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.
One criterion weighs the proposer’s “historical activities and actions” relating to the .jobs domain, Employ Media, SHRM, the HR community, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
The number of potential proposers with the experience suggested here is likely to be small. One organization with a clear track record of involvement with all the groups is Employ Media’s beta partner DirectEmployers Association.
Last fall, the two organizations joined forces to launch several dozen job boards using geographic and occupation-specific names, such as Atlanta.jobs and Nursing.jobs. At the time, DirectEmployers boasted it would eventually launch hundreds of thousands of such sites.
But after the Internet addressing authority, ICANN, questioned the use of such names, which were restricted in the original contract with Employ Media, the sites were taken down.
Subsequently, Employ Media petitioned for a change to the agreement, which then went through a process including a review by a SHRM council. The first iteration of that council was headed by Bill Warren, the executive director of DirectEmployers, and included members of the organization.
SHRM eventually dissolved that group and appointed its own Policy Development Process council. One member of the nine-person council was Rhonda Stickley, president of DirectEmployers.
DirectEmployers said it will participate in the RFP process, and published a whitepaper outlining its plan. Authored by Warren, the plan is essentially the same program that was launched last fall: multiple addresses serving up targeted jobs from a common platform.
“All employers worldwide, regardless of size or industry, should be allowed to list their jobs free of charge,” according to the whitepaper. Low?cost recruitment advertising opportunities” are an objective.