DSTI/ICCP/TISP(2004)2/FINAL 

Two other sTLDs were admitted during ICANN's first round of new domain names. The 

.coop

domain is an sTLD for co operatives and DotCoop, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCBA 

(National Cooperative Business Association), operates as the sponsor. NCBA is a United States based 

association representing the interests of co operatives and associations of co operatives in the United States. 

The domain 

.museum

 is for the museum community and the Museum Domain Management Association 

(MuseDoma) is the sponsoring organisation. MuseDoma was established by the International Council for 

Museums (ICOM) which is an international organisation of museums and museum professionals. 

At the time of writing, ICANN is in the process of considering the introduction of new sTLDs. 

Applications were received between December 2003 and March 2004. There were 10 applications for new 

sTLDs (

Table 4

). A public comment period was available in early 2004. Following this, an independent 

evaluation team will evaluate applications based on the selection criteria, (specified in the Request for 

Proposal, RFP), and make recommendations on which applications should be selected for negotiations on 

registry agreements, by the end of July 2004.

13

An evaluation of the proposed sTLDs is beyond the scope of this paper. A couple of points, however, 

are worth making. At least one of the proposals, if approved, plans to consider the use of auctions for 

second level domains.

14

 In addition, several of the proposals appear to have a more open status in terms of 

who can register a second level name or number, than the sTLDs approved in ICANN's first round of 

sTLDs. Finally, several proposals for sTLDs are aimed at supporting new services (

e.g.

.tel

,

 .mail

,

 .mobi

) 

or in serving a `specific community' with an alternative name (

e.g.

 .

xxx

,

 .asia

,

 .cat

). Although there were 

several proposals for new gTLDs associated with new services during ICANN's first round of new 

domains, none of these were chosen at the so called `proof of concept' stage.  

Table 4.  Proposed sTLDs (March 2004) 

Proposed 

Targets of proposed TLD 

Proposed sponsor 

Sponsor location 

TLD 

String 

.asia 

For the Pan Asia and Asia Pacific community 

DotAsia Organisation Limited 

Hong Kong, China 

.cat 

For the Catalan linguistic and cultural 

Fundacio puntCAT (which 

N/A 

community 

would be formed only in case 

the TLD is delegated) 

.jobs 

For the international human resource 

The Society for Human 

Alexandria, 

management community 

Resource Management 

Virginia, United 

States 

.mail 

For spam free email exchanges 

The Anti Spam Community 

London, United 

Registry 

Kingdom 

.mobi 

For mobile Internet communications 

Mobi JV (working name) 

Helsinki, Finland 

.post 

For postal organisations 

Universal Postal Union (UPU) 

Bern, Switzerland 

.tel 

For IP Communications Service Providers  pulver.com Melville, 

New 

(IPCSPs) to register telephone numbers as 

York, United 

domain names on the Internet and to associate 

States 

IP based services with those registered 

telephone numbers 

.tel 

For Internet communications 

Telname Limited 

London, United 

Kingdom 

.travel 

For the global travel community 

The Travel Partnership 

New York, New 

Corporation 

York, United 

States 

For the online adult entertainment community 

The International Foundation 

Toronto, Ontario, 

.xxx 

for Online Responsibility 

Canada 

Source

: ICANN.

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