Domains in tongues

By ADAM GIFFORD

Patrick O'Brien, the former chief executive of New Zealand internet domain name registration company Domainz, is to head a Singapore start-up company which provides multilingual domain names.

i-DNS uses technology developed at Singapore University to allow people to create internet addresses in Chinese, Tamil, Hebrew, Korean and other languages which do not use the standard Ascii lettering system.

Mr O'Brien will be vice-president and general manager of the i-DNS registry.

He said the company had just signed an agreement with NSI which would allow it to provide multilingual addresses in the .com name space.

"The company has about over 100,000 domain names, but with NSI on the screen, use should rocket," Mr O'Brien said.

"It's an interesting product in a fascinating area which needs to standardise. The company needs skilled help to grow."

Management of the .nz top level domain is at present in limbo while a working group works out how to create a shared registry system voted through at the Internet Society of New Zealand's recent annual meeting.

Mr O'Brien said Isconz members needed to appreciate that internet registries were competing globally.

"It's just like a supermarket. Registries just buy web space on a registrar's site. The registries have to make sure if a potential name holder goes to a name space to register a name, the registrars stick .nz in the obvious place.

"The whole notion of registrars or registries is becoming blurred. It's wise to keep an open mind and look outside New Zealand."