Business I-Names (@Names)

How is a Business I-Name Different than a Domain Name or URL?

Domain names were originally designed for naming machines on the Internet. With the arrival of the Web, they became synonymous with websites. But they were never designed to represent the long-term digital identity of a company or organization --- the real-world identity that exists independent of any particular name, domain name, URL, email address, phone number, etc.

In fact, to solve this problem, you can't rely on any name or address that may change over time. That's why the XRI digital identifier standard was created at OASIS, the leading Internet e-business standards body. XRIs are the first digital identifier system in which every human-friendly identifier --- called an i-name--- comes paired with a persistent i-number that is NEVER reassigned. So if your company ever changes its i-name, or is merged or sold, your persistent i-number will always continue to preserve your unique digital identity and relationships.

Busines i-names and i-numbers also support other special digital identity requirements. For example, you can register multiple i-name synonyms for the same i-number. And i-names include special anti-phishing protection (see below).

What Does a Business I-Name and I-Number Look Like?

Business i-names start with an @ sign and can contain any string of characters in any supported language, plus dots or dashes (dots are not delimiter character in i-names, just logical separators like in the left half of an email address). Here are some examples --- see i-name formats for more details:

• @example
• @example.company
• @example.partners.inc
• @名字.例子

Note that because i-names read from left to right, if the exact trade name of your company, product, or service is already registered, you can add your "dot word" to create a globally unique address that is highly memorable. For instance, if @example was already registered, you could still register:

• @example.alaska
• @example.seattle
• @example.snowboards
• @example.chili

A business i-number, like an IP address, is not designed for human use, but for machines. The format is an @ sign followed by a ! and a sequence of 16 hex digits similar to an Ipv6 address, e.g.:

• @!7a62.12bc.9073.fcd8

What Can I Do with an @Name and @Number Today?

OpenID is the new single sign-on standard being adopted by thousands of websites. With OpenID, your employees no longer need a different username and password for every site they visit --- they can use their own OpenID identifier and password, tremendously simplifying username and password management. OpenID 2.0 supports i-names, and your XDI.org-Accredited I-Broker can set up your own custom OpenID provider without conflict or confusion with your existing website(s).

Publishing email addresses on your website makes it easy for customers to contact you, but also brings in buckets of spam. The alternative: set up an i-name contact page in seconds, skip the spam, and easily redirect incoming messages wherever you want them to go.

The real power of i-names and i-numbers is Internet relationship management --- maintaining long-term, mutually-trusted data sharing relationships whether they are person-to-person, person-to-business, or business-to-business. See the Harvard Berkman Institute's VRM (Vendor Relationship Management) project for examples.

These relationships will use new authentication technologies like OpenID, information cards, and Higgins, and new digital data sharing protocols like OASIS XDI and Liberty Alliance ID-WSF. Because these technologies are designed to maintain rich digital relationships for as long as both parties want them, they need strong digital identifiers that do not need to change when people or businesses change names, addresses, or service providers.

An =name for an individual, or an @name for a business, is your public sign that you are "open for relationships". More specifically, new technologies like Higgins relationship cards will let consumers form relationships directly with a specific product or service --- such as performing an instant lifetime warranty registration --- without ever visiting a website. All they need to know is the @name of the product or service. This software should be commercially available by late 2008. Look for an update here or via your XDI.org-Accredited I-Broker.

How Much Does a @Name and @Number Cost?

I-names are sold through XDI.org-Accredited I-Brokers the same way domain names are sold through ICANN-accredited registrars --- in both cases retailers set their own market prices. In general the retail price of a business i-name registration is under U.S. $55 per year, but check XDI.org-Accredited I-Broker websites for even more attractive offers.

For How Long Can I Register an @Name and @Number?

As with domain names, an @name and the accompanying @number can be registered and renewed for any period from 1 to 10 years. Remember, the @number is a permanent digital identifier that is NEVER reassigned. So if your @name registration ever lapses or is sold, your paired @number will always continue to preserve your unique digital identity and relationships (and if your @number registration ever lapses, it can be reactivated at any point in the future).

Do I Need a Different @Number for every @Name?

No. Synonym management is a standard feature of XRI digital identifier infrastructure. Through your XDI.org-Accredited I-Broker you can register as many @names as you like and assign all of them to be synonyms for the same @number.

How do @Names Include Anti-Phishing Protection?

The XDI.org global i-names registry service (GRS) includes a special feature called mapping tables. These tables store a map of visually equivalent characters across all character sets supported by the GRS. (See i-name formats for a listing of current characters sets and mapping tables.) Whenever an i-name is registered, all visually equivalents of that name are automatically reserved so they can only be registered by that same registrant. This prevents some of the most common forms of phishing attacks.

Can I Delegate Sub-Names Under my own @Name?

Yes. These are called community i-names, and they are separated by star ("*"). For example, if you registered @example, you could assign your own community i-names to divisions of your business:

• @example*manufacturing
• @example*human.resources
• @example*legal

Each of these sub-names would also have its own community i-number, so you can rename resources (such as departments) at any level without breaking XRI-based links (which are based on the underlying i-number). You can operate your own XRI server, or ask your XDI.org-Accredited I-Broker about their hosted community i-name services.

Can I Move my @Name to a Different I-Broker?

Yes. All top-level @names and @numbers registered by an XDI.org-Accredited I-Broker are guaranteed to be portable across all XDI.org-Accredited I-Brokers.

Can I register an i-name in my native language?

Yes. Currently, i-names may be registered in languages that can be represented in the Latin (including ASCII) scripts (which covers many European languages such as French, German, Norwegian and Spanish), as well as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Internationalized i-names are no different from ASCII i-names. The latter simply mean that all characters in the i-name fall within the Latin character table.

The rules are summarized as:

1. There are three character tables - Latin, Hangul and Combined-Katakana-Hiragana-Han.
2. Each of the tables contain a subset of ASCII characters permissible for registration, plus the additional characters for each script included in the table.
3. An i-name to be registered must contain only characters that are from a single table. For example, an i-name that contains a Hangul character and a Katakana character will not be registrable.
4. An i-name must not be visually similar to an existing registered i-name. This is determined by using data from the Unicode Consortium (http://unicode.org/reports/tr36/). For example, if an existing i-name called =résumé is already registered, the global registry will not permit =resume to be registered.

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