| gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | | .gal | Asociación puntoGAL | puntogal.org | View |
The key benefits to all stakeholders of the .gal TLD are derived from the intrinsic link of the TLD string to the Galician linguistic and cultural community, from the specifically dedicated policy to ensure full respect to the linguistic and cultural objectives of the TLD, from the ability to design and develop the name space from inception and from the clear accountability to the Galician linguistic and cultural community, being Asociación puntoGAL a non for profit entity composed of a wide array of Institutions from the Civil Society.
The specificity to Galician linguistic and cultural community of the TLD string and the TLD policy enable registrants to communicate in a way that demonstrates their commitment to the Galician linguistic and cultural community. A potential registrant interested in a given domain under the .gal TLD is more likely to be able to register it because the potential of contention from other parts of the world is reduced.
The ability to design and develop a planned portion of the name space creates a web of predictable and memorable names that will facilitate access to key resources for users. Predictability relates both the choice of the name and the content the user may expect from a name corresponding to a certain pattern.
The launch process and the community nexus compliance program are designed to achieve a high degree of relevance of .gal domain names for the Galician linguistic and cultural community. The focus on language and cultural manifestations facilitates clear and easy communications from, to and within the Galician linguistic and cultural community. Along with a policy providing strong intellectual property support, this benefits local and international trademark holders as well as local and international Internet users.
Answers to enumerated question points:
b) i.What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
The goal of the .gal TLD in terms of specialty is the focus on the needs of the Galician linguistic and cultural community. Service levels will match or exceed the high end of currently existing TLDs. The .gal Registry will vigorously build and defend the reputation of the .gal TLD as an orderly and progressive TLD for the Galician linguistic and cultural community.
The precedent experience of .cat’s reputation as how a success can be measured with criteria based on the highest service levels to its community and an untarnished reputation as a conflicts-free space to the day, helps understand the benefits a linguistic and cultural TLD can bring to both its own community and the gTLD space as a whole.
b) ii.What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
The .gal TLD fills a large gap in terms of consumer choice. From a competition standpoint, it creates a level playing field with respect to the market power of large unspecific TLDs.
It is naturally differentiated by its scope, by its governance model and by its intrinsic meaning, from other TLDs. A linguistic and cultural TLD is by definition one of the most suitable tools to widen and raise the profile of the cultural diversity and variety on the Internet.
Innovation is greatly enhanced by the proactive structured development of the name space. The development process involves an open procedure with calls for proposals for purpose-built localized services based on designated portions of the .gal name space. This approach helps use innovative potential worldwide for the benefit of the Galician linguistic and cultural community and for the advancement of the global Internet.
b) iii.What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
Compared to most existing TLDs, the .gal TLD user experience will greatly enhance predictability and memorability of domain names. The community-based focus, the orderly development process and strong intellectual property support ensure that users will generally find the services they are looking for under the names they intuitively tend to use for them.
User experience is improved by the singular specificities of a linguistic and cultural TLD, that will provide to the linguistic and cultural community and to those willing to address online communications specifically targeted to this community the means to identify such communications under a TLD explicitly designed to this purpose.
Users will have greater comfort on the context of naming variants: in key portions of the .gal name space, alternative names and variants (redirected to the canonical forms) will systematically be activated. Users in the Galician linguistic and cultural community will get increasingly used to the predictability of .gal domain names. As a result, they also avoid stumbling upon typo-squatting, robotized pay-per-click traps or domain-for-sale pages.
b) iv.Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
Registrations under the .gal TLD are restricted to bona-fide members of the Galician linguistic and cultural community, and subject to the further requirement that the registrant’s actions in the .gal TLD community, as well as the registrant’s use of the registered domain name, must be:
(i) generally accepted as legitimate; and
(ii) beneficial to the cause and the values of the Galician linguistic and cultural community; and
(iii) commensurate with the role and importance of the registered domain name; and
(iv) in good faith at the time of registration and thereafter.
The registration policies are differentiated between Pre-launch phase, Launch phase and General Availability.
1, Pre-launch phase
During Pre-launch, projects and content provision commitments are actively sought and negotiated, especially for key public-interest portions of the name space. All potential registrants and mandate holders are subject to screening and thorough pre-validation. For more details on the pioneer and the name space program, please see response to Q18 c) below
2.Launch phase
During the Launch phase, all registrations are thoroughly pre-validated; Launch phase pre-validation depends on priority status but will always involve community nexus. For further details about the community nexus, please see response to Q20 e) below. The Launch phase includes 3 categories for registrants with prior rights, and a fourth one, which is in fact, a Landrush, running in parallel in time, but being the lowest in priority. The categories are the following according to hierarchy:
- Entities which have a specific vocation in promoting Galician language and⁄or culture, including Public Administrations with competences in those territories where Galician is official.
- Trademark and other distinctive signs rights holders. This includes trademarks validated by the Trademark Clearinghouse designations of origin, and commercial names of companies having their legal seat in Galicia.
- Entities with previous online communications in Galician. Applicants will be requested to provide the URL where their significant content in Galician may be found and checked. (This category is restricted to legal entities, and does not allow “fantasy names”)
- No prior rights. Eligible registrants not able to claim any of the priorities listed above will be able to apply during the whole duration of the Launch phase, as a preparation for an orderly and transparent Landrush.
3. Post-launch: General Availabilty
At General Availability, community nexus is subject to post-validation by way of an extensive compliance program based on the same criteria that form the basis of the TLD: language and culture. The ongoing compliance program will regularly be adapted to current needs based on experience and audit findings. Community nexus validation combined with strong protection of trademarks helps stamp out cybersquatting and abusive registrations.
b) v.Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.
Asociación puntoGAL recognizes first-hand that this is a relevant issue and an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard. The protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users will comply with applicable Law, in particular the European Data Protection framework and the Spanish Personal Data Protection legislation. Within the bounds of applicable regulations, the Registry will implement anti-data mining measures by way of rate limitation, authenticated access or white-listing⁄black-listing, as well as tools to prevent unauthorized recourse to repetitive automated access.
Asociación puntoGAL also intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA) modeled after language which has been included in the template Registry Agreement and which has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD Registry operators. Specifically, Registry Operator shall notify Registrar of the purposes for which Personal Data submitted to Registry Operation by Registrar is collected, the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and the mechanism for access to and correction of such Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars. Registry Operator may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.
Finally, Asociación puntoGAL will propose to ICANN, through the Registry Agreement negotiations, a Whois service that allows individual registrants to opt-out from publishing their personal contact data, as other existing gTLD Registries have done. If this option is not available during the contractual negotiations, Asociación puntoGAL would submit such proposal after delegation, through the New Registry Services procedure.
b.vi) Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
Use of outreach programs to achieve TLD goals: the .gal TLD has outreach programs adapted to each phase of its introduction.
The Pre-launch negotiations involving calls for projects by innovators and pioneer users. They foster the intuitive usability of the .gal TLD with a focus on the needs of the Galician linguistic and cultural community. Once these domain names are active, they become an outreach mechanism in their own right because they establish the touch-and-feel of the .gal TLD in the minds of the users.
The Launch phase will involve outreach mechanisms that specifically leverage participation by the local public services, locally relevant trademarks and local actors.
Promotion codes distributed through community-specific channels are a form of outreach available at any time. They are also a low-cost method to achieve community nexus and to prevent abusive registrations.
| gTLD | Full Legal Name | E-mail suffix | Detail | | .scot | Dot Scot Registry Limited | corenic.org | View |
Q18 b) - benefits
The .scot TLD will benefit registrants by providing the worldwide family of Scots with their own domain, reflecting an online community defined by a shared commitment to Scottish identity, culture and economic promotion. This benefit has already been anticipated by Scots organisations across the world with letters of support from such groups, businesses and societies from America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other places beside.
From the perspective of Internet users generally, the .scot TLD will provide a reference point for those seeking information linked to Scottish themes such as business, arts, culture, language and history. Scots culture and heritage is of worldwide interest and there are whole industries devoted to it. Dotscot Registry intends to ensure that .scot domain names are perceived as the definitive place to find and access all things Scottish, with the highest reputation. It is felt that this exposure will enhance the differentiation of things Scottish allowing them to compete more effectively in the market and raise their profiles.
Dotscot Registry will benefit a broad range of stakeholders outside of the Internet. For instance the Company structure of Dotscot is set as a Not-For-Profit Company. This means the companyʹs profits are not returned as dividends but are instead used to further the aims of the business and to promote Scotland generally. Because of this we have the unequivocal backing of the Scottish Government and a Memorandum of Understanding is in place with them backed by letters of support from the First minister, his Cabinet and local government amongst others. Through this close relationship, Dotscot intends to reach out to the worldwide family of Scots and bring them together to benefit and enhance Scotland, its peoples and culture. This communications channel will inevitably be two-way with the diaspora and others becoming more aware of current Scottish affairs and vice-versa.
The specificity to the Scottish community of the .scot string and the .scot TLD policy enable registrants to communicate in a way that demonstrates their commitment to the Scottish community. This is especially true for users of Shetlandic, Orcadian and Gaelic languages who will be able to use non-ASCII characters in their names. A potential registrant interested in a given domain under the .scot TLD is more likely to be able to register it because the potential of contention from other parts of the world is reduced.
The ability to design and develop a planned portion of the name space creates a web of predictable and memorable names that will facilitate access to key resources for users. Predictability relates both the choice of the name and the content the user may expect from a name corresponding to a certain pattern.
The launch process and the community nexus compliance program are designed to achieve a high degree of relevance of the .scot domain names for the Scottish community. The focus on language and cultural manifestations facilitates clear and easy communications from, to and within the Scottish community. Along with a policy providing strong intellectual property support, this benefits local and international trademark holders as well as local and international Internet users.
Answers to enumerated question points:
b) i.What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
The goal of the .scot TLD in terms of specialty is the focus on the needs of the Scottish community. Service levels will match or exceed the high end of currently existing TLDs. The .scot Registry will vigorously build and defend the reputation of the .scot TLD as an orderly and progressive TLD for the Scottish community.
b) ii.What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
The .scot TLD fills a large gap in terms of consumer choice. From a competition standpoint, it creates a level playing field with respect to the market power of large unspecific TLDs.
It is naturally differentiated both by its scope, by its governance model and by its intrinsic meaning, from other TLDs. A community TLD is by definition one of the most suitable tools to widen and raise the profile of the cultural diversity and variety on the Internet.
Scotland is famous for its innovation. Today, more patents are issued to Scottish universities than to any other nation in the world, as measured per head according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). dotScot Registry Limited believes that having their own, unique identity on the Internet will encourage and facilitate Scots businesses and organizations to bring that dynamism and ingenuity on-line in a way that has not been possible hither-to. Inventiveness and innovation are intrinsic to the Scottish genetic code and having a .scot TLD will allow it to be expressed and identified worldwide.
Innovation is also greatly enhanced by the proactive structured development of the name space. The development process involves an open procedure with calls for proposals for purpose-built localized services based on designated portions of the the .scot TLD name space. This approach helps use innovative potential worldwide for the benefit of the Scottish community and for the advancement of the global Internet.
b) iii.What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
Compared to most existing TLDs, the .scot TLD user experience will greatly enhance predictability and memorability of domain names. The community-based focus, the orderly development process and strong intellectual property support ensure that users will generally find the services they are looking for under the names they intuitively tend to use for them.
User experience is improved by the singular specificities of a community TLD, that will provide to the community and to those willing to address online communications specifically targeted to this community the means to identify such communications under a TLD explicitly designed to this purpose. Users in the Scottish community will also get increasingly used to the predictability of the .scot TLD domain names. As a result, they also avoid stumbling upon typo-squatting, robotized pay-per-click traps or domain-for-sale pages.
b) iv.Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
Registrations under the .scot TLD are restricted to bona-fide members of the Scottish community, and subject to the further requirement that the registrant’s actions in the .scot TLD community, as well as the registrant’s use of the registered domain name, must be:
(i) generally accepted as legitimate; and
(ii) beneficial to the cause and the values of the Scottish community; and
(iii) commensurate with the role and importance of the registered domain name; and
(iv) in good faith at the time of registration and thereafter.
The registration policies are differentiated between Pre-launch phase, Launch phase and General Availability.
1, Pre-launch phase
During Pre-launch, projects and content provision commitments are actively sought and negotiated, especially for key public-interest portions of the name space. All potential registrants and mandate holders are subject to screening and thorough pre-validation. For more details on the pioneer and the name space program, please see response to Q18 c) below
2.Launch phase
During the Launch phase, all registrations are thoroughly pre-validated; Launch phase pre-validation depends on priority status but will always involve community nexus. For further details about the community nexus, please see response to Q20 e) below. The Launch phase includes 3 categories for registrants with prior rights, and a fourth one, which is in fact, a Landrush, running in parallel in time, but being the lowest in priority. The categories are the following according to hierarchy:
- Entities which have a specific vocation in promoting Scottish culture, including Public Authorities, such as:
- Public Administrations in Scotland including but not limited to Scottish Government, Regional Authorities, Local Authorities and other bodies in the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities;
- Public Administrations in the UK with a Scottish remit;
- European Administrations with a Scottish remit;
- Commonwealth Secretariat administrations with a Scottish remit;
- All other Administrations with competencies relating to Scotland, itʹs people, languages, culture and business.
- Trademark and other distinctive signs rights holders. This includes trademarks validated by the Trademark Clearinghouse, and designations of origin.
- Entities with their legal seat in Scotland. This category is restricted to legal entities, and does not allow “fantasy names”.
- No prior rights. Eligible registrants not able to claim any of the priorities listed above will be able to apply during the whole duration of the Launch phase, as a preparation for an orderly and transparent Landrush.
Applications in non-English languages will be welcomed, specifically in Gaelic, Shetlandic and Orcadian which often require the use of non ASCII characters, as well as in the other Scottish languages of Doric and Scots.
3. Post-launch: General Availability
At General Availability, community nexus is subject to post-validation by way of an extensive compliance program based on the same criteria that form the basis of the TLD: cultural, business and welfare of the Scottish community. The ongoing compliance program will regularly be adapted to current needs based on experience and audit findings. Community nexus validation combined with strong protection of trademarks helps stamp out cybersquatting and abusive registrations
b) v.Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.
Dot Scot Registry recognizes first-hand that this is a relevant issue and an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard. The protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users will comply with applicable Law, in particular the European Data Protection framework and the United Kingdom Personal Data Protection legislation as enshrined in the UK Data Protection Act 1998. Within the bounds of applicable regulations, the Registry will implement anti-data mining measures by way of rate limitation, authenticated access or white-listing⁄black-listing, as well as tools to prevent unauthorized recourse to repetitive automated access.
Dot Scot Registry also intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA) modeled after language which has been included in the template Registry Agreement and which has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD Registry operators. Specifically, Registry Operator shall notify Registrar of the purposes for which Personal Data submitted to Registry Operation by Registrar is collected, the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and the mechanism for access to and correction of such Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars. Registry Operator may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.
Finally, Dot Scot Registry will propose to ICANN, through the Registry Agreement negotiations, a Whois service that allows individual registrants to opt-out from publishing their personal contact data, as other existing gTLD Registries have done. If this option is not available during the contractual negotiations, Dot Scot Registry would submit such proposal after delegation, though the New Registry Services procedure.
b.vi) Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
The .scot TLD has outreach programs adapted to each phase of its introduction.
The pre-launch negotiations involving calls for projects by innovators and pioneer users. They foster the intuitive usability of the .scot TLD with a focus on the needs of the Scottish community. Once these domain names are active, they become an outreach mechanism in their own right because they establish the touch-and-feel of the .scot TLD in the minds of the users.
The launch phase will involve outreach mechanisms that specifically leverage participation by the local public services, locally relevant trademarks and local actors.
Promotion codes distributed through community-specific channels are a form outreach available at any time. They are also a low-cost method to achieve community nexus and to prevent abusive registrations.