I have been watching the discussion on URL shortening that followed the funding of bit.ly with great interest and some surprise. Josh Schachter started it off. Dave Winer, Cory Doctorow and Howard Lindzon, among others, followed. The points raised are indeed interesting, but what is so surprising to me is that the answer to all of the concerns is not only so simple, but right in front of their noses.

First, some background. URL shortening has been around for years. It long preceded TinyURL and has always been good business. We got into the business in 1997 with Domain Direct, a service that dealt with what we called at that time the “~ problem.” This was the long and embarrassing URL that came along with the free webspace most ISPs provided at the time. It also dealt with the long and embarrassing URLs that came with free websites from the likes of Tripod and Angelfire.

TinyURL and the like came along years later with the purpose of making the sharing of temporary URLs (blog posts and news items mostly) much easier, but they are not as effective as a domain name for permanent URLs, like http://noss.org/work. The experience with Domain Direct and a love of URL shortening was what drove our thinking in coming up with Hover.

URL forwarding services have three goals. They should be easy to use, should make long, complicated URLs short, and the resulting URLs should be memorable. Easy is a function of the tools (and I do think our tools at Hover are the easiest available). Short and memorable are a function of the semantics.

When looking at “short” we should be clear that it is only in Twitter, and then again only in the rare Twitter post, that “hyper-short” matters.

It is with “memorable” that the difference really emerges. So let me be clear. The best “URL-shortening service” is simply a combination of great tools and your own domain name. The difference in using http://noss.org/bitly and http://is.gd/pind is huge in terms of “memorable.” Not only is the shortened URL easier to remember; it becomes a bit of personal branding (I hate using the word “branding” in this context but I do not have a better alternative. The whole concept of earned media is definitely relevant here), especially when the shortened URL is shared forward by a third party!

Of course, using your own domain to create forwards also addresses all of the concerns of control, archiving, spamminess and other evils that were raised in the original posts and elsewhere. I have now had this conversation with three hardcore geeks and when I say “Look, the answer is simple. Just use your own domain and CNAMEs!” they just stare at me and say “Oh yeah. I never thought of that.”!

Now that the search has officially commenced, I thought it might be useful to make some public statements as to what I would like to see from the next ICANN CEO. My comments are driven by what I see as the deficiencies over the last number of years and, most importantly, by a deep desire to see the ICANN experiment in global governance succeed. The Internet is the greatest agent for positive change the world has ever seen and a healthy ICANN strengthens its ability to foster positive change.

For me there are three essential qualities required and they are tough to order because I would like to see them all. They are as follows:

• a deep love and understanding of the Internet;
• the ability to “run a business” responsibly; and
• the ability to lead with vision.

First, a deep love and understanding of the Internet.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Confucius

For me, Mike Roberts was the best ICANN CEO to date and the reason is that he was the one who most loved and understood the Internet. ICANN is responsible for names and numbers, which are about finding and using resources on the Internet. Appreciating what that means and why it is important is central to being the ICANN CEO. Too much of the last few years have been about ICANN as an institution for the institution’s sake, not for having ICANN live in service to the Internet. A great CEO will create and lead an ICANN that lives in service to an open Internet and to the role of names and numbers inside of that.

Second, the ability to run a business responsibly. ICANN as an institution has ballooned over the last few years, seeing its budget grow by massive amounts. I am in favor of a healthy ICANN that is not begging its constituents for money and that is able to provide necessary staff support for policy creation and management. However, the money should be spent like it was their own! There is much too much wasted on very expensive consultants, staff duplication and on unnecessary efforts. There is a good core of credible and productive staff who I believe will respond to this so positively.

The next CEO should be comfortable learning about an issue and making a decision. Rather than pay BCG, McKinsey or some other exorbitantly priced consultant to call me, and a dozen others, to ask for our opinion on an issue, the CEO himself will research a topic and then come to a decision. Yes, ICANN is a consensus-driven, bottom up organization, but that need not apply to every issue. To be clear, I am talking here about day-to-day issues like a new RAA, transfers or whois.

The next CEO should be comfortable making decisions, leading the team and spending money responsibly. They should be a doer. The do/say ratio in ICANN needs to increase immeasurably.

Lastly, the next ICANN CEO needs to be able to lead with vision. So much of what ICANN deals with concerns the future, not the past or the present. The next ICANN CEO needs to possess enough imagination to create a broad vision for the organization and lead staff and the various constituents in that direction. This does not mean they should drive the policy-making process, nor that they should substitute their judgment for the community, but that they should have a big picture view of what the organization looks like when it is functioning well and how the organization exists in service to the Internet.

The organization should not lurch from issue to issue like it does now, constantly fending off imagined existential threats. It should move in a clear direction toward a bright future.

Yes, I know I am looking for a lot in one person, but I really believe that at this point in the Internet’s history, ICANN demands more than a CEO. It needs a passionate visionary.

TORONTO – March 23, 2009 – Tucows Inc. (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC), a global provider of domain names, email and other Internet services, announced today the final results of its modified Dutch auction tender offer, which expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on March 13, 2009. Tucows will purchase 4,185,690 shares of its Common Stock at a purchase price of $0.41 per share, for a total of $1,716,132.90. The 4,185,690 shares to be purchased are comprised of the 4,000,000 shares Tucows offered to purchase and 185,690 shares to be purchased pursuant to Tucows’ right to purchase up to an additional 2 percent of the shares outstanding immediately prior to the commencement of the tender offer. Due to over-subscription, the final proration factor for shares tendered at or below $0.41 per share is approximately 99.42%. For this purpose, shares tendered at $0.41 per share include shares tendered by those persons who indicated, in their letter of transmittal, that they are willing to accept the price determined in the offer. All shares purchased in the tender offer will receive the same price.

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TORONTO – March 16, 2009 – Tucows Inc. (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) a global provider of domain names, email and other Internet services, announced today the preliminary results of its modified Dutch auction tender offer, which expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on March 13, 2009.  Tucows expects to purchase 4,250,000 shares of its Common Stock at a purchase price of $0.41 per share, or a total of $1,742,500.  The 4,250,000 shares expected to be purchased are comprised of the 4,000,000 shares Tucows offered to purchase and 250,000 shares to be purchased pursuant to Tucows’ right to purchase up to an additional 2 percent of the shares outstanding immediately prior to the commencement of the tender offer.  Due to over-subscription, Tucows expects the final proration factor for shares tendered at or below $0.41 per share to be approximately 99.8%.  For this purpose, shares tendered at or below $0.41 per share will include shares tendered by those persons who indicated, in their letter of transmittal, that they are willing to accept the price determined in the offer. All shares purchased in the tender offer will receive the same price.

The price per share and the proration factor are preliminary and subject to verification by StockTrans, Inc., the depositary for the tender offer. The actual price per share and the proration factor will be announced promptly following completion of the verification process.  After the determination of the actual price per share and the proration factor, the depositary will issue payment for the shares accepted under the tender offer and return all shares not accepted.

Tucows commenced the tender offer on February 12, 2009, when it offered to purchase up to 4,000,000 shares of its Common Stock at a price between $0.36 and $0.45 per share, net to the seller in cash, without interest. As a result of the completion of the tender offer, Tucows expects to have 68,823,782 shares issued and outstanding as of the time immediately following payment for the tendered shares.  Subject to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tucows may, from time to time at management’s discretion, repurchase up to approximately 6,361,769 additional shares of its Common Stock on the open market under its previously authorized share buyback program.

About Tucows

Tucows is a global Internet services company.  OpenSRS manages over 8 million domain names and millions of email boxes through a reseller network of over 9,000 web hosts and ISPs.  Hover is the easiest way for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses.  YummyNames owns premium domain names that generate revenue through advertising or resale.  Butterscotch.com is an online video network building on the foundation of Tucows.com.  More information can be found at http://tucowsinc.com.

For further information: Lawrence Chamberlain, The Equicom Group for Tucows Inc., (416) 815-0700 ext. 257, lchamberlain (at) equicomgroup.com.

This news release contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements related to such matters as our business, including the price per share at which Tucows will purchase shares, the proration factor and the repurchase of additional shares of Tucows‚Äô common stock. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Information about potential factors that could affect Tucows’ business, results of operations and financial condition is included in the Risk Factors sections of Tucows’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements included in this document are based on information available to Tucows as of the date of this document, and Tucows assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements.

Tucows is a registered trademark of Tucows Inc. or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.

We’re looking for someone to head up the Marketing Team at Tucows.

Reporting to Ken Schafer (VP Marketing and Product Management), you’ll play an active role in developing the marketing and communication strategies for the company. ¬†Your goal is to energize and enable a marketing team of seven campaign, community, content and communications specialists in order to help them meet all the marketing and communications needs of the company is most of its lines of business.

US

At Tucows, we believe the Internet is the greatest agent for positive change the world has ever seen. We know that people find the Internet complex and confusing, so our work is to make things simple and reliable. We’re big on innovation and creativity and believe it is found in every employee, customer and partner we have. And we know that through teamwork we can achieve remarkable things.

Don’t know Tucows? We’re one of Canada’s oldest and most successful Internet companies and our services have customers in over 150 countries.

OpenSRS manages over eight million domain names and millions of email boxes through a reseller network of over 9,000 web hosts and ISPs. Hover is the easiest way for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses. YummyNames owns premium domain names that generate revenue through advertising and resale to marketers and entrepreneurs. Butterscotch.com is an online video network building on the foundation of software and solutions available at tucows.com since 1993.

Our offices in the Liberty Village district of Toronto are home to over 150 passionate and dedicated Tucows’ team members.

You can find out more about us and our brands by visiting our corporate website.

YOU

You are passionate about the Internet – if you aren’t, you won’t like working here.

You’ll bring at least five years experience in Internet marketing management with you and you’ll have a proven ability to drive business forward while continuously improving the value of everything you and your team touches.

Working in a fast-paced team environment won’t scare you. In fact you’d be willing to say “change is my friend” and actually mean it. You present ideas clearly, concisely and always keep an eye on the business benefit of those ideas. You’ll be able to tell us how being self-directed and proactive has been key to your past success and point to ways you’ve been a creative problem-solver and communicator up and down organizational hierarchies.

If you have experience with B2B or channel marketing it will be a strong asset to you in this job.

You could very well have a college diploma or university degree in marketing, communications, or business but you’ve probably learned more from reading and writing blog and Twitter posts than from those degrees. ¬†In fact, if you don’t have an active blog, twitter feed and other social media outlets for your passion for the Internet you’ll have a hard time convincing us you’re right for this gig.

THE GIG

You’re the brain and heart of everything that happens in marketing and communications at Tucows. ¬†You engage with your team to develop goals for and then implement projects in the four key areas we see as essential for marketing this century:

1. Campaign Marketing including; lead generation (SEM, SEO, email marketing, online ads, webinars, etc.), new reseller sign-up, upsell and retention, sales collateral, etc., as well as data integrity within salesforce.com and ExactTarget databases
2. Community Building including; community engagement (company blogs, micro-blogs and forums), community outreach via social media, social media monitoring, developing and maintaining an active customer advisory council, etc.
3. Content Creation including; web site content, screencasts, webcasts, technical documentation, service bulletins (via email, web site, salesforce.com), service status communications (status page, email, twitter, rss, internal war room management), etc.
4. Communications including; events and tradeshows, corporate media releases, line of business media releases, media outreach, media inquiries, crisis communications, investor relations, etc.

Most importantly, you’ll be happy to roll up your sleeves and do actual work to help move these goals forward.

If this sounds like your dream job, cruise on over to our site to read all the details and drop us your application.

TORONTO ‚Äì February 12, 2009 – Tucows Inc. (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) a global provider of domain names, email and other Internet services, announced today that it is commencing a modified “Dutch auction” tender offer to repurchase up to 4,000,000 shares of its common stock, representing approximately 5.5% of the Tucows’ outstanding shares. The closing price of Tucows’ common stock on the NYSE Alternext US on February 11, 2009 was $0.36 per share.

“We believe our shares to be an attractive investment and their repurchase by the Company to be a prudent use of cash that is consistent with our long-term objective to create shareholder value,” said Stanley Stern, Chairman of the Board of Tucows.

Under the tender offer, shareholders will have the opportunity to tender some or all of their shares at a price within the $0.36 to $0.45 per share price range. Based on the number of shares tendered and the prices specified by the tendering shareholders, Tucows will determine the lowest per share price within the range that will enable it to buy 4,000,000 shares. If shareholders of more than 4,000,000 shares properly tender their shares at or below the determined price per share, Tucows will purchase shares tendered by such shareholders, at the determined price per share, on a pro rata basis. Additionally, if more than 4,000,000 shares are properly tendered, the number of shares to be repurchased by Tucows pursuant to the tender offer may, at the discretion of Tucows, be increased by up to 2% of Tucows’ outstanding shares, or approximately 1,461,500 shares, without amending or extending the tender offer.

Shareholders whose shares are purchased in the offer will be paid the determined purchase price per share net in cash, without interest, after the expiration of the offer period. The offer is not contingent upon any minimum number of shares being tendered. The offer is subject to a number of other terms and conditions specified in the offer to purchase that is being distributed to shareholders. The offer will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Friday, March 13, 2009, unless extended by Tucows.

The information agent for the offer is StockTrans, Inc. None of Tucows, its board of directors or the information agent is making any recommendation to stockholders as to whether to tender or refrain from tendering their shares into the tender offer. Shareholders must decide how many shares they will tender, if any, and the price within the stated range at which they will offer their shares for purchase by Tucows.

This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell any shares of Tucows’ common stock. The offer is being made solely by the offer to purchase and the related letter of transmittal. Investors are urged to read Tucows’ tender offer statement on Schedule TO filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the tender offer, which includes as exhibits, the offer to purchase and the related letter of transmittal, as well as any amendments or supplements to the statement when they become available, because they contain important information. Each of these documents has been or will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and investors may obtain them for free from the Securities and Exchange Commission at its website (www.sec.gov) or from StockTrans, Inc., the information agent for the tender offer, by directing such request to: StockTrans, Inc., Attn: Re-Organization Dept., 44 West Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, PA 19003, telephone (800) 733-1121.

About Tucows

Tucows is a global Internet services company. OpenSRS manages over 8 million domain names and millions of email boxes through a reseller network of over 9,000 web hosts and ISPs. Hover is the easiest way for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses. YummyNames owns premium domain names that generate revenue through advertising or resale. Butterscotch.com is an online video network building on the foundation of Tucows.com. More information can be found at http://tucowsinc.com.

For further information: Lawrence Chamberlain, The Equicom Group for Tucows Inc., (416) 815-0700 ext. 257, lchamberlain@equicomgroup.com

This news release contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements related to such matters as our business, including the timing and total number of shares to be purchased under the proposed tender offer and our long-term objectives. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Information about potential factors that could affect Tucows’ business, results of operations and financial condition is included in the Risk Factors sections of Tucows’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements included in this document are based on information available to Tucows as of the date of this document, and Tucows assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements.

‚Ä®

TUCOWS is a registered trademark of Tucows Inc. or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.