Knowing where you're @ - and making it truly personal

Debbie Monahan. Photo / Supplied

Domain name commissioner Debbie Monahan heads the Domain Name Commission (www.dnc.org.nz) which is responsible for managing the ".nz" portion of cyberspace's real estate. She has some simple advice for small New Zealand businesses wanting to better express themselves online.

What surprises you in your job?

It's curious that so many New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses with an email address opt to name themselves after their ISP (internet service provider). You see them everywhere: [person or business's name]@[ISP's name].co.nz. This is a missed opportunity to use email addresses for self expression and/or self promotion.

It's curious when you consider that people have long fought to achieve number portability in telecommunications. It's been a fight to gain a number that's yours, transferable to any telecommunications company you choose. It allows you to change providers for whatever reason you choose - be it price, service or even fashion. Number portability puts choice, and hence power, in the hands of the individual.

What is the internet equivalent of mobile phone number portability?

The internet was custom-made for building identities not only because a name is far more personal than a number but because the technology itself supports transportability of identity across providers.

That identity works at a range of levels both before and after the "@". First, there's your name before the "@". Then there's the choice of a second and third level domain name. Second level domain names are highlighted in the Domain Name Commission's current ".nz is our home" campaign: .co; .govt .ac; .Maori; .net; .mil; .geek; .school and .org.

The third option for personalisation is via a third level domain, which is an extension of your own name - bill@snooks.[second level domain name].nz.

What are the benefits of personalised email addresses?

It gives online address options that allow you to move from one ISP to another and maintaining your identity in the process. And for a small business that's important. [ISP-specific addresses] make it harder to swap ISPs without the hurdles of informing all your contacts, changing stationery and so forth, not to mention all those email addresses you've placed in online services such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Identi.ca, LinkedIn and Flickr.

The ability to pick and choose with ease is at the core of good competition, and is a characteristic of a fair and open market.

In a world of personalised number plates, increasing competition in business and self expression, it's surprising how many people, online, accept being "defined" by someone else, rather than defining themselves.

What holds people back from personalising online?

Too many people and businesses don't know that they can have their own personalities via their domain name and that it costs very little to do so.

In other words you could say that not everyone knows quite where they're "@".

They are also unaware of the importance of flexibility to move around in cyberspace with their identity untethered to an ISP, giving a greater choice of service providers, more simply.

As New Zealanders, .nz is our home. It's unique to us.

Maximising our identities and, consequently, our mobility comes at a modest cost, but surely this is minor in relation to the freedom of choice it ensures.