ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has voted to allow non-Latin domain names beginning in 2010. This is one of the biggest technical changes to happen on the Internet, and can have some major ramifications for your e-commerce website. Starting November 16, ICANN is launching a fast-track program to allow countries using non-Latin characters to request top-level domain names that reflect their country’s name. Once this process has begun, individual users will be able to take registrations as early as the first half of 2010. This development will help users, especially consumers who have been tentative about online shopping, to perhaps feel more secure about your website if they are able to use their local keyboards. With China’s huge growth in both Internet users and e-commerce, being able to have a Chinese-language website with a Chinese domain name could be invaluable to your web business. More information seems to be coming out about this every day, but here are some articles that might give you some more insight:

http://www.dynamicexport.com.au/news/icann-votes-for-international-domains00771/

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/16/content_8979647.htm

http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3846401

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/

Have you ever been under prepared for a power point presentation? I know I have found myself trying to talk through a complicated flow/ strategy diagram, often without much success. The power point presentation is something most people have had experience with, whether in having to prepare them or present them as well. Some people can deliver them on the fly with minimal prompting notes, and others require two dress rehearsals.

How would you feel if you were asked to give a presentation on a topic that you didn

Leading creative agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky recently decided to auction off their team of hard working interns on eBay. Creative head Alex Bogusky was behind the idea and launched bidding with a tweet last Saturday, the starting bid at $1.00.

I just had a look, and the current bid is sitting at $5,400 with 6 days and 7 hours to go, that number’s got nowhere to go but up.

So what do you get if you are the winning bidder? The Crispin Porter + Bogusky intern team will put together a creative presentation for you over a three month period, this includes strategies, brand repositioning and concepting. Production or any advertising materials is not included, either is travel expenses or any other collateral for the interns – pick up only.

Every year they spend part of their time working on pro bono assignments so the winning bidder will replace this activity; “It would be great if the high bidder is a cause-related thing,” Mr. Bogusky said. However they have specified that “CP+B reserves the right to decline services in the event of a conflict with any of our existing clients or for any other reason (like if you sell cigarettes) in our sole discretion.”

In a similar vien Art Director Jon Kubik and copywriter Adam Noel who recently left the agency side of life have launched there blog Steal our Ideas.com. Just shy two weeks old the blog is the concepting board for these two creatives to throw out ideas for any agency/ company/ designer to steal if they wish. They have even explicitly stated that they are happy to put together ideas for specific briefs. So if you can’t afford the Crispin interns you can always try these two.

The 13th Annual Webby Awards were announced last week and as per ususual they have on display an extensive range of innovative online work from Website, to Online Advertising, Online Video and Mobile. This year Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor was named artist of the year in recognition for his work condemning the old record industry distribution systems. This year Nine Inch Nails released their album The Slip on their website for free download.

Other winners included SNL face Jimmy Fallon for Person of the Year, Comedian Sarah Silverman as Best Actress, Lisa Kudrow for Outstanding Comedic Performance and renowned Family Guy Creator Seth McFarlane as Film/Video Person of the Year. Twitter was Breakout of the year and the most prestigious agency of the year award went to R/GA for outstanding performance across all the Webby categories.

I’m still making my ways through the lists of nominees but paying particular attention to the interactive advertising categories it’s amazing what you can do with banners these days. The winning banner campaign was from Clemenger BBDO NZ for Distracted Drivers which allowed users to send a text message via the banner, similarly on an amazing level the people’s choice winner, Pepsi’s Dear Mr President by R/GA allowed users with web cam access to record video messages through the banner!

And the list goes on so enjoy.

The latest news has just been sent out – if you missed it you can read it here