It originated when Jon Postel, then running the top level of the Domain Name System basically single-handedly, proposed the addition of new top-level domains to be run by different registries. Since Internet tradition at the time emphasized "rough consensus and running code", Christopher Ambler, who ran Image Online Design, saw this as meaning that his company could get a new TLD into the root by starting up a functional registry for it. Therefore, IOD launched .web, a new unrestricted top level domain which could only be accessed by users who pointed their computers at an alternative DNS root that included this domain (or their ISP did so).