Angry in the Great White North

The Skyfish Project is the brainchild of David Suzuki's daughter, Severn Cullis-Suzuki:

To further "prime the pump," Cullis-Suzuki and her live-in partner, Jeff Topham, have spearheaded the Skyfish Project, a cyberspace youth forum on everything from sustainable urban development to the efficacy of making small changes. On the Website, there's the Recognition of Responsibility, a personal manifesto developed by Cullis-Suzuki and other Yale students as a guide toward limiting our individual ecological footprints. Simple but effective.

That quote came from an article dated June 2003. The Skyfish Project started in 2002, when Severn-Suzuki was 23, with a group of her friends:

In the spring of 2002, Severn and some friends spearheaded an internet-based think-tank called The Skyfish Project. And as member of Kofi Anan's Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the group brought their first project, a pledge called the Recognition of Responsibility to the recent UN World Summit in Johannesburg in August 2002.

Topham met Cullis-Suzuki in 1997 when she was 18. The domain is registered under Topham's name, and Topham promotes skyfishproject.org from his own webpage:

Photographer and writer Jeff Topham lives and breathes and tries to surf in Vancouver, Canada (he's pictured here with story star Rob 'Bobdog' Whetter and 'Tiny Dancer'). He also likes curries, winegums, and a good song. For a good time check out www.skyfishproject.org and www.masonjennnings.com

Strangely, Topham promotes the site for "a good time", while the Severn-Suzuki pushes the site as an internet think-tank for environmental issues.

Weird.

So what do you find on this "cyberspace youth forum"? Neither a think tank nor a good time, as it turns out.

Links for timesheet software, dating, credit cards, immigration help, a cure-all for cancer, secret pseudo-Catholic revelations for the new millennium, and cool alien T-shirts, all served up by Google AdSense on a page with no actual content, either visible or in meta tags.

The source code for the page says that the domain has expired, but the DNS records show that Topham has control of this domain until April 2008.

There used to be a site here, featuring a rhino and a Recognition of Responsbility pledge and so on. The Wayback Machine last archived skyfishproject.org on April 19, 2006.

So what happened? The skyfishproject.org domain was deactived on April 8, 2007. Clearly it is no longer deactivated, since I can access it. It might be that Topham has only just re-established control of the domain.

Domains expire, of course. It happens. But here's the weird thing. The Google AdSense being served up comes from their "domainpark" program:

What is AdSense for domains?

AdSense® for domains allows domain name registrars and large domain name holders to unlock the value in their parked page inventory. AdSense for domains delivers targeted, conceptually related advertisements to parked domain pages by using Google’s semantic technology to analyze and understand the meaning of the domain names. Our program uses ads from the Google AdWords™ network, which is comprised of thousands of advertisers worldwide and is growing larger everyday. Google AdSense for domains targets web sites in over 25 languages, and has fully localized segmentation technology in over 10 languages.

Our Technology

AdSense for domains is scalable and easily implemented so that your network of sites can start earning revenue quickly and easily. We offer a robust automated targeting solution powered by our AdRank algorithm that intelligently selects the most relevant ads and categories for your domains. Additionally, we augment our semantic targeting with manual and automated optimization techniques.

Services and Features

Our HTML service is easy to implement, enabling you to start generating revenue immediately. Partners who have established a strong relationship with Google can explore the option of using our XML feed. Additional features include online per-domain reporting, to help partners analyze their portfolio, and advanced popular categories. Google continues to innovate across all of our businesses, and partners who sign up for AdSense for domains can expect additional improvements in the future.

Partner with the industry’s leading parked page service

Powering millions of domain names, Google AdSense for domains is the industry’s premier parked page service. Google is seeking new partnerships with large domain portfolios owners.

But this program is only available to the big players in the domain parking business:

Q: How do I enroll in AdSense for domains?

A: AdSense for domains is currently available to large domain portfolio owners. If you would like to submit your portfolio to be considered for the AdSense for domains program, please fill out the information request form on the contact us page. If your portfolio meets the AdSense for domains requirements, a Google representative will get back to you shortly.

I'm not sure how Topham and Suzuki-Cullis were accepted. It might be that when the domain expired, it was bought up by a major domains player, the old environmental stuff was replaced with the Domain Park AdSense service from Google, and then somehow Topham and Suzuki-Cullis got control back.

Or maybe they sold the domain, or never attempted to get ownership back once it was deactivated, and the registration information is out of date. But six weeks is a long time to be out of date.

The registration information says Topham owns this domain, and I expect that this is true.

But with all the backlinks to this domain, and with its healthy page rank of 4, and with all the places where the domain is mentioned in relation to Cullis-Suzuki and environmentalism, it would seem like a lot of people will be scratching their heads when they get to this site.

At the very least, Topham could yank the spammy ads and replace it with "Soon to return" page or "Never to return" page with regards to the original think-tank. As it is, the only way to leave the site is by hitting the Back button, or by clicking on one of the links. Of course, clicking the link generates revenue for whomever controls that Google AdSense account.

You might wonder if Topham and Cullis-Suzuki are earning that revenue. It is his site, after all.

Of course, I don't know that Topham and Cullis-Suzuki are still a couple. If not, it might be that Topham retained control of the domain and is using it as a cash source. It would explain why he directs people there for "a good time".

Check out what Canadian bloggers have written about Severn Cullis-Suzuki
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Check out what Canadian bloggers have written about David Suzuki
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