Author Archive

Transferring Domains made Easier

By OpenSRS Team on July 28th, 2010
Posted in Reseller Resources »
2 Comments »

We hear all the time from domain registrants and resellers alike, that transferring a domain name from one registrar to another is too complex. What should be a fairly straight forward process can be complicated by different interfaces at different registrars.

We want to make it easier for your customers to transfer their domains from other registrars to you. To help you out, we took a complete look at the domain transfer processes of the top ten competitor registrars — 1&1, Go Daddy, Joker, MelbourneIT, Moniker, Namecat, Namecheap, Network Solutions, Register.com and Web.com.

Screencasts for Resellers

Using that research, we’ve created a series of PDFs, with screenshots, that will help registrants successfully complete their transfers to you.

“Preparing your Domain to Transfer” includes step-by-step documentation, with accompanying screenshots for each of the top ten registrars. Here’s the PDF for GoDaddy as an example:

Transferring a GoDaddy Domain

Maximize your Transfers-In

Using these tools, you can assist your customers in ensuring a successful domain transfer. Your customers will learn the 4 basic steps required to prepare a domain for transfer:

Ensuring WHOIS contact information is correct
Making required WHOIS privacy changes
Unlocking the domain so it can be transferred
Obtaining the transfer authorization code for the domain

All of the content is white-labeled and ready for you to add your own Reseller branding to share with your customers.

Available for Download Today

To download the complete set in PDF format go to our Transfers-In marketing resources downloads page.

Posted in Reseller Resources | 2 Comments »

Join Random Hacks of Kindness Global Hackathon

By OpenSRS Team on June 2nd, 2010
Posted in General, Inside OpenSRS » Tags: Hackathon, RHoK
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Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) is a global collective between Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, NASA and the World Bank. They are hosting a global hackathon on Saturday, June 4 – Sunday, June 5, 2010. Events take place in cities around the world including Nairobi, Jakarta, Sydney, Washington DC and San Paolo.

If you are in one of these cities, we encourage you to join the hackathon. There are great discussions about hosting and how to collaborate on a global scale. The sign up for each city is on the RHoK website. The global event will also be streamed live–watch the official RHOK twitter account for these details.

Software developers, usability experts, emergency planners, technologists, social media knowledge workers, project managers, NGOs and university professors will meet in each of the cities to crowdsource open source solutions to very real humanitarian problems. There are seven main projects ranging building SMS applications to report amputee needs, near real-time UAV imagery processing to creating a people finder application. We also expect some awesome incubator discussions. When you get such diverse, innovative minds in a room, great things are bound to happen.

RHOK invited Crisis Commons to provide problem definitions for the global hackathon. I’ve blogged about CrisisCommons in the past–they are a global network of volunteers who use creative problem solving and open technologies to help people and communities in times and places of crisis.

I’m on my way to Sydney as we speak to participate as a core Crisis Commons volunteer and project liaison.

Tags: Hackathon, RHoK
Posted in General, Inside OpenSRS | Comments Off

Drumbeat building an Open Web

By OpenSRS Team on April 27th, 2010
Posted in Events »
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Mozilla Foundation’s Drumbeat is gaining momentum. Drumbeat.org aims to use Mozilla’s experiences (open source community development and hacker ethic) to support and develop the Web. Their most recent event was held this past weekend was well attended by all different kinds of people from seasoned Internet veterans to average people with a passion for the Internet and the Web.

Drumbeat is a movement combining projects and events focused on making the web better, using open-source DNA and Know-How and focusing on “maker culture” and “building”. Their goal is to engage a wider global audience in the active discussion and participation building an open web. The One Web Day team recently joined forces with Mozilla Drumbeat and at OpenSRS, we’re huge supporters of their initiatives and happy to carry over our support to Mozilla Drumbeat. If you’re interested in the Open Web, you’ll want to consider getting involved.

My OpenSRS colleagues and our resellers are often early adopters and proponents of all things Internet. We are the ambassadors who can engage others in our careers, families and neighbourhoods. A Tucows core values is “the Internet is the greatest agent for positive change the world has ever seen”. Drumbeat is built on that vision too. Will the web still be open in 100 years? What is your vision of the Internet? How can you help build it? In true Mozilla fashion, the brainstorm of “What is the open Web” can be found on their wiki.

About Drumbeat

Anyone can volunteer or suggest a Drumbeat project. Two projects that might be of interest to Resellers are P2PU: creating an Open Web Developer Degree and Web Made Movies: a video series highlighting people who are building an open, participatory Internet.

To spread the word about Drumbeat projects and build the open web movement, Drumbeat includes events across the world. Previous events were held in Rio and San Paulo, Brazil. At the recent Toronto event, the day included small scrum-like discussions on how to explain the open web to diverse audiences and topical discussions ranging from open source activism to MESH networks to HTML5 Video Players to building the Drumbeat.org community.

Drumbeat Toronto, April 24, 2010. Photo by Rokashi

How can you get involved?

Drumbeat projects are open for collaboration. Simply hop onto the Drumbeat site, join Drumbeat mailing lists, or read/subscribe to the Drumbeat newsletter. The next Drumbeat event is in Berlin on May 8, 2010. To attend, you can sign up for free here.

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Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day at OpenSRS

By OpenSRS Team on March 24th, 2010
Posted in Inside OpenSRS » Tags: MeetOpenSRS
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We’re celebrating Ada Lovelace at OpenSRS. Women in technology make a difference every day. Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science. This is a worldwide map of over 1900 pledged blog posts:

At OpenSRS, we have a talented array of women who are developers, programmers, implementation specialists, professional service experts, technical support, reporting specialists, account managers, customer service, sales representatives, video technology consultants, accounting, NOC analysts, technical writers, managers, directors, quality assurance specialists, marketers, communicators, ITIL-certified technologists, web designers, compliance officers, usability experts, human resources, internet savvy and more. Each of these talented folks makes our corner of the Internet run smoothly. We are in awe of their sheer force of knowledge. Here’s a picture of some of our talented folks:

We hope to inspire you to talk about the great work women contribute in your workplaces. And, we hope we can inspire young women to join our profession.

By the way, OpenSRS is looking for Application Developers, NOC Analysts, and QA/Developers . We welcome all skilled talent. And, men too!

Tags: MeetOpenSRS
Posted in Inside OpenSRS | Comments Off

Techs volunteering with CrisisCamp – Haiti and HostingforHaiti

By OpenSRS Team on January 21st, 2010
Posted in Events, Inside OpenSRS, OpenSRS Services »
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Developers, crisis communicators, emergency planners, GIS specialists, technology workers, project managers and helpers are uniting around the world to use their skills and Internet savvy to help the Haitian earthquake victims.

People watched the news, donated money and then asked: can I help?

As a Crisis/Technical Incident communicator for Tucows/OpenSRS, I write all the incident reports, maintenance windows and system status updates for Resellers. Using the Internet tools to quickly get messages to customers is important for our business. Every day I work with some of the best techs in the world to make that happen. Tucows is very passionate using the Internet as an agent for positive change. I joined the CrisisCommons movement because this is a chance to use “agile actions” to help others. The CrisisCommons mission is to use this groundwork to help now and for all future emergencies. This is the power of the Internet flexing its community spirit and heart.

CrisisCamp – Haiti

CrisisCommons was started in 2009. It is a grassroots organization that facilitates partnerships and maintains a network of technology volunteers to respond to specific needs in times of crisis. From this, associated CrisisCamps are created to organize people who want to volunteer their skills to help NGOs, Emergency teams and Non-profit Aid organizations. When there’s a crisis or a need for CrisisCommons to respond, they come together for action.

It has been a heady week since our first CrisisCamp Haiti conference call last week. CrisisCamps sprung up in 6 major US cities last Saturday. Since then the momentum has grown and this weekend 12 camps are planned: from Boston to London, the UK to Bogota, Columbia to Washington DC to Seattle. There are three basic types of CrisisCamp activities: development help, social media (wiki, blog, cataloging, mapping) and general helpers. People are donating their time and helping to tackle projects ranging from OpenStreetMap to Mobile Development to a Haiti Hospital Capacity Finder.

I’m organizing Toronto’s CrisisCamp Haiti. Our first kick-off meeting is Sunday, January 24th, 2010. If you live in Toronto and want to help, please join us. Over at Butterscotch, our sister company, Michael E. Callaghan is contributing screencasts for CrisisCamp.

Our friends and hosting company partners joined together to create Hosting For Haiti. They are working with the American Red Cross to provide support, which may include mobilizing relief workers, sending relief supplies, and providing financial resources for recovery. You guys rock!

Do you want to get involved?

If you want to help, you can sign up for your local CrisisCamp (eventbrite sign-up). You can also follow Crisiscamp on Twitter to hear about all the global action happening.

Crisis Commons site
There’s a daily CrisisCommons conference call.
IRC channel (Random Hacks of Kindness)
Simple things that anyone can do. All you need is a computer, Internet access and some passion.

If there is no CrisisCamp event planned in your city or country but you want to get involved, you can contact CrisisCommons. I am also available to get you get rolling: Heather AT opensrs.com. If you know someone who would like to lend a hand, please spread the word.

Other news on CrisisCamp – Haiti:

Noel Dickover’s interview with the BBC (co-founder of CrisisCamp) [audio file]
Radar O’Reilly
IT World Canada
Article about Techs in the Toronto community

Posted in Events, Inside OpenSRS, OpenSRS Services | Comments Off