DotKer A domain name for Kernow

So what about a ".ker" or ".cor" internet domain name for the Duchy? There is some talk on Cornwall 24 of a domain name for our nation so to give a few pointers I've lifted the article below from the nationalia website.

Galicia, Brittany and Wales request their own domain names from ICANN

23/06/2008
Galicia, Brittany and Wales attempt to show that they fulfil requirements for top-level domains at the 32nd International ICANN Meeting · With its ‘Catalan culture’ domain Catalonia is currently the only stateless nation with its own top-level domain.

The 32nd International Public Meeting of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which addresses a wide range of issues related to the future of the Internet, including the creation of new domains and the incorporation of new alphabets and languages, is currently taking place in Paris. Three European nations attending the conference are to present the reasons why they believe they should have a sponsored Top-Level Domain (sTLD). An sTLD represents a community, such as the aviation industry (.aero) or Catalan language and culture (.cat), and is governed by a particular agency, such as the Fundació PuntCat (DotCat Foundation) which decides who can use that domain name.

Before approving an sTLD, ICANN requires a community to give unanimous support to the proposal and to present technical reports endorsing the project. ICANN also values support from abroad - from members of the community who live abroad, for example - as well as guarantees of financial viability from individual and business donors. Once these conditions are met, the community names an agency to be responsible for running the new domain name.

Although new domain names for Wales, Galicia and Brittany are not actually on the agenda for the meeting, the organizations representing these nations will use the occasion to raise awareness for their campaign and to seek support among ICANN members. While there are other European stateless nations seeking their own domain names, these three are the ones most likely to succeed because of the considerable backing for the proposals from their respective communities.

Taken from nationalia

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Penygroes, Sunday, 12 August 2007 Une contribution de Huw Jones
The dots join up! Web domain campaigns to work together

Campaigners for web domains for Brittany, Galizia, the Basque Country and Wales are to meet in September in Santiago de Compostela (Galizia) to look into the possibility of a coalition of bids to the administrators of the Word Wide Web.

They have been inspired by the resounding success of the '.cat' domain for Catalan websites. There has been a 33% increase in the use of the Catalan language on the web since it was established last year, with over 22,000 websites using '.cat'. The leader of the '.cat' campaign, Amadeu Abril, has been extremely active in supporting and advising the other countries.
The campaigns in Brittany, Galizia and Wales have all succeeded, not only in gaining considerable support, but also in their aims of being non party political and inclusive. All three have avoided the controversy which often occurs when countries who do not have their own state attempt to gain forms of independent status.

Nearly 15,000 signatures have been collected by the Breton '.bzh' campaign and Nicolas Sarkozy has come out in favour. In Galizia the Partido Popular (The Spanish Conservative Party) have lent their support to '.gal'. Although the campaigns have been voluntary the applications will not succeed if there is opposition from governments.

In Wales all parties in the National Assembly support '.cym', and the London government's Department of Trade and Industry has stated that they "do not see any reason for opposing the application" so long as steps are taken to prevent cybersquatting - the malicious practice of setting up web names that are similar to those of well know companies or brands.

Wales has won official status for her language over the past 30 years, but there is concern regarding the way in which many Welsh speakers take for granted that English is the only language of information technology in the same way English was considered to be the only language of education, broadcasting and government in the past. According to Dewi Bryn Jones of the Welsh Software Association the hope is that '.cym' will "add to peoples' expectations of seeing Welsh on the screen". (Eurolang 2007)

Web Domain Campaigns:
Galizia: http://www.puntogal.org/web/
Flanders: http://www.puntvl.net/
Brittany: http://bzh.geobreizh.com/www/bzh/
Wales: http://www.dotcym.org/

Administrators of the World Wide Web:Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers: http://www.icann.org/

Taken form the eurominority