I’ve been spending time at the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) 32nd International Public Meeting here in Paris last week. For me it has been a chance to learn more about current Internet addressing issues, but also to talk face-to-face with domain name registrars about Frogans technology.

And it’s been a real eye-opener on the subject of generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Right now, twenty one gTLDs exist. These include “.com,” “.biz” and “.edu”. TLDs include also those of the country code flavor (ccTLDs) like “.au” for Australia and “.cn” for China.

Thanks to the New gTLD Program, the number of gTLDs is expected to explode. While the policy details are still being worked out by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), we can expect within the next few years a huge proliferation of domain name registries. The result will be that instead of registering “burger-and-fries.net”, it might be “burger-and-fries.fast-food”, where “.fast-food” has replaced “.net”, or “.com” or “.org”.

Not everybody thinks that this is good news. For existing registries it must be like scaling Mt Everest for a quiet summit picnic, only to find a new ski-lift bringing up folks by the twelve-pack. Not only do hard-earned gTLDs like “.eu” and “.jobs” risk losing some of their distinctiveness and meaning, but there are technical limitations to consider and administrative issues to untangle.

But it could also be a necessary evolutionary step for assuring a continued high level of innovation on the Internet. At STG Interactive, we see in this policy a reflection of our own point of view: that there must always be room for innovation on the Internet, even at the expense of “business as usual.”

It could even be a good thing for the Frogansphere. For instance, once the New gTLD program goes into effect, STG Interactive could apply to register the “.frogans” gTLD with ICANN. Imagine that for every one of your frogans addresses, STG Interactive could provide you with a free corresponding domain name. So with “frogans*burger-and-fries”, your corresponding domain name would be “burger-and-fries.frogans”.

This free domain name would be tied to a Web page for accessing your frogans. For instance, if you were to go to “http://burger-and-fries.frogans/” in a Web browser, a page could come up that contained a LeapToFrogans link to “frogans*burger-and-fries”. Here, the “.frogans” gTLD serves as a springboard between the Web and the Frogans layers of the Internet.

This idea sprung up after attending the Workshop meeting on New gTLDs. But in fact, STG Interactive could still move ahead with a similar idea if, for some reason, it were not possible to obtain a “.frogans” gTLD. STG Interactive might still provide each frogans address registrant with a free subdomain name under “frogansphere.net”, for example, “burger-and-fries.frogansphere.net”, and it would work the same way (even though it creates a dependancy on the “.net” registry). It’s longer to type, but still looks good enough to byte (pun intended).

…It works perfectly well at the moment.”

That’s a good question that I was asked in a recent exchange, and it inspired me to write this post.

A Swiss Army Knife doesn’t replace a toolkit. But who wants to lug around fifty pounds of wrenches and hammers all day?

Simple + secure + cohesive = captivating

The idea of Frogans technology is not to reinvent the Web, nor to replace it, but to provide end-user with a complimentary way to interact with online content that takes user-friendliness to a new level.

Simple

Two elements omnipresent in Web use encumber the end-user: The browser window and URLs. Frogans don’t employ application windows. Every frogans is its own entity on your screen, each being identified by its single frogans address, each containing a potentially unlimited number of slides. Navigate within a frogans, between different frogans, or between a frogans and other layers of the Internet, such as the Web or email.

Frogans addresses simplify frogans navigation. Rather than being tied to hosting-provided IP addresses and their subdirectories, frogans addresses are singular names chosen by the frogans publisher for each of their frogans. This allows the publisher more flexibility with their hosting options, and the end-user less complexity for navigating.

Secure

FSDL (Frogans Slide Description Language), though compatible with all server-side applications, is the only language in which you may author and develop a frogans, and allows no executable scripts, meaning that the end-user can expect more security against malicious online content.

There is no hard disk cache for frogans resources (FSDL, GIF, JPG and PNG). These are loaded into active memory only, isolating them from your system’s resources.

Frogans addresses are looked up and validated through digital signatures in FNSL (Frogans Network System Language) between the end-user’s Frogans Player and frogans networks.

Cohesive

The three pillars of Frogans technology, FSDL, FNSL and the Frogans Player (for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), work together in complete harmony with the singular goal optimizing the end-user’s navigating experience.

Captivating

Suddenly the end-user can maintain persistent contact with online content without sacrificing the functionality and security of their computer. User-scaleable frogans blend in with your desktop environment. No model for this kind of interactivity exists on the Web.

Frogans, with an “s”. For some reason, which nobody seems to remember, “frogans” is always spelled with an “s” at the end, whether we’re talking about one frogans or a whole flock of frogans.

It’s funny how this affects the way we talk about frogans. For instance, I could ambiguously say “Look at the frogans”, but it would have been better had I said “look at that frogans,” or “look at those frogans” and be more precise.

Now if I have a red frogans I can say: ” I sure like my frogans’ color.”

With fifty red frogans I say the exact same thing: “I sure like my frogans’ color.”

It’s impossible to know whether I’m talking about one or more frogans here. It might be better to say “I sure like the color of all my fifty frogans. They’re red, by the way.”

In the absence of any clear explanation of this entomological particularity, let’s just make something up:

There’s more to a frogans than meets the eye. Behind that humble home slide may burrow a plethora of amazingly diverse content just waiting to be explored. “Frogan” is so downright insufficient, you can hardly keep that “s” from ssssssslithering out. So rather than rewriting the laws of physics, we all just call them FROGANS, and the world is a happier place.

There you have it. The mystery is a mystery no more. Go home. Get a good night’s sleep, getting back to that excellent reoccurring dream about the upcoming release of Frogans technology.

Come ye all into the Frogansphere. Let the adventure begin. Frankly, what’s in it for me, the candy-maker, the baker, the man on the street?

To describe your role in the Frogansphere let’s start with STG Interactive’s limited role.

Imagine a community where everyone is welcome to visit (sounds too good to be true). It resembles the Web in that way, and from the end-user’s point of view that’s how we can look at the Frogansphere.

Imagine you want to build a house, a business, set up an association in that community. In the Frogansphere you’re free to do anything (legal) that you like. You can invite as many people as you like, and be as big, small, crazy, conservative, cool, ugly, even as lucrative as you like. You simply need a special address so that the rest of us can find you. That’s the frogans address that you register with STG Interactive. The subscription rate is the same for everybody ($12 per year, $20 for two, plus taxes where applicable, by the way).

The community, the Frogansphere, is built on the Internet. STG Interactive provides the elementary tools at no charge and makes sure that the point of entry stays open to visitors by operating the Main Frogans Network and by making the (free) Frogans Player available to everyone. As a content provider you create frogans of your own and register one or more frogans addresses so that Frogans Player users can marvel at the amazing things that you’ve done.

To be more specific:

What does STG Interactive do?

STG Interactive creates Frogans Technology which is made up of:

• FSDL (Frogans Slide Description Language) for authoring frogans
• The Frogans Player for visiting, displaying and navigating frogans
• FNSL (Frogans Network System Language) for creating frogans networks.

STG Interactive operates the MFN (Main Frogans Network).

• With the Frogans Player anybody can access a frogans on the MFN.
• Anybody who has registered at least one frogans address with STG Interactive can publish a frogans on the MFN.

STG Interactive has set up a frogans address registration affiliation program

• Operated through the Commission Junction platform this program offers commissions on frogans address registrations actuated by affiliates.

What does STG Interactive not do?
(You might think of the following as a list of frogans-biz opportunities ripening on the vine.)

STG Interactive does not create frogans

• Sure, we may do a few demos, but that’s just to help get the ball rolling for everyone else. STG Interactive provides the framework, but not the content. That’s for you to do.

STG Interactive does not publish frogans authoring tools

• We’ll be putting a frogans creation tool online with limited functionality fairly soon: the Frogans Start Service. But again, this is just to get the ball rolling. We’d much prefer that others take the torch. It’s just not our line of work. We’ll do our best to see that software developers have the resources they need for making tools that help the rest of us make frogans.

STG Interactive does not determine the content of your frogans

• Use your frogans to say whatever you want (within the laws of your country). We don’t oblige you to put ads, or anything else in your frogans. Your frogans content is your responsibility and your right, so go crazy.

STG Interactive does not host frogans

• You register your frogans address with STG Interactive, but where you host you frogans is entirely up to you.

STG Interactive does not publish FSDL user guides

• We publish the FSDL Specifications to be as complete and as accurate as possible. Anybody who wants to publish more intuitive explanations (tutorials, books, code examples, FSDL Specification translations, etc.) is free to do so.

STG Interactive will not create a frogans search engine or directory

• Frogans search services can be freely created by anyone on the Internet. Leaving that role to the specialists, STG Interactive will not provide these services to end-users, and will not provide lists of registered frogans addresses to third parties.

STG Interactive does not sell you anything besides frogans address registration subscriptions (or licenses for creating private frogans networks of your own)

• We’re not out for a piece of your action. That’s why frogans address registration fees are the same for everybody, whether you have one, or a zillion frogans addresses, and whether your frogans are visited by the entire world, or by just a few acquaintances.

In short, if the Frogansphere is to grow, it has to be without barriers. STG Interactive provides the addressing service and the format specifications. It’s up to you to decide what you do, and how far you want to go. It’s way cool, so knock yourself out!

Still talking about the frogans address. In the post down below I was talking about how frogans addresses can indicate frogans families, and the implications of such when browsing: If a frogans being visited has family members on the net, the end-user can open them up directly from that frogans’ contextual menu (right-click, or ctrl-click on a Mac).

The frogans address simplifies browsing in another way that I haven’t yet talked about. It simplifies your browsing history.

When surfing about on the Web your browser caches the URL of every page you’ve recently been on so that you can trace your steps under the History menu. We’ve all been there: Depending on your activity, a week’s worth of URLs can be a big messy list. I wonder how often people just skim that menu for any page on the site that they’re looking for, and then navigate from there? “Fairly often” says I, and if you think I’m way off mark, leave a comment (anybody?).

Browsing back by frogans addresses (a pleasure that, alas, can only be done in the frogansphere) involves less rummaging. Every frogans you visit opens up on its home slide. Addresses for other slides within a same frogans do not exist.

“WHAT? I can’t type in the exact slide that I want to see without going through the navigation?” Relax, and think about some of the things you get back in the trade-off:

• Frogans addresses maintain a nice and concise format. No crazy long URLS with subdirectories and unintelligible variables in the frogansphere.
• Tracing back your steps won’t make you dizzy.

The Frogans Player contextual menu contains a list of your recently visited frogans, which is in effect a list of recently looked-up frogans addresses. Since a frogans address refers to an entire frogans as a whole, and not to individual slides, this list is going to be much quicker and cleaner than what you’d expect in a Web browser.

I’m not saying that the history menu in Web browsers is for the birds. Web pages often contain amounts of information that wouldn’t be appropriate in the smaller frogans format, so it makes more sense on the Web to be able to find an individual page without considering its context within a site.

That the frogans address refers to the entire frogans should help remind frogans publishers of the importance of the context of each frogans slide within a frogans. This in turn should boost the functionality of browsing frogans backwards and the frogansphere in general through encouraging cohesiveness of content in frogans overall.

There may be those who will be quick to believe that a frogans address is little more than a dressed-up URL, that it exists merely as a mechanism for financing Frogans Technology development and the MFN (Main Frogans Network). Hogwash, I tell you. Dare I suggest that with frogans addressing we’re witnessing yet another step up the IT evolutionary ladder?

While ultimately frogans FSDL documents and other resources that make up frogans are transferred by HTTP, as Web pages are, the implementation of the frogans address as intermediary adds a layer of usability for the end-user and convenience for the publisher, leading to all-around functionality for everybody.

For end-users, they access frogans using a format of addressing that is really simple (ex: “frogans*example“, or “frogans*example.extension“). If only the Web were so easy. Ever copy and paste a URL only to have left out the “h” in “http://”? Or you’ve typed two “w”s instead of three? Or how about trying to recite a complete URL over the phone, and finally saying “Oh, I’ll send you an email…”

For frogans publishers the convenience of the frogans address is in its flexibility. The address of a frogans is independent from where on the Internet its resource files are physically located. A frogans address stays the same regardless of where its frogans is hosted, at what IP address or domain name, or in which directory. That information is instead kept in the registrant’s frogans address settings, and can be updated at any moment – and without the kind of delay that you get when, say, you want to redirect your domain name.

If a publisher of frogans so chooses, they can group frogans together in the frogans’ contextual menu by their addresses. This is done by giving different frogans a common “frogans family name” in their frogans address, and differentiating them with personalized extensions.

Remember way back when, two paragraphs ago, when I gave as an example “frogans*example.extension“? Here “example” is a frogans family name. “extension” is its extension (duh). The person who has registered “frogans*example” or “frogans*example.extension” has the exclusive right to use “example” as a family name in as many other frogans addresses as they like, each having its own extension:

• frogans*example.butterflies
• frogans*example.fish
• frogans*example.nets
• …

When you visit a frogans, the Frogans Player will detect the addresses of other frogans sharing the same family name and display them in the contextual menu of the frogans being visited. This is useful for associating different frogans thematically, particularly if it is desirable to quickly have a several different frogans family members on-screen simultaneously.

Don’t confuse the extension with a subdirectory. They have nothing in common. The frogans address extension denotes a unique frogans address for an entirely unique frogans. Different frogans in the same frogans family don’t even have to have the same hosting, for instance. Hop away, little frogans. Be freeee!

Nowadays, more individuals than ever are publishing personal content online. User generated content seems to be taking over the Web with services which allow people to set up their own pages, spaces, blogs and mashups without having to deal with a lot of code. Still, there are plenty of folks taking the hands-on approach for complete control of their subject matter. In any case, the Web is an environment very much shared by commercial entities and developers, and by individuals publishing content pertaining to their personal interests.

Things will probably be much the same in the frogansphere of the Internet. While Frogans technology opens up plenty of opportunities for enterprises, the door is also wide open for people who want to express their personal interests, in much the same way as it has been with the Web, but in that ever-so-enticing frogans way.

The nature of your frogans is likely to be determined not only by what you wish to express, but also by the technical hurdles that you choose to jump or avoid.

Regardless of your approach, you’ll always start at the same place: with the registration of a frogans address (ex: “frogans*myname”). Frogans can only be viewed using the Frogans Player, which opens a frogans only by its frogans address. In your frogans address settings, which you can modify at any time, you indicate the Internet location of your frogans root directory, which is where the files that make up your frogans are stored (ex”http://www.myhost.com/mydirectory/”).

The table below shows three levels of complexity for authoring frogans and hosting them on the Internet, where A represents the most basic, hands-on, most technically challenging approach, and C the most passive, worry-free method.

A For those who are comfortable with hand-coding, dealing with Internet hosting services, and who insist on having maximum creative leeway, they can author their frogans from scratch, using image processing software such as Photoshop or Gimp, and hand-coding their documents in the Frogans Slide Description Language (FSDL). They’ll upload their files themselves by FTP or SCP to their frogans root directory, at the Internet location that they’d indicated in their frogans address settings.

B With a little bit of patience these same people might wait for an offline WYSIWYG desktop FSDL authoring tool to show up. I know of one already that is under development, and I’d encourage all able developers to consider giving it a go (and to contact me for additional support if you’re interested). They’d still have to deal with uploading to their host’s server by FTP or SCP, but it’s not the trickiest part.

C With an online authoring service for creating frogans easily online, many hosting services could happily propose it to their clients. For instance, in their frogans address settings, the client indicates that their frogans root directory is on that host’s server. With all of the elements under one roof the hosting service can provide a user interface for authoring a frogans, as well as handling all the necessary file management. Even if the application didn’t offer all of the creative possibilities that one could have in hand-coding, it would sure be nice to author and publish a frogans straight from the web browser.

A service that will fall under this third category is under development at STG Interactive. The idea is to make it easy for anybody to publish a simple frogans right away while leaving the door open for them move on to other hosts and publishing methods if they like. Frogans will be created and customized from pre-existing templates. While the options will be limited (eg.: limits on the number of slides, links, images and themes), the results will be quick. And aside from the frogans address registration fee, the service and hosting will be free of charge.

Something that the social web is proving is that a great number of us have plenty of things to say, whether it’s about our interests, hobbies, work, schools, friends, or just about ourselves. And we’re continually open to finding a better medium for saying them. If it weren’t for that blasted learning curve!

This is my first day back from two weeks in the countryside, and since I’m easing my way back into city life and the issues surrounding Frogans technology, I’m going to ease into a pertinent frogans-related subject with a real-life example:

The city of Paris added a new wing, or wheel, to their public transportation service recently: municipal bicycles. This makes sense in a city like Paris where distances are short, destinations are plenty, and rush-hour traffic is an horreur.

The bikes are stationed at, well, at bike stations. Each bike is secured to a post by an electronically-controlled lock. It would take either a welding torch or the jaws of life to steal a bike, which would be hardly worth the bother given that each one is equipped with GPS, and that they’re far too ungainly to be considered a status symbol. Each station is equipped with a kiosk at which you make your transaction and choose a bike. Each kiosk has a display monitor and a numbered keypad, and that’s where the trouble begins.

For procuring a bike, the monitor is your user interface, and the keypad is your input device. Every option presented on the screen is accompanied by a numbered icon which bears a striking resemblance to its corresponding key on the keypad below. But instead of going to the keypad, aspiring bikers apparently prefer to touch the icon on the display. When nothing happens, many give up and take the Metro.

This almost happened to me before it dawned on me that the keypad below might have other functions than just taking my credit card’s PIN number. Getting past that I was free to struggle through an unintuitive maze of instructions that followed. This quickly attracted an audience of frustrated pedestrians, generally over 50, eager to see how I cracked the enigma. Indiana Jones and Temple of Vroom.

“Oh, you touch the keypad.” And there I go explaining in my awkward French all the little steps that only make sense to those too young to remember the rotary dial. I should have kept my mouth shut. This insane user interface is obviously a stealth public safety measure for keeping the old, and old-ish, away from these contraptions.

What’s this doing on a blog that’s supposed to be dedicated to Frogans technology? Let’s call it an example of what can unexpectedly happen (or not happen) in interactive design when working in a new medium. For every medium out there there’s a long implicit list of do’s and don’ts. When authoring a web site DO put a link to the home page on every page of the site. DON’T run an animated GIF under body text. Ignoring these things puts you at high risk of doing crummy work.

While we can expect to see a whole lot of great frogans by years end, some crummy ones are bound to crop up from time to time.

So hey kids, keep in mind that a frogans is not a website. There’s no “back” button unless you put one there. Keep your text short and concise, not like this blog, because the real estate on a frogans slide is precious. Not too many buttons, because you’ll need some no-button room for moving a frogans around on your screen. Frogans are intended to work alongside the Web, so there’s no need to go trying to replace it. And frogans are intended to be for everybody – it’s not like somebody’s going to take one and ride in front a bus.

Yes Petunia, there is a frogans address registration affiliation program. Even for people in Virginia.

It’s like this: STG Interactive develops the Frogans Player. STG Interactive lets people download and use the Frogans Player for free (without even asking for their email address).

STG Interactive writes the Frogans Slide Description Language (FSDL) and posts the specifications without obligation for whoever wants to use them for authoring frogans.

STG Interactive invests oodles and oodles in technology and servers for the Main Frogans Network to which millions of Frogans Players on the computers of millions of Internet users world-wide may connect simultaneously 24/7 for locating millions of frogans by their frogans addresses on the Internet – for free?

With one exception: A frogans on the Internet requires a frogans address in order for it to be accessible. And you have to pay when you register a frogans address. But it’s cheap. 12 bucks for a year’s registration (20 bucks for two) is cheap. This is STG Interactive’s sole source of revenue (no adware, no private information collecting). I’m not going to suggest what kind of numbers are on the line, but STG Interactive will have to register gobs and gobs and heaps and heaps of frogans addresses to keep the motor running.

This is where the fun begins. Every new frogans on the Internet is an additional reason to download and install the Frogans Player. Every additional person who has installed the Frogans Player on their computer, be it running Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X, is one more reason to be publishing a frogans.

So if you’ve already registered a frogans address and have taken the time, effort and all-out passion to author a frogans worthy of the cause, you’re probably keen to the idea of your frogans having a lot of visitors. As your visitors in turn will want to get the most out of their shiny new Frogans Player, they will probably encourage more people to register frogans addresses who will in turn create more useful and entertaining frogans to be visited. This self-propagation of the Frogansphere (don’t look it up in Wikipedia, it’s a new word) results in there being more Frogans Player-enabled users ready to visit and navigate your frogans. May the circle be unbroken.

But at the time of this posting, the Frogansphere is tiny. In fact, it’s pre-natal, waiting for the upcoming Frogans technology release. But since we want our Frogansphere to grow up big and strong, it’s good to know that there is a frogans address affiliation program in the works to encourage the early nourishment and continued nutrition that it needs.

Here’s how it’s going to work: Once the program becomes operational you’ll be able to enroll into the frogans address registration affiliate program at the Commission Junction website (in the meantime, check out the Community page at frogans.com). There, you will be able to choose from a variety of text and banner ad links for frogans address registration that you put on your website, blog or emails. Every time someone registers a frogans address after following one of your links, not only does the Frogansphere get a little heftier and healthier, but you get a 10% commission. That comes out to $1.20 for a one-year registration, $2.00 for a two-year registration.

A couple zillion of those and the Frogansphere is off to college.

Note: Commission Junction should not be confused with “Conjunction Junction”, Bob Dorough’s Schoolhouse Rock boogie-woogie masterpiece.