Personality bandobasth at DotAsia

Rachna Gupta

New Delhi

February 20th, 2008

DotAsia conducted its 31st International Public Meeting recently in New Delhi
in association with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
and Department of IT and National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), where it
announced its signups from India for its celebrity pioneer program. The
organization claims that its celebrity pioneer program will offer Indian
celebrities the priority to register their domain name with DotAsia before the
registrations open for public today, February 20, 2008.

According to Edmon Chung, CEO, DotAsia Organization, "There are more
than 450 million online customers in Asia, and the DotAsia domain name is a
gateway to reach Asia, which is the largest Internet market in the world. As a
registry operator, our priority is to make sure that DotAsia can be accessible
anytime, anywhere. We also support legitimate effort for personal data
protection and anti-phishing/spamming initiatives worldwide. For example,
DotAsia 'Sunrise' process is designed to avoid trademark infringement and so far
it has been very successful."

While for Kapil Dev, cricket veteran, KapilDev.asia will be his home on the
Internet, where he will come up with various columns and write-ups to
communicate with cricket fans, Shibani Kashyap, pop singer has intentions to
make previews of her songs and videos available on the domain
ShibaniKashyup.asia.

On reaching out to celebrities, unlike Kapil Dev and Shibani Kashyap, who are
not so tech-savvy, Chung said, "We are working with organizations such as
the Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild, Directors Guild, etc to try to reach
out to the personalities. We are also focused on working with early adopters,
such as KapilDev.Asia and ShibaniKashyup.Asia to demonstrate the value and build
awareness for the community. By encouraging artists and events to utilize
DotAsia domains, we would be able to drive awareness and active usage of DotAsia
domain names from end users. We believe these activities have built a solid
foundation for future growth in the DotAsia registry."

He further informed, "Our policies are developed through an open process
involving public input. Furthermore, Internet users around the world can also
reach us through our website www.registry.Asia. Our registrars (channel
partners) set the price for the markets and the customers they serve. Till Feb
20, 2008, registrars like Directi and Net4 India are offering extremely good
price for users to get a DotAsia domain."

Speaking on how will the netizens get to know that the website is managed by
a particular celebrity and not some third person, Chung said, "DotAsia does
not in general do any certification in this respect. However, during the Sunrise
period, all applications submitted will be verified against its claims. This
ensures that the registrant has legitimate claims to the DotAsia domain name. An
evaluation committee is formed to assess the applications. Furthermore, World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is adjudicating a challenge period so
that a party disputing the legitimacy of an application is facilitated."