I also posted this on the Telnic developers discussion forum, but that is a very technical place and I'm not sure it's typical content there -- I mostly posted it there because I'm hoping that Telnic management will read it. This site includes discussions that are less technical and of broader nature, so I thought it would be good here, too. So, here goes. Please don't everyone flame me at once -- I'm a fan of .tel, just sceptical of its chances of success.

The .tel tld is a brilliant idea. I love the idea and I really hope it succeeds. But it faces daunting challenges - indeed, downright obstacles - to widespread adoption by the public at large. Here are some of them. I list these not to be negative about dot-tel, but to see how these challenges are being met. In order to be positive, I'm also offering some potential strategic answers, underneath.

First the challenges:

1. It's too hard to communicate to Jane Public, her children, and her children's' grandparents what the difference is between what .tel is trying to do and what Plaxo, Facebook, and LinkedIn do. This is related to "It's too techy" - Jane public and her family couldn't care less whether information is stored directly in the dns or on a website. In fact, they will never bother making the effort to understand the difference. They don't want to know from dns. For them, Facebook is best because you can put nice photos on it, which you can't do with .tel -- they'll never understand why, what the difference is, etc. As far as they're concerned, if they want to control their contact information centrally, there's already Plaxo or LinkedIn or, indeed, Facebook, which are all free and all look much nicer and are all much more intuitive to use.

2. It's too techy. Jane Public doesn't know from domain names, and doesn't want to. She MIGHT just know what a domain name is, but she's never registered one in her life and it has never occurred to her that she may ever need or want to.

3. It's not free. Ten or fifteen dollars might seem like such a low price that it requires little or no thought. But it's not about how much -- it's about having to pay anything at all; having to go through the hassle of entering credit card details etc., and then having an amount be charged on a periodic basis, etc. People have been educated to believe that while you of course have to pay for anything physical that you order and that has to be delivered in a package, purely electronic offerings online should be, and are, free.

4 Apart from the techiness of it, it's also just too complex at the moment. People are used to a simple, intuitive, SINGLE sign-up. With .tel you have to go through not one, not even two, but THREE separate sign-ups. First, you have to register a domain, which is bad enough (see number 2 above). Probably you don't already have an account at a registrar (in fact probably you don't even know what a registrar IS). So you have to sign up at a registrar. Then you have to choose a username and password for telhosting (if that registrar's implementation of telhosting lets you choose). This will already lose a whole bunch of Jane Publics. THEN, once you're in telhosting, you STILL have to activate TelFriends, using yet a third username-password set. This is a recipe for eternal obscurity. And lastly, to make things REALLY bad, the friending procedure is totally unconventional and not what people expect or want. If I send a TelFriends request to someone and they accept, then I can see their private info but they still can't see mine (or is it the other way round? I can't keep it all straight...) until THEY send ME a separate request which then I have to accept. This is totally against how everyone has come to expect a friending process to work. On all the social networking sites, if you send me a request and I accept or I send you a request and you accept, the result is the same: we are linked as friends in both directions. This is intuitive and how it should be. I have heard that TelFriends' unusual approach is to give people more control over privacy, but people just aren't going to want this, and it's going to confuse them, put them off, and result is non-take-up of TelFriends. It's a degree of data privacy that nobody wants. It's just intuitive that if I want you to give me access to your private info then I will be willing to give you access to mine as a matter of course, and that is what people expect. So, in sum, three different sign-up procedures and then a baffling, confusing friending process -- this is just not going to ever gain mass traction.

These are significant obstacles to .tel ever becoming anything as well-known and widely-used as the old Yellow Pages. How can they be overcome?

1. Set up a specialised registrar for ONLY .tel domains. This registrar's interface will completely and natively integrate telhosting, so that there is only ever one sign-up procedure and only ONE username-password set for managing all aspects of the .tel domain. The registrar has to be a different legal entity from Telnic, of course, but that's no great problem.

2. Make .tel domains free for the first few years, while making it clear to new users that, two or three years down the road, there will be a very small fee for the domain. (Caveat -- see 5 below -- people would willingly pay for a great e-mail offering.)

3. Drop TelFriends. WE (those using this forum) understand why TelFriends ISN'T just a totally lame, totally restricted and boring social-networking effort that is light-years behind Facebook and the others, but this is impossible to communicate to the vast public. The efforts so far, with all the mention of dns and what have you, are ineffectual because NOBODY CARES about data being stored in something mysterious called a DNS. This kind of talk is for geeks ONLY. If that's Telnic's only market ambition -- getting the geeks and domainers interested -- then I'm reading them wrong.

4. Partner with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Plaxo, and others. The MySpace deal was good, a step in the right direction, shows correct thinking. But MySpace's audience and user base is just not the market for .tel; the demographic for .tel is university graduate and older-than-25. What should the partnerships consist of? Integrate into those social networking sites a direct, single-sign-on access to one's own .tel information, which is then distributed, through the same integration, out to all of one's social networking accounts. Let's say I keep a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account, and a Plaxo account. On each of those, I enter my .tel domain, username, and password to link, say, my Facebook account with my .tel domain. I do this also at LinkedIn, Plaxo, and wherever else, but only have do to this ONCE at each of them. (This could even be taken one step further and, with the right partnership in place, you could actually create an account on the dedicated registrar within your, say, Facebook account, and maybe even register a domain, all within your Facebook account, via webservices to the registrar.) From then on, each of my social networking profiles will always get (via webservices) and show to my "friends" my current contact information. And I can control who has access to what level. For example, I can set the info that is public in my .tel to be shown on my public internet profiles for each social networking site, and then, for the private .tel info, I can choose, for each, say, Facebook Friend, whether they can see my private .tel info or not. This of course requires the necessary integration with Facebook etc, but technically it's trivial; the challenge is at the business relationship level. The same type of partnership could be set up with Amazon, e-Bay, i-Tunes (well, okay, probably not Apple), Google Accounts, etc.

5. At the new specialised registrar set up in point 1 above, make it VERY EASY for users to have e-mail at whatever@their.tel -- in fact, include it in the package by default (to opt out of if you want to save, like 10 or 20 dollars per year), providing both an attractive web email interface AND IMAP support so that people can use it nicely on their iPhones etc. People will like this, they'll see value in it. You might not even have to do the first couple of years for free -- people will be happy to pay ten or twenty dollars per year for email@their.tel (they pay some crazy amount each year for a MobileMe account, so we know this.)

6. Once the above elements are in place, do tons and tons and tons of viral marketing (only because all other types are too expensive).

I will close by saying I wish the Telnic guys every success. But, and again without wishing to be negative, I do fear that, the way things are set up at the moment, this just isn't going to take off. The current set-up is for the few domainers, geeks, and assorted eccentrics who have the level of interest and technical comfort to start doing something with .tel -- it's going to exclude the masses unless major changes are made.

My intention is not flame your post, because your criticisms are valid. I just don't necessarily agree with your assessment of Jane Public and how she'll view this. I have talked to some very non-technical people and they understand the concept and the value of it immediately.

In 2006 I worked for a startup mobile software company that was trying to sell mobile community portals to wireless customers. It was kind of a cool product but we couldn't explain to each other not to mention our friends and family. One of my co-workers and I took the product and stripped down to it's core value and what we came up with was essentially Twitter. We presented this to the founders of our company and their main criticism was a lot like what you've shared - that it was too technical for the average user, that "Jane Public" wouldn't waste her time learning the short DOS-like commands necessary to interact with the application most effectively.

My point is that yes, right now .tel is totally geek-centric and it will take a little while (relative) for the public to get on board, but I think that's mainly because they just don't know about it yet. The fact that there is a simple, practical use for .tel that applies to even the most non-technical among us gives it a great chance of success!

I agree that points about data stored in the dns are lost on most people, but the thing is they don't have to understand that in order to use it. The real selling point, imo, is that any person or business can establish and own their web presence without having to understand anything about dns, web hosting, html, etc.

If I'm a self-employed tile-flooring contractor that operates within my own community, there's really no need for me to have my own website. All I need is a .tel and maybe a link to some samples of my work on Flickr and whallah - I have everything I need to solicit business online! And it cost me $12. I think Jane Public can understand that.

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the board and what a great first post. Definitely the winner for longest first post and also high points for quality.

You bring up many great points and they are ones that I think are being and will be addressed, if not by Telnic, then by some enterprising individuals and organizations (go Telsters ).

jckron also brings up good points on the business marketing side of things. If dot-tel is to take off then it is important for people to understand the values for personal use in addition to business use. Businesses have a higher likelihood of earlier adoption because of the cost saving aspects. Businesses tend not to be shy of spending a little money, if it will make more.

For the public to embrace something, and pay out money for it, the offering has to be stellar. Some of the suggestions made are great examples of how do-tel could really move.

It will be exciting to see it unfold

we've had several teams going out to local communities and talking about .tel just to gauge the reaction/response (only in the UK and India).
granted - joe public still doesn't get any of the techie stuff (and doesnt want to), but they do grasp the whole stay in touch, one address concept, simple web presence.

hurdle number 1 we face while attempting a sale is i still don't know how to get my info from my diary, phone, etc onto this .tel thing. we're attempting to bake in all this configuration/maintenance for them at a price point that is still attractive.

throw in our DotTelAds.com advertising exchange for a free way to possibly make some money from their purchase and you can see that little twinkle in their eye! Hurdle 2 is belief, as they haven't seen many folks talk about it, and as we're in a recession we need tangible credibility and endorsement (either a celeb with a tel of their own or major businesses starting to advertise their .tel address either on billboards, magazines or tv!)

Dear Paul,

Firstly, thank you very much for your considered post. This is exactly the kind of feedback that we like getting. I don't believe there's anything in your post which constitutes flaming and you're entitled to your opinions regarding everything you've expressed. We're also open to receiving all feedback at community@telnic.org and will also be forming a discussion forum on our site for exactly this kind of feedback.

What you outline is nothing that we haven't heard already. This may or may not please you! At the same time, we're seeing anecdotal feedback as well as our own research indicating that the points you raise are generalizations and that different markets experience different pulls to and barriers for .tel adoption. It's simply not the case that end users, consumers and non-technologists are finding the concept of .tel too technical, for example; we've seen and heard directly many people who've never before bought domain names doing so, buying more than one, telling their friends and jumping on this in a very positive manner. People from all walks of life and technological abilities are using the .tel.

That said, we are not complacent. We are at the start of the journey. Remember the first mobile phone was developed in the 1970s. Even in the 80's these 'bricks' were not user friendly, and yet people were adopting them (whilst others were saying 'why on earth would I want someone to contact me outside of the office or the home?'). We're two decades on from this and we're updating much more rapidly than it was possible to do back then, but you have to remember that this is very new.

We are open to all feedback and if better solutions are proposed, we'll definitely look at this technically, from a user-friendly perspective and also from the perspective of 'is this a positive move for .tel users?'.

We're extremely grateful to have such a positive and passionate group of .tel users who are so motivated. Long may it continue. We'll take this feedback and talk about it internally.

Regards,

Justin Hayward
Telnic Limited
justin.tel

Paul, congratulations on your post. You effectively voiced the opinions that I have as well.

I have voiced these similar opinions. Before reading, please know this: telster forum and entire telnic team i really appreciate your hard work and efforts, this post is in support of .tel I feel the need to make these comments known.

I am a proponent of .tel and own many premium names. So I have a vested interest in this domain.

Please dont flame this post as well, here is my analysis:

1. My.tel application is not getting any traction in the App store, its a FREE app and very few comments or downloads are happening. Again I'm a .tel supporter but this raises a red flag, if this has broad appeal as suggested then why no download activity. 100 to 200 downloads/comments should have taken place with 100k .tel owners out there. Justin/Henri I understand its early in the game, but where is the promotion machine?

2. Youtube: a majority of .tel videos have been out for quite a while and have very few views or Viral traction. I have guys in Silicon valley that will make videos at $10 a pop. If I'm telnic I make really enticing videos and distribute large quantities of them. all different flavors colors and languages- you get the idea. Volume and real viral action would take place. Release 200 videos showing people using the apps and finding twitter adresses etc. prior to releasing the Apple app store free download. Again im a proponent, but guys this is marketing 101 here.

3. MTV MYSPACE crowd traction requires celebrity artist names using the product. Yes this costs money but its extremely effective. Paris hilton or Pdiddy wearing a got.tel tshirt or doing a club promotion in Las Vegas would ignite a fire under this thing. I do own some of these, but i'm not self promoting, i'm being open about the issues at hand.

Paying a celeb or record label or whatever and coinciding this with a contest or live vote using the .tel on MTV is hot and for some reason this idea is being ignored. "Every week live on MTV see who gets their .tel name"- guys this will set .tel on fire. Again I understand money and time constraints, but it could be easily done with co sponsors partnerships etc.

4. John Doe public doesnt care about DNS. I have many tech friends here and they all just say whatever man i have my facebook page free. Yes .tel has a little traction, but for mainstream mass appeal, the Tech DNS talk has to go away and .tel has to be cool. Guys please focus on the cool factor, i like the tech talk and dns is a technological revolution however from experience .00001 of us get it and 99.99999 do not care they want their twitter account or facebook etc.

5. I'm not a programmer unfortunately so i cannot make the apps like Henri and the Telnic team does. I appreciate all the efforts and the applications along with the technology. In my opinion, the developer community traction is very low and the app store traction is extremely low for a free app where users own 100k of product. In order for developers to get excited there has to be a motivating factor. In the app store profit is the motive. Guys, im sure you have heard it but you need developers on board and i think if you create such a public momentum with celebrity status etc developer support and apps for sale etc will follow.


Solutions: gentlemen, get some of the best names on Twitter/youtube to promote .tel there are 16 y.o. kids getting a million views, contact them and work a deal. same with Twitter 700 followers = nil traction get the heavy hitters involved guys people with 100k followers etc. work a deal- very easy.

myspace, get the top users to promote, hire TilaTequila -hire hot profiles to promote, again this is cheap marketing 101.

In closing, thanks for all the support and we as the community support you as well.

Alot of these ideas apply to the US market so pardon the references but the same can apply to all markets.

I have stated many times but have made no inroads- i'm willing to give away a few select premium .tel in order to promote the cause. without any monetary compensation in any way, or legal issues. Guys im givng these to the artist on a platter, get over the legal stuff and lets get it going.

I have personally tried to contact celebrity names involved and have been blown off and rebuffed- i dont have the money or power to penetrate these circles. this could easily be done on a national level by telnic by benefiting the artist and .tel-

thanks for listening Telnic- and no im not some crazed internet lunatic in my basement- i'm a respected upstanding citizen with some previous .com successes under my belt.

regards

Hi,

The "Celeb" marketing factor is the right route for promotion.
Don't forget India and China, there is a huge market for .TELs there as well.
Getting local Celebs in their own countries to promote .TEL will definitely have followers.
Just compare the number of mobile phone users in these two countries. See the annual growth rate of the mobile phone users.

Thanks for everyone's responses. I've now tried to pick out what I think are the key points.

1. Focus and simplify the message. Around the time of general availability in late March, there was obviously a bit of publicity work done, and while one woulnd’t have picked up on .tel had one not been looking for it, Google News searches turned up quite a few published articles. However, after reading many of those, I was still not sure what the USP (Unique Sales/Selling Point/Proposition) was supposed to be. The message seemed to include a range of things, none of which was convincing on its own, such as “global directory” (okay, but there are already lots of those), “it’s in the DNS” (huh?), “it’s the next dot-com” (uh, wasn’t dot-com the name of a big bubble-and-bust cycle earlier this decade?), and “it will change the way you communicate” (how? any specifics? Some new communications medium I haven’t heard of?”). In other words, a jumble of things that don’t seem to hang together in any clear way and none of which is clear, simple and convincing on its own. There needs to be a clear, convincing, simple, single message. The video with the blonde does in fact, when you think about it, seem to have a single message about what .tel is for, and it’s a good message – it offers something of obvious value, and it has the potential to be made clear and simple. But the video doesn’t make it clear and simple -- it is too long, and you have to actually think about it (provided you even bother watching to the end, which the kind of hip, popular, sociable, very non-geeky people .tel should be aiming at are unlikely to do -- it's not exactly a gripping video, and while some guys might hang in there to see more of the blonde, these are not necessarily the kind of guys we're after; the kind of guys we're after have real-life pretty girls of thier own, and they have a life and they're not going to have time for this video).

2. Once the message has been simplified and communicated effectively, there’s still something else very important to do, and that is to radically simplify the process of getting a .tel. Telhosting and telfriends must become one and the same thing, and the current one-way friending process must be unified so that there is one simple automatic-two-way friending step that works like all other friending processes. A little bit of data security will have to be sacrificed for the sake of making something people will understand and adopt (maybe there can be a special optional function for those who are really into it to choose to have only a one-way friending cycle; this would be relevant for business but not for individuals). Encourage all registrars and other partners to not only support .tel email but to make getting a .tel e-mail not only idiot-proof but a default part of the set-up wizard.

3. The cool factor mentioned by a couple forum members above could be key – cool almost always works, if it can be achieved. Dot-tel e-mail addresses could play a big role in this (but of course wouldn’t by themselves get the cool factor going).

I wanted to add an update:

Telnic has been very responsive to the ideas and suggestions in this forum.

No other company that I know of would listen and take action like the Telnic team has.

Nothing is perfect and nothing can be promised in this world, but as an outsider I can honestly say I know that some of these issues are being addressed.

1. Paul thanks for the thought provoking post. It caused me to think and take some positive actions by expressing my ideas.

2. Telnic team, thanks for looking into some of these avenues discussed above. highly appreciated.

Great job, heres a look ahead from Telnic-


http://telnic.org/community-roadmap.html