lotus and others who were late to exploit the new opportunities. I’m examining opportunities in the new gTLDs. The uncertainty is: when will .brand takes root?
From your post I can infer that you’re in support and favor of new-gTLDs. The current players/endusers in domaining or business development should also rise along with these thousands of new-gTLDs. Supply must meet the demand.