Dot Eco domain name extension on its way
August 9, 2009
The days when new top level domain names (TLD) are created or open up for registration to non nationals or that country are further and far between, that leaves sponsored top level domains name (sTLD) to flourish, one of the most recent sTLDs being the .mobi domains name.
The new momentum given to the environment lobby by the election of the first US president to take climate change very seriously and the success of other environment pressure group including environmental activities of the former US Vice-President AL Gore has put a massive wind in the sail of green group world wide, to show this new momentum, eco group want to create their own domain name extension to be called dot eco or .eco.
Two environmental groups are known to be canvassing support to take control of the .eco domain name space. One is a US based consortium called Dot Eco put a bit together in March 2009, the bit which is yet to be submitted to ICANN was had the blessing of Al Gore.
Big Room a Canadian environment group has just launched a rival bid to control .eco, both groups have 2010 as the potential go live date for .eco domain name.
Minor Childers, co-founder of Dot Eco said “Ours is to sell domain names to raise funds for organisations who can affect change.” , he added that up to 57% of their profile will be distributed to environment groups.
Big Room business plan is not to far from that of the Dot Eco, they are planning spend money generated from the sales of .eco domain names to fund sustainability projects around the world. Big Room consortium which includes organisation like WWF International and Green Cross, also believe that .eco could be used as a labelling system to endorse companies with green credentials.
If Big Room was granted the license to run .eco, they will only allow companies that meat certain criteria to register the .eco web address, similar to the way the .coop web address is registered.
Dot-Eco would also require organisation applying to register .com domain name should they win the bid to provide some green credentials but it will not be as strict as the one proposed by Big Room.
