Tech: Professionals get own internet identity

AAP General News (Australia)
12-09-2001
Tech: Professionals get own internet identity

By Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, Dec 9 AAP - Doctors, lawyers and accountants will get their own virtual avenue
on the information superhighway next year.

RegistryPro, a joint venture between Register.com and Virtual Internet, expects the
".pro" top-level domain (TLD) could early next year replace hundreds of .com and other
addresses used by professionals worldwide.

A number of new TLDs are being rolled out over the next year to clear congestion from
the original .com, .net and .org domains and enhance the usefulness of the domain name
system.

Register.com spokeswoman Lisette Zarnowski said the joint venture partners were still
negotiating with the peak internet naming body, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN), but expected the contract to be signed within weeks.

"Once that is signed there will be a clear determination of when .pro will be rolled
out," Ms Zarnowski told AAP.

"Initially the .pro name will be exclusively for doctors, lawyers and accountants and
then later rolled out to other professionals such as engineers.

"The benefits of using .pro will be that anyone going to your site will be guaranteed
they are actually reaching an actual doctor, lawyer or accountant, whereas now with the
.com TLD you are never sure who may be posing as what."

Ms Zarnowski said those using the .pro domain would need to verify their professional
credentials and each registrant would be required to ensure their site and communications
were secure.

"This will be the first ever completely secure TLD," Ms Zarnowski said.

"The encrypted e-mail will also help in communications between the professionals and
their clients because it will provide the most secure means of communication over the
web."

The initial sub-domains will be law.pro, med.pro and cpa.pro.

Australian professionals will have to register their name through an accredited internet
registrar.

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KEYWORD: DOMAINS

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