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.
Gary Rubin, SHRM’s chief publishing, e-media, and business development officer, who is managing the internal review process for the organization, is on vacation this week so wasn’t immediately reachable to respond to the questions.
In the 2004 application SHRM filed with its partner, Employ Media, the reason given for creating a .Jobs Internet extension was:
“A shared and common need of this Community is for a reasonable and consistent method for promotion and location by way of a descriptive format within a new Top Level addressing hierarchy (i.e.companyname.jobs).”
The Community as defined in the application “consists of those persons who deal with the human element in an organization.” The .Jobs domain, the application explains, was needed to improve access to a company’s online recruitment information, and specifically, its job listings.
When the domain was created, the contract with the Internet’s addressing authority, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, permitted .Jobs addresses to be issued only for corporate names.
Last year,with sales of the .Jobs address stagnant, Employ Media partnered with Direct Employers Association, “lending” it geographic and occupation names such as Atlanta.jobs and Nursing.jobs. By the fall, Direct Employers had launched several dozen job boards on those addresses and announced plans for tens of thousands more.
Employ Media insisted it had the right to issue almost any address it wanted. However, after ICANN stepped in, SHRM and Employ Media initiated the formal amendment process.
A shared and common need of this Community is
for a reasonable and consistent method for promotion and location by way of a
descriptive format within a new Top Level addressing hierarchy (i.e.
companyname.jobs).
