Major Changes on the Internet’s Horizon?

The Internet could undergo one of the biggest transformations in decades if regulators agree to proposals to relax the rules governing the address system, the BBC reports. On Thursday, members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which coordinates the Internet’s domain naming system and acts as a type of regulator, will vote whether to approve plans that could result in a number of major changes including the following:

• Allowing corporations to turn their brands into domain names,
• Providing for the internationalization of domain names, so as to be written in the scripts of other languages, and
• Creating the possibility for a .xxx domain name.

Right now, top level domains are restricted to commerce (.com), institutional organizations (.org or .net), and individual countries (such as .de for Germany or .jp for Japan). Under the new plan, the domain system would be “open to anyone,” according to Dr. Paul Twomey, chief executive of ICANN. The only criterion is that individuals registering a domain demonstrate a “business plan and technical capacity. Any combination of letters could be registered as a domain, creating the potential for hundreds or even thousands of new domains, the BBC article points out. “It [would be] a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the internet,” Dr. Twomey told the BBC.

To read what others are saying about this issue, check out the postings on the BBC website. To learn more about the Paris conference where the vote will be held, click here.