John,
> But this urgent need is already met by
www.nychotels.travel. Oh, wait,
> there is no nychotels.travel. Why would that be? If
nobody's willing to
> spend $100 even to set up that domain, why would
they be any more
> interested in hotels.nyc? Here's an offer: if
you can find whoever is
> going to organize all that useful stuff (not
just a PPC squat), I'll pay
> the $100 and set up nychotels.travel for
you.
Who is going to organize
and operate something like www.hotels.nyc
are great questions. I know the hotel trade association here would be
pleased (will demand it). On the other hand, if we auction it off, we
might get needed funds for civic education on using the net (we
are chartered by New York State as a not-for-profit education
organization).
Allocation and ownership are tough questions
to deal with. We're still working on corporate governance, with a variety of
possibilities presented on this governance discussion
page, so as to add the requisite legitimacy to our effort, so we're
not yet in a position to make a decision like who gets www.hotels.nyc. But we've got our thinking
beanies on. If you have some thoughts, please contribute them to our wiki.
And if you have a billion $s marketing
budget to create www.nychotels.travel as an intuitive
global destination for those interested in booking a nyc hotel room, send me
your paypal account and I'll ante up the $100.
On the other hand, if the 400 year old entity that
thinks of itself as New York City (with 1/10th of 1% of the worlds population
living on 2/100,000ths of its surface) can get its act together and develop a
few dozen of these tourist names and present them to a global audience, at the
same time a .berlin and .paris are doing so, I bet the marketing $s will be
substantially less.
Tom Lowenhaupt
P.S. "But this urgent need ..." City TLDs are not
urgent, any more than consuming particular vitamins or minerals are to our diet.
But long term, the vitamin companies say, they help. However, if you're
into a competition and your competitors are taking vitamins and minerals and
other supplements (think .uk, .hk. .sg, and perhaps soon .berlin and .paris)
you'd better be thinking hard about sticking that needle in your
ass.
>> Perhaps it would serve our city's interest
(as well as hotel owners,
>> workers, suppliers, guests) to have our
402 hotels (how presented in a
>> more orderly and favorable way in
www.hotels.nyc.
>
> But
this urgent need is already met by www.nychotels.travel.
Oh, wait,
> there is no nychotels.travel. Why would that be?
If nobody's willing to
> spend $100 even to set up that domain, why would
they be any more
> interested in hotels.nyc? Here's an offer: if
you can find whoever is
> going to organize all that useful stuff (not
just a PPC squat), I'll pay
> the $100 and set up nychotels.travel for
you.
>
> If you look at the unglorious history of new TLDs,
the only ones that have
> gotten significant numbers of registrations are
.biz and .info, which are
> cynical clones of .com (or maybe .org for
.info), and perhaps .mobi which
> has the entire mobile phone industry
behind it. The rest have all missed
> their most pessimistic
estimates by about 95%. Maybe .cat can be
> considered a success,
but they have a set of unique circumstances,
> including their linguistic
situation and the support of an influential
> ICANN board member.
>
>> streetclothes.nyc name provides. Good names with identity. Why
not?
>
> Like I said, I'm not opposed to city domains, but I see no
demand for them
> other than in the minds of their promoters.
There's no reason to throw up
> artificial roadblocks, but there's also
no reason to spend our time on it.
>
> Regards,
> John
Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of
"The Internet for Dummies",
> Information Superhighwayman wanna-be,
http://www.johnlevine.com,
ex-Mayor
> "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom,
revealingly.
>
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 10:49
AM
Subject: Re: [NA-Discuss] Help create the .nyc
Internet space for New York and New Yorkers
>> Perhaps it would serve our city's interest (as well as hotel
owners,
>> workers, suppliers, guests) to have our 402 hotels (how
presented in a
>> more orderly and favorable way in www.hotels.nyc.
>
> But
this urgent need is already met by www.nychotels.travel. Oh, wait,
> there is no nychotels.travel. Why would that be? If
nobody's willing to
> spend $100 even to set up that domain, why would
they be any more
> interested in hotels.nyc? Here's an offer: if
you can find whoever is
> going to organize all that useful stuff (not
just a PPC squat), I'll pay
> the $100 and set up nychotels.travel for
you.
>
> If you look at the unglorious history of new TLDs, the
only ones that have
> gotten significant numbers of registrations are
.biz and .info, which are
> cynical clones of .com (or maybe .org for
.info), and perhaps .mobi which
> has the entire mobile phone industry
behind it. The rest have all missed
> their most pessimistic
estimates by about 95%. Maybe .cat can be
> considered a success,
but they have a set of unique circumstances,
> including their linguistic
situation and the support of an influential
> ICANN board member.
>
>> streetclothes.nyc name provides. Good names with identity. Why
not?
>
> Like I said, I'm not opposed to city domains, but I see no
demand for them
> other than in the minds of their promoters.
There's no reason to throw up
> artificial roadblocks, but there's also
no reason to spend our time on it.
>
> Regards,
> John
Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of
"The Internet for Dummies",
> Information Superhighwayman wanna-be,
http://www.johnlevine.com,
ex-Mayor
> "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom,
revealingly.
>