Blog: New TLD Sightings

Wales, a small Celtic country that has proudly withstood the depredations of Anglo-Saxons, Normans, and tourists, which has given the world everything from an enduring mythology to the world’s longest single-world domain name, has been informed that they will not be allowed to proceed with .CYM (short for the Welsh name for Wales, Cymru) because that three-letter code is already claimed by the Cayman Islands.

Actually, that’s not quite correct. .CYM is the three-letter International Standards Organization (ISO) code for the Cayman Islands — it’s unclear if the Cayman Islands requested it or even knows very much about about it. The ISO puts out a list of three-letter country and territory codes, as well as the more two-letter codes that are used to designate country-code domain. The two-letter code for the Cayman Islands is .KY; Wales doesn’t have a two-letter country-code top-level domain, which is why they are campaigning for a new three-letter gTLD.

This is a great example of red tape getting in the way of doing the right thing. The Cayman Islands has small use (if any) of their three-letter code, and no use that couldn’t be equally well served by a different code. Three-letter codes are reserved and changed all the time — the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), or the relevant sovereign power (in this case, the U.K.).

Why is this happening? It’s certainly not what’s been advertised by the leaders of the groups who could do something about it.

In his opening address at the ICANN meeting in Brussels in June 2010, CEO Rod Beckstrom called for increased international co-operation between ICANN and other global organizations.

In the address opening the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, in September 2010, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Digital Agenda, in a speech entitled Moving from reflection to action on Internet governance, said “we need more concrete progress towards enhanced cooperation.”

And at the International Telecommunciations Union (ITU) plentipotentiary meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2010, ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré talked about “protect[ing] the all-important principle of multilateralism and cooperation among the international community in the modern world.”

In each case, applause from the crowd! Everyone, apparently, is for increased international co-operation — or maybe only up to the point where they actually have do something to make it happen.

Meanwhile, various anti-TLD lobbyists and ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC) have been wringing their hands about how the proposed gTLD process might be unfairly biased toward “insiders” who have spent some time decrypting ICANN’s byzantine structures and rules, at the expense of small and deserving applications — such as the application by Wales for .CYM.

It seems that everyone is of the same mind about international co-operation and making sure that deserving TLD applications get a fair shake. If so, here’s their chance to do the right thing. ICANN, the ITU, and the GAC should try some of that international co-operation and ask the ISO to change the Cayman Islands three-letter code — “CMI” is available, for example — and let Wales use .CYM, which is the natural abbreviation for the name of their country, in their language.

Let’s hope that this much-vaunted international co-operation doesn’t just mean an agreement to stand on the sidelines and use the “rules” as an excuse to do nothing. .CYM is a much stronger TLD than any alternative, and would do much for the stature of a valiant and vibrant country that has too often been given short shrift.

UPDATE: An astute commenter has noted that my proposal is arbitrary and unfair to the Cayman Islands, and on consideration I have to agree. The better solution would be to stop excluding new TLDs just because they happen to match an entry on the ISO 3166 three-letter list. As Jean Guillon has pointed out, at least three other known projects would be excluded: .VEN (Venice); .AND (Andalusia); and .FRA (France), although this last would be excluded for other reasons as well. Or better yet, stop using the ISO 3166 three-letter list altogether. The protections it affords to countries are debatable, and it’s certainly affecting worthy applications.

It looks as if the new gTLD applicants are finally coming out of the woodwork. Today, thanks to a tip on the Vertical Integration Working Group list, I learned of another new gTLD in the offing: .UNICEF.

Large organizations can’t do anything quickly; they need at least six months to find a vendor and finalize their plans. UNICEF has already started their process, which suggests that they’re looking at ICANN’s December meeting in Cartagena as a kickoff date for the new gTLD program.

IBM’s submission to ICANN’s comment forum on the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook — the set of rules for getting a new top-level domain, implies very heavily that they will be applying for .IBM. Furthermore (no surprise) it looks as if they will use it for internal purposes, and not to sell any .IBM names to the public.

First, IBM is pleased that there will be no requirement for a sunrise period, which wouldn’t make any sense if the top-level domain were used for internal company purposes, and not sold to the public:

Second, IBM notes that as yet there is no requirement that .brand top-level domains must use registrars — again, something that makes little sense if you’re just registering names internally. (This issue is currently being hashed out by the Vertical Integration Working Group, which is in a deadlock.)

Taken together, these comments are strong evidence that IBM is, at a minimum, giving serious consideration to applying for .IBM. Canon has already announced their intention to apply for .CANON. It appears that IBM and others are set to join them soon.

The Netherlands Antilles, an agglomeration of former Dutch colonies in the Caribbean, will disappear on October 10, 2010. None of the ex-colonies in question — Curaçao, St Maarten, Saba, Bonaire, and St Eustatius — have been particularly happy with the status quo. (Aruba achieved a separate status in 1986).

Sources at the International Standards Organization (ISO), which maintains the ISO-3166-1 list that determines which ccTLDs exist (or don’t), tell me that .AN (Netherlands Antilles) will be deprecated, and two new ccTLD codes will be established. Presumably, these will be for St Maarten and Curaçao (the others have taken the status of Dutch municipalities), but I wasn’t able to confirm the countries or the new ccTLD codes.

Meanwhile, ICANN is ballyhooing the signing of an “accountability framework” with Netherlands Antilles — even though it has a shelf-life of just over four months.

Can anyone guess what the new country codes will be? .SM for St Maarten and .CU for Curaçao seem obvious, but these are already taken by San Marino and Cuba.

While new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) wait for ICANN to announce an application date, country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) continue to migrate in large numbers to CoCCA, the registry software system which shares a codebase with Minds + Machines’ Espresso registry system.

Dot Masr, the Arabic-script ccTLD for Egypt, successfully deployed today on the CoCCA system. The National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt (NTRA) has deployed its production domain name registry system for Egypt’s internationalized domain name country-code top-level domain (IDN ccTLD).

Egypt joins Kenya (.ke), Madagascar (.mg), Mauritius (.mu), Nigeria (.ng), Cameroon (.cm), Mozambique (.mz) , Namibia (.na), Egypt ASCII (.eg) and several other African countries in deploying the CoCCA registry system. In the second quarter of 2010 alone, six ccTLDs have migrated to CoCCA: Greenland (.gl), Guernsey (.gg), Jersey (.je), Palestine (.ps); and American Samoa (.as) will be migrating to CoCCA. By a wide margin, CoCCA is the most widely deployed top-level domain registry system in the world, supporting over 30 ccTLDs.

Until today’s announcement by Canon, no large brand had broken the “thin brand line” by revealing their plan to apply for their own new top-level domain. Now with Canon’s announcement, other major companies have been challenged to either announce their TLD plans or else state that they plan to forgo the chance to brand themselves at the top level of the domain name space.

Until now, in public, large brands have marched in lock step in opposition to new top-level domains, ostensibly because of the high cost of defending and enforcing their marks in multiple new namespaces. The worst-kept secret in the industry, however, is that brands have been making private plans, and brand-service registrars have been prepping their clients for new gTLDs in anticipation of healthy fees for application submission services.

Canon, at least, has decided that the marketing benefits of their own top-level domain outweigh the costs. In the U.S., legal departments, which are good at identifying risk — though not necessarily expert at quantifying it –, exercise a much stronger presence in the corporate boardroom than they do in European and Asian companies.

Could it be that the highly defensive stance of U.S. intellectual property interests, hardened by the file-sharing wars, is not shared by the rest of the world’s brands?

In Japan, Canon has decided to cast its lot with the money-makers instead of the money-hoarders. I predict we will see more brands opt for engagement with the Internet by visibly branding themselves with their own new gTLD, but that the the last ones to do so will come from the United States.

New York City announced that it will seek the .NYC web address, making it the first U.S. city to seek a top-level domain. New York City now joins Barcelona, Berlin, London, Paris and Rome as a global city applying for its own web address.

Paul J. Cosgrave, the Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), announced New York City’s intention to apply for the .NYC top-level domain from ICANN. The .NYC effort has enjoyed long-time support from City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and from its earliest champion, Council Member Gale A. Brewer, Chair of the Council’s Technology in Government Committee. They all testified to the benefits of the new .NYC top-level domain for the businesses, organizations, and residents of New York City.

Former Mayor Ed Koch, who supports the dotNYC effort to operate .NYC on the city’s behalf, said on video: “.NYC is the best real estate deal since the Dutch bought Manhattan.”

dotNYC LLC, a private company that for the last year has been meeting with city officials about the plan for .NYC, is applying to become the city’s operating partner, working with Minds + Machines. dotNYC LLC congratulated the City in a press release about .NYC:

… .NYC will allow New York city residents, businesses, groups, government agencies and tourist attractions to register website names and have email addresses ending in .NYC – directly identifying themselves with the world’s leading city. Examples include: theater.nyc, pizza.nyc, blockparty.nyc, statueofliberty.nyc, yourname.nyc, yourbusinessname.nyc and millions more.

The story was covered in depth by the New York Post under the title City sets its sites on ‘.nyc’ Web domain. The Post called .NYC “the 21st-century equivalent of the 212 area code.” The Post article continues:

New York City is on the verge of getting its very own Internet domain that will give area Web sites the option of putting an “.nyc” rather than a “.com” at the end of their addresses…. New York City is the first American city to announce its intention to land its very own top-level domain…. Officials believe the domain will give New York City businesses a leg up and also generate much-needed revenue for city coffers.

Commissioner Cosgrave talked about how .NYC will make it easier to access information:

Each day the Internet serves as an essential tool in the lives of an increasing number of New Yorkers, helping inform the ways they live, learn and play. Through .nyc, we hope to make the search for New York City-related content easier than ever by providing individuals, organizations, non-profits and others a chance to own a virtual piece of the greatest city in the world.”

Speaker Quinn spoke about the impact of the NYC brand on the Internet:

A top-level City needs a top level domain, that’s why finding a partner to join the City in making .nyc a reality for small businesses in New York is vitally important. Once the .nyc program is launched, local business owners will be able to uniquely associate themselves and their business with their home, and the NYC brand.

Council Member Brewer talked about the impact on small businesses:

New York City, like many of its global competitors, plans to apply for a top level domain name. I hope that this TLD will assist local merchants based in New York City to be able to brand their businesses as located in the five boroughs. The small business community is a vital part of the New York City economy and any opportunity to increase their exposure while facilitating easy searching online is a step forward. I applaud the Mayor for applying for .nyc and I look forward to seeing this TLD attached to my local bakery or dry cleaner.

New York City municipal leaders, elected and appointed, clearly understand the benefits of the .NYC top-level domain for the City, and have spoken out unequivocally. This important announcement should prompt other cities, and businesses, to start thinking seriously about their own top-level domain strategy.

In another evidence of the demand for new top-level domains, the .SIC top-level domain for Transylvania has been announced. A full write-up can be found on the Support New Top-Level Domains site.

Here’s a portion of the announcement:

On the initiative of the Szekler National Council it was managed the visualization of Szeklerland [Transylvania] in the virtual space. The ICANN, the highest organization responsible for the supervision and allocation of the domain names, in its communication of 13th of May accepted the .SIC highest level domain name as abbreviation of SICULITAS. So, from the first quarter of 2010 this could be the own internet domain name of Szeklerland. The translation of “Siculitas” today means “Szekler people”, but in the Hungarian administration of the Middle Ages the meaning was ” a community with self-government and freedom rights”. With the choice of this domain name the Szekler National Council would like to express not only a regional identity but also the historical roots of the Szekler freedom.

The own internet domain name of Szeklerland makes it possible that from the first quarter of 2010 self-governments, institutions, companies, private individuals in Szeklerland use for their internet addresses the .sic termination. The Szekler National Council considers as an important step of the autonomy aspirations, a victory the fact that Szeklerland appears as an independent entity on the net among countries, autonomous regions and cultural communities. Beyond that the new domain name could be a symbol of unity for the Szeklers all around the world because they will have the opportunity to use for their internet addresses the .sic termination. The ICANN accepted the highest domain name .sic for Szeklerland together with other nine regions’s domain names. So, Szeklerland appeared in the news together with Quebec, Scotland, Bretagne, Cornwall, England, Wales, Leon, Basque country and Galicia. The Szekler National Council could decide in his next session to propose the SIC abbreviation for the international marking of Szeklerland.

Another new TLD has been sighted – The .radio TLD.

In their press release today, BRS Media, operators of DotFM, DotAM, and iDotz.net among other popular domain providers) has announced their interest and intent to secure the new Top Level Domain DotRadio.

dotRadio launched in April 2009 to secure, operate and promote the Multimedia Top Level Domain .Radio. BRS Media, Inc. is a diverse and growing media e-commerce firm that helps traditional and interactive media companies build and brand on the power of the Internet. BRS Media pioneered the ‘Multimedia’ domain space in 1998 with the launching of dotFM® and later dotAM®, the .FM & .AM Top Level Domains. Over the past 11 years, BRS Media has engaged radio properties, web sites and online media organizations worldwide to move up to a ‘Great Sounding Web Address’ under .FM & .AM.

The domain name will be open to any registrant via ICANN accredited registrars, will use UDRP, and will have policies determined once the ICANN new gTLD application process has finalized.

For more information, DotRadio has some information posted HERE and HERE.

A new TLD has been sighted – .VIN (“wine” in French).

Jean Guillon, who has worked at Stephane van Gelder‘s INDOM, and at Eurid, the .EU registry, has announced at the Dot Vin website that he’s going to put in an application for .VIN.

From the description on his site, M. Guillon is targeting French wine specifically. At least on part of the site, that is. He says that .VIN would “give value to and to preserve the patrimony of [our] gastronomy and also… culture.” In other cases, he sees everybody joining in:

.VIN will provide the wine community with an identity on the Internet. By ‘community’ we mean all those in the world who deal with wine who want to be better represented on the Internet.

A later section deals with the question of .VIN vs. .WINE. He doesn’t have a clear answer as to which would serve better. Get both of them? That may be the right solution — but an expensive one.