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A group calling itself the .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition is asking the Internet addressing authority to reconsider its decision to allow the use of almost any name in conjunction with a .jobs extension.

Composed of several high-profile organizations and companies, the Coalition claims the .jobs expansion and the plan for allocating the new names violates the charter from the Internet Association for Assigned Names and Numbers, which spells out some of the terms for issuing a .jobs address.

The charter gives Employ Media, the domain registrar, the right to issue addresses, and gives the Society for Human Resource Management policy authority. It also sets the conditions for issuing addresses with a .jobs extension.

The Coalition says Employ Media’s plan, detailed in its RFP instructions,  to allow third parties to use .jobs addresses for purposes that might including running a job board is inconsistent with the charter and exceeds the approval it won from SHRM in June. keep reading…

The operator of the .jobs domain opened the competition today for the bulk assignment of new Internet addresses.

The RFP process announced by Employ Media solicits plans from third parties for the quantity use of addresses incorporating geographic, occupational, industry, dictionary, or combinations of these in conjunction with the .jobs suffix.

The 10-page RFP application notes that “A key goal of the .JOBS RFP is the enhancement of the .JOBS brand. Please include specific detail on how your proposal would help achieve that goal.”

This first round of the process — second round details will be announced later — costs $250 and closes on Sept. 24.

Besides the formal Request For Proposals application form, Employ Media also details the criteria by which submissions will be judged. Among the 15 listed points are: brand enhancement; quantity of the addresses to be used; “community value, impact and investment”; “quality, innovation, choice and differentiation”; the effect the proposal might have on SHRM, the sponsor of the domain; and typical criteria dealing with the financial stability of the proposer, and its ability to perform. keep reading…

A preliminary report on the ICANN board meeting earlier this month shows that the decision to expand the use of .jobs Internet addresses had at least one opponent.

Of the 15 voting members of the board of the Internet addressing authority (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), 14 participated in the Aug. 5 closed, teleconference. When it came time to vote, one board member opposed the expansion, two abstained, leaving 11 in favor.

The report, which appears to have been posted Monday, doesn’t detail who abstained and who cast the “No” vote. That will have to await the official minutes, which won’t be publicly available until after the next board meeting on Oct. 28th.

The report also says little about the nature of the discussion about the request by Employ Media to issue .jobs addresses using geographic, occupational, professional, or other words (i.e. Boston.jobs, javaengineers.jobs, etc.). All it says is, ”The Board discussed with staff the process taken for the proposed amendment in the .JOBS sTLD, and raised questions regarding the scope of change this amendment would have on the charter of the sTLD.”

It’s not unusual for the ICANN board to split votes or for some board members to abstain. At the same meeting it approved the .jobs expansion and the plan for making available the new names, the board split a vote over creating native language-based Internet domain extensions for Jordan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Tunisia. That vote was nine in favor, two opposed, and three abstentions. Another split vote occurred over paying the board chairman $75,000 a year.

Employ Media is looking for a few — or more — good ideas for how best to make use of the newly expanded addressing possibilities of the .jobs domain.

This isn’t the formal RFP process that was outlined in Employ Media’s expansion proposal. Rather, it’s more of a 30,000-foot brainstorming opportunity. “High level business concepts” is what the licensed operator of the .jobs domains says on a new website it’s looking for.

In 150 words or less, Employ Media wants to know what ideas you or your organization have for making use of the almost unlimited new .jobs names now available. “We’re particularly interested in hearing ideas comprising a bulk number of domains,” says Tom Embrescia, chairman of Employ Media.

There’s no commitment nor any obligation. Though if you have a really good idea, you might keep in mind this caveat from the Terms and Conditions: “Employ Media LLC is free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in any communication you send for any purpose whatsoever.” keep reading…

UPDATE: Employ Media issued a statement today saying it was pleased with the decision and offered some guidance on the next steps.

“We’re very pleased with the decision rendered by the ICANN Board,” the statement quotes Tom Embrescia, chairman of Employ Media. “Their decision validates the efforts of SHRM, its independent review, the support shown by the HR community, and the diligence of ICANN staff addressing the merits of this matter. I am very thankful for the effort put forth by all.”

The next steps, according to the statement, ” will involve an Expressions of Interest (EOI) period with details soon to follow. ”

The news release goes on to quote Embrescia saying, “We realize there has been extraordinary interest in .JOBS from many facets of the HR community. We hope the EOI period will serve as an open invitation to the community to participate.”

EARLIER: The proposal to expand the use of the .jobs Internet address has been approved.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved the request during its telephone meeting yesterday. The announcement of the board’s action was posted to the ICANN site this morning.

No details of the vote or discussion were released. That will be made available later. A summary may be posted next week.

The resolution apporoving the request by the .jobs registrar, Employ Media, notes that the expansion and the plan on making new addresses available followed the required procedure and had the “endorsement of the sponsoring organization for .JOBS, the Society for Human Resource Management. The proposal is also consistent with other approvals to permit the registration and allocation of certain types of domain names via phased allocation mechanisms.” keep reading…

UPDATE: The ICANN board meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. PT today and may take upwards of three hours.  Actions taken by the board are typically posted 48 hours after the meeting, which may mean no news about the .jobs expansion until Monday. A preliminary report on the meeting is posted within seven days and minutes become available only after the board approves them at a subsequent meeting.

In advance of tomorrow’s today’s scheduled discussion of the expansion of the .jobs addressing program, the staff of the Internet addressing authority has posted a summary of the contentious public discussion.

The report, posted Monday, quantifies the comments received by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and outlines the pros and cons of the arguments. keep reading…

The Internet’s naming authority will take up the controversial plan to expand the .jobs addresses at its Aug. 5th telephone conference.

The agenda of the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers was released a short while ago and includes consideration of the proposal.

Also on the agenda for the three-hour meeting is the even more controversial proposal to approve a .XXX extension for porn sites. For obvious reasons, that request has garnered wider public interest, including 13,325 comments posted to the ICANN forum. The .jobs expansion plan garnered 316 comments.

The board’s telephone conference is not open to the public. An ICANN spokesperson said that the board’s decision on all agenda items will be made available following the end of the meeting. The spokesperson didn’t say exactly when the results would be reported. keep reading…

If the sheer number of comments decided the matter, the proposal to expand the use of .jobs addresses would be DOA. In the week since opponents of the plan launched a campaign against it, more than 200 comments were posted to the public forum run by the group that will decide the matter.

Not all the comments opposed the expansion; however, most did. The majority appear to stem from an email campaign launched by the International Association of Employment Web Sites, the trade group for the world’s job boards.

While many of the comments followed the sample letter circulated among IAEWS members and to others including staffing agencies (here’s a sample that includes the pitch), several argued their own case against the expansion. keep reading…

For months, John Zappe has been covering the .jobs saga here on ERE.net, so regular ERE readers will be familiar with much of the background. If you are new to the story, you can catch up here and here.

Today is the final day of ICANN’s open comment period before they consider Employ Media’s .jobs charter amendment. It’s our last chance to be heard.

I’ve emailed ICANN the following letter urging that they reject the proposed amendment, and it is posted alongside hundreds of other comments in the ICANN Archives. Join me in by writing to ICANN today and letting them know what you think. keep reading…

With only one day left in the public comment period, the blitz promised by opponents of the .jobs expansion plan is all but overwhelming the proponents.

Since the metaphorical shooting began Monday, 43 comments as of this writing have been posted to the forum run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. That’s the organization that will decide whether to open up the .jobs addresses to non-company names. Rules now limit the awarding of a .jobs address only to employers using the company name.

Most of the comments oppose the expansion and come from job board owners or operators. keep reading…

As the clock counts down on the public comment period regarding the expansion of the .jobs Internet address, opponents this morning launched their campaign to stop it.

Since this is being written on Friday, I can only tell you what’s supposed to be happening today: posts discussing the proposed .jobs changes should be appearing on blogs; tweets are going out to followers of some job board leaders; others are sending messages to their LinkedIn groups, updating their status on Facebook, while still others are sending emails.

From what I’ve heard, the messages will raise issues similar to those in a letter by Ted Daywalt, founder and CEO of VetJobs, and in commentary by Steven Rothberg, founder and president of CollegeRecruiter.

The opposition is being championed by the job board industry and in particular, its trade group, the International Association of Employment Web Sites. Until now, the group has kept a low public profile about the  proposal to allow almost any name to be used in conjunction with a .jobs Internet extension. (Under the original rules, only company names could be used.)

Behind the scenes, the group exerted its influence to get a seat on a SHRM advisory group that reviewed the expansion plan. SHRM is involved because it sponsored the creation of the .jobs domain and still represents the HR community, the nominal beneficiary of using .jobs for corporate career sites. keep reading…

Three weeks into a public comment period and what the Internet addressing authority is being told is that it should approve changing the .jobs program.

All but one of the 20 comments (six from the same person) support the request by Employ Media to be allowed to offer occupational, geographic, and other names in conjunction with a .jobs extension. Currently, only company names (ATT.jobs) are permitted.

Most of the comments are short, and along the lines of this one: keep reading…

From the beginning, SHRM’s .jobs advisory council agreed to veil its meetings in secrecy, withholding its minutes and cloaking the names of speakers with numbers.

The minutes, released Wednesday, also show the council wrestled with the reasons why Employ Media, the registrar of the .jobs domain, was looking to expand its use and what value that expansion might offer the HR community.

However, if the council at any time actually enumerated the specific benefits of allowing non-company names to be used with a .jobs extension, it is not shown in the minutes.

When the council voted 7-1 on June 3 it approved a measure declaring simply that the proposed amendment “would serve the needs of the international human resource management community.”

The dissenter was not identified. Nor do the minutes indicate the reason for the ‘No’ vote, except to note that the dissenter declared it had nothing to do with the resignation of Jobing CEO Aaron Matos minutes before the meeting. keep reading…

The expansion of the .jobs Internet address has been given the go-ahead by the Society for Human Resource Management, paving the way for the launch of what could be hundreds of thousands of new job boards. SHRM made the announcement this morning.

While the 7-1 vote by the SHRM advisory group and the subsequent ratification by SHRM’s executive committee are crucial milestones, the ultimate decision is up to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

ICANN, as it is known, is the Internet’s addressing authority. Yesterday, it received the paperwork beginning the formal process to expand the .jobs usage. Submitted by Employ Media, SHRM’s partner in the .jobs program, the proposal says Employ Media intends to make new .jobs names available through a three-step process:

1. “Request for Proposals (RFP) to invite interested parties to propose specific plans for registration, use, and promotion of domains that are not their company name;
2. By auction round that offers domains not allocated through the RFP process; and
3. A first-come, first-served real-time release of any domains not registered through the RFP or auction processes.” keep reading…

The comment period to collect opinions on the future of the .jobs domain closes Friday. But a two-page ad in the recent Staffing Management magazine from SHRM seems to say the decision has already been made.

The ad promotes the use of the planned series of job boards by the DirectEmployers Association. Against a snowy mountain backdrop, the ad lists a sampling of 18 of the planned “thousands” of job sites, among them Tokyo.jobs and Governmentconsulting.jobs.

“Coming soon!,” the ad promises. “List your jobs for free at thousands of locations.”

Technically, however, both the promise and the Internet addresses in the ad are premature. Under the rules by which the .jobs Internet extension was authorized, such names are not allowed. The rules allow only employer names to be used with a .jobs extension.

Whether the thousands of job boards ever come, let alone soon, is still to be decided. A SHRM-appointed group (the nine-members are the Policy Development Process Council) is studying a proposal to open up the naming rules to allow Employ Media to sell or (in the case of the DirectEmployers plan) “loan” geographic, occupational, and combination names. keep reading…

If you haven’t already offered your opinion on the future of .jobs, the Internet address extension designed for corporate career sites, better hurry. Friday might be your last chance.

Then again it may not be.

The Society for Human resource Management is collecting opinions on the wisdom of loosening the restrictions on what names can be linked to a .jobs Internet extension. In a May 8th email, SHRM’s Gary Rubin, point man for the group’s .jobs involvement, said the comment period would last “about three weeks.” The period opened May 11.

However, on the website set-up by DirectEmployers Association, key beneficiary of changing the rules, the association’s leader says: “The open comment period is open for 10 days only, through Friday, May 21st.”

Who’s right? I don’t know. The SHRM public comment page is silent on how long input will be accepted. I sent Rubin an email asking about the duration, and a few other questions, including why comments are not being made public, but haven’t gotten a response.

DirectEmployers is pitching hard for the change. Its launch last year of several dozen job boards was the catalyst for changing the rules. keep reading…

SHRM released overnight the place where it is collecting public comment on whether the .Jobs Internet address should be opened up almost any address. Comments are being accepted here: http://shrm.wufoo.com/forms/jobs-public-comment-page/

The launch of a comment period and a survey to be conducted by SHRM staff was announced over the weekend.

Unusual for most public forums is that the comments are hidden from view. The last time comments were collected on this subject, they were public. However, there was no announcement of that process; consequently, few comments were posted and the effort was essentially abandoned. For the current comment period, names and employers are being requested, but anonymity is promised.

The SHRM comment page offers only the basics of the proposal that is the focus of the comment collection. It describes the proposal this way:

“A “.jobs” website URL reflects a company’s name, followed by “.jobs” (example “ABCDCompany.jobs”). In addition to this approach, .jobs is considering some additions to the current companyname.jobs business model. These changes would allow the creation of new URLs designed to target specific professions, geographic areas, using dictionary words (e.g., Diversity, Spanish-Speaking etc.), two character names, or combinations of all of these.”

No problem there, but what SHRM doesn’t say is that it is a sponsor of the .Jobs domain, nor does it provide any background on the reason for expanding the use of the .Jobs address. keep reading…

A public comment period will open this week to collect opinion on a proposal to expand the use of .Jobs Internet extensions.

A website will be announced Monday where HR professionals and others can comment on the plan to allow the .Jobs domain to be used with occupational, geographic, and a combination of geographic and occupational addresses. Right now, only companies can get a .Jobs extension and then only to advertise their own jobs.

In addition to a website, the Society for Human Resource Management will also conduct a survey to garner opinion on the plan.

Gary Rubin, SHRM’s chief publishing, e-media, and business development officer, announced the public comment and survey in an email Saturday. He said the comment period would last about three weeks.

The location wasn’t ready when he sent the email, but it will be when the details and address of the website are reported in SHRM’s HR Week newsletter. keep reading…

More info. And a public comment period. That’s what the .jobs council appointed by SHRM decided it needed during a conference call today.

The group that’s to recommend whether to allow a .jobs address to be issued  in most any name, said it needs more information on how Internet addresses are managed, as well as how the .jobs names themselves are issued.

The nine member group, officially named the Policy Development Process Council, said a comment period would be “forthcoming.” But it first wanted details on the policies surrounding the issuance of Internet domains and specifically on the business practices of Employ Media, the company that issues .jobs addresses. keep reading…

The SHRM .jobs council conference call, proposed for today, has now been scheduled for Thursday.

Today’s call was moved to Thursday after scheduling issues were raised, I’ve been told. I sent the council’s manager, Gary Rubin, an email seeking to confirm that, but have not yet heard for sure. Rubin is SHRM’s chief publishing, e-media, and business development officer, and point man for its .jobs affairs. keep reading…