No matter if the IATA failed...

...the future for online tickets is in front of us.

As part of the International Air Transport Association simplifying the business initiative, the association instituted a program to switch the industry to 100% electronic ticketing. The program concluded on June 1, 2008, with the association saying that the resulting industry savings were approximately US$3 billion. In 2004, IATA Board of Governors set the end of 2007 as the deadline for airlines to make the transition to 100% electronic ticketing for tickets processed through the IATA billing and settlement plan.

As of June 1, 2008 paper tickets can no longer be issued on neutral stock by agencies reporting to their local Billing and Settlement Plan.

The industry was unable to comply with the IATA mandate and paper tickets remain in circulation as of February 2009 (source Wikipedia).

Tickets.club is for sale: http://startup.club/product-category/generic/page/4/.

4,5 Sunrise periods are starting today

4,5 Sunrise Periods are starting:

1. .IRISH
2. .APARTMENTS
3. .COLLEGE
4. .NGO & .ONG (for non gov organizations).

Source: http://www.trademark-clearinghouse.com/content/irish.

Register your .IRISH domain name with ComLaude and learn more about the Registry here.

New gTLDs: The Lions and Rotary International Clubs

Extract: "Both are institutions to me and I have known these names forever. I dug a little and went to search for these two groups on LinkedIn, wondering if there would be an interest in either using a new domain name extension or changing to a ".club" new domain name".

Read my complete article on gTLD.club.

Register your .CLUB domain name with Uniregistry.

4 Sunrise Periods starting today

Four new gTLDs have their Sunrise Period to start today:

1. .TENNIS;
2. .CHAT;
3. .BINGO;
4. .STYLE

SUNRISE PERIODS START: Tuesday, 10 March, 2015 - 16:00;

SUNRISE PERIODS END: Saturday, 9 May, 2015 - 16:00.
Source: http://trademark-clearinghouse.com/gtld-calendar.

Register one of these new domain names with a Corporate Registrar.

The Lions and Rotary International Clubs

There are two clubs
I am familiar with these two prestigious clubs; the "Lions Club International" and the "Rotary International".

Both are institutions to me and I have known these names forever. I dug a little and went to search for these two groups on LinkedIn, wondering if there would be an interest in either using a new domain name extension or changing to a ".club" new domain name.

Both clubs are on LinkedIn
I registered to these two group clubs and was approved to post on the first one, then on the second one:

• The Rotary International is very active and has more than 53,800 members;
• The Lions Club has 5,230 members.

A question asked to the Rotary International Club

After introducing myself, I asked the following question to its members: "What about creating domain names ending in .ROTARY (instead of .COM)?" Asking such question can be a flop because few people are concerned by domain names but the number of answers received demonstrate a few things:

1. The list of 26 comments shows that such a question has to do with identity and not with another boring discussion around domain names. Formulated the wrong way, such discussions end with...no answer at all. Few people like to talk about domain names.
2. Applying for a new gTLD is known as being expensive "first".
3. There is interest but again...end users did not know that it was possible.
4. The Rotary seemed to have considered the question; a private email from one of their executive confirmed that and executives from the Rotary had received information about new gTLDs already.

I appreciated the creativity of some comments.

A question asked to the Lions Club International

The question being asked at the moment and which has yet not received any answer is: "What about changing name to "lions.club" ?" I wondered if I should have asked a similar question as the one asked in the Rotary's group, focused on applying for the .LIONS new gTLD, but the official Lions Club International domain name is "www.lionsclubs.org" and contains the "club" sign so I found it more appropriate to go for a .club instead and which already exists.

One the first answers is to keep it as it is: why change something that works already? More answers are coming and a benefit that I see in these exchanges is that participants learn about these new options during the discussion: many participants NEVER heard about ICANN new domains. The one thing learnt here:

1. To improve new domain names' adoption, education is the key.

Next question please

Another question is being asked in these two clubs: "Have any Rotary/Lions clubs protected a Trademark in the Trademark Clearinghouse?"

Both the Lions Club International and the Rotary International are probably Trademarked but I doubt any of the Roswell Rotary or the Monifieth Rotary Clubs (both examples use a ".club" domain name already) participated in the Sunrise Period but I asked the question to be sure.

I expect to be answered that both are a Trademark and no other club involved in these two institutions can use these signs to be registered in the TMCH for the use of their own website. It is possible that I am told that my question is stupid too ;-)

But if I am wrong it means that:

1. both clubs are already more educated about new domain names than we think;
2. they considered that these new domain names would benefit to their image by allowing member clubs to submit their trademark data in the TMCH (short name for Trademark Clearinghouse). 

Why did Google go for an ICANN auction?

Extract: It is clear that ICANN auctions are the most expensive way of owning a gTLD with, in reality, the only party coming out a clear winner is ICANN which not only takes $185,000 as an application fee from each of the applicants but also pockets the proceeds of an auction that it forces the applicants to enter into! Cynics might, however, view it as a means to grease the palm of the regulator which is to oversee how Google use gTLDs like .APP particularly given the controversy surrounding the issue of open/closed generics.

Read my latest article on CircleId: http://www.circleid.com/posts/20150304_google_chose_to_win_app_in_an_icann_auction_for_25m_why/.

Register your .CLUB domain name with Uniregistry.

The .ONE new gTLD has launched

What the application says: "According to the Applicant, the purpose of the TLD is manifold, as will be further explained below:

1) Reflect and operate the distinctive element out of the key and most distinctive brand (“ONE”) of the One.com Group at the top level of the DNS’ hierarchy;

2) Provide customers and other stakeholders of the One.com Group, including, subsidiaries, and their respective suppliers, sponsorships, and their respective directors, officers, employees, with a recognizable and trusted identifier on the Internet;

3) Provide such stakeholders with a secure and safe Internet environment that is mainly under the control of the Applicant, the One.com Group and its subcontractors;

4) Provide selected stakeholders in ‘ONE’ brands with the opportunity to create a secure and safe Internet environment that is to a large extent under control of the Applicant and⁄or such stakeholders".

Sunrise Period:SUNRISE PERIOD START: Wednesday, 4 March, 2015 - 16:00;
SUNRISE PERIOD END: Tuesday, 5 May, 2015 - 16:00.

Source: http://trademark-clearinghouse.com/gtld-calendar.

Two new Sunrise Periods "for adults"

Source: http://www.trademark-clearinghouse.com/gtld-calendar.

Participate in the Sunrise Periods to register your new domain name with ComLaude.