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The Internet

Kiwi Geeks Seek Domain 197

Posted by timothy from the besides-the-mines-of-moria dept.
Codeine writes "A group of professional Internet engineers and technicians from New Zealand are following the published procedure to obtain the delegation of GEEK.NZ from the NZ Domain Name Commissioner (DNC). If successful, GEEK.NZ would be New Zealand's twelfth second-level domain."
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Kiwi Geeks Seek Domain More

Kiwi Geeks Seek Domain

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  • Won't happen... (Score:4, Funny)

    by clinko ( 232501 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @02:46AM (#4842484) Journal
    This won't happen, I'm still waiting on the paperwork on GoatMe.nz

  • Don't complain about news like this being posted... It's almost 3:00am EST, I'm working a night shift, and I'm just happy that there is some sort of posting going on at all.
    More power to these New Zealand geeks...
    • Speak it, my brother... Night-shifters of the world unite.

      Actually, /. is one of the few websites where it's constantly updated 24/7 with tidbits, discussion, and stories... It's certainly a major portion of my nightshift entertainment.

      Crappy stories are better than no stories... what more could you possibly want? Human/machine interaction, hardware hax, IT disasters, RIAA/MPAA FUD, MS-bashing, and L33T H4X0r 3Xp10iT5 all day/night long...
    • Sounds like a complaint to me.
    • I get dibs on split-e.nz

  • i don't understand (Score:2, Interesting)

    by katalyst ( 618126 )
    Why is this such a big issue? Well the "12th second level domain" phrase surprised me. This reminds of the recent Australian IT minister's speech, which was discussed (mercilessly) at slashdot. Looks like the NZ internet situation is even worse than the Australian situation. Anyways, I hope these geeks succeed.

  • Very cool. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jericho4.0 ( 565125 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @02:50AM (#4842506)
    One of the press releases on the linked page answers 'why?'.
    "GEEK.NZ defines a distinct community of interest, just as other second-level domains do," explains Andy Linton. "However, GEEK.NZ also provides an opportunity for deploying additional, more experimental services such as DNS Security (DNSSEC) and IPv6, which are many years away from deployment in other registries, like CO.NZ." Linton sees GEEK.NZ performing a role for DNS service which is analogous to the role the high-speed, optical research network, "Internet2", provides for ISPs.
    Cool! I want one. It would be cool to have an 'anything goes' kind of area on the net. No production servers, just experimental services, protocols, etc. Or how about a domain in which hacking (cracking) was allowed/expected? We would learn a lot about security.
    • I agree, sometimes I think that cracking is the best learning method. I knew a kid in middle school who figured out how to install games on the library computers, just through a simple disconnecting of the ethernet cable. Another person hacked the school net. "Rules are made to be broken." Back on topic though, it would be neat to have a domain where cracking was expected, just to see how many loopholes really exist.
    • Yeah, sounds great! Let me point my 'wizard.crack.nz' domain to your production server :-)

      (okay, I know, reverse resolving would fix that, but I just had to make that comment :))

    • Not cool... *sigh* (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SlashChick ( 544252 ) <<erica> <at> <erica.biz>> on Monday December 09, 2002 @03:27AM (#4842614) Homepage Journal
      "One of the press releases on the linked page answers 'why?'."

      You know, some people bang their heads on the wall when they see bad code. Others get really frustrated when they see bad design, or bad grammar, or any number of things.

      I get frustrated when I see a project whose founders obviously think is "cool," but which completely fails to answer the question "Why should I care?"

      Obviously, you found that answer, and you certainly did better than I did. [slashdot.org]

      I read the Slashdot summary, which completely failed to answer the question "Why should I care?" Then I clicked on the link, which also completely failed to answer that question. It's really frustrating to see the pertinent information on the site buried in a freakin' press release that very few people will ever read. (I mean, I'm guessing you clicked on the press release as sort of a last resort, and it's certainly not the place where most people would go to find out why this project is cool.)

      The lesson I would like other geeks to learn from this article is damn, people, if you're doing something cool, put it in bold type on your front page! Say "We are here because we want to kick some ass. We're going to kick the ass of the domain name commissioner because we want to try out the latest cool geek technologies and this is the best way for us to do it! Hey, JOIN US! Help us out!"

      The first rule of sales is that you have to convince the prospect that your product matters. This holds true whether you're selling encyclopedias door-to-door or whether you're trying to convince your boss to fund the purchase of new server equipment! Unfortunately, geeks have this tendency to throw out facts and just hope that people make the connection between those facts and their product being awesome. It really comes to light in a situation like this, where 95% of the audience doesn't know anything about New Zealand's domain structure or why a new second-level domain is a ground-breaking, earth-shattering, AWESOME achievement! That's why almost all of the posts here have been either "Huh?" or "Why should I care?"

      As much as you may hate sales; as much as you want to believe that the facts will speak for themselves... take this article and the responses to it as a reason why they won't. Next time you're trying to convince someone that they absolutely should go with Linux, or that they absolutely, without a doubt, should use this piece of awesome software for their projects, answer the question that they will always think of first: "Why should I care?" If you can answer that, you've won half the battle.

      If you can't answer that, and you try to just throw out facts and hope that they speak for themselves, you'll get the same response that these guys got...

      "Huh?"

      • Re:Not cool... *sigh* (Score:5, Informative)

        by CoughDropAddict ( 40792 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @03:57AM (#4842677) Homepage
        I agree with your sentiment completely.

        However I think this particular submission was reasonably clear. A group of professional Internet engineers and technicians from New Zealand (ie. a private group) are following the published procedure to obtain the delegation of GEEK.NZ (ie. they'll be able to give out .GEEK.NZ domains to anyone) from the NZ Domain Name Commissioner (DNC). If successful, GEEK.NZ would be New Zealand's twelfth second-level domain.

        It's significant because it allows a private group to define what a particular subdomain looks like by who they grant registrations to. It is leveraging the delegation model of DNS to give a particular social/professional group their own DNS namespace.

        A more detailed explanation could be useful to people not familiar with DNS, though.

      • Re:Not cool... *sigh* (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        To be perfectly honest the press release id the FIRST place I look to get information about a particular organization. Think about it: A press release is a carefully worded document that has been (hopefully) written and rivesed over a long period of time, and can explain "why should I care" to the press.

        I agree that if you really want to ensure that your purpose is well understood you should have it in bold, in your face, on the front page, style; however, you should also go looking for information where it is obviously residing.
      • The first rule of sales is that you have to convince the prospect that your product matters. This holds true whether you're selling encyclopedias door-to-door or whether you're trying to convince your boss to fund the purchase of new server equipment!

        Gee and I thought the first rule of sales was sell *your* product (or self-promote on /.) whether you know the geeks have gotten the details right or not.

        Such as advertising solid web hosting service, when your own servers are running known-vulnerable apache, ssl and ssh?

      • As far as I can see, the target audience of the geek.nz campaign is New Zealand geeks. Support from "Americans" won't matter diddly-squat, since the NZ domain commissioner only cares about NZ Citizens (ANZUS treaty or no).

        So from the front page of the campaign web site, the entire "why should I care?" question has been answered.

        The campaign doesn't have to answer your question of "why should I care?" - mainly because they don't care if you care. You have no impact in their problem space. You don't matter.

    • Re:Very cool. (Score:5, Funny)

      by eddeye ( 85134 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @04:19AM (#4842736)
      It would be cool to have an 'anything goes' kind of area on the net.

      You mean like international waters? Where cowboys wage shootouts and sea captains marry cows? Those poor saps back on land will never know the simple pleasures of a monkey knife fight. <sigh>

  • Baaaaaaaaa (Score:3, Funny)

    by redshift-systems ( 622407 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @02:53AM (#4842513)
    Come now, we all know what number 13 must be: SHEEP.NZ ! It's gotta happen.

  • *cheesey* (Score:2, Funny)

    by isorox ( 205688 )
    Sorry, but this story is just too geeky for this time of the morning

  • The original definition of the word geek... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dagg ( 153577 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @03:06AM (#4842548) Journal
    Originally, a `geek' was a carnival performer who bit the heads off chickens.

    Indeed. I did not know that. That's pretty sick. The stuff you learn by clicking on slashdot links. I thought people who bit heads off chickens were hobo's.

    --

  • Terrible summary. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SlashChick ( 544252 ) <<erica> <at> <erica.biz>> on Monday December 09, 2002 @03:07AM (#4842552) Homepage Journal
    Wow. Upon reading the summary, my first thought was "Why do I care?" I mean, geek.nz... they're just going to put up a website or something, right?

    Actually, they're trying to get a domain extension of sorts, much like the pre-existing .org.nz, .net.nz and .co.nz. (I don't know whether I should blame the story submitter, the Slashdot editor, or the guys who wrote the webpage for the completely ordinary, ho-hum writeup, since all of them seemed to assume that we understood exactly what they were trying to do.)

    From what I gather, the domain name commissioner of New Zealand is in charge of approving second-level domains. There is a list of criteria for these domains here [dnc.org.nz] (which is linked from the geek.nz website.) These people are trying to put geek.nz in the same realm as .co.nz, .net.nz, and .org.nz based on the criteria in the linked PDF above (namely, that they have a long-standing common interest and should get a second-level domain for it.)

    The linked website is pretty terrible in terms of explaining to the rest of the world these geeks' true motivation to do this. Okay, you want a second-level domain, and you meet the criteria... and? Is this to make your government open up its domain name system to anyone who has a legitimate interest? Is it just a cool project? Unfortunately, the website that they made shows none of their motivation for doing this.

    As it is, it seems to be a cool novelty, but these geeks failed to express any sort of goal for this project. Interesting? I suppose. Slashdot-worthy? Not really.

    • You're probably new, but as always in Slashdot, whatever is cool gets posted.

      Secondly, this movement "sort of" unite the geeks in NZ, as alluded in the page. Why don't we support them?

      Thirdly, you may bicker about your indifference, but be thorough to your reading, lady! Here's the quote that may elucidate you:

      GEEK.NZ will provide a place in the DNS where the community of technical people in New Zealand can express itself, thrive and expand. Providing recognition to the technical community in this way will allow New Zealand to demonstrate its commitment to the people who fuel the knowledge economy, and help slow the otherwise steady procession of technical people leaving the country every year.

      That was taken from here [nznog.org].

    • Re:Terrible summary. (Score:4, Informative)

      by WasterDave ( 20047 ) <[davep] [at] [zedkep.com]> on Monday December 09, 2002 @04:28AM (#4842752)
      Actually, they're trying to get a domain extension of sorts, much like the pre-existing .org.nz, .net.nz and .co.nz.

      No shit, I think you might find that the words "a second level domain" gave the game away. I mean, it'd be fine to be a newbie, but don't slate the editors for giving a terrible summary.

      As it is, it seems to be a cool novelty, but these geeks failed to express any sort of goal for this project.

      Well, dah. We get a second level domain of .geek.nz. Hello? That _is_ the goal, what's there to no know?

      Dave
      • No shit, I think you might find that the words "a second level domain" gave the game away. I mean, it'd be fine to be a newbie, but don't slate the editors for giving a terrible summary.

        ...

        Well, dah. We get a second level domain of .geek.nz. Hello? That _is_ the goal, what's there to no know?

        Don't be ridiculous. Evidently a lot of people don't know what a second level domain is, nor why these people would want one, nor why it should be so interesting that it should be put on Slashdot. The point of a summary is to say: "This is the news, this is why its interesting, here's where to go to ead more". As it is, the summary for this story, as with many others, just speaks to a particular group (be it a majority/minority) who understand the subject enough to know why this would be cool.

        Elitism has its place, and it's not on the front page of Slashdot.

      • well, it's worth noting in the grandparent poster's defense that to the average yankee geek, the procurement of a second level domain is a matter of filling out an online form and paying a small(ish) annual fee. Even many country codes such as .tv and .cx offer quite a bit of freedom in registering second level domains. I think (and this is my interpretation of the preceding posts) his gripe was that there should have been some mention that obtaining a second second level domain under .nz is like getting one under .uk or .ca or, in other words, quite like getting a new top level domain instated.
  • Damn, that .NZ is gonna make it hard for Australia to steal this one.
    • Events or developments like this always remind me how small New Zealand is, and how tightly-knit its IT/Internet/Telco geek community is. I look down the list of proposal supporters and recognise maybe three quarters of the names there; know personally maybe half the names there; and know on a first-name, face-to-face, is-it-your-round-or-mine basis maybe a quarter of the names there.

      Kia kaha!

  • Good and the bad (Score:2, Interesting)

    by michaeli ( 568894 )
    A couple of thoughts after a cursory (not much else is possible) read of their somewhat sparse site.

    Echoing the above (as of my writing, of course -- things may have changed as of your reading) comment: what is the big deal? Not trying to troll, but as a site looking for community support, there isn't an easily-accessible, clear condensation of the issue in getting a second-level .nz domain. It seems to be a case of getting approval by a controlling body, which can be swayed by public opinion to a certain extent. I think their campaign would be more successful if they made it clear why support of other wordly geeks is a good thing (sorry Martha).

    Secondly, from a geeky perspective, geek.nz would be wickedly, uber-cool. Unfortunately I think it may be also possible to have the other, non-geek part of the population to look at the whole operation with a little disdain or perhaps disrespect (insert faviourite geek stereotype). I can certainly see some people (those outsiders) losing/not having respect for a project or company because it's on the geek.nz domain. That said, as an internal (within the geek community) testing ground, as was somewhat suggested on the site, it'd be pretty darn cool.

    Does anyone else have their site read by Bert [secret-wg.org]? They seem to be on Bert's good list. Care to make a few spurious correlations?

  • Why? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Fastball ( 91927 )
    I realize as a web programmer I'm in a "geeky" line of work, but it never occurred to me advertise myself as a geek. I don't like it. I mean I'm no stud, I don't sport Olympic wood, and I not better than you, but I consider geekiness a rung on the totem pole I don't want to be below. Not to rant really, but I just consider the term "geek" to be derogatory.

    • Re:Why? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      geek is not only a noun, but it is also a verb. You can geek someone, which means to kill them.

    • Re:Why? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Heh, see I'm the exact opposite. I wear my geekdom as a badge of honor. I don't consider it to be a derogatory term at all. I think it certainly was a few years ago, but not so much anymore. And I've found that calling myself a geek doesn't hurt my interaction with the opposite sex at all.

      But then, I have bright red spikes in my hair and a multitude of piercings, so I think when I call myself a geek, people who don't know me sort of take it as a joke, just because stuff like that doesn't fit into the geek stereotype.

      Not ranting either, or trying to start any arguments. Just making conversation...

      • Re:Why? (Score:2, Funny)

        by cscx ( 541332 )
        And I've found that calling myself a geek doesn't hurt my interaction with the opposite sex at all.

        It hasn't helped much either, right? Don't forget that your Real Doll doesn't count.
    • it never occurred to me advertise myself as a geek....I just consider the term "geek" to be derogatory.

      I think it's used to identify with the group. Like "A lot of people look down on us, but we both know we're ok, so we call each other geeks to confirm that"

      Oddly enough, this means that if you call a group of people by a derogatory name for some time, they will respond by making the name a mark of honour within the circle.

      Something similar may be behind blacks that say "wassup my nigger". (Does anyone actually do this outside Hollywood movies? (I'm European))

      DISCLAIMER: I'm a self-declared geek.
      • Something similar may be behind blacks that say "wassup my nigger". (Does anyone actually do this outside Hollywood movies? (I'm European))

        Actually yes they do. I remember back in 6th grade not only would black kids call each other nigger, they would call me nigger. I never understood that one :p

        --Joey

    • Re:Why? (Score:2)

      by alsta ( 9424 )
      Yes, geek [m-w.com] is derogatory.
    • it never occurred to me advertise myself as a geek

      missed the dot com boom, eh?

      seriously, 'geek' was originally a derogatory term, but, along with 'nerd,' I think it has been reclaimed or redefined of late. I've even seen signs of dork-pride developing.

    • I mean, it's not like we're using up some precious resource here.
      If I want to jump through the bureaucratic hoops necessary to get .druid.au registered as a domain,
      what's the harm?
  • As I'm from NZ, it's a welcome change to actually be able to see news like this on Slashdot as there is not real place locally to see anything like this.

    But I sure hope it passes as it will be a SLD for, well, geeks and I don't think there are ANY of those out there.

  • Accuracy? (Score:4, Funny)

    by 6hill ( 535468 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @03:36AM (#4842638)
    A more accurate second-level domain for these fellas would be peoplewithtoomuchtimeontheirhands.nz, no?

  • Got to love this geek team member (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    From: http://geek.nznog.org/team.html [nznog.org]
    Josh Bailey, Whorehouse Piano Player.

  • Why this is relevant around here (Score:5, Informative)

    by swmccracken ( 106576 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @03:57AM (#4842674) Homepage
    Recently, the maori.nz domain was created. It was created on the grounds that it was of cultural value for a clearly defined subculture of NZ, AIR.

    However, there was something of a geek feeling that this wasn't very fair - it was a domain created on the basis of race and race alone.

    In protest, and in a "if they can get it, why can't we" various people attempted to create the geek.nz domain. There is something of a race issue that we have to work through around here - thoughout the greater culture, stretching as far back as The Treaty of Waitangi [wikipedia.org]

    (Yes, there is something of an opening-the-floodgates problem, but there is a moritorim on new applications at the moment.)

    (BTW, this isn't exactly news, as the idea was mooted, AIR, many months ago.)

    Oh, and New Zealand Herald / NZPA Coverage [nzherald.co.nz]

    It's a cool thing, let us have our fun! :-)

    Okay, I'm probably overplaying the race issue - it is something of a bugbear for me, however, that is the rationale behind.

    • Re:Why this is relevant around here (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      So as a white fella from nz (pakeha if you must, but i prefer the term "new zealander"), can i go and register www.ac.maori.nz or whatever? Or do i have to be maori to do so? if i do, isn't that, um, a completely RACIST policy?

      and the "bi-cultural" rubbish has got to go. sometimes i feel like if you're not maori, you're not worth shit here. try "multi-cultural" instead! how about a chinese.nz domian, samoan.nz or maybe moriori.nz, or possibly a onequartermaorihalfirishandabitofspanish.nz?

      why cant we just be one country and leave this racist crap in the past where it belongs.

  • Sounds like eu.org! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MavEtJu ( 241979 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMmavetju.org> on Monday December 09, 2002 @04:09AM (#4842698) Homepage
    Sounds like the eu.org domain [eu.org], which is a free-to-register one used by European people. Go geeks!
    • Aah, but that's just somebody with a bog-standard non-official .org domain.

      This is building it into the official structure of the DNS - and being recognised by the establishment.

      Err, yeah, I know it doesn't sound a big deal.
  • I wish the .us had something like this. If you want a .us domain it has to be something like yourname.city.county.us

    I wish I could just get myname.us

    • Re:Not in the .us (Score:2, Interesting)

      by swmccracken ( 106576 )
      Well.. it would be yourname.geek.nz - not directly under .nz.

      Unlike the US, we have second level that are our own "versions" of the top level - such as .co.nz being "nz's .com". We're not the only country to do that - co.uk, com.au come to mind. .Nz is more important to us than .us is to Americans, because it contains "mainline" domains as well as oddball.

    • Re:Not in the .us (Score:2, Informative)

      by sleepintill2 ( 570552 )
      You missed the boat, myname.us [myname.us] is already registered, and so is "your name".us most likly because they opened dot us registrations to the public April 24, 2002. Go to nic.us [nic.us] for a list of registrars.
  • Recently a consortium of New Zealand banks tried to get .bank.nz off the ground for the second time - and failed. This was the subject of much mockery and debate on the NZNOG mailing list. The "team" listed on the page looks much like the "From" column in my NZNOG mailbox. Poking fun at the process, and the incorporated society that administers it, has at least as much to do with seeking .geek.nz as any desire for a geeksafe playpen.

  • Good to see (Score:4, Insightful)

    by term0r ( 471206 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @04:19AM (#4842734)
    Recently .bank.nz was put through the aproval process for the 2nd time, and failed to reach the 70% support required. Basically I see it being totally pointless to have a .bank.nz tld as there are only about 10 different banks in NZ. (and they all have the relevant .co.nz TLD)

    But, finally a tld comes out that is worth supporting, and fits me perfectly. And reading through all the latest postings on the InternetNZ [internetnz.co.nz] mailing list, I think it has a good chance of getting put through. I am definately voting for it, though I am a bit biased as I just want a.geek.nz for an IRC host :)

    Some useful links, which may or may not be redundant:

    Outline of the process [dnc.org.nz]
    More info [nznog.org]
    NZ Registry Services [nzrs.net.nz]

    All in all its a pretty good time for domain names in NZ, with our new Shared Registry System (SRS) just coming online last Saturday. Finally some competition in NZ for domain registrations.

  • We need more top level domains. (Score:5, Funny)

    by thogard ( 43403 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @04:21AM (#4842739) Homepage
    Just where is this New Zealand thats getting the geek domain? Is that up on the east cost with all thouse other New states? My geology wasn't very good in school.
    • <FEIGNED INDIGNITY>

      HEY! we in New Mexico aren't up in the north-east with the other "New" states!

      </FEIGNED INDIGNITY>

      -frozen
    • NEW ZEALAND
      Auckland 36 51' S 174 46' E
      Wellington 41 17' S 174 46' E
      Christchurch 43 32' S 172 37' E
      Locations of three of our largest cities.

      Also known as Aoteoroa (Land of the Long White Cloud).
      Not part of Australia.
      First inhabitants (Maori) arrived around 950CE. European discovery in 1642CE by Able Tasman. First major European exploration by Capt Cook 1769-1777CE. Became part of British Empire 1840CE.
      PureNZ [purenz.com] to learn more ;)

      And further to the parent: geek.nz sounds pretty cool to me.
  • How come when I registered a second-level domain name it never made it to slashdot?!

    (expiration.ca and makingthecut.ca, for the curious)

    --

    A geek is a geek is a geek. I'd know. [is-a-geek.com]
  • Getting a second level domain here (in Italy) is considered nearly as _NOT_ having a domain at all.

    Maybe this is due to the many sites that end .too.it
    It takes about 5 minutes to get one - or up to three second level domains of .too.it ... and all free.
    the guys offering this are http://html.it ... i'm not saying "hi dudes get now your second level domains here and free, such cool service.." it's not. They hide your real url and show a lousy banner line down on the frame and that disturbs actually quite a lot. if you refresh the site goes back to index page. see what i mean; try e.g this: http://www.hotmail.too.it ??

    i think thank to so many people NOT liking THAT service, ALL the second level domains are considered here _by the ordinary people_ as NOT domains. Yea. buenosaires.gov.ar, yahoo.com.br, apple.com.br etc etc etc - "Why didn't they get a (first level) domain of their own?" So too many think it's just something like v3 domain :-/

    Good luck for these guys anyway on their try, even though i believe they don't have a big possibility to get it through

  • Voting (Score:4, Funny)

    by avij ( 105924 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @05:03AM (#4842824) Homepage
    The approval process for GEEK.NZ includes a period for public consultation, which is followed by a vote conducted over the internet.
    Cool, a new Slashdot poll:
    • YES for GEEK.NZ
    • NO for GEEK.NZ
    • I want CowboyNeal.NZ!
    • I don't live in NZ, you insensitive clod

  • Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls (Score:5, Funny)

    by cioxx ( 456323 ) on Monday December 09, 2002 @05:30AM (#4842869) Homepage
    Here are my thoughts on this SLD (Second Level Domain) proposal: It's unnecessary.

    Hear me out. New Zealand has 3,908,037 [cia.gov] people, give or take a few. I seriously doubt there are even 5,000 geeks who would get those domains. No one would pass up an opportunity to aquire .com domain or any other TLD. This idea is very specialized, hence serves no purpose.

    Besides, all my friends from NZ have .com/.net/.org domains already.

    I do have a proposal on what type of domains New Zealand government should implement, since the topic came up.

    *.holycowmyinternetisslow.nz - for people who are still on 28.8k dialup modems inside of New Zealand
    *.udpmatch.nz - for packet kiddies who are looking for a mate
    *.neal.nz - will be reserved for Cowboy Neal in case he ever moves there
    *.sheep.nz - hot sheep erotic fanfiction
    *.cliche.nz - will serve as the domain for humor sites incorporating "beowulf cluster" and "In Soviet Russia" jokes all the time!
    *.rom.nz - domain for Romainians who are considering moving to New Zealand to trade ROMS and Emulators for Atari 9600

    I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some NZ official to see these suggestions and put them on a fasttrack.
  • Cool!
    As a Canadian Geek now in NZ, and working for the incumbent telco, I'm going to try and get some of the guys interested! I'm sure some of the people from the big incumbent ISPs will want to help too! Hey, maybe we can have our own little country-wide internet!
    Anyone want to help? dszego@mindslip.com or 025419512 ....let me know who I need to write a petition to!

    mindslip
  • Others are going off over their hypothetical .nz's, here is mine.

    por.nz

    Talk about get rich quick...
  • I hereby request a domain for enthusiastic New Zealand golf fanatics: Tee.nz

    I hope http://tee.nz/ will encourage more people to swing their clubs and go for a hole in one. Or even a birdy.
  • Some countries have a free range 2nd-level name space (.to, .it), where others have a regulated list of 2LD's (.uk, .au). Some are even more regulated than that apparently (.us).

    It bothers me that the USA think .com == America. And because of this the world thinks it. Within countries like New Zealand, our local domain (CCtld, .nz) is very important. I have no desire to register a .com, .net etc because what I do is not on a global scale and I like the connection it gives me to my home country.

    DNS was designed to be a diverse tree structure over possible areas of interest. Within this there are two approaches - break things down into categories (2LD's, co, org, net, mil etc), or create as many 2LD's as possible.

    When .maori.nz was recently created, there was a large uproar because of the racial sensitivity of the issue (For those who don't know, approximately 20% of NZers are descended from the indigenous Maori people). The vote passed with 90+% support but no-one I know voted 'yes' for it and the only interest most people had in it was potentially offensive vanity domains and/or cybersquatting. A lot of people thought that the domain simply increases racial segregation between Maori and Pakeha ("white NZers") - which is exactly the thing that Maori are claiming to fight against.

    It might be argued that there are less geeks in NZ than Maori people, but
    • the percentage of geeks on the Internet is (of course) far larger than the percentage of Maori people
    • "geek" as a term doesn't just have to relate to computer users
    There has been some discussion on the Domain Name Commissioner's mailing list (Does anyone else find it funny that we have a DNC? Sounds like Commissioner Gordon. Quick, fire the DNS signal!) about if geeks get .geek.nz, musos will want .muso.nz etc. I'd like to think of it more that "geek" has become a term of endearment meaning someone who is passionate about their subject. You can get computer geeks, sure, but you also get music geeks, gardening geeks, law geeks, whatever. If there is someone you consult for their wisdom before you engage in something, chances are they could be classified as a geek and they could be given .music.geek.nz.

    This article [slashdot.org] is smack on. The reason that the NZ Network Operators' Group are pushing for .geek.nz, while with some "It's pretty cool" reasoning behind it, is because in general the feeling was adding .maori.nz and .bank.nz was a Bad Thing To Do (tm).

    While it is obvious that the gap between Pakeha and Maori with access to internet needs to be addressed to bring us together as a society, I don't think that segregation of the name space will help achieve this at all. .bank.nz would serve approximately 12 institutions and create issues (should private lending institutions be allowed a .bank.nz - an easier example might be '.paypal.bank.nz') that outweigh it's usefulness. All banks, corporate entities, already have .co.nz domains. Would they have given them up if they were given .bank.nz? .geek.nz, to me, is a bit of a sly protest at this. Hopefully the moratorium on new domains will address this with a policy on what they want to achieve with the DNS structure in New Zealand, but what's done is done.

    Oh, and thank you everyone for the sheep jokes, they were most appreciated. Have you ever BEEN to New Zealand?

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