I don’t see the nearest future (100 years from now) being app- or bot-centric. I don’t see the millions or almost billions of website we have today be displaced by some apps or bots. Just like, in retrospect, we can say that the TV wasn’t able to displace radio, or Internet print media or books - heck, Amazon is using the internet to encourage the sales of more physical books.
The internet will always be with us and will become even more valuable as we march on. Web browsers will always be with us to display the pages. URLs will always be with us as locators.
Your slide supports what I said earlier that NIRA was looking at dot ng as a way to charge premium. And no we are not saying the same thing. You support that pricing model and I clearly do not. The difference being that I believe that dot ng should be focused on expanding local domain name development and not a get rich quick scheme. I want to see 5 million Nigerian businesses using the ng domain and not googli.ng as an example of achievement.
I say this because I have seen what community of volunteers did to expand the internet into the most distant of places. Unix, linux, GNU software, FreeBSD, Bind, all free made the internet accessible widely. There was a time domain names were free until companies saw the commercial potential. But internet governance has been rooted in that spirit of service of enabling and empowering and spreading the benefits of interconnectivity.
NIRA was founded after much bickering as to who should control the dot ng domain. Pastor Ibukun Odusote who ran it with Randy bush initially handed it over to NITDa which was an arm of government. Given the antecedents of Nigerian government which was building white elephant mirages of grandeur in Abuja while universities lacked libraries and computers it was suggested that a non governmental organization run it free of censorship and with more dedication to the community.
That’s the context and NIRA has to live up to its mission which is deepening domain development IN NIGERIA. This includes pricing, training, conferences, registrar policies, raising awareness. Do they do enough? I don’t think so. The pricing is not pocket friendly. Their harnessing of the ecosystem is poor. They have 53 registrars, the South African domain has over 300. When was the last time you saw NIRA at popular events trumpeting the benefits of getting online? They want the money but not the work.
We need to remember that development in every sphere of life takes sacrifice. In countries that understand this and are committed you see the benefits of it in subsidized education, in subsidized healthcare, in subsidized transport. In Nigeria few want to sacrifice beyond their village and that is why we are poor.
@lordbanks that will be when your smartphone ram runs on TB or PB not on 1 or 2 GB and your storage is infinity, we know the web is going mobile as apps as default, but that shift is long term depending on factors like the:
OS esp Cloud OS
The speed of the ram
Extra high storage
Cheap - Zero broadband cost like the radio
when will these be possible in Nigeria? so in my opinion URLs will very much be important.