Is There A Doctor On The Web? Internet Oversight Group Deciding On Future Of .Doctor Domain
by KYW tech editor Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Earning a medical degree is one way to be a doctor, but online it's the only way -- that is, if an Internet regulator gets its way.
Soon, .doctor will join .expert, .coach, .photography and many more new generic top-level domains -- all alternatives to .com.
But ICANN -- the international overseer of many things web -- wants only licensed medical practitioners to be able to register a .doctor site.
"So a PhD in math would not be able to get .doctor, but a pediatrician would. A lawyer or judge would not be able to get .doctor, but a local nephrologist in Philadelphia could," explains Jon Nevett, co-founder of the domain registry company Donuts.
Nevett says the restrictions present an identity crisis:
"What's a chiropractor? Does that fit in as a 'licensed medical doctor'?"
What about an osteopath (DO) or a veterinarian? Nevett says ICANN's restrictions are unclear: might only MDs be able to get a .doctor site?
"Or maybe it's something totally outside the realm of medical doctors, such as lawn.doctor or computer.doctor," says Nevett.
Nevett calls it a "First Amendment issue." Donuts has appealed to ICANN to reconsider before .doctor goes up for grabs later this year.
