1 million Dot CAs: Not much to celebrate about
.ca is Canada’s top level domain. Since the beginning of the internet era it has been sorely managed. In a typical Canadian fashion, the bureaucrats took over and imposed so many regulations that .ca became useless for business.
Prior to 1997, registrants had to use a provincial second level domain. For Sensorymetrics, we’d be www.sensorymetrics.on.ca (if we were incorporated in the province of Ontario.) If we weren’t incorporated, we were SOL… only “real” companies could register a domain. If we operated out of the Yukon, we’d sport the tasty sounding “yk.ca” yuck caca??
In 1997, the Canada’s interneteers staged a coup and formed CIRA (Can. Internet Registration Authority) to take over the management .ca. They did away with some of the nonsense. Second-level province domains became optional. Individuals could now register a domain. There are still foolish rules… You have to be either a canadian citizen or the queen of England. Also, you have to be over 18 years of age. We wouldn’t want to encourage young kids to be entrepreneurial and make millions on the net, would we?
So (once again in a typical Canadian fashion) CIRA is about to celebrate the 1 millionth .ca registration. It’s holding a contest. To win, you need to write a heartwarming story about your .ca domain… A story about a domain??
Jobe and I have a few – like sparxstreet.ca. The story? It gets redirected to sparxstreet.com! Do we win? I’m sure I’d feel much more patriotic about this if it wasn’t a tangle of bureaucrazy red tape worms!
And the prize, you ask? You’d expect flag-wagging CIRA to be offering something truly canadian, right? A holiday in Banff?? Shopping spree at Roots?? Hockey tickets?? Tons of Canadian Tire money?? A personal foot massage by Celine Dion?? Nope… 5 Macbooks. Made in China, Designed in California, shipped to Canada.
Tags: top-level-domains, CIRA, contest, canadian-bureaucracy
Here’s another typical CIRA thing… (from the contest rules)
“1. The Contest starts on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 12:01 AM ET and ends on Friday, February 8, 2007 at 11:59 PM ET (the “Contest Period”).”
…just to make it a bit more challenging.
You would imagine that cira would want to publicize the benefits of a .ca domain by opening up the contest to those who don’t already have one. It seems strange that the contest is only preaching to the converted!
‘In a typical Canadian fashion, the bureaucrats took over and imposed so many regulations that .ca that .ca became useless”
It’s a recurring theme in Canada – excessive regulation where it’s not needed and toothless regulation where it is.
If only the bureaucrats with excessive tendencies could get assigned to things that mattered – like the do not call registry or any of the oversite boards.
I agree, Peter. Our government and IT is a bad combination.