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TLD Registrar Wants To Charge $300 For .Pro Names
dipfan writes: "The commercialization of the net continues: RegistryPro, the ICANN-approved registrar of the new TLD name, wants to charge up to $300 for .Pro addresses - or about 10 times the price of a .com address. The company says it will restrict .Pro to doctors, lawyers or accountants: 'qualified professionals in good standing ... .pro will be a premium brand, enabling effective, secure communication between professionals and users for the first time in the history of the Internet.' The Washington Post quotes RegistryPro's chief executive: 'The goal of RegistryPro is to build out a gated community for professionals on the Internet.' Is this what happens when you give one company a license to print money?"
Spanish: Profesional
French: Professionnel
Italian: Professionista
Portuguese: Profissional
I don't know about other universities or countries, but at my university in BC, engineering is a four year degree where you come out with a B.Eng (not a B.S.). It takes five years because of co-op.
However, in BC and I believe most (if not all) of the other provinces, you must have been working as an engineer for at least four years before you can apply to get your P.Eng (Professional Engineer).
So we can't just call ourselves Professional Engineers upon graduation, it takes about nine years.
I don't think this is a whole lot different. Just a different set of hoops to jump through to be called a professional. I think engineers are just as professional as doctors, etc.
Of course there are a hell of a lot of other careers that would need to be included in that list as well.
On topic again,
What bothers me the most is how they're charging for the extension. Sure have criteria, that's fine and dandy, but to charge like that? It makes me think of the frequency spectrum, somehow the right to use parts of something that just exists can be sold and no one else is allowed to use it. I understand the theory but sometimes when I'm thinking the right way, it bothers me.
--- I used to moderate, then I read the -1 articles and decided having to filter through them was not worth it.
Nope, but everyone who gets an engineering degree *and* spends x years working in engineering in a position of some responsibility.
Incidentally, in some countries in mainland Europe the word "engineer" has the same status as the word "doctor". You actually call yourself "Engineer Smith" the same way as you'd call an MD or PhD "Doctor Jones". To avoid this getting diluted, there's high standards for getting your "Engineer" title. And as a result of that, engineers have a high status in society and engineering is seen as a top career.
A junior doctor doesn't spend all those 8 years in school - most of it is spent working and learning how to apply the knowledge they've got from their course. Which is the same as any engineer does when they get out of school.
Grab.
Let's see how well off these countries in the first place and weigh that with their TLD "fortune" (based off of figures from the CIA World Factbook):
- Moldova has just over 4 million people, has no significant natural mineral or hydrocarbon resources (it has to import 100% of its oil, natural gas, and coal) and their only significant export is agricultural, but much of their lands are contaminated by chemicals and pesticides while they were under Soviet rule. They import $761 million and export $500 million.
- Tonga has only around 100,000 people. They export mainly agriculture and fish, which accounts for 30% of their GDP, but their primary source of income is tourism. They export $8 million and import $69 million. They rely on external aid from Tongan communities overseas to make up for their trade deficit. Their inflation (7%) is higher than their GDP growth rate (5%). 100% of the electricity is generated from fossil fuels, which they probably import all of.
- Tuvalu: 11,000 people strong. Inflation higher than GDP growth. Import $4.4 million and export $165,000. Merchandise exports are falling.
For these countries, their TLD behaves much like a new natural resource that they can export. In the case of Tuvalu, their revenue is enhanced greatly by their exploits with theIn contrast, other countries are blessed with lucrative resources such as oil, gold and diamonds. Are all these fortunes unfair while other countries suffer with lack of their own resources they can export? Sure. But I fail to see how one can complain against Tuvalu for their .tv domain because of unfairness, when we see countries like Saudi Arabia using its wealth acquired from oil by spoiling their royal family members and leaving the rest of its citizens in poverty. Or countries like the various African countries blessed with some of the biggest diamond deposits in the world, yet their own citizens don't get to see any of the wealth, and are in fact killed by their own governments, all for the benefit of the diamond industry corporations. You can't say that the .tv or .to domains have resulted in the slaughter of children and women.
Good for Tuvalu, Moldova, and Tonga! I say. Let them take advantage of their tech resource to help them live better. They were smart enough to exploit it without harming anyone.
Now, that doesn't make you an engineer any more than a BA in humanities makes you a Doctor or Lawyer. [aside] Doctor, here, is used in the Medical Doctor context, not PhD. PhDs generally depend on novel thought and intellegence, MDs depend on hard work and excellent memorization skills. No offense is meant to either, merely a distintion most people overlook. [/aside]
Now that you've graduated with a B Eng or BS form an Accredited college, you are eligible to sit for the Fundementals of Engineering exam. It's a simple 8 hour, two part exam which tests your general knowledge of engineering, mathematics and science. About 75% of those taking the test who have already earned an engineering degree pass the exam.
Congratulations, you're an Engineer In Training (EIT), and you're lower than dirt! Now you can be paid a modest starting salary to work long hours while you learn how the real world works and understand how engineers get stuff done. After four more years, you're qualified to submit your application to take the Principles and Practice Exam. Of course, you'll need to document all the work you've done for the last four years showing increasing complexity and responsibility in engineering, plus written recommendations from several colleagues who are registered engineers.
If you're application is deemed worthy, you'll be allowed to sit for another 8 hour, 2 part examination. Of course, this is a bit more difficult than the last. Pass rates generally hover around 50%-60% for first time takers. Some smaller/targeted fields have higher pass rates. Some have smaller (Structural Engineers passing both halves of the Structural II for last October: 14%).
Didn't pass the first time? No big deal, you can take it again - but don't get your hopes up. Passing rates the second time around drop to around half of the first-time takers. If you don't know the material, you can't just memorize more stuff and improve your chances - this stuff is for real!
That's what it takes to get a PE. Keeping your certification is not much different that other professions - continuing education credits are required each year in many states, nominal registration fees to each state in which you are licensed, and so on.
Given the advantages of co-ops and time to process registrations and exams the typical time to obtain your PE is about 9 to 10 years , given that you pass each exam on the first try. Please don't whine about 8 years to get your MD or Law Degree. It speaks poorly for your profession.
Overzeetop, PE
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Realistically, you can get almost any domain name not in use that isn't a major English word for less than $100 now. The domain business is over. Verisign's profits are off because hundreds of thousands of domains are being released when they come up for renewal, and the few people still into domain hoarding are using cheaper registrars.
Bloody hell, I wasn't claiming that no-one in the third world was capable of speaking English, I was merely inquiring whether such persons would find such an extension so valuable and desirable.
.pro is primarily targeted at an English speaking audience. Plenty of room for complaint over ICANN's English-centrism exists here, please direct such grumbles to them, not me, thank you.
.CC, those guys are responsible for the pathetic state of radio in the US and I wish that someone got some use from them.) My point wasn't that this was a bad thing, just that it wasn't so bad that someone commercial got .pro either. I doubt that anything beyond the original standards or country codes will have long-term value for domains. Once the system fragments much more it will lose all possible value - if one can append _anything_ to the end of a domain as the TLD, what, then, is the point of the TLD? At that point it's just a long arbitrary name with no hierarchical structure, and who would pay $300 for that? At that price, the .pro registrar will crash and burn and the TLD will either go away or go to someone else who may treat it better. Let the market decide.
And sure, other languages (particularly Romance languages) have cognates of professional beginning with the same three letters, but I doubt that many of them commonly use pro as a short form of the word. (The only saving grace of annoying pedantry is precision. Without that, one is merely being annoying.) Let's acknowledge that
And I think it's great that Moldova and Tuvalu and the like got a great windfall from random chance giving them a good name. (Though I wish Cocos Islands had hit ClearChannel communications up for more money for
You're just jealous 'cuz the voices talk to *me*