Ross Rader is Director of Research and Innovation at “Tucows”:http://www.tucows.com/. A long-time contributor to the ongoing governance of the domain name system, he has made substantial contributions to CIRA, ICANN and many of the predecessor organizations that define the way the internet operates. In a former life, Ross was the Director of Marketing for one of Canada’s first successful ISPs, Internet Direct. Ross is a mostly-devoted blogger writing on a variety of topics at byte.org .
Note that I work with Ross at Tucows so I’m not completely unbiased here.
*One Degree: Does domain name governance impact marketers? My guess is many of our readers will do a “whatever” at the mention of the topic but I sense this might be short-sighted.*
“CIRA”:http://www.cira.ca/ sets all policy related to how internet users interact with and register dotCA domain names. For example, CIRA is in the process of implementing new privacy policies that have a direct impact on how much domain name information is available to and can be used by marketers.
In the past, similar policies have been implemented outlining who qualifies to register dotCA domain names (which is of a high level of interest to companies who operate as subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies but want to be accessible on the web using a dotCA domain). CIRA has also been responsible for raising the awareness of the availability of dotCA names to Canadian internet users. All of this comes from CIRA’s governance mandate. Fortunately, CIRA involves its membership when it makes these decisions, so being involved really has its advantages if you are doing business on the internet in Canada.
*One Degree: What is the role of the CIRA Board?*
Category: Ken Schafer
Dr. Madsen recently joined “Yahoo! Canada”:http://www.yahoo.ca/ as head of marketing programs, to accelerate Yahoo!’s growing momentum in the Canadian market. He previously headed product marketing for Yahoo! Marketing Services, as well as product management for the company’s industry-leading advertising delivery system. In his previous position, Madsen drove Yahoo!’s innovations in advanced ad targeting, analytics, rich media ad formats, and promotions services for advertisers.
Originally a social scientist, Madsen received his doctorate from Harvard University and subsequently lectured there before beginning his marketing career with J. Walter Thompson, the advertising agency.
*One Degree: Yahoo! Canada has gone through several different phases since it was launched. Is there a renewed emphasis on serving the Canadian market at Yahoo?*
According to ComScore, three out of four Canadians online each month use Yahoo!, so Canada has long been a big and important market for us. But over the years, we have taken varying approaches to how we manage and develop our business. The approach we’ve been taking in recent years puts a strong team in charge here and keeps it well integrated with functional teams back at our headquarters.
*One Degree: You’ve just recently moved to Toronto from Yahoo’s head office in Sunnyvale California. What are your early impressions of the differences between the Internet industry here and in the valley?*