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Today's Internet is dominated by the .com TLD (top level domain) and its 60,000,000 websites. Within that massive and messy directory, New York City's vast tourism, business, and education resources are increasingly obscured. More damaging: the city’s residents, businesses, and institutions can’t readily find one another to take advantage of the Internet's network effects that propel the likes of Amazon, Ebay, Google, and MySpace.
Seeking a more city-friendly Internet, where a carefully managed and crafted .nyc domain would make it easier for residents and visitors to locate city resources, Queens Community Board 3 passed an Internet Empowerment Resolution in April 2001. The Resolution called for the acquisition of the .nyc TLD citing several advantages:- The city can better market itself globally as a tourist destination by setting aside and managing names like www.hotels.nyc.
- City life will be easier with a more intuitive Internet, e.g., Looking for a school? Start at www.schools.nyc.
- Residents and businesses can more easily locate and network with one another within a managed .nyc top level domain.
- Funds raised through name sales should be invested in Internet access and education efforts.
- Defensively, New York City will be better able to compete with cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, and their .SG and .HK TLDs.
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As Passed by Queens Community Board 3 on April 19, 2001 |
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Internet Empowerment Resolution
The following resolution was passed by Community Board 3, Queens, the City of New York, on April 19, 2001.
Definitions
Domain Names: Every computer on the Internet has a telephone-like number, e.g., 198.37.241.30. And if you want, you can give it a name like aol.com, yahoo.com, or mydarlingcomputer.com. These Internet names or "Domain Names" provide a friendly face to the underlying complexity. That is, aol.com instead of 142.086.243.33
The Domain Name System (DNS): The domain name system (DNS) is a set of rules, set in computer software, that translates Internet names, e.g., aol.com, into the Internet numbers. It determines the size and appearance of the names that can be used on the World Wide Web.
Top Level Domains (TLDs): .COM, .GOV, .EDU, .ORG, .NET, .MIL, and soon .NYC
Background
For a people to be independent and self-governing, they must control the basic communication tools of the society they inhabit.
As we enter a time where most person-to-person, person-to-group, business, and government communication takes place over the Internet, an independent, vibrant, self-governing community must control the fundamental elements of that communication network. Domain names are a key part of that control.
In 1984, a contractor working on an experimental communications project for the U.S. Defense Department, created several top level domains (called TLDs) to help differentiate distinct Internet uses. Six names were issued:
.mil for use by the U.S. military; .gov for all other U.S. government units; .com for commercial organizations; .org for non profit organizations; .net for those offering network services; and .edu for educational organizations.
Additionally, beginning in 1984 "country codes" have been issued for use by nation-states, e.g., .US for the United States, .CA for Canada, .UK for the United Kingdom, .RU for Russia…
If we can gain control of the .NYC domain for the residents of New York City, we will be Internet empowered, and receive benefits like:
- Revenue – How much is the hotels.nyc domain name worth? Tours.nyc, shows.nyc, schools.nyc… Licensing these .nyc domain names could raise tens of millions of dollars.
- Marketing Power – Imagine the ease of selling our city to prospective residents, tourists, and businesses with websites like: jobs.nyc, shows.nyc, hotels.nyc, officespace.nyc, etc.
- Quality of Life – Imagine navigating the Internet using .nyc. Want a library? Go to library.nyc and find links to the QBPL, NYPL, Carnegie Library… Visit schools.nyc and link to our public schools, our private schools, universities, etc… And you’ll find a local business far easier searching in .nyc than on the global .com web.
The .NYC domain will enable us to shape our existence using domain names like:
Schools.nyc
Shopping.nyc
Corona.nyc
Plays.nyc
Conventions.nyc
Jobs.nyc
Events.nyc
Banks.nyc
Museums.nyc
Hotels.nyc
Tours.nyc
Officespace.nyc
Libraries.nyc
Government.nyc
Additionally, having a Top Level Domain name for our city will put us on par with other global cities that have Top Level Domain names: Singapore (.SG), Hong Kong (.HK), the Vatican (.VA), and Los Angeles (.LA) – note: Los Angeles uses the domain name originally issued to Laos.
Resolution
Having a .NYC TLD will make our community more governable, provide opportunities for small businesses, raise city revenue, and make navigating the Internet easier for our residents, prospective tourists, and businesses.
Therefore, we recommend that the U.S. Department of Commerce facilitate granting the .NYC Top Level Domain to the city of New York’s Commission on Public Information & Communication or another broad based public interest organization.
Copies of this resolution are to be sent to our city, state, and federal elected officials.
End
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Other Sites Focused on City TLDs |
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The following websites have content relevant to the effort to acquire the .nyc TLD.
- The Campaign for .nyc - The home page for the effort to acquire the .nyc TLD by the not-for-profit Connecting.nyc Inc., can be found here.
- dotBerlin - The site supporting the .berlin application has a wealth of information relevant to city-TLDs.
- The ICANNwiki provides the central space for discussing city-TLDs.
- The ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers) is the organization that manages the issuance of TLDs. It operates under authority of a contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
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Watching the Opportunities |
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While the marketing, quality of life, revenue, and networking advantages provide the pillar benefits to a city TLD, the following points to regional benefits that might arise from a .nyc TLD. For example, here's a suggestion from the committee chair that brings in a few historic details.
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Linchpin for Regional Consolidation
When King Charles II selected the Hudson River as the boundary between his New York and New Jersey provinces, he did not foresee today’s port and market realities, or even yesterday's. For example, not agreeing on ways to share their valuable, shared harbor and waterways, New York and New Jersey waged many disputes, with one resulting in state police exchanging shots mid-river. The Treaty of 1834 stopped the shooting, but it took another 87 years to create the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and begin addressing the regions squandered opportunities.
Today, the Port Authority administers many common harbor and development interests – bridges, tunnels, rail, water, air, and tele ports. But strategic planners declare that if the region is to grow and maintain its role in an increasingly globalized market, it must solve the remaining problems caused by King Charles' myopia.
Some suggest a second regional consolidation is required (the first, in 1898, combined 5 county governments into today's NYC). Minimally, transportation and land use needs must be addressed, with broader advantages arising through service delivery consolidation and regional economic planning and development. (Others suggest the competitive situation is the region's salvation.)
The .nyc TLD might provide the linchpin for addressing these needs, with residents and businesses operating within the region eligible for .nyc TLDs only if their geographic governance organization (city, town, village, etc.) joins a consolidated .nyc regional governance entity.
Send your thoughts to the committee chair for posting.
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This content is temporarily out of service |
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