Internetworld Spring 2002
Internetworld Spring 2002
Thousands of small business webmasters briefly lose their domain names at expiration, due to a simple lack of understanding about the roles of three key players in the drama: domain name registrars, web hosts and internet service providers. Fortunately for most, they learn quickly how to save their web site from oblivion by using the 30 day redemption period for expired domain names enforced by ICANN. One simple solution is to extend domain registration for the maximum ten years. The other solution is to treat domain registrar data as the critical business element it is.
I Can't Remember Where I Purchased My Domain Name!
It wasn't until my third client had called asking how to regain control of her domain name that I realized that it was a common problem for small business webmasters to forget where they had registered their domains. WHOIS my registrar? Why didn't I get an email about renewal? Why did my site stop working today?
People rarely realize how important it is to keep their domain registrar notified of changes to their email address and and other contact information. The registrar will send renewal notifications to the email address last on file. For most domain owners, the only time they think about contacting a registrar is the day they reserve their domain name. If they move to a new city and get a new internet service provider, it doesn't occur to them that the old email address will change and that meeans that the registrar can no longer contact them through the previous address, or phone or fax as each of them change and we rarely notify the controller of our domain of those changes.
Sometimes the first indication a business owner will have that there is a problem is the day their web site stops working. If they failed to notify their domain registrar of changed email address, they may never have received their domain renewal notice. Since many registrars honor a 30 day "redemption period" allowing expired domains to be redeemed, it may be possible to save the registration within 30 days following expiration by contacting registrars during 30 day domain redemption periods.
The following URL leads to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (AKA ICANN) discussing the grace period and redemption period rules it enforces.
http://www.icann.org/bucharest/redemption-topic.htm
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Internetworld Spring 2002
by Mike Banks Valentine
Internetworld Spring 2002 in Los Angeles is Sponsored by AOL, a
company that markets it's service with the slogan, "It's so easy!
No wonder it's number one!" One wonders what that company would
get out of the crowd that is clearly not interested in the easy
stuff. These are all high tech geeks who work with more odd acronyms
than any one person needs to know. The companies represented by
the drones who toil away inside them see software solutions NOT
as AOL easy, but . . . a gateway to network infrastructure to implement
cross enterprise knowledge management within the structure of their
data center while tying applications through XML data feeds into
legacy applications in the backend.
But AOL is for my mom and your grandmother. People who both need
to be told, "You've got mail!" before they'll check it. But here
is AOL anyway, with a eighteen foot high bulging balloon that looks
like a computer monitor bouncing around in front of the convention
center doors like a giant Billy- Bounce-kid's-diversion found at
a state fair. Maybe they believe that busy mommies will be driving
by on busy Pico and Figueroa Streets with a carful of kiddies that
will see their Billy-Bounce out front of the convention center.
It's possible that those who work with ECRM applications during
the day, go home to AOL connections each evening. I suppose it could
be that call center and salesforce automation software implementation
might drive one to prefer AOL. Managers struggle every day to get
their employees to USE that multi-million dollar CRM software application
in their work until they can no longer stand the appearance of that
customized GUI at which they stare endlessly. So, it's home to AOL!
Naaaahhhhh!
Where are those everyday folks who are the target of the mainstream
TV Commercials at internet shows? Where's that guy from the Circuit
City commercial who runs from the house in his slippers and bathrobe
yelling excitedly, "BROADBAAAND!" His family stares in disbelief
at his excited plans for high speed internet? Where is that likeable
guy who searches the web using his default browser, set with default
settings, doing things that can't be faulted when his wife asks
him, "I thought you were surfing the web?" He responds, dumb- founded
with, "I finished it." (a rather implausible promotion for DSL).
It sometimes seems that the internet is made for enterprise- level
IT drones who say to their co-Dilbert, "Six million dollars worth
of pure strategic thinking . . . but given our current technology,
is it implementable?, No?" Who are those advertisements aimed at?
Network television seems almost as foolish a vehicle for IBM eBusiness
enterprise software as InternetWorld seems a strange vehicle for
promotion of AOL.
Unless you think the web is for mommies who don't know if they have
email until their computer tells them, "You've got mail!," you've
also got to believe that there are worthwhile tools for the rest
of us available. The great middle ground is not made up of those
IT geeks OR the busy mommy. It is made up of a vast sea of entrepreneurs,
consultants, writers, freelancers, professionals running online
businesses and other small business people who use the web extensively.
Nobody from venture capital funded start-ups purposely seeks out
this hard to reach audience unless they can do it through office
super- stores or giant warehouse outlets. They don't use TV either.
I've made a couple of interesting discoveries. 1) Privately funded
companies who are themselves small businesses are more likely to
create applications for small business use, NOT applications that
may promise to make them millionaires in a rapid initial public
offering of vastly over-rated stock. The start-ups often bloom from
existing businesses as a further development of existing privately
held companies. 2) Privately funded small businesses are often run
by Apple Mac owners!
This second discovery sort of slowly dawned on me while wandering
show floors over the course of the last year searching for valuable
tools for the little guy. I find a worthwhile small business solution
and there's a Mac on the booth demo display! I quickly learned to
reverse that 2nd phenomenon in my favor to make it easier to find
valuable small business stuff on vast convention center show floors.
I probably noticed those Macs because I own a couple of them myself.
I'd like to make the corollary that Mac users are successful business
operators who run reasonably profitable businesses. The Mac test
proved effective at InternetWorld as well when all but a couple
of the most valuable discoveries made were being demonstrated on
Macs. ALL of the Mac's I discovered prominently displayed were demonstrating
worthwhile small business tools, and each of those Mac users provided
software that would run on a Mac. I may have discovered a way to
avoid the frustration of finding unusable or overpriced tools at
internet trade shows!
Are there any folks out there (other than Mac users) who just have
a middle level interest, run a small business online and don't sound
like they are spelling everything when discussing business applications?
CRM, ROI, ERP, J2EE , XML and even SOAP are on the tongues of corporate
suits. Are the rest of us lost and wandering aimlessly through InternetWorld,
sponsored by AOL?
Is the internet made up of either web services of interest only
to corporate CTO's OR pointless chatter sent from prepubescent girls
to their best friend via AOL Instant Messenger?
The mainstream is missing here. That is clearly part of the odd
atmosphere at web conferences as vendors hawk their wares from fancy
show booths . . . and to whom? To the enterprise, stupid! (Someone
should tell AOL that there are no prepubescent girls attending this
show.) While occassional software gems and valuable tools for small
business make rare appearances at internet trade shows, it is the
exception rather than the rule. When one of those unusual small
business treasures is unearthed, it should be trumpeted to the world
via mainstream press and popular online publications since neither
small business owners or AOL mommies make it to trade shows.
Individual sales for those companies offering small business solutions
means income of less than $100 monthly, or licensing fees of between
$500 and $2000 for those vendors and not multimillion dollar deals
that you read about in the Wall Street Journal. This means that
those vendors that do offer small business solutions most often
don't attend trade shows because they can't reach their audience
there. Unless they can also sell their tools to enterprise level
Dilbert-like drones, there is little reason to hawk their wares
at trade shows.
Trade shows will naturally draw those with high end interest and
the technical knowledge that leads to that jargon spewed by keynote
speakers. Enterprise-speak vendors display their wares and attendees
at break-out sessions are full of techno-geeks seeking the latest
knowledge enhancement for their narrow interest area. But I'm stunned
at the techno-babble being directed at the attendee's of conference
Keynote speeches. What should they say?
I'd like to offer my highest compliments to Craig Conway, one of
dozens of keynote speakers at InternetWorld. He is President and
CEO of business processes software company, PeopleSoft. Conway made
a compelling case for EVERYONE to care about what is going on behind
the scenes at large businesses. Because it will directly touch us
all in ways we haven't taken the time to understand.
In fact, taking time to understand is much easier when you have
Conway doing the talking. Clearly his company is aptly named when
most would call it ERP-CRM-XML-EDI-Soft. Maybe that's why he can
proudly proclaim that his company is profitable and has $2 Billion
in the bank - In Cash! He makes it apparent that business needs
to communicate it's benefits to people, not the software features
to IT geeks in the IS department, staffed by the HR department and
fed by the HS (Hunger Solutions) department.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology," Conway quoted, "is virtually
indistinguishable from magic." This 1972 statement by science fiction
author Arthur C. Clarke has subsequently become known as Clarke's
Law. I'd like to suggest Clarke's law is true of the inner workings
of advanced technology, but not in the RESULT of those advanced
technologies on our lives. I can't tell you anything about the technology
behind my magical one-inch-thick notebook computer but I can tell
you it has a profound effect on my life and allows me to work from
anywhere in the world with an internet connection. That's magic!
Nobody will believe in that magic when the technology advances further.
Do you think your phone magic?
Mr. Conway spoke in terms that everyone can comprehend about his
company and the changes resulting from virtually all commerce moving
online to operate in real-time. He spoke of going through a fundamental
shift in the way business is conducted. He referred repeatedly to
"companies moving their business online" and the major cost savings,
and immediacy of the resulting human experience. He pointed to the
example of banking and the finance industry move to universal use
of ATM machines and how that has since changed our expectations
about how the banking world operates and how it touches all of us.
We want real-time access to our money and instant, always-accessible
information about our transactions through those machines.
This, he says, is how the web affects ALL businesses. No longer
do you need to call for verification of funds at a bank (it's online
or ATM) and no longer does it matter that the bank is closed or
that you are not at your own branch. The central server for any
and all businesses, large and small, will be open 24/7 and always
accessible to any customer to track their orders, check inventory
for availability of any product they wish to buy and make instant
buying decisions at 3am.
Even the "Digital Divide" will (eventually) be overcome by publicly
accessible kiosk web terminals or web enabled automobiles, web-connected
televisions and the web encompassing every aspect of our lives.
I believe that there will come a time in the near future when business
can no longer afford to ignore those who don't own computers. Although
the necessary public access computers will inevitably come in the
form of limited access to specific sites at first, I am certain
that you'll be able to buy stuff online from anywhere, and that
we can find ways to make that service pay handsomely for those businesses
making web sales via those public web terminals.
I spoke with exhibitor KDS Pixeltouch, a manufacturer of on- site
touch screen kiosk solutions. Both the Canadian marketing rep Barry
Baker and the CEO were rather negative about the idea that publicly
accessible web terminals were coming anytime soon. Although they
valiantly struggled to brainstorm as we spoke on how such a scenario
might play out, but even folks acting as a driving force behind
touch screen kiosk use failed to offer any significant ideas for
using his own product for web access in public places. I'd suggest
he hire someone to develop a public web access kiosk of some type
if he is one of those hoping for overnight riches, because when
it takes off, riches are inevitable. He readily sites more mundane
uses such as the standard trade show display, store product locators
and giant discount warehouse product mapping.
I heard Larry Irving speak recently on the "Digital Divide," a term
he coined while working in the Clinton Administration. Irving makes
a compelling case for the inaccessibility of the web to the poor.
He emphatically demonstrates that business is ignoring a huge market
when they ignore those without access to the web. That means that
anyone without a computer right now and those numbers can reach
up to 85% of the poor. That is not just those who can't afford computers,
because many work where there is no online access. This would include
employers of food service workers and blue-collar employees of all
kinds on factory floors and in warehouse operations.
There are few cases where public web access can be provided free
without significant filtering of content or absolute control of
web destinations on that type of public web kiosk. One can imagine
good reasons for limiting access and limiting user time on kiosk
computers, but I'm still convinced that it's the first way that
those without web access will gain a view of this world that has
been entirely denied to them before now. The first use of public
web kiosk computers that does become popular enough to succeed will
be dramatic for any organization, including government in public
places. I don't know how soon, but I predict that it will arrive
in some dramatic form, somewhere within the next five years.
This sweeping change is coming in banking and commerce, in government,
philanthropy, academia and even many personal interactions. While
I commend Mr. Conway for his speaking ability, I still see a place
for helping the world to understand how this change affects the
broad majority of the public, small business and the vast middle
ground -- the rest of us. Conway talks about how BIG business, BIG
finance and BIG government is moving toward total web adoption,
but this affects the rest of the world too. Because business, government
and finance is "moving online" it means that instant access to every
aspect of our lives will be available to ALL of us via the web.
It hasn't happened yet, but I believe the web will soon make it
possible to do previously unimaginable (even mundane) things like
lock your front door via the web from your car or office if you
forgot to do it when you left home. I think we'll be able to do
a long list of things undreamt currently within a very short time.
But my question is . . . must it always be top down? Does BIG business,
BIG money and BIG eGovernment need to make sweeping, worldwide changes
before John Doe learns about those changes or is it possible that
something simple John Doe does will soon affect BIG business just
as profoundly? I submit that the web-enabling of our world will
have a reverse profound effect on BIG business. They will know instantly
how the public perceives their company, it's products and it's business
philosophy because that feedback will be available in real-time
via the web. If start-ups had that power, they might fail less often
than they do now.
I now routinely check the web for weather information, maps for
upcoming travel destinations and local public transportation routes
in cities I'll soon be visiting. I make hotel and car reservations,
book airline tickets and I even found free parking and airport shuttle
online for my most recent flight. Admittedly, this stuff is all
travel related, but you can look up recipes online and find lawn
care tips just as easily and instantly. Our expectations are moving
this direction for every human activity. The web is pervasive, always
on and mostly accessible for most people.
This is bound to become even more true and soon even those using
AOL will be able to accomplish all this stuff without their browser
telling them, "You've got mail!" Maybe they'll want a colorful graphic
to click on, but AOL users may not have to be told, "Here's your
latest bank statement!" or "You've got to pay your insurance premium!"
or "It's time for Spot to get his rabies shots!" Even most AOL users
understand that the world is available online, even if that knowledge
comes through their sign-on screen and clicking on the flashing
blue "Yes" button on their sign-on screens rather visiting those
web sites themselves to take care of business or look up things
that directly touch their own lives. I think it may be the immediacy
that works best for AOL, that you know you have an email because
AOL 7.0 tells you that you do. The immediacy of AOL instant messenger
(dubbed AIM) is what makes it so compelling for their users.
To AOL users that may take offense at my comments, I must first
ask them if they know that most of the rest of the world uses a
local cable company or independent service provider to access the
web through something called a browser (software) and not through
the "New! AOL version 7.0" junkmail CD they receive weekly in their
mailbox. But regardless of how you access the web now, it will soon
become increasingly apparent that this universal interconnection
is growing in importance by the second, no nanosecond. Maybe AOL
is sponsoring InternetWorld because they will soon make Clarke's
law apply to their subscribers and make AOL "indistinguishable from
magic?"
Well, I've unearthed some "magic" gems at InternetWorld that are
not only useful for small business, but affordable for even tiny
business and so stunningly useful for those businesses that it may
well be UNDERPRICED! That doesn't happen often, even though it is
my central objective in attending internet trade shows to find those
gems, I most often come away from those conferences and shows with
an empty treasure chest.
Holding the honored center spot in my InternetWorld treasure chest
is a wonderfully powerful software tool that can either be purchased
directly, installed on a co-located server for management by someone
elses IT staff, hosted by the vendor in an Application Service Provider
model or any combination of the above, depending on your current
size, plans for growth or need for scalability. It also runs on
Windows, Linux, OS2 Warp, Sun Solaris, other Java platforms, Mac
OS9 (Classic) and Mac OS X! Did I hear you say, that would work
for anyone? So rule number one for small business use is affordability
and flexibility -- those overpraised and under delivered qualities
listed on every news release ever written for software solutions.
Stay tuned for product reviews in an upcoming article or visit http://website101.com
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