18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

Prototypical answer:

MISSION AND PURPOSE:

The Internet has evolved into one of the greatest content delivery platform the international world has known. Historically there are a handful of technologies that fundamentally changed the degree to which people can disseminate information to one another. The printing press, telegraph, telephone and television are all examples of fundamental shifts in communication medium. The Internet, arguably, has been the greatest shift of all so far.

Marshall McLuhan once said:

“The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”

If we argue the Internet as the greatest of these mediums, we can build on McLuhan assertion to say it also represents the greatest extension of ourselves. This is comprehensively both positive and negative, as some people intend harm to others and some people intend goodwill to others. Generic TLDs largely, to date, have equally extended all people registering domain names, regardless of their intent, good or bad.

The .doctor registry will shape the Internet medium by offering discerned access to the Internet, helping to separate the good actors from the bad actors. Today, medical related information flows from numerous gTLD and ccTLD domain names. The web services offered provide no inherent assurances that these sources are accountable in some way to a licensed medical practitioner. When we look at a doctor or medical related website, an Internet user must decide whether or not the responsible party for that website is a licensed practitioner. We intend to restrict the registry of .Doctor, to ensure that only licensed medical practitioners can offer their web services through this new gTLD.

The .doctor registry will introduce a fundamentally simple but imperative registration restriction that will apply in all lifecycles of the .doctor TLD registration process. Registrants of .doctor will have to participate in a verification of their medical license as confirmed through data issued by the issuing authority of that license. This verification must occur in order for a .doctor registration to become active.

The .doctor registry will create a gTLD for which there is unprecedented accountability for web services launched on its domains. Internet users will be ensured that behind every domain name and its associated services, information and content, a licensed medical practitioner is being held responsible for that domain. Additionally, licensed medical practitioners will be able to easily distinguish themselves in the .doctor TLD from countless others in unrestricted gTLDs posing or insinuating knowledge and capabilities in the medical profession without the training, knowledge and certifications inherent in medical licensing.

The mission⁄purpose of .doctor is to provide an easily recognized, specialized and publicly trusted name space on the internet for licensed medical professionals. The .doctor extension is intended to provide the registrant an immediately recognized domain name that tells Internet users that they are interacting with a licensed medical professional. A .doctor registrant must be a licensed medical professional as recognized by each country’s medical regulatory authority (ies). The .doctor extension is a global top-level domain with restricted registration policies detailed further in other areas of this application. The .doctor brand is “trust: verified”.

Our mission, goals can be summarized as follows:

1.1. ENHANCE TRUST

To create a “trusted and secure” namespace for licensed medical professionals, and the users that seek them out through this medium.

1.2. ENHANCE SEARCHABILITY AND RECOGNITION

.Doctor benefits the Registrants as well as the end users. End users will be able to find the website of a licensed medical professional easily amongst the sea of countless others in unrestricted gTLDs.

Doctors will be able to easily distinguish themselves by running their web presence on a .Doctor domain name. The space will make them more visible, and more accessible.

1.3. ENHANCE REGISTRANT CHOICE

To create a namespace that provides doctors greater choice to represent themselves online in a manner they please. Due to the saturation and unrestricted nature of the existing gTLD space many have to opt for a name that does not best reflect them. .Doctor will provide legitimate Registrants a higher probability of obtaining their desired name

1.4. CREATE A CLEANER INTERNET SPACE

To create a cleaner internet experience for end users by implementing pioneering registration policies, content and usage policies, and abuse mitigation processes.

1.5. CREATE A STABLE AND RESILIENT INTERNET SPACE

To deliver a stable and resilient internet experience to registrants and end-users by going above and beyond the ICANN mandated SLAs and delivering 100% resolution uptime

This completes our response to Q18(a).

Similar gTLD applications: (0)