The number and type of names available within the .nyc TLD are virtually limitless. An early and vital task requires that we create a methodology for distributing domain names, deciding which names should be set aside for operational purposes, for public interest uses, trademark holders, for auction, and when we can make names available to the public on a first come first served basis. Our Domain Name Allocation Plan will be a key element of the ICANN application.

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Good Names for a Great City

Laws of the Internet

Which Good?

Developing a Domain Name Allocation Plan that's fair to all interests requires difficult choices. But there is a growing body of experience to draw upon: the methodology used by the .eu and .asia TLDs; the FCC's experiences with "community standards"; and ultimately of course, we will be guided by what the New York City community imagines the appropriate role our city's TLD is to play.

Here's an example of the tough choices we face. Think about a name such as www.music.nyc. Under our not-for-profit, public interest operation, there are two evident allocation alternatives:

• sell it to the highest bidder with the revenue going into civic education;
  
• or we might develop guidelines for identifying the public interest and deciding which names to set aside with various communities music, news, shoes.... For example, we might decide that www.music.nyc would be best developed by the city's music community.
  

Name Categories Under the .nyc TLD

An ontology and taxonomy for different types of relationships and names is an important early step in identifying name distribution policies. One view sees different "bands": trademark, local trademark, exclusive, shared, community...

An early question arises as to what are appropriate community or public interest names? What process do we use to identify "civic" and "public interest" domain names. Some seem obvious: gov.nyc, mayor.nyc, and council.nyc; for the tourism industry, www.hotels.nyc; and for the general public names like www.directory.nyc and www.index.nyc.

Names Reserved as per ICANN Contract

We will comport with ICANN recommendations on reserved names for technical and public policy reasons. The ICANN will likely require that the following second level names be reserved: 0, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, ASO, b, c, ccNSO, d, e, Example, f, g, GNSO, gtld-servers, h, i, IAB, IANA, iana-servers, ICANN, IESG, IETF, Internic, IRTF, ISTF, j, k, l, LACNIC, LATNIC, m, n, NIC*, o, p, q, r, rfc-editor, RIPE, root-servers, s, t, test, u, v, w, Whois*, www*, x, y, z.. The * names are reserved for use by registry operators only.

Names Reserved to Facilitate Operation of the .nyc TLD

• index.nyc
• directory.nyc
• help.nyc
• connecting.nyc

Names Reserved for Intellectual Property Holder

Sunrise periods provide existing trademark and other intellectual property (IP) holders with the opportunity to reserve names in the .nyc space.

• Trademark Sunrise Period - National and international trademark holders might seek names such as: www.siemens.nyc, www.hyatt.nyc, www.porsche.nyc, www.lufthansa.nyc, www.ebay.nyc, www.google.nyc, www.newyorkpost.nyc, www.ibm.nyc, www.nytimes.nyc, www.coke.nyc. Traditionally a 1-2 month period is set aside for such trademark holders.

• Local Sunrise Period - NYC based companies and organizations will be provided with an opportunity to reserve currently used names such as www.cuny.nyc, www.zoos.nyc, www.nypl.nyc, www.nyu.nyc, and www.limewire.nyc.
  

Names Reserved for Future Use

Year names provide a good example of name set-asides: 2010.nyc, 2011.nyc, 2012.nyc, etc.

Names Held in Trust for Local New York City Government Units

The .nyc TLD will facilitate the interaction and operation of city governance and service delivery with institutions, residents, community organizations, and businesses. Intuitive URLs like council.nyc, mayor.nyc, and police.nyc will make a city’s resources readily available and easier to locate. As well, city government can develop micro sites like parkingregs.gov.nyc and cityholidays.gov.nyc.

• gov.nyc (as redirect, mirror, or home (if the USA is forced to abandon its use of .gov) for New York City's government website.
  

• police.nyc

• NYPD.nyc
  
• fire.nyc
  

• 911.nyc

• council.nyc

• mayor.nyc

• copic.nyc

• 311.nyc

• 211.nyc

• The cb##.borough.gov.nyc (currently used is cb##.borough.nyc.gov) series for the city's 59 community boards.
  

Names Set Aside for Auction

Auctioning names provides a rich opportunity to raise funds and diminish name hoarding. In the instance of the .asia TLD, those indicating an interest in the same domain name as of a specified closing date are entered into a high bidder electronic auction.

• bestrestaurants.nyc

• nouns.nyc (other than directory selections)
  

• neighborhood names?
  

Names to Facilitate International Travel

Other Possible Names for Auction

• com.nyc - Using TLDs as second level domains is currently prohibited by ICANN. As there are intuitive and taxonomic benefits from such usages, we will petition for their use. If successful, these "TLD" names will be made available.
  

• a.nyc, b.nyc, c.nyc..., 1.nyc, 2.nyc... - Issuing single character, second level domain names ( 1, 2, 3... and a, b, c...) is currently prohibited by ICANN. This policy is under review by the ICANN and should it change, we would place these up for auction.
  

Directory Pages

See the discussion about the directory and directory pages. Some possible directory pages include:

• www.hotels.nyc | www.pharmacys.nyc | www.real-estate.nyc

• www.hairdressers.nyc | www.craftsmen.nyc | www.yellowpages.nyc
  

Geographic Names

Some geographic names are legal entities. Others are real estate names coined to sell property in specific geographic areas. New York City has hundreds of these "neighborhoods." Some have value.

• Boroughs: queens.nyc manhattan.nyc brooklyn.nyc (kings.county.ny.us) bronx.nyc thebronx.nyc staten-island.nyc
  
• Neighborhoods: jackson-heights.nyc astoria.nyc greenwich-village.nyc uppereastside.nyc upper-east-side.nyc bensonhurst.nyc
• Park Names: central-park.nyc centralpark.nyc

Shared / Temporary Names

It is expected that we will develop names for use on a temporary basis, for example, www.SaveTheTree.nyc might facilitate civic goals of many different projects.

Undesirable Names

Four letter words are frequently the first to draw children to search a dictionary. What policy is appropriate for these words? What about their counterparts in foreign languages? A study of the FCC's community standards might provide a start on this.

Hording / Speculation / Typosquatting / Name Clouds

• What lessons are to be learned from the .com, .biz, and .eu experiences?

• For an excellent article on name clouds, see Bret Fausett's article on the Namesbriefs blog.
  
• See report on typosquatting: http://us.mcafee.com/root/identitytheft.asp?id=safe_typo&cid=38296.
  

Dispute Resolution

A Dispute Resolution Policy refers to the mechanism for resolving competitive requests for domain names. See the following for DRP examples.

• .eu
• .com
  
• .asia
  

Disambiguation Pages­

While not frequently encountered on the web, disambiguation offers one means for resolving disputes over names. It is the process of resolving ambiguity when a single name can be associated with more than one entity. In many cases, this word or phrase is the same natural title of more than one organization. In other words, disambiguations are paths leading to different domain pages that share essentially the same characters in their title. Apple Records and Apple Computer provide a classic example of an early conflict over the www.apple.com domain name.

Nexus

Connecting.nyc will limit those who can purchase a .nyc domain to those with a New York City nexus. The criteria for establishing nexus might include property ownership, business license, tax payer, voter registration. Singapore has a minimum nexus requirement of a postal box. For examples of nexus requirements see:

• Singapore's Domain Name Registration Agreement
• The .us Nexus Requirement - http://www.neustar.us/policies/docs/ustld_nexus_requirements.pdf
• The .asia Nexus - http://www.dotasia.org/draft/DotAsia-Charter-Eligibility--FINALDRAFT-v-1-5.pdf
• Catalonia .cat - http://www.domini.cat/media/upload/arxius/charter.pdf

Most knowledgable people indicate that there's a slippery slope here that will inevitable lead to something as open as the .com TLD. We hope "most knowledgable people" are wrong in this instance. The following questions begin to present the slime that will create that slippery slope.

Nexus Q&A

The following hypothetical (as of September 25, 2007) questions provide some insight into the difficulty of this issue.

Q. I live Ulster County near New York City's Ashoakan Reservoir. To keep the waters clean, the City has imposed / negotiated many restrictions on the use of our land. Frequently we curse the city, but if there's an opportunity to have access to a .nyc name, perhaps I'll change my tune? Do I qualify?
A. Probably not, unless there's something in the covenant with the city. But it might be a subject for negotiation.

How Many .nyc Names?

A most difficult question to resolve at this point is how many domain names will be issued under the .nyc TLD. The answer to this is vital for business planning purposes. The specualtion begins here.

• The number of second level domain names available through the .nyc TLD is virtually limitless - 38x38...68 times.
• We are concerned with second level domains. For example, in www.fourth.third.second.nyc our concern is only with the names in the "second" position. In typical contracts with the ICANN a fee is required for each such name issued.
  
• In all or most instances, there will be an annual fee for second level domain names.
  
• With our desire for a city nexus requirement, we might make our high-end calculations based on a population of 8,200,000. Also, there are currently 140,000 businesses registered with the city.
  

Miscellaneous

• Proximity - Geographic locations are an important element of the .nyc TLD's intuitive design. See the "namespace and GIS" page for other geographic relationships.
• DNS - Is it possible to present this wiki process within an existing domain name server?
  

Relevant Links

• Ebay's takedown process.

• Who owns Hillary? - A proposal for more trademark-like protections for political names. See this SSRN paper.
  

• The .eu Domain Name Distribution Process
• First-Come First-Served Paper

Related .nyc Pages

• The .nyc Wiki Home Page
  
• The Directory
  

• Directory Page Development
  

• Directory Page Content Guidelines
  
• Ten Names You Won't See Within .nyc (a fun page)
  
• The Operating Environment
• The Development Environment
• Connectingnyc Inc.'s Home Page