Much has already been written about the prospects and challenges associated with the introduction of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). This post were originally written for my personal blog but a good industry friend has persuaded me to post it (and more) on CircleID. During this series I will attempt to show how the introduction of new gTLDs is ultimately a "win win win" scenario. A win for innovation, a win for commerce and most importantly a win for internet users. So where to begin? We'll begin with the concept that we are all internet Tribe members.
The concept of tribes is not a new one. The internet is made up of millions of tribes, tribes within tribes, tribe leaders and cross interest tribes. If you follow a blog, tweet, post comments or have a site you visit regularly you are probably already part of a tribe. But lets take a step back and consider what a tribe is.
Tribes are characterized by members having a commitment to each other, a commitment to a leader/s and a commitment to an idea. Seth Godin's book Tribes describes two things that a tribe needs to have. The first is a shared interest and the second a way to communicate with each other. Its important to remember that while tribes are often associated with individuals sharing a common interest, tribes can also be made up in other ways. Corporate and brand tribes exist also, made up of employees, customers and fans.
Historically, geographical restrictions have limited the size of tribe. The rise of the internet however has eliminated these geographical restrictions for tribes. Tribes vary in size, shape, interest and demographic. The internet has allowed tribes to collaborate with each other and grow memberships, thereby expanding their commitment to each other. The destruction of geographies has allowed tribe members to easily find new tribes and even switch tribes.
Tribe leaders have begun to emerge prominently in the digital age and not always in the traditional sense. Facebook has emerged as a leader of the social networking tribe. Within the social media tribe, Facebook allows the birth of millions of new tribes. In the more traditional sense leaders have emerged, embracing digital media and the web. Lance Armstrong has over 1 million fans on Facebook for his Live Strong foundation, Al Gore leads the climate change tribe through a wealth of digital media tools and Stephen Fry Tweets to over a million tribe members that follow him.
New gTLDs represent future opportunities for tribes to spread, be part of and participate on a much wider scale. The broad scope of the new gTLD program will allow tribes to build their own islands, sharing common interests and communicating with each other.
Opposition to the introduction of tribe related gTLDs is based on the assumption that tribe members will experience greater risk. This maybe the case to some degree but ultimately safe locations will prevail as tribes weed out the "bad seeds" through their commitment to each other. Change is hard but change is vital for the continued growth of tribes. It is easy to stick with the status quo but those that lead tribes realize that tribes are constantly changing, growing and communicating.
In conclusion. We are all members of tribes, some more granular in interest than others. New gTLDs will enrich our experience of the tribe. Change is exciting and doesn't fail because its too early but rather because its to late. In the next post we'll discuss in more detail the types of digital members tribes have and how new TLDs will affect them.
Written by Robert Rozicki, One of those domain name types
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More under: Domain Names, Domain Registries, ICANN, Top-Level Domains