Our 10 year effort to create the .nyc Top Level Domain as a public interest resource took a big step forward in 2009 when city hall committed to acquire the .nyc TLD.
But while the city administration supports .nyc’s acquisition, some still argue for its operation under the Standard Model, not as the sustainable community TLD we support. (See city position.)
- The Standard Model is predicated on operating a TLD so as to profit from name sales, with the more names sold the more successful the business. The .com TLD is the most successful example of this.
- Operating a city-TLD under the Community Model looks to the needs of the community served - in our case the residents and organizations in New York City; realizing the breadth of benefits that can be derived from its thoughtful planning.
Background… Connecting.nyc Inc. emerged from a local community board’s April 2001 Internet Empowerment Resolution calling for .nyc’s acquisition and development as a public interest resource. And while it looks as if 2011 might bring success, there remain opposing forces.
So as the prospect of our digital diaspora coming to an end approaches, the question as to whether New Yorkers will have long term access to names enabling them to set up a business, civic, or personal website using good .nyc names remains in question. Will our digital infrastructure be sold off in a fire sale? Will the world be able to find us, and far more important, will be be empowered to find one another within our digital city?
With these questions unanswered our work isn’t finished. With city government operating behind closed doors and thus missing the advantages that arise from transparency and public engagement - and presumed to be leaning toward the Standard Model - we need to convince the administration that .nyc is a new infrastructure that best serves if developed in the public interest - see What Success Means. And with the ICANN having released its new TLD Application Guidebook without considering the special needs of cities, we need to assure those needs are highlighted and addressed.
Click around. Learn more about our initiative. Then sign the petition, give your advice (perhaps there’s a public interest domain name you’d like to see set aside), come to an event, or click that Donate button at the top of this page.
To learn about our effort, take a look at our wiki and watch our blog posts. There you’ll find 200+ pages discussing our mission, advantages of using .nyc, the acquisition campaign, our governance ecology, the domain name allocation plan, a FAQ, and a lot more.
Or just read a quick summary about us or email us via info@connectingnyc.org.
Who would you like to connect with?
