.nyc is a
top level domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...
(TLD) for
New York City. It was delegated to the root zone by ICANN on March 20, 2014.
Background
New York-based company name.space, founded by
Paul Garrin, began operating its own alternative
root zone system in 1997 including a .nyc top level domain. name.space applied for inclusion of its .nyc, along with a number of other
strings, as TLDs in the
IANA
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Inter ...
root during the 2000 ICANN application round. Its application was refused. Another company, Names@Work, also put in an application in 2000 but withdrew for lack of funding.
The first municipal support for the .nyc TLD was the
Internet Empowerment Resolution passed by
Queens Community Board 3, a local planning unit of the
City of New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, on April 19, 2001. The Resolution called for the city's Commission on Public Information and Communication or a public interest organization to acquire and develop the TLD.
By the mid-2000s interest in gaining local TLDs had arisen in other cities, notably Paris and Berlin. Some of those proponents contacted Thomas Lowenhaupt, the former Community Board member who had introduced the Queens Resolution. In 2007, with the Bloomberg Administration having indicated that it did not intend to apply for the .nyc TLD, Lowenhaupt formed a non-profit 'Connecting .nyc' to acquire and develop the .nyc TLD for community use. On June 6, 2008 Council Member
Gale Brewer led the introduction of Resolution 1495-2008 supporting "the local efforts to acquire the .nyc Top Level Domain and urging The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to approve the City’s application in order to meet the needs of city residents via the Internet."
At the ICANN meeting in Paris in July 2008 a green light was given for the development of a new TLD application round, including cities.
On October 17, 2008, Brewer held a public hearing in support of her bill. Witnesses included Lowenhaupt, Antony Van Couvering of Names@Work, and Paul Garrin.
Van Couvering proposed that .nyc be run by his company as a purely commercial enterprise, with a portion of the revenue dedicated to benefiting the community. He testified that he was willing to work with Lowenhaupt on community interests. The bill itself would eventually be
shelved at the end of 2009.
In her February 12, 2009 State of the City address City Council Speaker
Christine Quinn proposed the .nyc TLD as a public-private partnership. names@work, now under the name DotNYC, opened a new dedicated website which reported on Quinn's speech. "The crowd, made up of elected politicians and dignitaries, literally chanted “Dot N – Y – C” at the end of her description of it." Further press reports were confidently quoted by DotNYC. These included details that they expected to pay the city a third of all revenue, $3 million per year initially, rising to $10 million a year. In June 2009, DotNYC released a testimonial video of former Mayor
Ed Koch
Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was may ...
saying "DotNYC is the best real estate opportunity since the Dutch bought Manhattan".
Wheels had been put in motion and, on April 15, 2009, the
(DoITT) issued a
Request for Information (RFI). Connecting.nyc published its response, which called for many names (
second level domains) to be reserved for community use. On October 5, 2009 a Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued by the City of New York seeking "services to obtain, manage, administer, maintain and market the geographic Top Domain name .nyc." Notably, conditions included that proposals include a system of ensuring nexus with the city, and also a preliminary list of reserved names including all city precincts, schools, districts, and neighborhoods.
Creation of .nyc
In March 2012, name.space reported it had filed for trademark protection on a number of its TLDs, including .nyc.
In April 2012 the city announced that
NeuStar, Inc., a Virginia-based firm, had been selected from the RFP submissions and on June 12, 2012 the City of New York submitted an application to
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
for the .nyc TLD. Neustar paid the $185,000 application fee.
In May 2012 Garrin wrote to local dignitaries protesting the Neustar contract, and asserting name.space's rights to the .nyc TLD.
The application on behalf of the city passed initial evaluation at
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
on May 24, 2013.
ICANN delegated .nyc to the
DNS root zone
The DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in the hierarchical namespace of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet.
Before October 1, 2016, the root zone had been overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ...
on March 20, 2014.
In 2015 Connecting.nyc was granted
special consultative status to the
United Nations Economic and Social Council
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...
(ECOSOC).
Advisory board
On March 22, 2013
the .NYC Community Advisory Board was formed. Members include Thomas Lowenhaupt, former ICANN Chair
Esther Dyson, and representatives of the local tech and academic community.
It was later disbanded.
References
External links
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Connecting.nyc Inc. non-profit promoting public interest in .nyc
name.spacealternative root system registrar
.nycregistration statistics a
nTLDStats.nycat th
ICANN Wiki
Video
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nyc
Top-level domains
Culture of New York City
Domain names in the United States
Computer-related introductions in 2014