A number of ccTLD registries have announced internet awards within their own countries that aim to foster and advance use of the internet. Those announcing awards in recent weeks are the Australian and New Zealand regulatory bodies (auDA and InternetNZ) and the Irish (IEDR) and Dutch (SIDN) registries. For Australians and New Zealanders, auDA and InternetNZ have announced the 2011 Australia and New Zealand Internet Awards (ANZIAs). The ANZIAs are open to businesses, organisations and individuals across all sectors that use the Internet to develop innovative and creative ways to reach customers, provide a service or improve the online experiences of Australians and New Zealanders. ANZIA winners receive recognition as industry leaders, receive public and industry exposure, and gain positive media coverage and networking opportunities. Eligible entrants are also in the running for a $2500 cash prize. Entries are invited in six categories: Security and privacy Internet access & digital skills Innovation Information Diversity IPv6. For Irish internet users, the IE Domain Registry is the headline sponsor for this year’s Dot IE Net Visionary Awards. The Net Visionary Awards, now in their 13th year, are the only online awards run and voted on by the Internet industry in Ireland. Potential award winning businesses can be nominated in 14 categories which have been carefully selected to reflect the prolific business use of the Internet in Ireland. And in the Netherlands, there is the second annual SIDN Internet Awards ceremony that will take place on 10 November 2011 during the Jubilee Congress that SIDN is organising in Zaandam to mark twenty-five years of the .NL domain. The Internet Awards aim to reward individuals, businesses and other organisations in the Netherlands for the contributions that they make to economic, social and/or personal aspects of the information society. Three of the five award categories – ‘Government and citizens in dialogue’, ‘The power of the network’ and ‘A secure internet’ – are the same as in 2010. The award category ‘The internet and the environment’ has been redefined slightly and renamed ‘Internet and sustainability’. Finally there is a new category for 2011, ‘Knowledge transfer in the digital world’, reflecting the value of knowledge sharing and enrichment via the internet. For further information on each of the awards, see: ANZIAs for Australians and New Zealanders here . IIA & Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Awards 2011 here (nominations are now closed, however bookings can be made for the awards ceremony on 30 September) SIDN Internet Awards here .

The proliferation of registrars offering pre-registrations for new generic Top Level Domains has become alarming. There have been no approvals for new gTLDs, nor indeed have there even been any applications with the three month application window only opening on 12 January 2012. Blacknight Solutions , an Irish registrar, has raised this as an issue noting that many of the gTLDs being touted that may never even exist. Just because some would like to apply for a gTLD does not mean they will. There will be an extensive application process as well as the upfront application fee to ICANN of $185,000. After receiving several queries from customers, Blacknight said they discovered that registrants interested in acquiring domains in rumoured new gTLDs had become confused by these offers as they are not familiar with how the new TLD implementation might work. They note that this sort of speculative offer is the equivalent of taking a down payment on a concept car that has not been approved for production. It is a false promise. So just by putting your name down for pre-registration means nothing in your ability to get the domain should any new gTLD be approved. Even if approved, it is possible you might not be eligible to apply for your desired domain name. About the only thing you are likely to gain from pre-registration with a registrar you do not normally deal with is unwanted communications cluttering your email inbox! Any approved gTLD is going to have sunrise and landrush periods for interested registrants. So if you desire a domain name in a new gTLD, keep an eye out on what gTLDs are approved. Check out the eligibility and if you still want one, contact a registrar such as Europe Registry .

Screenshots of Open-Xchange’s email hosting platform (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Open-source collaboration software provider Open-Xchange ( www.open-xchange.com ) announced on Tuesday that it has established a new agreement with Parallels ( www.parallels.com ) that includes six new hosting companies offering Open-Xchange through existing Parallels platforms. This announcement comes a week after Open-Xchange appointed Chris Latterell to vice president of marketing .  “Our work with Parallels has propelled our business and will help us increase from 24 million to 40 million users this year,” Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange said in a statement. “When we committed our company to transition from developing on-premises software to provide software optimized for cloud providers, we started working with Parallels and now we’re moving forward with our second generation agreement.” The six new hosting companies already use Parallels’ products but have added Open-Xchange email and groupware to their services.

Screenshots of Open-Xchange’s email hosting platform (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Open-source collaboration software provider Open-Xchange ( www.open-xchange.com ) announced on Tuesday that it has established a new agreement with Parallels ( www.parallels.com ) that includes six new hosting companies offering Open-Xchange through existing Parallels platforms. This announcement comes a week after Open-Xchange appointed Chris Latterell to vice president of marketing .  “Our work with Parallels has propelled our business and will help us increase from 24 million to 40 million users this year,” Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange said in a statement. “When we committed our company to transition from developing on-premises software to provide software optimized for cloud providers, we started working with Parallels and now we’re moving forward with our second generation agreement.” The six new hosting companies already use Parallels’ products but have added Open-Xchange email and groupware to their services.

IEDR (the IE Domain Registry) announced that registrations for .IE  ( Ireland’s top level domain ) exceeded 10,000 ina three month period for the first time . More than 10,000 .IE domain names were registered in the first quarter of 2011 ,which represents a 5.5 percent increase quarter-on-quarter and an 18.5 percent increase on registrations in the last quarter of 2010 .

A screenshot of Aventure Host’s website (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – European web hosting provider Spiral Hosting ( www.spiralhosting.com ) announced on Tuesday that it has acquired domain registration and shared hosting provider Aventure Host ( www.aventurehost.com ).

s ); Published by Scott Coursey British & Irish Rallying , Latest News Mar 20, 2011   Bogie has now won both opening rounds of the 2011 DMACK Tyres supported MSA Scottish Rally Championship, as well as taking victory on the first round of the BRC.