The story of .io

http://citizen-ex.com/stories/io

by ingve • 11 years ago

296 68 11 years ago

citizen-ex.com

tdaltonc• 11 years ago

Is there a policy for what happens to ccTLD if a country changes its name or disappears?

dpeck• 11 years ago

just a datapoint, .su is still around and still used by some universities.

duskwuff3• 11 years ago

Not strictly speaking; it hasn't happened often enough for a policy to be established. The ccTLDs .cs (Czechoslovakia), .dd (East Germany), .yu (Yugoslavia), and .zr (Zaire) were all dissolved some time after the reorganization/renaming of their countries. However, this hasn't always been the case. For instance, .su (Soviet Union) continues to be used today.

ryan90v2• 11 years ago

Check out the story of the .su (Soviet Union) domain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.su http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/may/31/ussr-cyber...

pavel_lishin• 11 years ago

The .su domain was invented by the then-19-year-old Finnish student Petri Ojala.

"Invented" seems like the wrong word to use here.

txdv• 11 years ago

Is there a way to buy them? I have an eu domain but I want a su domain as well :D

dbarlett• 11 years ago

.an (Netherlands Antilles) is being phased out [1]:

    The .AN top-level domain for the Netherlands Antilles is no longer eligible for
    continued delegation, as it is no longer an ISO 3166-1 two-letter code. In
    accordance with the code’s removal from the ISO 3166-1 standard, the ISO 3166
    Maintenance Agency asks users of the standard to “stop using [the code] ASAP”†.
    
    As discussed in detail in the consideration of a similar case of the .YU
    top-level domain, ICANN’s role is to be an independent technical coordinator of
    the domain name system. As such, the ISO 3166-1 standard was chosen as the
    arbiter for what is, and what is not, a basis for country-code domains. In order
    to retain consistency with the standard, ICANN coordinates the removal of the
    .AN domain in conjunction with the transition to its successor domains. In such
    cases, ICANN asks the current operator to perform an orderly wind-down and
    transition process.
    
    The proposed sponsoring organisation for .CW intends to continue to operate the
    .AN domain while transitional arrangements are executed. These transitional
    arrangements include provisions for registrants in Curaçao to transfer
    registrations to .CW; and for registrants in Sint Maarten to transfer
    registrations to .SX. The applicant calls for a phased transition to be
    concluded over a period of three years, after which time the .AN domain will be
    fully retired.

[1] http://www.iana.org/reports/2011/cw-report-20111003.html

jkot• 11 years ago

Czechoslovakia had .cs domain for very short moment. Not sure what happened to it.

Grue3• 11 years ago

Yugoslavia domain .yu was closed. Some still exist like .su (USSR).

mfkp• 11 years ago

Another interesting point is that .io domains started to become more popular after Google decided to categorize them as Generic ccTLDs [1] (I believe in 2013). Before this, .io domains weren't great because of Google's algorithm taking region into account, and SEO was nigh impossible.

[1] https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl=en

MichaelGG• 11 years ago

I don't see what the issue is here, apart from non-DNS things (kicking people out, etc). If Chagos got autonomy, it wouldn't be keeping .io as its ccTLD - what sense would that make? And if Britain wants to have .io, they'd just need some other random island with enough of a presence to justify the country code.

Phrasing it as if somehow .io belongs to these people is simple intellectual dishonesty.

comrh• 11 years ago

I think the main point of the article is the country codes are not very defined in the process of creation, their use and who reaps the rewards of ownership.

quadrangle3• 11 years ago

Fascinating story.

I personally wish the article had gone a little further into being snarky, perhaps subtly, in recognizing how stupid, meaningless, unfunny, and unclever the idea of .io for "in/out" is for domains. Most websites and all computers do input/output and there's nothing interesting about that fact. I think it's a dumb trend, and I have an irrational, emotional dislike of the suggestion that it is good in any way for all these annoying startups and their dumb domains. end rant

mynameisvlad2• 11 years ago

Wut? .com is supposed to be for commercial sites only. I see it everywhere, regardless of if someone is selling something or not. .net is for network infrastructure, I see it used all the time. Other than strict TLDs like .gov, they're used for things other than their intended use all the time.

.io is a good way to get a name that would otherwise be taken up by a squatter while still having some technological tie. The former is really what it's all about.

quadrangle3• 11 years ago

Yeah, and people don't use .com well either. But "commercial" actually is a reasonable class of site.

Um, strict TLDs like .gov are misused?? What's a .gov site that isn't a government site? That is actually regulated…

.io is a stupid TLD name (except for actual Indian Ocean sites). I think what bugs me is "some technological tie" — wut? It's not anything. Input/Output isn't a nifty technological idea even.

Re: squatters: they could squat on any TLD. The only reason they squat on .com or .net is because you want it. Now, they will start squatting on .io because people want that. I don't see the difference.

baudehlo• 11 years ago

But getting a .io domain already taken by a .com is also kind of stupid. It's only useful if the .com is being squatted on and you hope some day to make enough money to buy the .com too (see e.g segment).

nickysielicki3• 11 years ago

I lack an ability to put into words just how much I hate the tone of this article and the tone of this author. Particularly this last line.

As we build new worlds with our technologies, knitted from fiber-optic light and lines of code, it is incumbent on us to ensure it does not reproduce the erasures and abuses of the old, but properly accounts for the rights and liberties of every one of us.

Why has every Silicon Valley leftist gotten it into their heads that this isn't a completely ridiculous statement? We're not superheros or magicians, in spite of the fact that the technical illiteracy of the rest of society may make us believe we are. We had some power a decade ago, but we've spent that. How did we spend it? What do humans historically do with power? They leverage it!

We pillage and rape the earth. Five million people are dead in the congo so that we can steal their minerals and ship them to China where a suicidal 9 year old makes it into an iPhone, which is sold at exorbitant prices to lower and middle class Americans who consume websites that act as Centrifugal Bumble-Puppies and Orgy-Porgies that we create.

But yeah, the real tragedy is that there's a TLD for an island of 2000 people who are losing their culture. Techies needs to be aware of THAT and stop THAT tragedy. Get real.

The only power of the Internet ever held any promise in was allowing fringe opinions to be heard. Anyone could publish and be heard and read about certain taboo subjects and not be publicly shamed for entertaining a certain thought. 4chan still holds this sentiment. Reddit did for a while until it decided it had to make more money. I grew up on that Internet.

It's long dead. Political correctness has killed everything. We had an opportunity to expose the masses to truly uncontrolled thought and discussion. We had an opportunity to embrace society-- ALL of society. We had an opportunity to create forums where we could all try to understand each other. Yes, that means racists and pedophiles and sexists and dickheads. But we instead created controlled environments like Facebook and reddit that represent nothing new and the world will flow on as it always has. We've created systems that encourage homogeneity in opinion and have marginalized the same people we always have.

Tech isn't special.

cvet• 11 years ago

Cynicism like this only leads to self imposed amorality. It makes stagnation a self fulfilling prophecy.

You're basically making a bandwagon argument that humans historically have abused power, so this frees anyone in tech from any obligation to try to not abuse power. This is an absurd argument because it precludes progress.

There's a fair criticism of bleeding heart syndrome in the article. It's not the job of "tech" to solve every problem. But this doesn't mean we should just say "fuck it" when confronted with moral ambiguity because millions of people died in the Congo. The only way things improve is by large numbers of people speaking out. Power has no inherent motive to change, people need to push. And if pushing veers into silliness sometimes, who cares.

developer1• 11 years ago

"The only way things improve is by large numbers of people speaking out. Power has no inherent motive to change, people need to push."

Please provide a real-world example of when this has most recently happened in any situation important enough to actually "count". The abuse exists everywhere you look, and there is never, ever, any serious backlash against it. The problem is that 99.99% of the population can care, but it only takes 0.01% willing to take advantage of the remaining population.

There will never be a sense of justice in such things. People who want the power will always take it, and there is nothing that will change that. Cynicism is not a negative trait, it's the bloody goddamn truth of our species. It sucks, but that's how things work. There is no changing this. It's simply not in the cards. Anyone who disagrees is either full of themselves or totally blind to the way the world works.

TazeTSchnitzel4• 11 years ago

But yeah, the real tragedy is that there's a TLD for an island of 2000 people who are losing their culture. Techies needs to be aware of THAT and stop THAT tragedy. Get real.

So because big bad things happen, we must ignore the small things?

This is nihilistic and selfish.

stvswn6• 11 years ago

You had me nodding in agreement when I thought you were standing up against slacktivism and outrage-bait. Then I got puzzled when you started railing against consumerism and its consequences. Finally I realized you were just nostalgic for when the internet wasn't mainstream -- as if you are starved for open forums on today's internet. I think your real issue is that regular "lower and middle class Americans" are also on your internet, and as such it reflects society, which you find conformist and boring. Fine, just don't tie it into some nihilistic rant about how we're all complicit in mass murder because we consume electronic devices.

nickysielicki3• 11 years ago

I think your real issue is that regular "lower and middle class Americans" are also on your internet, and as such it reflects society, which you find conformist and boring.

That's exactly my point. I'm upset that the internet going mainstream meant that they're not on "my" internet. They're on the part of the internet accessible via facebook and maybe reddit if they're <25y/o males.

nl• 11 years ago

I liked the claim that political correctness killed racism and pedophilia. If that's the case then I'm all for it!

raintrees• 11 years ago

For me, that last line conjured memories of Blank Reg from Max Headroom when one of the episodes examined a possible futuristic court of law. No official identity, no justice.

BorisMelnik3• 11 years ago

We're not superheros or magicians

No, but we are the architects and general contractors of the internet. Sure as web developers and engineers at small companies we don't have vast decision making power, but as a whole especially in the open source community the distributed power we all possess is really something magical that will define the future of the web as a whole.

stvswn6• 11 years ago

Some additional context from wikipedia: the island was originally 100% uninhabited in the 19th century when the French brought slaves there. Over the course of the next century, it was mostly privately owned, and the majority of residents were employees of plantations who were under temporary contracts and would return to Mauritania or the Seychelles after the contract was over. Ever since the slave days, there was a creole population, and that's the relevant group -- they were not indigenous peoples, but rather freed slaves and their descendants living on private land. In the 1970s, about 1100 people were forcibly removed after the British government took control of the island for the US naval base. They were compensated in cash. I think it's absolutely reasonable to feel like this was a dirty land grab, but whether they were really permanent residents, and how many they were, is in dispute. This sort of falls in the category of eminent domain seizures. I generally have a problem with those, but I don't spend too much time dwelling on the displaced populations that resulted from other government land seizures. Should we all feel guilty when we visit national parks? Or when we drive on highways? Or for the many military bases throughout the US? Do you think they just happened to find land with exactly zero residents?

zyxley2• 11 years ago

whether they were really permanent residents

I think it's pretty strange not to think of somebody as a permanent resident of the place they've lived since birth.

stvswn6• 11 years ago

I said it was in dispute, not that I agreed. If you squat on gov't land in the US and have kids there, would the gov't just cede the land to you after an appropriate amount of time? Maybe yes, I guess, but it's complicated.

aakilfernandes• 11 years ago

Is 10 minutes reading an article and contemplating an unjustice really that big a burden on your life? No one is asking you to start self-flagellating...

stvswn6• 11 years ago

I'm not arguing that it's too big of a burden to contemplate the injustice. I'm arguing that the scale of the injustice may not be as great as the author contends, and there may have been a competing thing of value that was gained by the injustice, and that it is naive to argue that a government removing someone from their home is always an injustice regardless of context.

dragonbonheur2• 11 years ago

MAURITIUS IS NOT MAURITANIA

stvswn6• 11 years ago

Apologies for the mixup. You can calm down now.

Intermernet• 11 years ago

Where do you draw the line in that argument?

Would you be worried if the same argument and logic were applied to people who arrived in the US after Columbus, or people who arrived in Gaul after the Romans?

If a line can be blurred back to the beginnings of recorded history, then the line doesn't really exist.

Should we all feel guilty when we visit national parks?

No, you should respect that the national park has a disturbing history, and accept that as part of your national history. Sweeping it under the rug, or using already spurious laws like "eminent domain seizures" to justify it is not going to lead to progress in these matters.

stvswn6• 11 years ago

I didn't say we should sweep it under the rug, I said that there exists context that the original author did not provide. Yes, the history of the population matters in these cases. I don't know where we should draw the line, but I do know that "we should never have military bases if one person has to be relocated" is not the line.

michaelwww3• 11 years ago

I'm a Navy veteran and a liberal. The tone of this article really makes me cringe because not only is it anti-military, it thinks our hearts should bleed for the so-called "Chagossian people." These types of attitudes give liberals a really bad name. I'll bet a sizeable percentage of Chagossians were very happy to get off that god forsaken patch of land in the middle of a vast ocean and cursed the day their ancestors were ever brought there. The Navy, and it's sailors, welcome such a place, and given modern realities, it only makes sense for the U.S. and Britain to make use of this strategic asset.

Any Chagossians complaining now are most likely looking for some sort of reparations, which most likely does not include being returned to live in the middle of nowhere on an island prison. It's unfortunate they are living in poverty in their new home. Giving them some sort of compensation would be best, but in the history of displaced peoples, that rarely happens.

TazeTSchnitzel4• 11 years ago

I'm a Navy veteran and a liberal.

Are you a liberal? You seem to be incredibly supportive of the United States military establishment, which isn't a very liberal position to take.

(Though I suppose it might be by US standards.)

The tone of this article really makes me cringe because not only is it anti-military,

What's wrong with being anti-military? Ignoring absolute pacifism (which has obvious problems), opposition to the military (and the military-industrial complex) is a valid political position to hold.

The article isn't "anti-military", anyway. It's not against the US Military, it's against these specific actions of the US Military. Criticism of something and opposition to it are different things.

it thinks our hearts should bleed for the so-called "Chagossian people."

Basic human empathy, is it not? If 2000 people next door to me were kicked out of their homes, I'd be sad for them too.

These types of attitudes give liberals a really bad name.

What attitude? Non-unquestioning support of institutions which can and do have flaws, and having human empathy?

Usually, these are valued attributes in people.

I'll bet a sizeable percentage of Chagossians were very happy to get off that god forsaken patch of land in the middle of a vast ocean

Do you have any reason to actually believe this? Why would they enjoy being kicked out of their home? After all, this "god forsaken patch of land" is probably not all that different from the "god forsaken patch of land" they were moving to: Mauritius.

The Navy, and it's sailors, welcome such a place,

Which has no bearing on how the occupants feel.

and given modern realities, it only makes sense for the U.S. and Britain to make use of this strategic asset.

Well yes, it makes sense from a strategic perspective: the US wishes to remain a global superpower with control of all the world's oceans. The BIOT is of strategic importance.

That being said, it has no real bearing on the morality of the action,

Any Chagossians complaining now are most likely looking for some sort of reparations

That's rather cynical of you. People don't forget injustices, they're right to continue complaining.

which most likely does not include being returned to live in the middle of nowhere on an island prison.

Island prison? I don't think they would have called their old home that.

It's unfortunate they are living in poverty in their new home.

It's unfortunate. It's also a direct consequence of how the British treated them when they were evicted.

michaelwww3• 11 years ago

I'm suggesting that liberals who don't temper their empathy with practical realities risked being dismissed as holier-than-thou dreamers. I looked up the word temper to make sure I it was the right word, because I'm not sure you are from my culture, and Google suggests it means "their idealism is tempered with realism." I know it probably feels good to author an article like this one, but battles must be chosen and this one is kind of ridiculous in the larger picture of things wrong with the world.

vfdfv• 11 years ago

"Then, in the Spring of 1971, US military officials gave the order to round up all of the pet dogs on the island and have them killed. About 1,000 pet dogs were taken – some straight from screaming children – and gassed with exhaust fumes from American military vehicles. The Chagossians were told that if they didn’t comply, the same would be done to them."

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/18/the-story-of-the-chag...

tommd• 11 years ago

For obvious reasons, I wanted a `.md` domain but those are expensive... also for obvious reasons. This is a rather unfortunate and common result of our DNS system.

plextoria• 11 years ago

And they are also quite pricey for locals too, given our fragile economy. We're not some inhabited island in the ocean.

curiousjorge• 11 years ago

.ly seems to be really popular as well for startups although I'm kinda curious as to the civil war in Libya is going to affect it in the future.

BorisMelnik3• 11 years ago

.IO is truly just a phenomenon that "just happened." It collectively rolled out and picked up momentum with each new domain registration. I remember a few years back when I started seeing a few here and there pop up. Right away as an old school Linux veteran I thought it was cute and "got" the idea. No one planned this, and even if they did it wasn't the master plan that created the popularity of .IO.

.IO has only commercialized within the web developer and b2b communities. I'm not saying that in a negative way, it is however a billion dollar industry at least. I really appreciate the post from a historical standpoint and hope in some way the popularity of .io will some way contribute to this territory.

ricardobeat• 11 years ago

a billion dollar industry at least

The latest stats I could find [1] put the total number of .io domains at around one million. Even if you assume $100 registration fee (you can get one for much less), it's still 900m shy of a billion.

[1] http://blog.park.io/articles/enormous-growth-of-io-domains/

grinnick• 11 years ago

How do you buy them for cheaper than $100?

BorisMelnik3• 11 years ago

sorry I meant our industry meaning "web development etc"

larme• 11 years ago

If I had the money I will buy the jupiter.io domain.

amelius• 11 years ago

I'm wondering if it is possible for a TLD holder to, at will, seize any domains below it, and, for example, extort the owners of the domain? And from that perspective, is it really smart to choose an exotic TLD name?

SturgeonsLaw• 11 years ago

This was a cause for concern in many people's minds with the .ly TLD belonging to Libya

duskwuff3• 11 years ago

The .LY ccTLD is particularly problematic because many countries, including the US, have trade sanctions in place against Libya. Among other things, this makes it difficult to get an SSL certificate for a .ly domain.

tomjacobs• 11 years ago

Isn't it funny that the web has country codes at all? Clearly they're not being used most of the time for their country code purpose. It seems like a bit of a mistake to have them. It's right there in the web's name: this web thing is world wide.

cimbal• 11 years ago

What? Just because .com is wildly more popular than .us doesn't mean that all >250 ccTLDs are useless.

clarus• 11 years ago

I do not want to offence anyone, but something which is not said by the article is that the first known inhabitant of this territory were the French. This place was taken by the British at a time of French weakness, exploiting the chaos of the Napoleon's defeat. All that to eventually force the inhabitants out for building a foreign military base, just because (apparently) the British government did not have the will to develop their own nuclear weapons.

As a French, I hope some day we will have a brave enough government who:

* tells the British to refuse to have foreign troops occupying a full territory displacing their own people;

* says that the current situation is wrong, and that these territories are supposed to be French, with the same legitimacy as the Réunion. There is no need to go to war or alike for that, but I feel this is something which should be said.

The story of .io

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