Cologne, 20.06.2007 – Yesterday, at the ceremonial awards for the eco Internet Awards, dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG won the special award for the Germany Internet industry. dotBERLIN aims to create a new domain ending .berlin (a top-level domain), which will result in a local identity for Berliners in the Internet, providing an alternative to addresses such as .de and .com. .berlin has become a trailblazer, setting a trend which has since been followed by other large cities such as New York and Paris. The annual eco Internet Award is given to companies, with a product or a project, which makes an important contribution to the German Internet industry. Last year’s winner was openBC.
„We are very pleased about this recognition for our plan to bring some innovation into the Internet namespace”, said Dirk Krischenowski, founder and general manager of dotBERLIN, in the evening in Cologne. „The eco Internet Award will definitely help us to achieve our aim of being able to register .berlin domains from the end of 2008.”
„The introduction of .berlin is only consistent”, said Harald Summa, general manager of the eco association, in his speech. „We have known for quite some time now, that the principle ‚business is local’ applies in the worldwide Internet and that local offerings are constantly increasing. This means that .berlin is another step in the right direction and a signal for a greater local identity in the worldwide network. For this, we wish the initiators courage, endurance and the ability to get things done.”
Almost 200 companies has applied for awards in the various categories. The prize is awarded by the Association of the German Internet Industry eco.