Tucows

Tucows (Re)Introduces OpenSRS

by Joey deVilla on July 28, 2008

I’m always happy to point out cool things that my former employer, Tucows, is up to (from 2003 to 2007, I was their Tech Evangelist). The latest one is one I’ve long supported: pulling their reseller services under a single, well-known and trusted name, OpenSRS, and a gorgeous new brand identity:

$OpenSRS\' new brand identity$

OpenSRS now refers to a whole slew of services: domain name registration, SSL certificates, email and “personal names” (white label access to their portfolio of common North American and European surname domains), all of which are accessible via control panel or API.

Here’s what they have to say:

Don’t mistake this for a simple re-brand. Yes, we have a new logo, and a snazzy new website, but there’s a lot more to what we’re doing here than a fresh coat of paint and some new pictures on the wall.

Back in 1999 when Tucows first started selling domain names as one of the original ICANN accredited registrars, we wanted to bring Internet service providers something they hadn’t been accustomed to getting when it came to domain names: customer service. We launched back then with a real customer focus that extended throughout everything we did.

…

The logo also proudly proclaims that OpenSRS is “Reseller Friendly.” That is more than just a slogan, or a tag line – it’s a promise. Like the customer focused wholesale domain name business that launched in 1999 as OpenSRS, today we remain dedicated to providing the best possible experience for our resellers.

That means resellers can expect easily accessible customer support with knowledgeable people on the other end of the phone line. And it means products and services that are created and implemented with the specific needs of the reseller in mind. That Reseller Friendly attitude and approach extends throughout every aspect of our business.

We’re putting that Reseller Friendly promise prominently on display, right in our logo. We’re not only rebranding our wholesale Internet Services business as OpenSRS, but we’re re-dedicating ourselves to the approach that, with your help, made us so successful over the past nine years and will continue it into the future.

For more, including a video interview featuring my old boss Ken Schafer (VP Marketing and Product Management), check out this entry in the Tucows Reseller Blog.

Tagged as: OpenSRS, Tucows

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Not Yet!

by Joey deVilla on November 19, 2007

Squishy cows

A number of people have been emailing me and asking when I’m going to write about my new job. If you really need to know now, feel free to ask me offline and I’ll tell you. If you can wait, I’ll start posting about it next week — my first day is Monday, November 26th.

Although tomorrow is my last day at the office (I’ve taken time off to go down to the States for Thanksgiving), I am officially Tucows‘ Tech Evangelist until 5 p.m. on Friday. I wouldn’t feel right writing about the new place until then.

Tagged as: Tucows

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Leaving Tucows

by Joey deVilla on November 15, 2007

Box of squishy cows at the Tucows office

It’s official: I handed my two weeks’ notice to Tucows on Monday. After four and a half years as their developer relations guy, during which time I held two titles (Technical Evangelist, and before that, the less wieldy Technical Community Development Coordinator), worked in two departments and occupied 5 different desks spread across two floors, I have decided to move on to a new job and with it, new challenges.

Me playing accordion for BloggerCon attendees taking a break on Mass Ave.
Networking accordion-style during a break at BloggerCon II in Boston (that’s Mass Ave. in the background, and yes, I’m wearing a cow-print vest).
Photo courtesy of Julie Leung.

Maybe it’s the whole “turning 40″ thing, or maybe it’s the programming itch, but I feel that I need a change of scenery. Life at Tucows was pretty sweet, but I came across one of those rare — if a little bit risky — opportunities that life doesn’t hand you too often. As much as I loved my job at Tucows, I’d be have to be a fool and a coward to pass up the opportunity I’m about to take on.

My desk at the Tucows office in Fall 2003.
My first desk at the Tucows office, taken Fall 2003.

Me at my second desk at the Tucows office, taken Winter 2004.

My desk at the Tucows office in Spring 2006.
My third desk at the Tucows office, taken Spring 2006.

View from my desk, Fall 2007.
The view from my fifth desk at the Tucows office, taken Fall 2007.

The decision to leave Tucows was not an easy one. In many ways, the Technical Evangelist position was a dream job. It combined a number of things I love to do: programming, writing, schmoozing, graphic design and I even got to work in a little accordion playing. I’ve worked with some of the finest colleagues I have known, I’ve reported to some excellent bosses — first Ross Rader, then Ken Schafer, and finally Leona Hobbs, and for a CEO who is admired and respected throughout high tech, Elliot Noss.

A still from the webcam broadcast (no audio) of my first annual review, Spring 2004.

A still from the webcam broadcast (no audio) of my first annual review, Spring 2004. Those are Ross Rader’s hands.

A still from the webcam broadcast (no audio) of my first annual review, Spring 2004. That’s Ross Rader on the right.

One of the best things about my job was having the privilege of wearing the mantle of Tucows, a company that’s well-regarded in the world of high-tech. Walking into a room of techies and saying “I’m with Tucows” is like traveling through Europe with a Canadian flag sewn on your backpack, walking through Boston with a Red Sox cap or being able to play Take Me Home Country Roads on accordion in front a room of West Virginians — it establishes your bona fides and marks you as one of the good guys. I hope that Tucows has benefited equally from having the “Accordion Guy” as its head tech cheerleader.

Me playing at No Regrets
Representing Tucows at a geek function at No Regrets with the accordion.

Joey deVilla speaking at CASCON 2005
Speaking at the “Business of Blogging” seminar at IBM’s CASCON 2005.

Joey deVilla in an interview on CTV News
A still from a CTV News piece on Google.

I’d like to thank my first Tucows boss, “Boss Ross” Rader, and his boss Elliot Noss for believing in me enough to hire me, and the two bosses who followed, Ken Schafer and Leona Hobbs, for being equally terrific. I’d also like to apologize to Leona for handing in my notice while she was on vacation (you know how it is with “windows of opportunity”). I also have to thank my teammates in Communications, Hasdeep Kharaud, Kari Dykes and James “Yes, that’s my real surname” Koole; it’s been a blast working (and lunching at Pho Asia 21) with you guys. Hell, I’m just going to thank the everyone in the company for making my four and a half years there an enjoyable experience.

Joey devilla playing accordion at RailsConf 2007
Playing accordion at the evening keynote at RailsConf 2007 in Portland, Oregon.

Accordion Guy and Amber Mac
At DemoCamp. “Amber’s being unprofessional again, isn’t she?”

Me on CityTV news
Talking about Windows Vista on CityTV News, early 2007.

Accordion Guy playing at php|works
Flying the Tucows flag at the php|works conference, 2006.

My final day at the office will be next Tuesday, the 20th. I leave Tucows with mixed feelings: happy and excited about my new position (which I’ll talk about later) but sad to leave a great workplace and the company for whom I’ve worked the longest in my entire career. It’s been a great ride, guys — thanks!

Front door of Tucows’ offices

Tagged as: Tucows

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Tucows’ Bill Sweetman Talks to Amber Mac About Domain Names

by Joey deVilla on September 20, 2007

Click on the photo to see the video.

The lovely, talented and geeky Amber Mac took some time to invite my co-worker Bill Sweetman over to her TV show, Homepage, to talk about domain names. We’ve got all the details on the Tucows Blog.

Tagged as: Tucows

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R.I.P. Blinky, the Two-Headed Calf (Who Looks Just Like the Tucows Logo)

by Joey deVilla on August 23, 2007

Boing Boing points to the story of Blinky, the two-headed calf, who was euthanized yesterday.

My co-workers at Tucows and I couldn’t help but notice that Blinky bore a rather uncanny resemblance to our corporate logo:

Blinky the two-headed calf, side-by-side with the Tucows logo

Tagged as: Tucows

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Tucows on Canadian Business’ 2007 “Tech 100”

by Joey deVilla on August 23, 2007

Business squishy cow and Canadian Business “Tech 100″ logo What’s a blog for, if not to toot one’s own horn, or at least the horn of the company for whom he is a spokesmodel?

Tucows, where I’ve worked for four years and where I hold the title of Technical Evangelist, is on Canadian Business’ 2007 “Tech 100″ List, their annual listing of Canada’s 100 largest publicly traded companies. We’re right by the median, ranked at number 49 on the “Performance” list.

I like to think that at least a little chunk of that was my doing.

Tagged as: Tucows

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The Exceptional Squishy Cow

by Joey deVilla on August 21, 2007

Mark Mansour at the State of Flux blog wrote this about how he and his fellow developers use a Squishy Cow to do agile development:

At our end of iteration review, like all good agile shops, we go through what’s good, what could be done better, what still puzzles us and what we are going to do next time (but details on this are for another post). We also have The Exceptional Cow™.

Whoever has the cow is responsible for triaging all incoming exceptions for that iteration. At the end of each iteration The Exceptional Cow is ceremoniously passed to the next bovine herder. As the cow herder, you have the responsibility of examining all incoming exceptions and fixing it if it is a no brainer or writing it up as a bug for someone else to fix if you don’t have the time or if someone else has a much better grasp on the issue. Quite often all exceptions for the week are attacked in the final hours before we close off the iteration as we don’t want to start new functionality at that point.

Simply put, whoever currently possesses the cow is responsible for handling any bugs, whether it’s by fixing them or writing them up in a bug report. It’s rather reminiscent of the “talking stick” tradition among North American natives or the conch in Lord of the Flies.

It’s the most interesting and practical use for a Tucows Squishy Cow that I’ve seen yet.

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Tagged as: Tucows

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Would Tucows Have Failed Andy Brice’s “Software Awards” Test?

by Joey deVilla on August 17, 2007

Five squishy cows turning their backs to a pile of $20 bills.

Having been made suspicious by the large number of “5-star” ratings his software got from download sites, Andy Brice of Successful Software decided to run a little experiment. He took a text file with these words:

This software does nothing.

It doesn’t even run.

I was created as an experiment to see how many shareware awards it got.

See the results of the experiment at:

www.successfulsoftware.net

He gave the file an .exe extension and gave it the asking-to-be-caught name “awardmestars”. He also included a PAD file — that’s “Portable Application Decsription”, a standard for describing software in the shareware industry — that clearly indicated that the software did nothing at all.

In spite of all the warnings he provided, plus the fact that it was a non-functional non-application, he still managed to rack up these 16 awards:

The 16 awards Andy Brice got for his nom-functional non-application.

As regular readers of this blog know, I work for Tucows, whose original business was being a place that reviewed and hosted downloadable shareware.

Would we have given Andy Brice’s non-application an award? No. Why?

An award from Tucows is not given lightly. In fact, just to make it on to our site, a software title needs to maintain a minimum three cow rating, and it needs to generate downloads. Titles that do not maintain an appropriate level of popularity are removed from the library on our site.

We offer a truly “best of” collection of software. One of team members reviews every single piece of software that is submitted. In fact, over 70% of the submissions to Tucows are rejected because they fail to meet our stringent ratings criteria. In a nutshell, for Windows applications (we have different rating scales for Mac/Linux/Games, etc.), Tucows uses a 56-point rating scale with a large proportion of the rating based on usability (21 points), we allot up to 14 points for Help, Documentation and Support, 10 points for program enhancements, and 11 points for the opinion of the reviewer. The Tucows rating guide is so standardized, that a third-party site provides a “Tucows Rating Calculator” where software authors can analyze their title to get an idea of how it would rate on Tucows.

Tagged as: Tucows

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Welcome to the Herd, Bill!

by Joey deVilla on August 17, 2007

Bill Sweetman and the squishy cows I’ve known Bill Sweetman since the mid-nineties, back when I worked at Mackerel Interactive Multimedia, so I was very pleased to find out that Tucows — the company where I hold the title of Technical Evangelist — has hired him as General Manager of our domain name portfolio.

Bill writes:

I’m going to be leading the charge to further monetize that portfolio as well as develop new products and services related to the portfolio. Translation: I’m going to be performing Domain Name Karate as a full-time job!

When presented with the opportunity to turn my long-held passion for domain names into a full-time gig, I leaped at the chance. This was truly one of those ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunities’ and I knew I’d regret turning it down. Plus, I get to work again with Ken Schafer and a great team of people who are equally passionate about the domain name space.

It’s good to have you on the team, Bill. Welcome to the herd!

Tagged as: Tucows

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Tucows Wholesale Domain Names Just Got Cheaper

by Joey deVilla on August 7, 2007

What Does Tucows Do?

Since I work at Tucows, I get asked this question a lot: What does Tucows do?

Here’s the short answer, which should do for the purposes of this article: Tucows is in the business of providing wholesale services to ISPs and hosting services, such as domain name registration and email. The ISPs and hosting services then provide these services to their customers. By buying our wholesale services rather than implementing and maintaining these services themselves, they can concentrate on customer service.

Tucows’ Domain Prices: Lower and More Transparent

The announcement on the Tucows Blog puts it so well that I’ll just quote it:

How’s this for a radical idea: Charge less for each domain, then add more services and features and then fully explain where every penny of each transaction goes. It sounds crazy, but that’s exactly what we’re doing starting today.

For example, our price of a .com domain used to be US$10.05, and now it’s dropped to US$9.20. Here’s how it breaks down:

Item	Cost
.com registration (charged by the registry)	US$6.00
ICANN fee	US$0.20
Tucows management fee	US$3.00

In pie chart form, the cost breakdown looks like this:

Wholesale Domain Price Breakdown

Here’s what the Tucows management fee covers:

Free Name Suggestion Tool powered by DomainsBot
50% of net domain parking revenue
The ability to sell any of hundreds of thousands of premium domain names
Access to a library of APIs and web-based tools for provisioning and management of domains
Technical support

And come September, these will also become available with every domain name:

Free WHOIS Privacy
Free Managed DNS

For more details, see our news release and our blog article.

Tagged as: Tucows

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A New Look for the Tucows.com Site

by Joey deVilla on July 31, 2007

The obligatory disclaimer: Yes, I work for Tucows, where I hold the title of Technical Evangelist.

From Shareware to Solutions

The Tucows site — that is the one at tucows.com, the original site where the company got its start as being a place to download shareware — has undergone a big makeover. Here’s a screenshot:

Click the screenshot to visit Tucows.com.

Tucows squishy cows Back when the company got started in the early 90s, finding software online was difficult. Search engines were just in their infancy, 28.8 kbps modems were considered fast and it actually made sense to publish magazines and even books simply cataloging sites and software that you could find online. During this era, Tucows and a number companies found a niche as places where you could find and download software as well as see reviews.

In the age of high-speed connections, Google search, AdSense and that amorphous thing called Web 2.0, the “shareware site” approach doesn’t make as much sense. I download many of my applications directly from the vendor, and number of other apps I use exist as web applications.

In spite of the technological changes since Tucows’ early days — when processor power was measured double-digit megahertz and there was less RAM in my machine than in my present-day key fob — one thing remains: people are still asking “How can I do this using my computer?”

The new Tucows site aims to be a place online where you can go to find solutions to your computer and internet questions and problems. By “solution”, we mean anything that solves your problem. Sometimes it’s software that you can download. Sometimes it’s a web application or site. Sometimes it’s a set of steps that you can follow.No matter what the solution may be, we want to be the place where you can find it.

A Quick Tour

If you visit Tucows.com, the first thing you’ll see, right near the top of the page is the Search solutions & software box, where you can start your search quickly.

Click the screenshot to visit Tucows.com.

If you’re not sure of what to search for or prefer browsing through solutions, there’s a list of popular and recent solutions just below the search box:

Click the screenshot to visit Tucows.com.

Clicking on a solution title takes you to the page for the solution, which may provide download links, links to site or an article, depending on the solution:

Click the screenshot to visit Tucows.com.

You don’t need to sign up for an account, but if you do, you can also rate and comment on solutions:

Click the screenshot to visit Tucows.com.

With an account, not only can you offer your feedback on an existing solution, you can also submit your own.

Give the new Tucows.com a try!

For More…

Tucows Gets Social, the Original Software Download Site, Launches Radical Redesign: the official announcement of the site’s re-vamp.
A screencast featuring the new site, featuring me and Greg Weir, our Director of Content Services. [Length: 8 minutes, 10 seconds]

Tagged as: Tucows

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Tucows @ HostingCon 2007 Today Through Wednesday

by Joey deVilla on July 23, 2007

Tucows will be in Chicago at HostingCon 2007, which starts today (Monday, July 23rd) and runs until Wednesday, July 25th at Navy Pier. HostingCon bills itself as “the largest gathering of hosted services professionals in the world” and for more details about the conference, check our their conference program.

We’ll be making our presence known there — I won’t be there, but my coworkers Kim, Leona, Adam and Hasdeep will. Be sure to keep an eye out for squishy cows and…

Our Booth

We’ll have a booth in the exhibitors’ hall — booth 817, which is right beside the networking lounge. Feel free to come chat with us about our new Email Service, Premium Domains and other upcoming things from Tucows.

You can look for booth 817 on the official HostingCon map or use our slightly customized one below to find us:

Map of HostingCon 2007 highlighting location of Tucows' booth

Our Session: Rethinking Domain Name Search

This Wednesday, July 25th, from 3:30 – 4:15 p.m. in room 109, Product Manager for Domains Adam Eisner will be making his presentation, Rethinking Domain Name Search.

Here’s the description of his presentation:

With the rise of the domain name aftermarket, many expired names never return to the public for repurchase. This, combined with the fact most web hosting companies don’t provide an effective domain name search feature on their website, results in many lost sales opportunities for domain names, web hosting, email and more.

This session will show web hosts how to “re-think” their website’s domain name search strategy in response to market developments like better name suggestion technology, fewer available names, and the rise of the domain name aftermarket. The strategies outlined and demonstrated will help web hosts obtain tangible improvements in their domain name and web hosting sales.

Topics covered will include:

How to improve sales by improving your existing domain name search process (using tangible examples)

Maximizing the number of relevant results provided using name suggestion technology

Using domain name aftermarket to ensure customers receive the most relevant domain name availability results possible

Come on out and say hello!

Tagged as: Tucows

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Tucows @ HostingCon 2007, July 23-25

by Joey deVilla on July 19, 2007

Tucows will be at HostingCon 2007, which takes place next week in Chicago from Monday, July 23rd to Wednesday, July 25th at Navy Pier. HostingCon bills itself as “the largest gathering of hosted services professionals in the world” and for more details about the conference, check our their conference program.

We’ll be making our presence known there — I won’t be there, but my coworkers Kim, Leona, Adam and Hasdeep will. Be sure to keep an eye out for squishy cows and…

Our Booth

We’ll have a booth in the exhibitors’ hall — booth 817, which is right beside the networking lounge. Feel free to come chat with us about our new Email Service, Premium Domains and other upcoming things from Tucows.

You can look for booth 817 on the official HostingCon map or use our slightly customized one below to find us:

Map of HostingCon 2007 highlighting location of Tucows' booth

Our Session: Rethinking Domain Name Search

On Wednesday, July 25th, from 3:30 – 4:15 p.m. in room 109, Product Manager for Domains Adam Eisner will be making his presentation, Rethinking Domain Name Search.

Here’s the description of his presentation:

With the rise of the domain name aftermarket, many expired names never return to the public for repurchase. This, combined with the fact most web hosting companies don’t provide an effective domain name search feature on their website, results in many lost sales opportunities for domain names, web hosting, email and more.

This session will show web hosts how to “re-think” their website’s domain name search strategy in response to market developments like better name suggestion technology, fewer available names, and the rise of the domain name aftermarket. The strategies outlined and demonstrated will help web hosts obtain tangible improvements in their domain name and web hosting sales.

Topics covered will include:

How to improve sales by improving your existing domain name search process (using tangible examples)

Maximizing the number of relevant results provided using name suggestion technology

Using domain name aftermarket to ensure customers receive the most relevant domain name availability results possible

Come on out and say hello!

Tagged as: Tucows

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The Tucows Developer Blog

by Joey deVilla on July 16, 2007

Tan Lines from Typical Summer Activities

Back when I first started at Tucows — four years ago last Saturday — they asked me to start a developer blog that featured a mix of articles about programming in general and articles about developing using Tucows’ services. This blog became The Farm, and it received a fair bit of acclaim and a decent-size readership (typically about 1,500 pageviews on any given business day).

When we introduced the Tucows Blog in the fall of 2006, we thought that we’d roll the programming content in The Farm into it. Over time, we learned that it it’s better to have articles on programming in their own blog, so we’ve decided to bring back the developer blog and make it a little more “official” by making it part of the services.tucows.com site.

And thus the Tucows Developer Blog was born.

It’s aimed primarily at developers who use Tucows’ services or are likely to do so, which means that it’s got articles about developing using Tucows services and articles for developers in general, especially those doing web application development. Like The Farm, I plan to update it every business day and write it using my “voice”, which is generally casual and sometimes irreverent.

Please drop by!