Often times I'm asked, "What does the future hold for DOT-LA?" Often times I reply, "I don't know. It's too early to say." However, given the huge interest in DOT-CITY TLDs all over the world, ICANN's efforts to introduce DOT-CITY TLDs, and developments in technology regarding social networking, I think I'm prepared to say, "Perhaps the following:"

1) Facebook and Myspace have captured the imagination of millions of people and businesses throughout the world. Both technologies allow us to build profiles, add friends, and connect to the outside world. But, there's one thing neither does very well, i.e. associate themselves with a particular city/region. If you create a page on Facebook or Myspace, you get the usual url, i.e. www.facebook.com/######## or www.myspace.com/whatevername. While the technologies are great, they don't connect you to your city or region. However, what if this technology were superimposed onto the DOT-LA domain space, i.e. www.burbank.la/##### or www.southland.la/##### using Facebook technology or www.burbank.la/johndoe or www.southland.la/johndoe using Myspace technology? Wouldn't that be super cool? Sure it would. Some individuals might want to associate with a particular city and be fine with sharing that information with the public and/or their family/friends (i.e. www.burbank.la/##### or www.burbank.la/johndoe) whereas others might decide to limit their geographical location to the region for added privacy (i.e. www.southland.la/##### or www.southland.la/johndoe). Either way, they can achieve that extra level of personalization that's not available to them via www.facebook.com or www.myspace.com. Also, what if you could have both technologies available on the same DOT-LA city/region domain names and you were able to migrate your existing profiles from the DOT-COM url page to the DOT-LA page with just a click of the mouse and have the ability to keep both sets of profiles between DOT-COM and DOT-LA automatially synchronize when updates are made on either url page? Also, why limit yourself to just one particular networking technology when you can have both, i.e. Facebook and Myspace on the DOT-LA domain space. Finally, since there are millions already on Myspace, it's very difficult to get a desireable name that's not taken, i.e. www.myspace.com/johndoe. Significantly more variations would be available under the DOT-LA domain space, i.e. Southland.LA or the 200+ DOT-LA City TLDs in that region.

2) I often ask myself about the future of yellowpages. Sometimes I think companies will eventually migrate away from yellow pages to social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. If that's true, wouldn't businesses be even more interested in migrating to Facebook and/or Myspace if these technologies were used on the DOT-LA domain space, i.e. www.burbank.la/joespizza or www.southland.la/joespizza? Under these conditions, they get to create their webpage that's associated with a city/region. How cool would that be? And, there's no reason why they couldn't be charged a reasonable rate to utilize such technologies/domain spaces.

3) Both Facebook and Myspace have a relationship with Oodle (www.oodle.com) to accept/serve classified ads. Imagine how much eaiser it would be to reach individuals in your city/region when posting/searching classified ads via Facebook/Myspace when you have a presence via a geographical domain name such as DOT-LA instead of DOT-COM. Wouldn't that make the effort of connecting buyers and sellsers much easier? Sure it would!

4) What if individuals/businesses using Facebook/Myspace technologies also wanted a cool e-mail address that connects them with there city/region? Well, the DOT-LA domain space could make this feasible, i.e. johndoe@burbank.la, johndoe@southland.la, joespizza@burbank.la, or joespizza@southland.la.

5) I sometimes wonder what social networking might be like if you combined Facebook/Myspace with Second Life. Say someone comes to visit you on Facebook/Myspace and you want to have a three-dimensional encounter rather than the two-dimensional type chat. Well, what if Facebook/Myspace had a button that you could click where your social networking page turned into a virtual page where you and your friend(s) could visit your places of interest in LA. You could have preset virtual pages for your city/region where you go to hang out with your friend(s) in the virtual world. The surroundings could be actual, or animated, with three different settings: 1) private - where only you and your friend(s) are present; 2) semi-private - where only you and your friend(s) are present with make believe avatars in the background; or 3) public - where you and your friend(s) see avatars of others traveling in the same area. Travelling could be done by car, bike, or foot, or you simply beam yourself down to an area like Star Trek. Select an interesting cafe and start up a conversation with your avatars. The owner of the cafe can see who's visiting and may decide to offer a coupon in case you want to meet in person outside the virtual world. For those on a first date, this might be the preferred mode of interaction before taking the next step. Or, perhaps you visit a nearby dealership in actual mode and checkout prices before actually driving down to the store. Or, maybe you don't feel that well and decide to attend your class remotely as a courtesy to your classmates. Or, perhaps an employer wants to perform an initial virtual screening interview before having prospects visit in person for a live interview. Imagine all the possibilities of combining Facebook/Myspace technology with Second Life. And, imagine combining these technologies with the DOT-LA domain space.

I'll continue to provide additional ideas to this particular blog as they come to mind. Hope you find these ideas as fascinating as I do. Thank you for visiting this blog!