From Twitter:

woke up forseeing a worldwide domain move to .HT after Haiti news. Better than Libya (.ly)? Allrig.ht? #.ht 9:39 AM Jan 25

just registered oug.ht–shortlinks 4 haiti. Now where’s tr.im’s opensource codebase? ah! http://github.com/ejw/tr.im#readme #.ht 2:06 PM Jan 25

Chances are you’ve heard at least a little bit about the URL shortening business, those services that take a long ugly hyperlink and make a short one for you. In the beginning there was tinyurl.com but things didn’t get hot until Twitter made people want to squeeze a link into a 140 character message. So it came down to bit.ly , tr.im, and a few others.

Last September Tr.im threw in the towel. Twitter had just anointed bit.ly the default shortener for their service, which pretty much shut out the other competitors. This was a shame, because the competition was fierce and in consumers’ best interest. There’s also the issue of bit.ly being linked to Libya, which is risky at best (though bit.ly is apparently moving to j.mp).

Long story short, it occurred to me the other morning:

1. We ought to stop patronizing these Libya-based .ly domains
2. We ought to focus our domain hacking creativity and startup naming to benefit countires that actually need the attention.
3. Haiti (.ht) deserves our attention

So I registered the domain name oug.ht which captured this sentiment. Now what to do with it? Well, when tr.im went under, they made their code open-source. Why not a URL shortening service?
What if each time you made a shortlink you were donating money to Haiti? Say a coin (penny, nickel, quarter) for each shortlink you made. And what if it were matched? Think of it like FreeRice but with pennies.

The benefits:

• Give people the opportunity to donate to Haiti via shortlink.
• recharge awesome shortener tr.im (or at least the tr.im codebase)
• provide ancillary avenues to help Haiti (b.oug.ht — a store for Haiti-made products, th.oug.ht — a Haiti blog)
• Popularize the .ht domain name with the idea others contribute creatively to Haiti

In their sayonara, tr.im’s founders said “There is no way for us to monetize URL shortening…users won’t pay for it“.

I have a counter-thesis: people will pay for shortlinks…for Haiti. Conventional wisdom once said people wouldn’t send money by text message. As of January 14, Text “Haiti” to 90999 had raised $24 million.

Still I’m not sure of this whole idea and its promise. Does the world need more URL shortener competition? Does this setup add value rather than just exploit a crisis? Is this more technically complicated than I outline? Is it going to help Haiti?

I’m putting it out there for vote and comment. Is this a good idea or bad idea? Vote and comment in the comments.

• Some will say “it all depends on the execution” so here’s how I’d execute it:* Partner with a savvy, respected NGO (Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.) to lend credibility, help with messaging and outreach.
• Use the open-source Tr.im codebase, add the donation features and competitive enhancements necessary
• Find the best partners for the Haiti product marketplace (b.oug.ht) and Haiti policy blog (th.oug.ht)
• Communicate and show clearly how money is distributed and the different donation options (including no donation)
• Import and honor all tr.im links (so that oug.ht/123 and tr.im/123 resolve identically) to have an immediate user base
• Keep maintenance of the system with a small competent tech team.
• Position oug.ht as the shortener of choice

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your input.