Category — Geographical

DotAfrica Organization Limited is an effort for developing the .AFRICA sTLD for “organization’s who provide an undertaking that their registered office or principal place of business is located in the African Union (AU) region, Natural persons registered in AU, or Organizations established by the African Union.”

“DotAfrica is committed to contributing to the development of Internet on the African continent and propose to re-invest back proceeds into the social and technological advancement initiatives within the community. A revenue allocation structure will be adopted by the DotAfrica registry to guarantee that a portion of revenues will be directly re-invested into the community through a grant program”

Consumer Benefits: Africa’s total population is estimated at 922 MM, with internet penetration growth and high GDP improvements YoY in most every African country.

Supporters: Regional network operators and ccTLD administrators from Africa – AfNOG/AfriNIC, afTLD

DotConnectAfrica – a not for profit organization- will be applying for delegation of a regional identifier top level domain –‘.africa’ from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and then make it available to the Pan-African and African community. www.dotconnectafrica.org

Consumer Benefits: An opportunity to build a common branding for continental Africa as well as expand the inclusion of information and internet society in Africa representing over 900 mill people. Partial of the income stream from domain name sales will be Distributed on Target (DOT) through the DotConnectAfrica Foundation to organizations and projects of sustainability around Africa.

Supporters: Over 13 African Governments and Ministers, African Regional & Continental organizations includng African Union Commision, Economic Commision for Africa; large & Small Private Sector actors and Non-Governmental Organizations.

The company dotBERLIN seeks to apply for the .berlin top level domain. With .berlin domains, companies, private individuals and organisations will be able to register Internet addresses such as zoo.berlin or painter.berlin. The company dotBERLIN represents all Berliners in applying for the .berlin top-level domain so as to provide the basis for Berliners and their organisations to register their own domains with the ending .berlin. www.dotberlin.com

Consumer Benefits: Berlin businesses and residents (4.6 million)
Supporters: Grand Hyatt Berlin, Berlin Online, TVG Verlag, Hotel Zoo Berlin

CNNIC, the state network information center of China, has expressed its interest in applying for the .china top level domain. According to Chinese media, a nationwide campaign has been launched to promote the use of a .CHINA extension in local characters (.中国). Chinese registry officials are quoted as saying that developing this TLD would boost Internet use and popularity in China. One news story says that “so far, 90 percent of national provincial or ministerial-level government organizations, 95 percent of traditional media websites, over 90 percent of the 211-engineering universities, over 50 percent of China’s top 100 enterprises and over 40 percent of China’s top 500 enterprises have already registered to use the .中国 domain name.” http://www.stephanevangelder.com/archives/228-China-wants-a-Dot-China-in-Chinese.html

Consumer Benefits: Chinese nationals and Chinese speakers (1.3 billion)
Supporters: The government of China

dotCYM Cyf. is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee which will be applying for and then managing an internet top-level domain for the Welsh linguistic and cultural community.

dotCYM has been campaigning for a top level Internet domain name for the Welsh cultural and linguistic community since 2005. If Wales is successful in bidding for its own domain name, we will have access to:

• Good domain names for Welsh businesses (short, descriptive, and memorable) which will be much cheaper than the thousands of pounds that good .com names now cost.
• A home for Welsh culture of every type to demonstrate the richness of our Welsh heritage and the opportunities we have for a better quality of life.
• A domain name structure which supports the Welsh language and addresses bilingualism and gives a renewed focus for Welsh literature and Welsh speaking communities.
• A significant boost to marketing Welsh businesses with our own portals – hotels.cym and visit.cym will boost tourism and cut advertising costs (at the moment, a search for ‘welsh hotel’ on Google returns 3,460,000 results, but we have less than 5000 hotels and B&Bs – a wide range of non-local resellers are responsible for the extra results, and the extra costs they create are passed on to visitors, making us less competitive)
• Better search results – Google and Yahoo have confirmed that local domains like .cym will score higher in searches including related terms like Wales or Cymru.

Our own domain will also result in more Welsh internet spending remaining in Wales – at the moment, Welsh internet users spend most of their money outside Wales, which is a damaging drain our economy cannot afford. Highlighting Welsh businesses will make it easier for people to choose Welsh companies. What’s more, a .cym extension will make it easier to police eCrime in Wales, as well as eCrime which targets Welsh internet users, making Wales a safer place to be online.

http://www.dotcym.org

Consumer Benefits: Residents of Wales and speakers of Welsh
Supporters: Cardiff City Council (capital of Wales); Deputy Leader Cllr Neil McEvoy; Tom Brooks, Westminster All Parliamentary IT Committee; Peter Black AM; Bethan Jenkins AM; Jill Evans MEP; Welsh Language Board

The association dotHAMBURG is the initiative for a top-level domain .hamburg, providing a worldwide local namespace for the population of Hamburg. Nowadays more than 50% of all internet search strings incorporate a local identifier. Mainly local businesses, like craftsmen, car dealers, and doctors, have to be found in the internet. Furthermore, in a globalized world identity in the Internet becomes of more and more importance. With the “.hamburg” namespace, companies and citizens based in worldwide cities with the name Hamburg will be able to obtain their local identity on the Internet.

Consumer Benefits: Hamburg businesses and residents (1.8 million)
Supporters: The city of Hamburg

The Identitiy of Cologne Businesses and private individuals in the worldwide web.  Whatever you are, a local craftsperson, a well established business or a start-up, a public adminsitration or a private individual with strong ties to and love for the city of Cologne, as of 2010 the .koln groups hopes their initiative will offer the opportunity to register an internet domain with the ending “.koeln” to express their “Koelnness” on the internet. 

Consumer Benefits: Cologne businesses and residents (1 million) 
Supporters: The city of Cologne

The idea for .london is for a domain name registry run in the public interest for the people, businesses and organisations of London. The applying group seeks to ensure that the profile of London is maintained on the internet as a high-profile domain extension that is a crucial element in the capital’s economy. Information under a .london domain is to be accurate, authoritative and informative. The applicant wants a .london domain name to become the domain extension of choice for Londoners, an internet address trusted and used by Londoners and anyone wanting to contact a business or individual within London. There are seven million people living in London and the headquarters of more than 100 of Europe’s 500 largest companies are in the capital. London’s £162 billion economy is larger than some EU countries and accounts for 17 per cent of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). www.adomainforlondon.org.uk

Consumer Benefits: London businesses and residents (20 million)
Supporters: .London is working with the Mayor of London Boris Johnson

.nyc is a proposed city-level top-level domain for New York City. The concept for .nyc TLD was originally introduced by Bill Semich in an application to ICANN in 2000, though that application was never completed. Another effort was begun at Community Board 3, Queens, the City of New York, on April 19, 2001. An official proposal to ICANN is expected to be made in 2010. The main goals of .nyc are to provide good domain names that improve tourism, marketing of local businesses, and encourage a sense of community between city residents. If launched, a series of public service web portals and search engine will be created specifically for the new TLD. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn indicated in her February 12, 2009 State of the City address that the city of New York will be supporting the acquisition of the .nyc TLD. On April 15, 2009 the city’s Department of Information and Technology and Telecommunications issued a Request for Information (RFI) potentially leading towards the issuance of a Request for Proposals.

Another NYC effort, Connecting.nyc Inc. is a NYS not-for-profit campaigning for the TLD’s acquisition as a public interest resource. It has the following mission statement: “To promote civic, commercial, community, and cultural improvement in New York City through the acquisition, operation, and development of the Internet’s .nyc top level domain (TLD), and to educate all sectors about the techniques and opportunities the TLD offers for improving our city”

Consumer Benefits: New York City businesses and residents (20 million)
Supporters: Christine Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council; the Mayor’s office of the City of New York.

To enhance the image of Paris, enhance investment and economic actors premises and also ensure the proper management of a new extension, the City of Paris wishes to have created a “. PARIS. The establishment of this new extension in the interest Collective is a continuation of policy development and innovation undertaken by the City’s infrastructure and digital services.

It will not only strengthen the rights of the City on its name but also enhance the economic and social action of all partners and local actors.

Consumer Benefits: Parisian residents and business owners (2.1 million)
Supporters: Deputy Mayor Jean-Louis Missika and the city of Paris

With the introduction of .ROMA domain names, Romans and any individual with a connection with Rome will have the possibility of registering their own .ROMA domain name, such as MarioRossi.ROMA. A .ROMA domain name will be the link between Romans and the world, uniting and identifying everyone who cares about Rome.
With a .ROMA domain name, companies based in Rome or with a branch in the Eternal City will have a quick way to connect directly with their Roman customers. Rome-based companies could register their .ROMA domain, such as CaffeSantEustachio.ROMA to distinguish themselves as Rome companies and have a boost in their search engine listing when somebody search for a similar activity in Rome; large companies will be able to provide a direct link to their local branches (i.e. BNL.ROMA, IKEA.ROMA) providing a more organized service and an easier way for local customers to access their local website. Roma TLD will devolve a significant portion of revenues from the sale of .ROMA domain names to the City of Rome, ensuring a constant revenue stream that will help the city growth over time. www.ildominiodiroma.it/index_eng.html

Consumer Benefits: Rome businesses and residents (2.7 million)
Supporters: Dot Roma SA is in discussions with the Mayor of Rome 

A campaign by a group of Scots who believe that the Scots Community of Interest online, Scottish Culture and Scotland’s Languages should have the opportunity to be identified and enhanced by having its own sponsored community top-level domain (scTLD) on the Internet.  Under a dotSCO sponsored TLD, those organisations, companies and individuals, throughout the world, that express themselves through Scotland’s languages online, or wish to support or identify with the Scottish Culture or the Scots online community around the world will be able to register a clearly identifiable domain name.  DotSco has gathered support from across the globe from individual Scots, Scots societies and from speakers of Scots and Gaelic for the dotSCO campaign. They believe that they can raise the profile of Scots culture and communities around the world.  The dotSCO campaign feels that the World Wide Web should be multi-national and a multilingual medium and that their culture should be represented. And that this opportunity (a new tld) will also play an important role in promoting further the use of the Scots and Gaelic languages on the World Wide Web as a modern medium of communication.

Consumer Benefits: People of Scottish descent (10 million)
Supporters: Scottish Government, First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond MSP