Al Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection are partnering with the group Dot Eco LLC to pursue a new top-level domain for environmental groups and initiatives, “.eco.”
Rather than a “.com” or a “.org,” groups could choose to use this new domain to show their eco-tasticness.
According to the press release, “.eco will be established for individuals to express their support for environmental causes, for companies to promote their environmental initiatives, and for environmental organizations to maintain their websites in a namespace that is more relevant to their core missions.”
“This is a truly exciting opportunity for the environmental movement and for the internet as a whole,” said Gore in a statement. (I’m probably supposed to insert some sort of “Al Gore invented the internet” joke here ...)
Dot Eco LLC was founded last year by Fred Krueger (who also started Tagworld and other internet ventures) and Clark Landry for the purpose of pursuing the .eco domain. Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim is on the board of the organization, along with other notables in film and philanthropy. The group says most of the profits from domain sales will go to environmental causes.
Don’t get too excited yet, though: The .eco-pushers have got to secure approval from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (how’s that for an exciting name?), and the group says they won’t be applying until late this year.
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Comments
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Ted Clayton Posted 3:10 am
05 Mar 2009
If we are going to open up domain-terms for groups that can show a constituency, there could obviously be two sides to the process.
There is also the consideration of 'cross-staking'. Smart climate-skeptics have a shown a talent for picking 'eco-appealing' names. Nothing to stop 'bad guys' from homesteading nice .eco names.
But my biggest concern is that we already have a 'domain-proliferation' problem. If one wants or needs to 'secure' or 'protect' a domain-name, it is necessary to buy up a growing flock of domain-types, most of which we may have no interest in (to prevent others from diluting or even exploiting our base-name).
Exxon will be chagrined, if they don't snag http://www.exxon.eco in time. Gristmill will be horrified if someone succeeds with http://www.gristmill.gun.
Generally, I am neither wild about the proliferation-scene, nor impressed with the dubious efficacy of specialized domain-roots.
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