dotPH

Quotes from the article are in boldface

'Ms. De Vera said they hope to fast track the finalization of guidelines before the election.

"To be frank we're still hoping to move the guidelines before the elections but we're also affected by what happens in the the department of ICT," Ms. De Vera said.'

Despite Mr. Pena's protestations to the contrary here, we are concerned that this whole exercise is being rushed to meet a deadline -- the elections -- that has nothing to do with domain issues.

We worry that political issues are driving the whole process. NTC can't even point out what problems these guidelines are attempting to solve, let alone point out any problems in general, despite our repeated requests as far back as November 7, 2003.

• Letter to Ver Pena asking Mr. Pena to clarify what problems the guidelines are intended to solve (Feb. 13, 2004)
• Mr. Disini reacts to an article and asks Mr. Pena and Mr. Sarmiento for feedback on problems with dotPH
• Letter to Ver Pena (Nov. 7, 2003) suggesting that before he chooses members for his advisory board, he must first identify the problems that he wants to solve

DNS issues are complex and many of the drastic changes the guidelines are pushing for shouldn't be taken lightly since they will have a negative effect on PH registrants and the domain itself. Identifying the problems at hand and addressing them is more important than meeting political deadlines.

Our response to the guidelines can be seen here.

'Winthrop Yu of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society, said that Mr. Disini cannot run the domain name as a business.'

'"What is his investment in the domain name? Practically nothing. It's not that he would like to paint it that he put up a business and the government is trying to take it away from him, it's not the case here, he was appointed care taker of something basically it is not even the property of anyone," Mr. Yu said.'

It's unfortunate that there seems to be such a disconnect between a group (PICS) represented on the Advisory board and reality. A quick comparison between the gov.ph and edu.ph registries (which are run by DOST and Mr. Cadiz of the Advisory Board) vis-a-vis DotPH will show the extent of technology invested in DotPH, including:

• dotPH ($35 a year) is cheaper than edu.ph ($40 a year)
• dotPH has over 150 Registrars; edu.ph and gov.ph have none;
• dotPH has a shared registry system (SRS) which allows anyone to register a domain instantly in realtime; edu.ph and gov.ph do not
• Getting a domain with dotph takes 5 mins; gov.ph and edu.ph require paperwork that can take days
• dotPH accepts credit card payments online; edu.ph does not
• dotPH will pick up checks for free in Metro Manila; edu.ph does not
• edu.ph and gov.ph require that you have your own nameservers; dotPH provides that service for free
• dotPH has a Domain Manager that lets you make changes online in real-time; edu.ph does not
• dotPH provides domain-related services such as free Webforwarding, Mailforwarding and VDS-based Webhosting; edu.ph and gov.ph do not
• dotPH provides online chat and manned phone hotlines for customer support; edu.ph and gov.ph do not
• dotPH was one of the first worldwide to implement a Dispute Resolution Policy that provides a faster and cheaper way of resolving domain disputes.

dotPH services are world-class. Either Mr. Yu doesn't realize that running DotPH like a business means making life easy for consumers; or he hasn't taken the time to really look at all that DotPH offers.

Domain buyers have a choice -- PH or COM, NET, ORG, INFO, BIZ, etc. The domain market is highly competitive; people look for the best deals, quickest service, robust and reliable operations - they can't afford to have their email or websites go down.

For nine years, dotPH was a non-profit operation, charging $8 per domain FOR LIFE. We've learned that this model just isn't sustainable. Innovation is relentless, and Registries that don't adapt won't survive. Domain Registries such as DotPRO and DotMD have actually failed or declared bankruptcy.

In fact, it may be just a matter of time before it happens to EDU.PH. For instance, schools like Ateneo prefer to use ateneo.edu instead of ateneo.edu.ph. It's hard to see why other schools will continue to use EDU.PH if they can get better service by using domains like PH or COM.

Perhaps it's time that Mr. Pena and his Advisory Board stop thinking of dotPH as a monopoly, but instead as a business that competes against COM, NET and other domains.