For those of you interested in the topic, ISOC-PR erlier put together a position paper on the .pr situation: SECURING PUERTO RICOS PLACE IN THE GLOBAL INTERNET DRAFT STATEMENT OF POLICY ON THE DOTPR DOMAIN JANUARY 10, 2005 The .pr ccTLD was created in 1989 under the NSFNets program to globalize the use of the Internet beyond the United States to provide a center for the registration of domain names to serve the local community in Puerto Rico and make it available to registrants around the world. The .pr ccTLD is Puerto Ricos address on the Internet and therefore it is our public resource and must be managed in the public interest. Additionally, the .pr ccTLD is an integral part of our communications infrastructure and our place in the Global Internet. As such, it must be developed in order to usher in a new wave of innovative technologies and products to increase Puerto Ricos economic development and encourage an open competitive environment. Through popularizing the use of the .pr ccTLD, the Commonwealth Government of Puerto Rico can establish a set of initiatives to expand internet use and make it accessible to all Puerto Ricans. It can be the core infrastructure driving the eGovernment plan and can become the center of programs in the schools and impoverished communities for public access to the Internet as a way to acquire services and information. These efforts could lead to narrowing the Digital Divide and promoting Internet access to the 3.8 million people who reside in Puerto Ricos 78 municipalities. Additionally, the .pr ccTLD can become a generator revenue to the tune of many millions of dollars by changing its restrictive and obsolete policies with regard to who can and cannot register .pr names. Among these are copyright, trademark and patented name owners that annually register their names in every jurisdiction worldwide and generate 100 of millions of dollars in registration revenues to the worldwide cctlds. In Puerto Rico, we suffer the aberration of companies using pr at the end of their name due to the high uncompetitive prices of the .pr ccTLD registry. In recognition of the uniqueness of the branding opportunity that a .pr name offers a registrant, the .pr ccTLD can play a key role in establishing an identity and enhancing the position of companies, institutions and individuals from the island on a global basis. It can enhance the search for products and services from local companies that are now lost within the 40 million ,com, .net .org names etc that search engines source for key word searches. Over the past 16 years, the .pr ccTLD has been underutilized and underdeveloped when compared with other ccTLDs for the following reasons: I. Lack of a uniform registration policy that permits domain name holders to register names at the second level such as www.centennial.pr. www.bancopopular.pr thereby limiting the value to local and global registrants II. Failure to popularize and promote the .pr ccTLD as an option for the estimated 30,000 existing domain name holders who use the generic top level domain space ( .net, .com,.org etc ) III. High registration prices that make a .pr name nearly 10 times more expensive than registering in a generic top level domain such as .com, .net .org etc IV. Lack of a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy to safeguard and protect Puerto Rican and global trademark holders resulting in rampant cybersquatting of the names of Puerto Rican celebrities, company brands and places including Puerto Rico itself (Virtual Countries Inc. ownership over www.puertorico .com) at the gTLD level. V. Lack of an automated shared registration system to allow registrars and designated entities such as Internet Service Providers to register .pr names to facilitate local and global distribution of registrations and increase revenues to the registry. VI. Lack of compliance with ICANN, IETF and IANA policies and regulations regarding domain name management and the secure operations of a registry. VII. Frequent outages and downtime due to lack of redundant operations and a poor underdeveloped infrastructure. VIII. Failure to represent and participate in the global and regional bodies established to set policy and regulate the technical standards such as ICANN, LACNIC, WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), IANA etc IX. Lack of accountability to the local Internet Community and to the people of Puerto Rico with respect to the number of domain name registrations, staffing, budget, business and sales goals etc In summary, we need to establish sound business practices to ensure professional management of our registry. Instead, .pr ccTLD is managed as an extension of the Gauss Laboratories in its academic pursuits and scientific research not as a public infrastructure entity responsible to Puerto Rico and its domain name registrants. It is for these reasons that the Internet Society of Puerto Rico recommends that the Commonwealth Government of Puerto Rico establish the full redelegation of the management of the .pr ccTLD and conduct a modernization plan whose goal will be to place Puerto Rico among the top fifty most registered domains on the Internet over the next four years. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097