I will always update the company twitter account and promise never to hire a PR company or get someone else on the team to update it on behalf of the company. I won’t talk at you about the company, but I’m not likely to provide personal updates either, unless of course they’re related to the company. I’m not sure if that’s the right approach, so we’ll see how it goes - let me know if you have an opinion (even if it’s to tell me to stay away after enjoying the quiet time).

If you’re a marketing agency, registrar, hosting provider, security software or anti-malware reseller, get in touch as you’re a potential partner! If you’re a provider of trust in the form of a seal, we have a platform for you to help increase adoption of your own product.

Now… time to upset VeriSign, TRUSTe and others with low-cost products that are more scalable and based on the Open Web

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At that time, the two sides entered contractual discussions about how the registry would be run technically and commercially (it is much harder to run a piece of the Internet’s basic infrastructure than you would think).

The contract went through several steps and was due to be approved. But as it drew close to completion, the idea of an Internet extension for the adult industry started getting widespread attention and soon a concerted campaign against the extension was launched. Despite a number of surveys showing broad support for what .xxx hoped to achieve, the application came under criticism from certain special interest groups.

The ICANN Board, for a number of stated reasons, then rejected the application in March 2007. ICM Registry felt it has been unfairly treated and so used the various mechanisms put in place to ensure that ICANN remained an objective guardian of the domain name system to question the decision.

In February 2010, an independent panel of three eminent jurists decided in ICM Registry’s favour, saying that ICANN’s decision has been against its own rules as well as local and international law.

The Independent Review Panel declared that ICANN should have entered into contract with ICM and, at the time of writing, it currently rests with the Board to decide how to proceed.

ICM Registry expects to be able to move forward with the contract negotiated during 2005-2007, and so have .xxx domains on the Internet before the end of 2010. ICANN is currently reviewing all comments from the Internet community, so I will post my comment on the official ICANN site - as I strongly feel that the .xxx domain is a great way to protect minors from inappropriate content. I would like to appeal to you, to do the same. I have explained how you can leave a formal comment at the end of this blog post - it will take you less than 1 minute using the automated process provided by ICM.

About the ICM Registry

ICM Registry is a financially stable and completely independent entity with no affiliation, current or historic, with the adult entertainment industry. As a registry operator, ICM Registry will provide management, supporting infrastructure and back-end functionality.

The .xxx extension will be one of a very small number of sponsored Internet extensions and members of the sponsoring community will be able to register domains with the new ending.

However, while most Internet extensions are used for just about everything you can imagine, .xxx will be focused on providing an online home for those members of the adult industry who wish to self-identify and responsibly self-regulate.

The International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR) is the sponsoring organization. IFFOR is a non-profit entity that will serve as the policy-making body for the .xxx extension.

IFFOR is and will remain independent from ICM Registry and will have its own board of directors representing all stakeholders, including child safety representatives, members of the free speech community and adult entertainment industry leaders.

IFFOR’s mission includes contributing programs and tools to make a difference in the continuing battle against child pornography and establishing a forum for the online adult-entertainment community to communicate and proactively respond to the needs and concerns of the broader Internet community.

About ICANN

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet (I disagree!). It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

My open letter to ICANN

Dear Board of Directors

I am writing to urge the ICANN Board to abide by the declaration of the Independent Review Panel and to enter into a registry agreement with ICM without further delay.

Regardless of the nature of the sTLD, ICANN must respect the procedures it has established to ensure accountability to the wider Internet community. Failing to fully abide by the decision of the IRP will demonstrate that ICANN has no meaningful commitment to accountability, and will seriously damage ICANN’s legitimacy and authority.

Therefore, ICANN has only one option if it wishes to preserve the integrity of its procedures and its long-term credibility as the manager of the DNS: immediately execute a registry agreement with ICM and allow ICM to proceed with the launch of the sTLD.

Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web so people could share hyperlinked documents online. He didn’t invent it to have it policed by extremists who are unable to accept opposing views and opinions to their own. Furthermore, I don’t believe in anonymity in comments when it comes to such important topics (as supported by your Web site), as it enables the same people to leave more than one comment - it also enables people from the same organizations/circles to support each other without having to put their name to it.

The debate about the .xxx domain is completely skewed by religion and politics in my opinion - that is wrong. I have not seen one piece of evidence to support ICANN’s right to refused the .xxx application.

Every technology enables bad people to do bad things, just like it allows good people to do good things - the Web is a perfect platform that demonstrates this point. What we must do, is use technology that empowers people to find what they want, whilst protecting them from what they deem to be inappropriate. This however, must not come at the expense of hampering freedom of speech.

The W3C is the global standards consortium responsible for the creation of standards such as HTML and Accessibility development guidelines to help developers build websites that are accessible to disabled people - founded and managed today, by Tim Berners-Lee. It is also responsible for the creation of a standard called PICS. PICS is the old and outdated method used by Microsoft Internet Explorer’s filter - used to help protect minors from inappropriate content on the Web today.

To address comments on your site regarding the use of .xxx to increase the number of adult orientated websites… pornographic websites make up for the vast majority of sites that use PICS, to help protect minors from adult orientated content. So, whether people like it or not, IE is reading labels from porn sites TODAY. As I stated earlier, IE uses a method that is based on an old and outdated W3C standard called PICS - it’s not flexible and it doesn’t do what today’s technology can support - hence why most people don’t use the filter.

The Family Online Safety Institute, an international, non-profit organization of internet leaders working to develop a safer internet, continues to support the outdated method of labelling content - BUT, it no longer actively encourages developers to use it - its strategy is now focused on lobbing governments and big orginazations around the world. That means, very few, if any, new websites are being labelled so that IE can filter out inappropriate content.

There is good news, in December 2009, PICS was replaced by a new method called POWDER (AKA Content Labels) that is much easier to use and it’s much more advanced technology wise.

Every person who registers a .xxx domain will be forced to use the new standard to label their content as adult oriented - this will enable IE and other browsers to filter out .xxx domains for people who find them inappropriate. This demonstrates the ICM Registry’s commitment to protecting people from inappropriate content. This is the opposite to what most unqualified opinions believe - as they haven’t properly understood this fact.

As I said earlier, regardless of the nature of the sTLD, ICANN must respect the procedures it has established to ensure accountability to the wider Internet community.

Warm regards,

Dear reader, click here to leave a formal comment for ICANN in less than one minute

[update: 22nd April 2009 after reading this post, a friend of mine reminded me of the following point "the promotion of MetaCert Content Labels by .xxx will lead the way for all other .tld domain sites to follow suit and therefore lead to (at last) a solution to block all porn sites from access to kids via a content label that has widespread adoption.]

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I can’t say more about what I’m focused on - that will become more apparent in the coming months.

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Most businesses go bust as a result of not managing cash-flow. My advice is to stay on top of your balance sheet and pay attention to tax returns to ensure you have enough in the kitty at the end of your financial year.

Here’s a blog post I wrote on the subject - the title says it all Entrepreneurs are not entitled to anything

Entrepreneurs in the slums of India don’t think they’re entitled to anything. They just get on with it.

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Net.works is a networking events company. We connect people who are serious about doing business by staging informal, fun events in relaxed surroundings.

Here are some of the events that are coming up…

OpenSoho

There’s a buzz around town following the 2008 launch of these monthly informal meet-ups for talented entrepreneurs working in the tech and media industries. OpenSoho has helped create a community of like-minded followers through its Facebook group and Twitter page, causing a clamber for tickets each time they’re made available. With a sponsored bar and late-night dancefloor, OpenSoho is a highly acclaimed night on the tiles for those currently causing waves and shaping the future of the UK digital, media and advertising scene. These folk work hard and play harder, come join in the fun.

Upcoming events for January, February and March 2010 - grab your ticket.

• January 20th
• February 23rd
• March 23rd

Digital Dinners

Up to twelve guests, each month are matched according to their business interests. We then ensure both the wine and the chat keep on flowing throughout a three-course meal in lavish surroundings. Topics are discussed, issues debated and contacts are made in a relaxed, fun and non-pressured environment. Dinner are held two to four times per month. Inspiring dinner party conversation often depends on who’s sitting next to you.

With the Digital Dinners format, there’s no need to sneak in beforehand and move the place-names around (although, we guess you can if you really want to). How you then choose to develop the contacts you’ll make after being wined and dined by us, is entirely up to you. Here who’s coming to our first dinner this month. Sign up to our mailing list and provide a short bio to receive your invitation to the next one (January 26th).

• Andy Hinder, Managing Partner, Steel
• Nicky Applegarth, Commercial Director, Steel
• Tom Bradley, Principal, DN Capital
• Bill Morrow, Founder, Angels Den
• Clare McDonald, Executive Creative Director    Sky TV
• Richard Daish, Digital Product Manager, Nike
• Abigail Harrison, Managing Director, thebluedoor
• Ben Tompkins, General Partner, Eden Ventures
• John Straw, CEO, Linkdex
• Paul Walsh, Founder, Net.works & Segala

Business Retreats

A focused exclusive business retreat abroad where a selected 24 success-driven entrepreneurs come together in a luxury environment to achieve the very best for themselves and their business. Pair this with 3 planned days of fun and strategy, and the rest is up to you.

We organise three-day business retreats in some stunning locations across Europe. Imagine, aligning your brand alongside 23 focused entrepreneurs staying in a 17th Century five-star French chateau and striving for success in inspiring surroundings.

Over the course of the three days, guests will find time to relax, indulge, have fun, build strong relationships and do a spot of work in the sunshine. As sponsor, you’ll be there to help, inspire and discuss how your brand can help with the day-to-day issues entrepreneurs face.

Each evening, themed dinners and entertainment will take the stress out of striving for business success. And on guest’s return to the UK, we’ll ensure they receive additional help and guidance from two carefully selected mentors on any of the business issues raised on the retreat. As sponsor, one of these mentors may be you. Check out our first retreat.

We have a cool retreat coming up in the next couple of months so sign up now to ensure you find out about it.

Check out the last one we did!

Sign up to the mailing list now and receive updates and invitations to special events and gatherings.

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It’s late. No. It’s very late. But all with good reason - I’m happy with our decision to hold off on ‘going ugly early’ for the sake of getting something out there.

Why we haven’t launched yet

We decided to outsource the entire development of our mobile application (not the design) to a company based in Hong Kong. For numerous reasons, it didn’t work out. In mid 2009 we had an application that worked well on a Nokia N95, but when we had the code reviewed by independent experts we realized it wasn’t easily portable to all other devices. It’s important to have our application work on more than 80% of all devices to help with mass adoption, so this reason alone was good enough to scrap everything and start from scratch. Some of our competitors have compelling iPhone applications, but that’s a small segment of the overall potential market.

We now have a team working hard on building a scalable product that is easily ported to all devices and it’s easily internationalized/localized to help with mass adoption globally. Localising a product is more than changing the language – it’s about providing local benefits and content.

As more location based social networks came to the market over the past 12 months, we continued to learn from what they do well, what they don’t do well and what they don’t do at all. Thanks to new companies coming to market, our knowledge about the benefits people look for has improved and as a result, we recently modified some of the product design and integrated more benefits.

Am I happy that we’re late to the game? Absolutely YES! We’re better placed than ever before as it’s still very early to market with location based services and the market continues to be educated by our competitors and other providers in this space. We’d rather be good second-movers than a failed pioneer.

When can you get your hands on Wubud?

I say this with bated breath, but we hope to have an alpha version by the end of January 2010. We’ll invite a small number of users to help us identify improvements so we can improve it further for our beta release (hopefully in February 2010).

What is go ugly early?

Go ugly early is a term used to describe an early product launch, even though it’s not designed exactly how you would like. The idea is to get ‘something’ out to the market in order to solicit early feedback, following up with small iterations to further improve the product based on customer feedback.

We’ve decided to go fashionably late - so fingers crossed…

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This is just one of many reasons why I NEVER use recruitment agencies. I really don’t like them (I’m being very diplomatic with my wording here!!)

More on the Sky News Web site.

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Astonished at how entitled some people feel to see others’ Twitter updates. I use Twitter for my uses; you use it for yours.

Protected updates mean I can converse with a small, intimate, trustworthy group. Would you crash a private conversation in a pub or home?

Just very puzzled as to why some people are so concerned with how others use Twitter. It’s none of your business. Move on.

This reminds me when I tweeted back in the early days that twitter was turning into a conversational tool. To which some replied ‘I think that’s stupid’. Why? Probably because they used it as one-way communication messages at the time (i.e different to how I used it).

I can understand why Jackie protects her updates, she’s a private person and only wants to communicate with people she knows and trusts. What’s wrong with that?

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Read Pat’s blog post here

My thoughts

I agree governments (not just the Irish one, but others too as they’re all the same wherever you go) should do more to help small businesses - especially during the troubled times.

However, I think too many entrepreneurs feel ‘entitled’ to hand-outs in the form of grants and conference subsidies. It would be nice to be on the receiving end but there are so many conferences around the world it’s impossible to send everyone to every conference that ‘they’ feel is appropriate. I also think too many of them feel entitled to investment. Out of interest, I’d like to know how many entrepreneurs closed deals on the basis of partnerships and clients that will generate revenue, or investment. Setting aside the usual helpful networking and rubbing shoulders…

My advice, for what it’s worth, is to focus on generating revenue and use that to pay for events such as TC50 if they are that important. Personally I think most conferences are of limited benefit to startups. I’ve been to TC50 on a freebie thanks to the organizers and I really enjoyed hanging out with the usual suspects – but I didn’t close anything that generated more revenue for any of my businesses. That’s not to say it’s the same for everyone – but I bet the percentage of those who really benefited is/will be tiny.

Have you really got value for money from industry conferences?

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I’m delighted to see the return of my favourite event of all time; Top Cats on 6 October, hosted by moi and sponsored by private healthcare company Galen Health.

As you might remember from previous posts, this strictly invitation-only event for CEOs, Founding Partners, Managing Directors, Senior Technology Providers, Brand Decision Makers, Investors and Media, is one of the most exclusive networking opportunities in London.

There are no formalities at Top Cats events and strictly a no-tie dress code will be implemented on the evening. It’s an informal gathering of like-minded people, many of whom end up collaborating on very interesting projects.

The venue for October’s outing is the Club Room at 1 Parliament Street, Westminster.

As part of their membership, each Top Cat is entitled to nominate two other like-minded individuals to join this lauded network each month. Each nomination is be considered based on strict criteria so that we can ensure the right people attend these events.

What is a Top Cat?

• Established Agencies = Founder/CEO/Chair
• Technology Providers & Brands (corporations such as Microsoft and the BBC) = Director/Head or other senior decision maker
• Startups = Founder/CEO/Chair + secured VC funding or have a seriously good track record
• Other = Publishers, Editors, Authors, TV Personalities, Establish Journalists, you get the picture…

To become a Top Cat, you must be referred by someone who is already a member. Unfortunately it’s not possible to apply directly with me or a member of Net.works, my new networking events company, under which, Top Cats now resides.

Please get in touch with kellybaker2@mac.com if you would like to sponsor and upcoming gathering.

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