Domisfera

From January 10, 2008 it will be possible to register .rs Serbian domains. Slobodan Markovic from RNIDS told Domisfera that "The official starting date is not known yet and it is expected that Managing Board of .rs registry will determine the date at a session after mid-January. Most likely launch date for .rs is sometime towards the end of January or in February".

The Republic of Serbia has a population of 10 millions and the official language is the Serbian. It has two alphabets: a variation on the Cyrillic alphabet and a variation on the Latin alphabet. The characters of the two alphabets map to each other one-to-one and the Serbian has a simple principle: "write as you speak and read as it is written" .

Serbian Registry of Domain Names (RNIDS) has the task of migrating users from the .yu (Yugoslavia) domain. After this transition is complete, the .yu domain will be decommissioned and there will be two new ccTLDS:  .rs (Serbia) and .me (Montenegro). It is envisaged this transfer will take a couple of years, and ICANN will monitor the progress.

The RNIDS Assembly ratified the Letter of Intent with ICANN, signed by a Serbian delegation at 30th International Public ICANN Meeting. In this photo are Vint Cerf, Mirjana Tasić and Paul Twomey:

Ten days before the beginning of .rs domain registration, RNIDS will stop receiving requests for registering new .yu domains. All .yu domains, which have been registered until then, will continue to function normally at least until 30th September 2009.

Once the registration of .rs domains begins, current owners of .yu domains will have a priority in the first six months to register the same .rs domain name. All domain names which have not been registered until now with .yu extension will be immediately available for registration with .rs extension. According to the new regulations, everybody can register an unlimited number of .rs domains.

The prices without VAT in Serbian dinars (RSD) and U.S. dollars (USD) will be the following ones:

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Domisfera wanted to know more about Rick Schwartz, so asked for an interview with him. It’s not necessary to introduce him, a reading of the excellent profile written by Ron Jackson it’s enough.This is the result, if there are enough and relevant questions and comments from the readers, Domisfera will make a second interview.

(1) [Domisfera.com] How is any day in your life?

[Rick Schwartz] Each day is the day I plan. I start each day at about 5:30 and usually create a few projects and plant a few seeds. Have breakfast. Do a little more work and then off to a nice restaurant for lunch. Then I usually have an afternoon activity dinner and quiet night at home.

(2)What is your occupation at present? How many people work with you?

I am a soloist. With domains I work alone with the exception of ICA where I sit on the board and with the new cowboys.com project which is a collaboration of about 18 domain owners. When it comes to TRAFFIC, I only work with my partner Howard Neu and our wives. While others like to hire people I like to contract out whatever needs to be done.

(3) What do you think about IDN domains?

No matter what I say it is going to open a hornets nest. So do I BS everyone so the IDN folks are happy or do those reading expect me to say what I believe? What’s to think? I know many are heavy into it. Some have past credentials and successes and are friends of mine. Some are angry and lash out at anyone that is not an instant believer of IDN. Time will tell. Others are just hoping and wishing and waiting for this release and that release. Until there is a genuine market and a great need it is going to be a very slow ride. Many are bitter because the IDN’s that they do have don’t support the renewal fees.

What this or any other group or extension need to learn is that it is the MARKET that will determine WHEN and IF and not a bunch of folks running around calling everyone else stupid for not investing in IDN’s. No matter how middle of the road my comments are they want me to say it is the best thing since sliced bread. Well, let me say…..I don’t believe it is. But I don’t fault those that invest and believe in it. I do fault those folks that have taken the stance that if you don’t invest in IDN’s that you are just a stupid American. I don’t understand the anger and bigotry in that community. Makes no sense to me. Then they criticize other extensions that are breaking out. Just very weird to me and I wish them nothing but the best but that is not good enough for some of them. They want me to focus on them at TRAFFIC even tho we have had it discussed many times. But since they don’t come, they don’t know, so they make things up. They have yet to learn that the MARKET will decide. Not them, not me. Not anyone but the market. Why that makes folks angry is way beyond what I understand.

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