Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Domain name shake up

There has been much discussion about ICANN's potential plans to open up the internet domain name system. There is a good summary of the story here from the BBC website.

I don't normally sit on the fence, but on this occasion I can't for the life of me decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Here is a summary of my thoughts:

Good
- It allows companies to turn their brands and individuals to turn their names into domain names
- It will allow for new domain names to be internationalized meaning support for Asian and Arabic languages

Bad
- The creation of hundreds and thousands of new domain names making it harder for us to find what we are looking for
- Less regulation means more potential for fraud
- The application fee to register a domain name is expected to be at least several thousand dollars

It sounds like, maybe, the big fish will benefit, I think!!

Update: Chris Green says "I think the ICANN proposal is a bad move. It will create a cyber squatting war, cost ISPs millions and won't solve the problem"

Friday, June 13, 2008

Opinions from the other side

If you're in the PR industry, you will no doubt be accustomed to the accusations of journalists about our bad practices and how we make their lives a misery. PR professionals have long been on the receiving end of this abuse stick.

In some cases I agree that there is some bad practice in the industry and that we can make the odd mistake or two. But the question is whether we are as bad as 'some' journalists?

This topic came up over lunch today with some of my colleagues. Running the risk of blacklisting myself with media, below is the top 5 PR gripes:

1. Journalists who accept a story pitch and the let you pull all the strings to secure the necessary elements to then pull out at the last minute. It's always a pleasure reporting this back to our seniors and our clients
2. Journalists who think that PR 'bunnies' are a waste of space and do not require our help in generating stories. We've seen the type of news that is reported on 'slow' news days, not exactly groundbreaking
3. Journalists who are abusive to PR professionals because they think they can. Manners are free!
4. Journalists that think the world revolves around them and their publication(s). You have competitors that we can always turn to.
5. Journalists who are bad time keepers. We don't want to treat you like children and have to call you 5 minutes before the interview is due to start and we don't really like it when you walk into an event just in time for the lunch!

Do you have any other journalist pet hates?