Eureka!

So I’ve come up with this great business idea that will revolutionize the world, abolish hunger, and set in an era of universal peace never seen before. Well, ok, not quite… but almost, I swear!

Now, of course you need the catchy domain name to go with it. Think again, my web-clicking friend! Over 90% of all domain names have been snatched up by so-called domain brokers who make a living off of others wanting to buy a particular name.

Sure, I promote free markets as much (or maybe more) than the next guy, but I actually caught myself thinking “they should have laws against this sort of stuff”. Wow! I actually caught myself thinking in ways that totally contradict my political beliefs (liberty, freedom, and free markets). This caused me to question my presumption: what right do I have to a domain name that someone else purchased legally? Of course I have none! Is it underhanded and nefarious, or enterprising?

Sure, they aim to take advantage of you wanting your domain name, but don’t all businesses do that now-a-days? I mean, really, isn’t advertising doing the same thing: creating a perceived desire so that you go out and buy it from them? OK, so there’s a slight difference in how the company operates: domain brokers take advantage of the shortcomings of existing markets without having to do any campaigning or marketing for their “product”, but other companies do that as well.

On the other hand, it is near impossible for one business to register all business names in a given state and act as a business name broker. Why is that? This is because registering a business name is in most places a legal requirement that mandates paperwork. And quite often lots of it (articles of incorporation, registration application, etc.). Who wants to start up 100 businesses with all the involved paperwork just to get a monopoly on the names in the off-chance that someone will buy it from you? I highly doubt that the effort pays off.

Should similar registration requirements be placed on domain names? I believe they should. Whoa… wait, wait… let me explain! I believe they should … in certain situations and to a certain degree. All top-level domains should be assigned according to their purpose designation (currently it is more hap-hazard than a chicken coop), as described here. Additionally, I would also enforce the following restrictions:

• .com: require that it be registered by a business and that it cannot be resold (instead it must be relinquished to the domain registration authority if the business closes).
• .net: may only be registered by network companies (IT, communications, internet providers, etc.), otherwise same as .com.
• .org: may only be registered by non-profit organizations, otherwise same as .com.
• .edu: may only be registered by educational institutions, otherwise same as .com.

All names used for business purposes should require additional registration requirements (not government controlled!), e.g. the above-mentioned. These requirements should effect a verification procedure that makes sure the information provided is accurate. Now, this would admittedly upset many domain registrants, such as individuals and those that do not fit the mold as described above, but it would accomplish the goals of the top-level domains in the first place: to effectively categorize the internet. In addition it would free up domain names and put an ill-gotten industry out of business without harming the liberties of individuals. Well, that, and of course I would be able to get the domain name I’m looking for.

contribute,adobe,cs3,contribute publishing server

Well, here is the promised follow-up on my evaluation of Contribute and its buddy CPS.

I had some initial trouble getting it configured so that it would tie in to our ActiveDirectory server (that way we don’t need to manage users aside from in ActiveDirectory). The problem was that I couldn’t establish a connection between CPS and AD.

My assumption at this point was that CPS as actually seeing AD, but I was providing incorrect credentials. Well, the CPS documentation states that you need to enter your user DN as follows: uid=username, ou=group, dn=server, dn=com. This never worked for connection to AD using Windows Authentication Method, eventhough I customized it to use our schema (meaning instead of uid I used samAuthentication).

Making a call to Adobe Support also proved fruitless, as they will not support unregistered (speak trial) versions of their software. When I mentioned that I was evaluating the software for a company with the possibility of a future purpose, it didn’t even phase them; *Indian accent* “I’m sorry sir, we can only support registered versions of your software.”

Back to the drawing board. Luckily (after hours of searching) I stumbled accross a post that mentioned that the user was connecting using the folliwng user DN: user@server.com. This worked like a charm!

Now that I was up and running, I ran contribute and began administering the users (I could now search active directory) and was able to establish a writer > publisher > admin workflow process. Exactly what we are looking for.

Contribute really is the optimal solution if you want to give your content writers as little or as much leeway as they need, while not sacrificing versatility (which is often lacking in CRMs with admin modules). Our users can now create whatever content they wish withing the parameters we allow them, without fear of them breaking site funcitonality; all the appropriate checks and balances are in place.

The downside is, that is is divorced from your Microsoft development path that comes with using Visual Studio. In our case that is not a real big deal, as we will simply use Adobe line of software for our public company site, and continue using Microsoft line of software for our intranet. This is a clean division of applications that corresponds to the division of responsibility (meaning that the users creating content for the public site aren’t the users managing the intranet).

What CPS provides is a tie-in to AD (user management), change control (versioning up to 99 changes per page), and mist importantly process workflow.

Where do I start? Well… I guess I could post about the reason behind this post. I am currently evaluating Contribute CS3 as a potential tool for our non-technical staff to assist in maintaining our company we site.

So far I am amazed at the ease of use in Contribute CS3! I played around with it back when Contribute 2 was published (not CS2), and dismissed it as a nifty tool that didn’t have any real value to me at the time. However, it has significantly matured since, and am delighted to find that it recognized my custom install of this WordPress blog on my site with no manual configuratino necessary! (It also recognizes many other blog standards, like Blogger, etc.)

Further testing will determine how viable it is for a medium-sized business that wants to allow content publishing to its web site without necessarily involving the IT department all the time. This means establishing of roles, publishing rights, and chain of events in the publication process. Contribute Publishing Server should allow for all this (and more!).

I’ll break into that next.

[Update: 9/25/2007] At the moment I am still awaiting purchase of Adobe CS3 at my workplace to post more detailed testing results. This post was basically a use-case for connecting to my WordPress blog. Future write-ups will be more detailed.