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Domains are the main place to maintain a permanent identity in
the Internet. Companies and individuals, but also political
parties and civil administrations rely on domains that are easy
to communicate, are as intuitive as possible and are
semantically comprehensible, for the Internet has long become a
fundamental channel of communications.
The number of domains required increases as the number of users
increases and as the Internet spreads; currently in excess of
over 30% per year globally. The namespace for the German
community under the top-level domain .de now includes 11
million domains and has thus become very "crowded", as each
domain can only be issued once. This is no surprise, as everyone
would like (as for personalised car number plates) to have a
domain which is short, descriptive and easy to remember. However
.com, by far the most popular top-level domain with over
70 million domains, also offers a global identity for hundreds
of different languages and communities.
At the same time, with increasing emphasis on regional, local
and personal aspects of the Internet, a mega trend has developed
which provides a natural counterbalance to the dreams of
globalisation from the Internet's early years. Regional
self-confidence and independent regional administration are
growing in significance, both in developing countries and in the
industrialised states. These trends are reflected in economic,
cultural and socio-political aspects and encompass many business
models and value creation chains. Local searches and
location-based services are good examples of this hyperlocal
development.
With this emphasis on regions, a natural need arises for local
addressing, which means local domains and namespaces. The
extension of the namespace, which is also called the Domain Name
System (DNS) is, in this context, one of the major challenges
presented to ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers), the administrative organisation that is
responsible for the approval of top-level Internet domains.
Communities are the basis of human identity
“Everybody wants to belong to a tribe” is one of the essential
human paradigms. In the meantime, community has replaced tribe,
but the terms always cover a group of persons who develop common
aims and understanding, share experiences and either have or
develop their own identity. Communities benefit from the
fundamental idea, that all participants make a contribution to
success, in that they participate.
At the same time, whether intended or unintended, everyone is a
member of multiple communities. For example, someone may be a
Berliner, a German, a European, a party member, a member of a
football club, a dog owner, an Audi driver and today has a
profile at Xing or MySpace. In many communities, people have to
use their correct names. It is however in our nature, as we do
for carnivals, to wear a disguise and to adopt a new identity.
The space created by the Internet offers numerous opportunities
which users exploit happily and in many different ways. You may
thus be called LonelyStar15 at YouTube, have a private, second
identity with mail@littlestar.de, communicate for work
using maria.smith@min.gov.de and have your own family
homepage under www.smith-berlin.com.
Top-level domains can be an attribute which endows identity and
which contributes to the shaping of a community and its members
and to further develop it. If top-level domains are introduced
to members in an intelligent way, they integrate the top-level
domains into their daily life. This can lead to a strong feeling
of identity, of pride and of a feeling of community, as you can
see with the top-level domain .cat introduced in 2005 for
Catalonia.
Place branding in the Information Age
By marketing in the entire world, top-level domains can create a
product with a clear brand. New York shows how brands can help
to extend the identity of a city with slogans like "Big Apple",
"I love NY" and maybe soon .nyc. The values externally
associated with a city can cover both modern and traditional
aspects: sustainability, variety, self-fulfilment, openness,
potential and opportunities.
In the Information Age, the city is home to the so called
Creative Class, whose creativity and innovative power are
essential for economic prosperity. Planers, engineers,
marketers, artists, in general people with ideas form this
social class. For a city like Berlin which lost great parts of
its former industrial base through the Second World War, the
division during the Cold War and globalisation, they are
critical for its survival. The norms of the Creative Class
change society as a whole – with individuality and openness for
diversity at the core instead of conformity and homogeneity.
Competition for the Creative Class is global. One old rule is
obsolete: People used to come to the cities because the found
work here. The creative class comes to cities because here they
find cultural offerings, restaurants, clubs, a tolerant climate
or bicycle paths. Studies have shown that cities with a well
developed brand such as New York and Paris grow because of their
diversity. Yet, such success is not planned but has grown
organically. Successful cities have an interesting history that
allowed change, progress and diversity. A good relationship
between the citizens and their respective administration is also
characteristic for successful city brands. This is helpful,
considering the fact that each citizen is a walking
advertisement for his or her city. The active presentation of
its positive attributes strengthens a city brand. A TLD that is
being used by a city’s citizens and institutions in their
everyday communication can aid significantly to this process.
ICANN regulates access to the market
The Domain Name System (DNS) was developed in several stages and
so far includes two categories of top-level domains (TLDs):
Generic top-level domains“ (gTLDs) and "country code top-level
domains“ (ccTLDs), which are aligned to the ISO standard 3166.
There is no technical difference between ccTLDs and gTLDs.
ICANN plays a central role in the creation of new top-level
domains. It is one of ICANN's main tasks, to extend and
diversify the namespace with new top-level domains. So far there
have been two rounds of approvals, in 2000 and in 2004, where 16
new top-level domains were approved, although there were
applications for over 200 endings. In December 2005, ICANN
decided to introduce further top-level domains. Applications are
expected to be accepted from the start of 2008. The first new
top-level domains should then go online towards the end of 2008.
The previous rounds of approvals have shown a tendency to
develop the namespace in two directions. On the one hand,
top-level domains with a generic nature (.info, .mobi,
.name, .job etc.) and, on the other hand top-level
domains with a local, geographic or cultural nature (.eu,
.cat, .asia etc.).
The application process for a new top-level domain is not
trivial. Applicants have to meet a variety of technical,
operational, economic and political criteria and have to
demonstrate that their suggestion has the support of the
community concerned. Just the high cost of an application means
that applications for communities with a population of less than
a million people are scarcely economically feasible in many of
the cases.
City top-level domains as the next big thing?
A domain plays an important role in the online and offline
communication of your own identity within the community to which
you belong or would like to belong. The choice for 6.5 billion
people, over 6,000 languages and cultures and numerous other
communities at the top level, is however currently restricted to
about 250 country codes such as .de and to about 20
generic endings such as .com, .info or .biz.
Many communities do not find themselves adequately reflected in
the Internet addressing and thus find ways around it. In
Germany, the term "berlin" is used in over 100,000 domains (such
as www.zoo-berlin.de) so as to demonstrate that they belong to
the Berlin community. The synonym "nyc" can be found in over
300,000 domains.
Statistical data from the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) also
demonstrate that a city like Berlin, has many more registrations
than over 150 countries which have their own top-level domain.
So far however, neither Berlin nor other large cities, nor
comparably large regions or cultural communities have their own
top-level domain.
These numbers make it clear why large cities such as Tokyo, New
York or Berlin, but also conurbations such as the Ruhr region,
which have more inhabitants and economic power than many
national states, need their own Internet address space.
So-called GeoTLDs, in other words top-level domains using
geographic or geopolitical terms such as .berlin, .bayern or .galicia,
can develop an individual identity in the Internet for the
cities or regions concerned, providing new opportunities for
development for individuals, companies and institutions.
This need for local addressing has led, for example, to the
German borough of Rosenheim making an agreement with the
operators of the top-level country domain for Romania (.ro),
to be able to use this top-level domain for the Internet
presence of the public administration in Rosenheim (www.stadt.ro
- The city of Rosenheim has 60,000 inhabitants). Similar dual
use can also be seen with the endings .la (used for Los
Angeles) .by (e.g. as www.bayern.by for the
Bavarian tourism marketing board or .sh (for
Schleswig-Holstein).
Need is also perceived for other community top-level domains. A
good example is provided by the 3 million people in the USA with
the surname Smith, who form a large natural community. Following
the syntax www.firstname.surname a very individual and
personal domain with email functionality (mail@tim.smith)
could result. Need is even growing for their own namespace in
artificial communities. Several hundred thousand IBM employees
could be accommodated under their own top-level domain, as could
secure bank web pages under .hsbc as a top-level domain.
The operators of social networks are also currently considering
the option of offering their members their own namespace, .xing,
.myspace or .google could be imagined.
ICANN expects that the community top-level domains, and here
particularly for cities, regions and cultural areas, will play a
major role in future applications. In the meantime there are
almost a dozen initiatives of which some will present at the IGF
2007 in Rio: .berlin, .nyc, .paris, .baries
(Buenos Aires), .sco (Scotland), .cym (Wales),
.bzh (Bretagne), .gal (Galizien), .eus (Basque
country), .lli (León), .vlx (Flanders), .lac
(Latin America), .africa.
The .berlin Initiative
.berlin
is a bottom-up initiative of Berliners for their own top-level
domain on the Internet, taking account of the interests of
Berliners worldwide. The basis of the .berlin community
is the people who identify themselves with the name Berlin. The
community includes citizens, companies and organisations from
Germany’s capital city Berlin, other cities and villages with
the name Berlin, people who were born in a Berlin or who work in
a Berlin or its immediate vicinity. It also includes people with
personal, social, cultural, economic or other relationships to a
Berlin, as well as people with the surname Berlin. dotBERLIN
GmbH & Co. KG (a Limited Liability Limited Partnership) has
initiated this project and will apply for .berlin at
ICANN in the name of this entire community.
dotBERLIN was founded in July 2005. Currently over 60
organisations and persons that represent the community of
Berliners, e.g. chambers, guilds, city organisations, ICANN
accredited Internet providers, tourism organisations, hotels
associations, SMEs and citizens, are partners of dotBERLIN.
dotBERLIN’s advisory board has a consultative and supporting
position for the approval activities and for the subsequent
operation of the top-level domain .berlin. The advisory
board also helps to anchor, in a socially responsible way, the
top level domain .berlin in the Berlin community made up
of political, commercial, cultural, social and individual
interests. It also advises dotBERLIN on the issuing of domains,
taking account of the various interests fairly and
transparently. The heterogeneous composition of the advisory
board can make use of a variety of experience, knowledge and
contacts.
The local addresses available with .berlin are concise
and create an identity for citizens, companies and institutions.
Those providing and looking for information, goods and services
can thus intuitively come together. The .berlin domains
strengthen the feeling of community amongst Berliners, improve
communication and make interaction easier, thus providing a
stimulus for innovation and development. Both for Berliners and
for non-Berliners, places called Berlin become more attractive
as a place to visit, as a commercial location and as a place to
live.
Risks and opportunities of community TLDs on the
example of .berlin
Opportunities
Individual namespace
– The limited number of domains that can currently be sensibly
used has led to a unique competition. The increasing number of
disputes about domains is an indicator that the top-level
domains existing so far do not suffice to provide individuals,
organisations and communities with enough choice. At least for
the Berlin community, this need can be satisfied with a
top-level domain .berlin and the theoretically unlimited
selection of new domains associated with that.
Benefits to city marketing and the competitive advantage
– Today, cities and regions compete with one another, on a
national and international level, in the fields of politics,
culture, tourism, investment, export and population. A top-level
domain for Berlin creates explicit attention, it is a flexible
instrument of communication and as part of the Internet
infrastructure is an ongoing advantage of the location for
Berlin's external city marketing. Through web sites such as
www.economy.berlin, www.jobs.berlin or
www.tickets.berlin, what Berlin has to offer becomes
intuitively accessible for people all around the world. Through
the use of numerous .berlin domains, such as in email
traffic, free branding takes place. By this a top-level domain
can be a real “Unique Destination Proposition”, for which cities
are searching for.
Internal community branding
– For Berlin and the Berliners .berlin offers a new space
for expression and development and provides an independent voice
in the global Internet. The experience of a top-level domain
.berlin can be an internal marketing instrument, leading to
a strong sense of community, to a clear sense of identity and to
more self-confidence within the Berlin community. It can be an
independent brand, which is also supported by the population
because everyone can use it in their daily life and will see it
in advertising.
Economic potential
– With .berlin new competitive opportunities in
e-commerce will be created for the local Internet economy,
especially through new portals for community related enterprises
and in the area which was previously linked to a generic or to a
country top-level domain. www.hotel.berlin would thus
have a good chance or wresting a significant market share from
www.hotel.de or www.hotel.com. Importantly the new
namespace will lead to a value added chain within the community
that includes registration services, technical infrastructure,
web services, design, advertising and a domain after market.
Intuitive use and semantic comprehensibility
- City top-level domains offer the opportunity of structuring a
top-level domain from the bottom up. Through the opportunity of
devolving domains of public or community interest, many of the
common expressions can be used more intuitively and have a
semantic meaning for the user. This includes terms from certain
sectors such as www.cinema.berlin or terms from the
public sector such as www.taxoffice.berlin. Particularly
for digital public services (e-government), an efficient naming
infrastructure can be established, with which individuals and
companies can more easily access administrative resources, and
which can quickly be located by a regional, local and
international public.
Opportunity for everyone to participate
- City portals such as Berlin.de are single addresses for
the city and its institutions in the Internet. Companies,
organisations and individuals cannot actively influence this
city address due to legal and regulatory reasons. In future,
city top-level domains such as .berlin and the numerous
resulting .berlin domains will represent an identity for
every single inhabitant, and for its companies and
organisations. The .berlin domains reach the entire
community, right out to its most remote member. City top-level
domains can open up a whole range of opportunities for every
single person to participate in the urban community and to
engage in social networking.
Quality when searching
– A structured city top-level domain can make easier navigation
a reality. Wiki technology can help to support a self-organising
city directory at the level of the domains. One example: every
domain owner could have the option of entering their domain in
horizontal and vertical categories and to thus network with
other domain owners.
Risks
Death of the city portal?
– The top-level domain .berlin is not a city portal.
Nevertheless, critics have expressed their reservations, that a
top-level domain .berlin will make the city portal
Berlin.de superfluous. The opposite is however true. The
city address Berlin.de will remain the first address for
residents and visitors, as with the top-level domain .berlin,
sensible infrastructure for residents will be created which
supplements Berlin.de, making access easier via intuitive
domains such as www.courts.berlin. Apart from that, there
is an excellent opportunity through cooperation between
Berlin.de and .berlin for Berlin.de to broaden
its base and to further extend its leadership as the
metropolitan portal in regional, national and international
circles. For Berlin.de, .berlin is a unique
opportunity to position itself in the innovative trend in city
top-level domains by being a first-mover worldwide, thus setting
new standards.
Endangering the stability of the Internet?
– In a well-respected study "Signposts in Cyberspace" from 2005,
the US Congress had an investigation carried out as to how many
top-level domains could be approved without endangering the
stability and security of the worldwide Internet. The study came
to the conclusion that the introduction of dozens of top-level
domains per year presents no technical problems. In an interview
at CNET, ICANN head Vint Cerf spoke of 10,000 possible top-level
domains. Even the ex-head of ICANN, Dr. Hagen Hultzsch said at a
parliamentary evening in February 2007 in Berlin to members of
the Bundestag, representatives of the government and EU
representatives, that there would be no problem with ICANN
approving 10,000 top-level domains. The domain name system (DNS)
today includes well over 100 million second-level domains below
about 270 top-level domains. In theory, just as many top-level
domains as second-level domains could be operated. By the way,
top-level domains can have a length of up to 63 characters so
.oberammergau would not pose any problems.
Will the Internet user be confused?
– It is constantly asserted that new
top-level domains would confuse Internet users.
Representative studies across Germany in 2007 investigated this
question for the first time and came to the conclusion that,
especially for descriptive top-level domains such as .info,
.jobs or .museum, Internet users have a semantic
understanding. Additionally an overwhelming majority of Internet
users stated that regional top-level domains could help to
allocate public services, businesses and other city’s resources
much better than today. For .berlin, the majority of the
approximately 8,000 people questioned presumed that Internet
sites under .berlin would be commercial or private
websites relating to Berlin, i.e. about and from Berlin and by
Berliners. The question on confusion can thus clearly be
answered with a no. Confusing the user by the abuse of official
terms such as www.police.berlin or www.courts.berlin
can be prevented right from the start by reserving and thus
protecting, these terms for the responsible civic authorities.
Can Berlin exercise any influence?
– The namespace created with the new top-level domain .berlin
has a higher level significance, as far as sovereignty goes, as
lasting and sustainable Internet infrastructure for the local
authority of Berlin, the Berlin economy and Berlin residents at
a local, national and international level. To take account of
Berlin's multi-faceted interests, despite the legally required
private commercial operation, cooperation is desirable to ensure
that the process of assigning .berlin domains is
transparent, free from discrimination and is in line with the
market. This should take account of the interest of Berlin and
its institutions, the economy and tourism, in that corresponding
domains will be exclusively reserved for these interests. It
should also be ensured that as a preventative measure, domains
that are suitable for use with racist content or for content
liable to corrupt the young or to incite hatred, will be
excluded from being freely registered. It is not possible to
completely prevent abuse. Damage to the image of the county and
city is however not to be expected by this, as Internet users
(as for our country top-level domain .de) do not presume
that this is administered by the state or by the local
authority.
Will .berlin break up the hierarchy of the Internet?
– A hierarchy only actually exists in that on ICANN's central
computer, about 270 top-level domains have been entered and that
all are at the same hierarchical level. A real hierarchy does
exist in the nomenclature of the domain itself e.g. as
http://john.henry.smith.de. The ending .de is here
top level, "smith" is second level and so on.
Particularly the new domains, whose endings mean something to
the user (as for example with www.pergamon.museum),
provide intuitive and semantic orientation. The Internet does
not break up at all.
Must I register a .berlin domain as a company?
– Whether you want to register a .berlin domain for your
organisation depends upon whether you want to associate your
organisation, its products or services with Berlin.
www.bmw.berlin certainly makes more sense,
www.budweiser.berlin probably less. To take account of
organisations’ interests, for .berlin, there will be a
priority registration phase for the owners of trademarks.
Is it only Berlin that wants a top-level domain?
– Just as Catalonia with .cat has set a trend towards top-level
domains for cultural and language communities, .berlin is
a pioneer for city top-level domains and counts, with other
initiatives such as .nyc (New York City, USA) or .paris,
as one of the driving forces for this new category of top-level
domains.
Sources: http://www.connectingnyc.org,
www.dotparis.net or http://www.domainesinfo.fr/extension/1200/paris-le-paris-un-vrai-projet.php
Summary
Even in the age of Web 2.0., mass collaboration and the Long
Tail, enough fundamental values of our society remain and can
even flourish anew through the new tools. The effort towards an
individual namespace is an outstanding example of how the basic
force of communities can even be developed in the Internet. For
communities, their own top-level domains are valuable tools for
branding inside the community as well as for external marketing.
From 2008 there will regularly be new top-level domains. In our
communication we will have to learn how to deal with them as we
do with new websites, car brands or yoghurts, but with that
small difference; top-level domains are basically designed for
eternity.
There now seems to be no doubt that the trend to individual
namespaces for communities will succeed; the opportunities
clearly outweigh the risks and concerns. The initiatives that
arose and which will present at the Internet Governance Forum
IGF in Rio de Janeiro are seen, at the very least at ICANN, as a
sensible development to extend the namespace in the Internet.
Whether and to what extent the new top-level domains can create
sustainable added value for the communities themselves and for
Internet users worldwide will be shown when the first candidates
go online.
Author
Dirk Krischenowski. With .berlin, the Berlin based
for-profit organisation dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG is currently
preparing its application for the first worldwide top-level
domain for a large city. .berlin is expected to be
approved in the coming year. |
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