OPENSRS: agosto 2011

martes, 30 de agosto de 2011

Holiday Hours: Labour Day, September 6, 2011

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 10:22 AM PDT

Next Monday, September 6, 2011, is Labour Day here in Canada (aka Labor Day if you are in the USA) and that means some special hours for a few departments here at OpenSRS.

First, the official business: Our Technical Support team continues to be available 24/7 to assist you. Please note that during this closure, there will be:

No orders or requests processed for the following TLD’s: .at, .fr, .ch, .li, .dk, .com.mx
No special processing for .ca (registrant transfers, conflicting and municipal registrations) or .eu/.be (redemptions).

Here are the hours by department:

Department	Dates and Hours
Technical Support	Regular hours
Payments	Email support: payments@opensrs.org
Compliance	Closed Sept 6th (Monday)
Service Bureau	Closed Sept 6th (Monday)

About Labour Day

With that stuff out of the way, I will note that I used to find it kind of ironic that we celebrate Labour Day by not working. However, a quick read on Wikipedia revealed that the origins of Labour Day in Canada can be traced back to December 1872 when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Union’s strike for a 58-hour work-week. Makes much more sense!

Absolutely True Facts about Canadians

As is also the tradition here on the blog, I’ll now provide some interesting insights and facts about what we do on long weekends in Canada so that we can further some stereotypes about Canadians.

Here in Ontario, Labour Day is an official day of mourning for kids, and a day of wild celebrations for parents (by government proclaimation). You see, it’s the unofficial last day of summer as everyone is back to school dark and early on Tuesday morning.

It’s also yet another opportunity for many Canadians to drink beer and head for the cottage (preferably in the opposite order – drive to the cottage, then drink beer – Arrive Alive. Drive Sober). In fact, this weekend is one of the last chances to get out on the water before the switchover from jet skis to snowmobiles happens (typical September weather for Toronto is shown to the right).

Those that stick around the city, especially here in Toronto, get to enjoy the last couple of days of the Canadian National Exhibition (the Ex!) just a few minutes south of the Tucows head office at the CNE grounds. It’s deep-fried everything for two weeks. Last year it was deep fried butter…this year it’s deep fried Coke!

viernes, 26 de agosto de 2011

Exciting updates from your reseller friendly support team!

Posted: 25 Aug 2011 10:38 AM PDT

If you’ve called into support in the past two weeks, you may have noticed something. For starters, the average time it took a support rep to answer the phone was less than 30 seconds. We also recorded zero abandoned calls.

Call volume was the same as always, so how did this happen?

About a month ago, we asked Claire Lam, our head of professional services department, to take on some additional responsibility to help us understand some of the key challenges within the Technical Support group and implement some changes.

For the past several weeks, Claire and her team have been pretty busy.

As our new head of Reseller Technical Support, Claire is applying what she’s learned working with large hosting providers, combined with her background in customer service, software development and business process to identify to implement changes that will help us deliver on our promise of Reseller Friendly customer service.

Measuring for Service

As a data-driven individual, her first order of business was to implement the right measurements. “We need to know how we’re doing today, so we can figure out how we can do better tomorrow.” Claire told me.

Part of this data collection project involved the introduction of Top 5 issues affecting resellers that Claire shares with the entire company on a weekly basis, and the implementation of a short reseller satisfaction survey sent after the closure of every ticket “Resellers aren’t required to complete the short survey, but those who do will be providing us with actionable data we can use to improve” Claire says.

Trying New Things!

In addition to the more traditional methods of support management, Claire and her team are trying new things.

Last week, with the help of Jonathan Clarke, one of our senior support analysts, worked with Claire to implement LiveChat support service right on key areas of the OpenSRS website. It’s on a trial basis with a goal of serving the needs of resellers who are unable to call us, but are looking for something a little more realtime than email. So far, testing has been positive and it’s a perfect example of the kind of thing we think our reseller customers will appreciate.

What’s next in Support?

There’s a number other things Claire’s been working on, but rather than list them here, I’ve asked her to think about some topics she’d like to share and we’ll share them with you here shortly.

So this won’t be the last you’ve heard from Claire and the support team and we hope that in the coming weeks, you’ll notice and appreciate some of the efforts they’ve been working on.

Have you interacted with our support team lately? How did we do? What could we do better?

viernes, 19 de agosto de 2011

Wake up to .XXX Sunrise

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 05:40 AM PDT

The folks at ICM Registry who run the new .XXX domain extension have put together a really nice video that helps explain why you and your customers should be paying attention to the launch of .XXX.

The video is embedded below (and you should feel free to embed it in your own site or blog if you are participating in the .XXX launch – grab the embed code from YouTube).

Want More Information?

For even more information on the launch and how you can help your customers, regardless of whether they are part of the adult community or not, we have a webinar coming up next week Thursday with Patrick Donaldson, Registrar Liaison, ICM Registry.

He’ll give you all the information you need to make an informed choice about whether you want to be a part of the launch. Adam Eisner, our Director of OpenSRS Product Management will also be there to talk about how OpenSRS will support the launch.

Like all OpenSRS webinars, this is a free event.

There’s More to the Launch of .XXX Than You Might Think
Date: Thursday, August 25, 2011
Time: 9:30 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. EDT (13:30 and 18:00 UTC)
Register now

jueves, 18 de agosto de 2011

New Video Series Available for Resellers

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 07:01 AM PDT

We put together a five part series called “Creating Compelling Web Video” that you can use to help your customers make better web video content.

The videos take viewers through the various steps they need to take to make video that stands out from the crowd – from choosing hardware, prepping content, shooting, editing and finally sharing the finished product.

As an OpenSRS Reseller, you are free to use the video series however and where ever you wish. No attribution is required. We tried to keep the look as generic as possible and as with all of our marketing materials, you can add your own branding or logo if you want to make it your own.

Available for download and on YouTube

All five parts are available on our YouTube channel but you can also download the videos in .mov format so you can upload them to your own video host, add your own logo or whatever else you might want to do. The videos and other .TV marketing resources are available on our .TV Marketing Resources page.

Video content is a great fit with .TV domains. Remember that we also have a .TV pricing promotion happening right now through the end of the year. More details on that promo and the signup form are here if you aren’t already taking advantage.

Part one of the series is embedded below to give you a sense of the content and also the production values:

miércoles, 17 de agosto de 2011

First Trustwave Incentive Winner! plus 1 more

First Trustwave Incentive Winner!

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:43 AM PDT

Remember the Trustwave SSL incentive program we have running in August and September? Well, we have our first surprise winner to announce today.

Erin Marbut of DesignScopes, LLC sold a Trustwave SSL certificate in August and won a $50 Amazon gift card courtesy Trustwave and OpenSRS. DesignScopes is based in Georgia and provides web design and development services.

Congratulations to Erin and good luck to everyone else! We’ll have more winners throughout August and September, and everyone who sells a Trustwave SSL certificate is entered into the drawing for an Apple iPad 2. All the details can be found here.

OpenSRS Video Production Service

Posted: 16 Aug 2011 01:47 PM PDT

Last week at HostingCon we introduced our new Video Production Service, which allows our resellers to create affordable, professional-quality videos through Tucows’ video production division, Butterscotch. Since 2008, Butterscotch has specialized in video tutorials for everything related to the mobile lifestyle: apps, social media, mobile devices, and more, and has produced video for clients such as eBay, VeriSign, and Hover.

The idea for this new service stemmed from several requests from resellers looking for video content solutions for everything from how-to training videos for their hosting control panels, to company branding and promotional videos.

With OpenSRS Video Production Service, our resellers are now able to work with Butterscotch to create a series of one-minute videos. This is a cost-effective way to produce a series of how-to tutorials to reduce support costs, or promotional videos to showcase a new service. Video packages include full script development, professional voiceover, visual elements, and more, at just a fraction of the cost of what you’d pay at a traditional production house.

Whether you’re interested in a standard video package or a more custom solution, video production doesn’t have to be expensive. Talk to us about your needs and get a quote for your package on the Video Production Service page.

martes, 9 de agosto de 2011

OpenSRS and Parallels Announce Alliance plus 3 more

OpenSRS and Parallels Announce Alliance
HC2011: This Mobile Moment
HC2011: Impact of New TLDs on Hosting Companies
HostingCon 2011 Starts Today

OpenSRS and Parallels Announce Alliance

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:27 AM PDT

This morning at HostingCon 2011, OpenSRS and Parallels announced a new partnership that will help Parallels and OpenSRS customers better serve their users with the web services and tools they need to effectively compete and grow.

Direct Integration in Parallels PBA, PBAS and Parallels Plesk

The net result of this new partnership is that OpenSRS will have a direct integration with Parallels Business Automation, Parallels Business Automation Standard and Parallels Plesk Panel billing platforms.

The new Parallels integration will incorporate domain names as well as SSL certificates in the first release. We’re working to get all OpenSRS services fully integrated into Parallels, including email and goMobi as soon as possible.

If you want to learn more about Parallels and OpenSRS, drop by our booth at HostingCon this week and we’ll be happy to tell you more. You can read the full news release here.

HC2011: This Mobile Moment

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 04:29 PM PDT

We’re at an inflection point with mobile Internet access right now, and hosters are in a unique position to take advantage of it. That was the key message today from Tucows CEO, Elliot Noss in his session, “This Mobile Moment,” given this afternoon at HostingCon.

I won’t go too deeply into the content of the presentation, but Elliot’s point is this: mobile is exploding, current providers aren’t doing a great job serving customers, and customers are just waiting for a someone to come in and do things differently.

Elliot suggests that hosters are uniquely positioned to take advantage for a number of reasons, like the fact that hosting companies are really good at customer service and are used working with small margins.

Phone to Modem = Feature phone to Smartphone

He also says the current situation with mobile access is analogous to the move from using our copper phone lines for telephone calls, to hooking up a modem and starting to use our phone lines for Internet access. He says the switch from feature phones used for voice calls and SMS to smart phones (pocket computers, really) represents a similar shift in technology use.

The point is this: hosting companies should be thinking about how they can leverage their expertise in service, support and understanding the needs of their customers to identify and take advantage of the opportunity that this mobile moment provides.

HC2011: Impact of New TLDs on Hosting Companies

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 12:08 PM PDT

It’s presentations day for OpenSRS today at HostingCon 2011. We have a pair of speaking slots, and things got started with Adam Eisner’s talk about the impact of new TLDs for hosting companies this morning.

Of course, not everyone is at HostingCon 2011 this week, so for the benefit of all of you not in San Diego, here’s a summary of what Adam talked about. If you are at HostingCon, and missed seeing the presentation live, then you missed out on your chance to win a pair of sweet noise cancelling headphones. Jeffrey Cohen of InternetLitigators was at the presentation and walked away with the prize – congrats to you, Jeffrey, and enjoy the prize.

New TLDs Were Officially Approved at ICANN Singapore

The approval of what are referred to as “New TLDs” was the big news out of the last ICANN meeting in Singapore a few months back. Basically, that decision paved the way for the creation of hundreds of new domain extensions – think .nyc or .eco, and even .apple, .canon and .coke and you get the idea about how far reaching this evolution will be.

This profound change in how the domain name system works will have big impacts on hosting companies. If you are in that business, you’ll obviously want to be aware of what’s happening so you can make sure you’ve positioned yourself to take advantage of the opportunities that new TLDs may present.

Here’s an overview of what Adam talked about (slides are below in the embedded Slideshare):

Right now we have 22 gTLDs (and hundreds of country code TLDs). In the next few years, New TLDs will add as many as 500 new TLDs to the root.
ICANN started talking about new TLDs years ago, and approved the start of discussions about adding new TLDs to the root in 2008. It took a long time, and a lot of discussion with various stakeholder groups to get to where we are today (and we’re not quite done yet).
In June 2011, at the Singapore ICANN meeting, ICANN approved the Applicant Guidebook and officially launched the New TLDs program.
There are three different categories of New TLDs to consider:
- Brand-based: .coke, .canon
- Generic: .search, .blog, .cloud
- Community/Interest Group: .eco, .gay, .toronto
Key point: .XXX is not part of the New TLDs program. It’s a separate new extension that is launching this fall (and OpenSRS is accredited).
Key dates:
- January to April 2012: applications accepted
- April 2012: Cards turned over
- November: Applications approved
- Sometime after that: first New TLDs go live in the root
- Maybe an additional application/approval round after that
Opportunity: Improved end-user perception – having a New TLD raises your stature
- Get your own: no sharing the stage, your name on the right side of the dot, full control! All the good names are available on your own TLD.
Costs:
- $185,000 US Application Fee (if approved)
  - could be more (auctions, multiple groups after the same extension)
  - Marketing, legal fees, etc.
How to:
- Fill out the application, paying special attention to the Guidebook.
- Get a partner who has technology experience, and knows the their way around the ICANN world.
The Other Opportunity: Reach new customers by selling others: hundreds of new TLD extensions to offer.
- New segments, new markets.
- .MUSIC, .LONDON, .SKI and more!!!
- It won’t be easy…look at .com vs. the other, newer gTLDs like .info, tel, etc.
- What makes a “sellable” extension?
  - Priced smartly (less than $30/year)
  - No wacky rules
  - Follows the standards laid down by current gTLDs
  - Resonates with end-users (or a segment of end-users)
- How to sell them?
  - Most new TLDS will partner with Registrars
  - Brands won’t offer names to the public
  - Integration should be pretty much the same as current gTLDs.

The takeaways:

There’s an opportunity to secure a brand or community
New TLDs represent new markets and new opportunities
Having your own TLD means full control of the namespace and anything is possible.

And here’s the full presentation for those who want the slides to go with the summary:

HostingCon 2011 – New Top Level Domains

View more presentations from opensrs.

HostingCon 2011 Starts Today

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 08:30 AM PDT

HostingCon 2011 kicks off today and it promises to be a very busy and exciting week.

OpenSRS has a big presence at HostingCon as usual and we’re going to make sure that whether you are in San Diego this week, or anywhere else in the world, that you know what’s going on.

Here’s just a taste of what’s happening over the next few days:

Speaker Sessions

Today we have a pair of awesome presentations that you’ll definately want to attend. First up is Adam Eisner, our Director of OpenSRS Product Management:

WHAT DO NEW TLDS MEAN FOR YOUR HOSTING BUSINESS?
with Adam Eisner
Monday, August 8 at 11:00AM

Thanks to ICANN’s New Top Level Domain program, hundreds of new domain name extensions like .WEB, .MUSIC, and your own .BRAND will soon be a reality. Learn how these new extensions will change Internet users’ perceptions of domain extensions and how to ensure your hosting business is prepared to profit.

If you attend Adam’s session, you’ll have a chance to win some nifty noise cancelling headphones from OpenSRS. We’ll give them out after the session to one lucky attendee.

Grab some lunch and take a breather, but make sure you don’t miss Elliot Noss, Tucows President and CEO in the afternoon:

THIS MOBILE MOMENT
with Elliot Noss
Monday, August 8 at 3:00PM

The meteoric rise of mobile computing has hosting companies scrambling to address new customer needs and leverage new market opportunities. Elliot revisits similar moments in the past 20 years looking for clues to how hosting companies can capitalize.

If you aren’t in San Diego, or can’t make either of those sessions, we’ll post up a summary of each later today so you can still get the great content that Elliot and Adam are presenting.

We’re Just Getting Started!

The exhibit floor opens tomorrow morning at 11:00 A.M. and we’ll be all ready to say ‘hi’ to attendees and to tell them all about the many new things we have in store for our resellers in the next little bit.

Drop by booth #439 to see us! You can’t miss it – look for waving Service Guy and the brightest, most colourful booth on the show floor.

While you’re there, be sure to drop off your business card for a chance to win an Apple iPad 2 from Afternic and OpenSRS. They provide domain listing services for the domain aftermarket and are a key partner for OpenSRS, providing great quality domains for our Premium Domains service. We’d love to talk more about how you can start offering Premium Domains to your customers and help them find their perfect domain.

Our good friends at Trustwave have a really cool contest going on at HostingCon. They’ve put together a really fun game for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch called MadLocks. Download it for free starting today and then play for a chance to win a 15″ MacBook Pro from Trustwave. More details on the game are available at their website. Of course, we’d love to chat with you about offering Trustwave SSL products through OpenSRS. And we have a special incentive program going on right now with Trustwave that gives OpenSRS Resellers a chance to win an iPad 2 courtesy Trustwave.

But Wait! There’s Even More!

Believe it or not, there’s still more to talk about! Stay tuned to the blog over the next three days for extensive coverage of HostingCon and for some more news from OpenSRS. And be sure to follow @OpenSRS on Twitter for more HostingCon news and info. Who knows, there might be some surprise giveaways and other fun stuff for our Twitter followers.

viernes, 5 de agosto de 2011

.XXX Launches in September at OpenSRS

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 06:08 AM PDT

The new .XXX Sponsored Top-level Domain extension launches on September 7, 2011, and OpenSRS will be fully participating in the launch from Sunrise through General Availability and beyond.

There are a couple of different elements to the launch and depending on your customer base, you’ll want to take note of the different requirements in each phase.

We’ve put together a launch information page for .XXX where you can get all the information you need – key dates, policies and pricing. You’ll also find useful marketing tools including messaging and graphic elements like the .XXX logo.

Our aim is to help you make the most of the introduction of this new domain extension whether you want to help your customers protect their brand, or whether you want to provide .XXX domains to members of the adult community.

We’ll have more information about the launch of .XXX in the next few months. Stay tuned!

jueves, 4 de agosto de 2011

Help Shape Canada’s Internet in the Upcoming CIRA Elections

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 02:14 PM PDT

Are you a professional Canadian with Board experience and an interest in technology and the Internet? The Canadian Internet Registry Association is looking for interested candidates with expertise in accounting, law, marketing and communications or technology to apply to become a member of the CIRA Board of Directors in the upcoming election.

What is the role of CIRA's Board?

CIRA's Board of Directors has a unique role to play in setting policy and strategy to help CIRA continue to be a leading-edge organization that strives for excellence as a registry and supports Canadians in building their presence in the global digital economy.
Why should this interest me or someone I nominate?

Becoming a CIRA Board Member is a unique opportunity to work with Canada's Internet leaders as they develop strategy and policy that positions .CA for operational excellence. You will gain valuable insight and experience around technical innovation, Canadian and international Internet policy, and organizational governance.

How do I apply?

.CA Members can nominate themselves or another individual by completing the online Nomination Form from August 2 – 15.

Once nominated, Nominees will receive an email with a link to complete an online Nominee Application Form. The Nominee must complete and submit the form before 8 p.m. ET on August 15, 2011.

To be included on the Final Members' Slate, Member Nominees must then receive the endorsement of at least 20 CIRA Members during the Show of Support stage.

About CIRA

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority is the member-driven organization that manages Canada's .CA domain name registry, develops and implements policies that support Canada's Internet community, and represents the .CA registry internationally.

To learn more, visit www.cira.ca.

martes, 2 de agosto de 2011

OpenSRS Welcomes EPAG to the Family!

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 04:08 AM PDT

Over the past several years, we've watched many of our resellers branch out into new markets and regions very successfully. At the same time, we have also welcomed new resellers from a wide range of countries and industries. These trends have resulted in increased demand from our customers to offer more TLDs. Thus, we're really pleased and excited to announce the acquisition of EPAG Domainservices GmbH, a registrar based in Bonn, Germany.

We were immediately drawn to EPAG not only because of their offerings (they currently offer more than 280 domain extensions), but because of their expertise and reputation as well. EPAG is known for its fantastic amount of international domain name experience, and we think their knowledge and skills will help greatly as we continue to grow our own domain name business here at OpenSRS.

So, what does this mean for OpenSRS resellers? Well, bringing EPAG on board with OpenSRS will allow us to offer many more domain extensions quickly, backed by a knowledgeable, experienced team with insight into all of them. Over the next several weeks, you'll begin to see details of our plans to significantly expand the portfolio of domain names we make available through OpenSRS. While we can't reveal specific details just yet, it's safe to say you will see significant gTLD and ccTLD coverage improvements, with a particular focus on regions like Europe, South America and Asia. By the end of the year, we expect to have 200 extensions available to ensure your customers have the best chance of finding their perfect domain name.

We are also really excited to welcome EPAG customers to OpenSRS. Going forward, there will be little in the way of change; EPAG systems will continue to operate and EPAG customers and suppliers will continue to deal with the same people, systems and interfaces they are familiar with today. We look forward to working with you, and to providing additional features and services that can help you grow your business.

This is a very exciting day at OpenSRS, and we're proud to welcome EPAG. Make sure to watch this space in the coming weeks as we announce plans to bolster our roster of domain names offered. You can read more about this acquisition on Tucows.com.