Auf dem hoch­ka­rä­tig besetz­ten EGENI Mee­ting in Paris im Vor­feld des ICANN Mee­tings sind wir ein­ge­la­den .ber­lin zu präsentieren.

Auf dem Mee­ting wer­den die Ein­fluß­mög­lich­kei­ten ver­schie­de­ner Inter­es­sen­grup­pen auf die Inter­net­ver­wal­tung dis­ku­tiert, mit auf dem Panel und im Publi­kum sind u.a.:

Cathe­ri­ne TRAUTMANN – Par­le­ment Européen
Mar­cus KUMMER – Secre­ta­ry Gene­ral United Nati­ons IGF
Janis KARKLINS – Pré­si­dent du ICANN GAC (Esto­nia Government)
Bert­rand de la CHAPELLE – MAE (French Government)
Paul TWOMEY – ICANN CEO
Peter DENGATE THRUSH – ICANN President
Rober­to GAETANO – ICANN Board
Sus­an CRAWFORD – ICANN Board
Avri DORIA – ICANN GNSO
Chris DISSPAIN – AuDA & ICANN ccNSO

Neben uns sind u.a. noch die Initia­ti­ven .paris, .nyc, .que­bec, .sport, .med, .naa zu kur­zen Stel­lung­nah­men auf­ge­for­dert. Mein Rede­bei­trag ist der fol­gen­de, der vor Publi­kum sehr gut auf­ge­nom­men wurde:

„Thank you Sebas­tien for invi­ting the new Top-Level-Domain initia­ti­ves for such a high level mee­ting today. I am not going to give an over­view on the .ber­lin (dot­BER­LIN) pro­ject, this can be found on our web­site. I would rather like to give a short insight into our work.

Our dai­ly dot­ber­lin busi­ness is real­ly mis­sio­na­ry. We explain every day to the Berliners:

  • who is the „wind­sur­fer” who crea­ted all the stuff,
  • what and whe­re is ICANN,
  • is a .ber­lin Top-Level-Domain even possible,
  • and we pre­vent lar­ge crowds of Ber­li­ners from ente­ring our office in the hope to get a hot .ber­lin domain name first.

Bey­ond this bread and but­ter busi­ness we are also working on an aca­de­mic and poli­ti­cal level, a level which eva­lua­tes what cityTLDs like .ber­lin (dot­BER­LIN) or .paris (dot­pa­ris) will mean in terms of place bran­ding and public diplomacy.

We are working tog­e­ther with various play­ers in this area. Peo­p­le from embas­sies, uni­ver­si­ties, bran­ding agen­ci­es and poli­ti­cal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and public affairs along with us dis­cuss the chan­ces and chal­lenges cityTLDs will have.

The main the­sis is that a cityTLD can bene­fit the city a lot, if inte­gra­ted pro­per­ly into its com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on stra­tegy. A cityTLD may also shape the digi­tal face of a city like no other com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on tool before.

I hope this will be a start­ing point for inte­res­t­ing out­co­mes and a long-term aca­de­mic obser­va­ti­on and rese­arch in the area of geo­gra­phi­cal and geo­po­li­ti­cal Top-Level-Domains. This would lift the GeoTLDs into a hig­her stage of con­scious­ness in the mind of poli­ti­ci­ans and city planners.

The topic of place bran­ding and public diplo­ma­cy is only one out of many facets cityTLDs have. But this topic is inte­gral part of the take home mes­sa­ges I have for you today. If some­bo­dy asks you „What are the most important bene­fits of a cityTLD” you should answer:

  • 1. cityTLDs will crea­te a mil­li­on $ value chain within the local city eco­no­my, from IT via the crea­ti­ve indus­try to SMEs,
  • 2. cityTLDs are per­fect for crea­ting a uni­que sel­ling pro­po­si­ti­on for the city in a glo­bal com­pe­ti­ti­on of places,
  • 3. and cityTLDs offer iden­ti­ty and new name­space for each citizen.

Thank you for you attention!”