.wien
Encyclopedia
.wien is a proposed new top level domain (TLD)
. It is a Sponsored top-level domain
intended to be a top level domain for individuals, companies and organizations from Vienna
, Austria
.
Along with TLDs such as .cat
, .asia
and .eu
, .wien and other proposed TLDs fall into the new category of GeoTLD
s.
The Vienna city administration is looking for interested parties for .wien and will evaluate proposals by the end of November 2011.
According to one campaign for the introduction of a .wien TLD, the benefits for the city and its community would be numerous and range from tourism to the economy, administration and infrastructure. In addition and most importantly, .wien Internet addresses would serve to establish a strong presence and identity for the city on the Internet, in a time when questions about identity both online and offline are on the rise.
According to the ICANN Rules for Geographical Names, both .wien and .vienna would be considered Geographical Names.
Several GeoTLD initiatives for city names in their own official language rather than English have been announced, e.g. .köln (for Cologne
) or .roma (for Rome
)
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
. It is a Sponsored top-level domain
Sponsored top-level domain
A sponsored top-level domain is one of the categories of top-level domains maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet....
intended to be a top level domain for individuals, companies and organizations from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
.
Along with TLDs such as .cat
.cat
.cat is a sponsored top-level domain intended to be used to highlight the Catalan language and culture. Its policy has been developed by ICANN and Fundació puntCAT...
, .asia
.asia
.asia is a sponsored top-level domain sponsored by the DotAsia Organization, with the back-end registry operated by Afilias. It was approved by ICANN on 19 October 2006 as a sponsored TLD...
and .eu
.eu
.eu is the country code top-level domain for the European Union . Launched 7 December 2005, the domain is available for organisations in and residents of EU member states. The TLD is administered by EURid, a consortium consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium, Sweden, Italy...
, .wien and other proposed TLDs fall into the new category of GeoTLD
GeoTLD
A GeoTLD is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet using the name of or invoking an association with a geographical, geopolitical, ethnic, linguistic or cultural community....
s.
The Vienna city administration is looking for interested parties for .wien and will evaluate proposals by the end of November 2011.
According to one campaign for the introduction of a .wien TLD, the benefits for the city and its community would be numerous and range from tourism to the economy, administration and infrastructure. In addition and most importantly, .wien Internet addresses would serve to establish a strong presence and identity for the city on the Internet, in a time when questions about identity both online and offline are on the rise.
.wien or .vienna ?
One question that has been raised is whether the city of Vienna (whose official language is German) should promote the introduction of the German .wien or English .vienna GeoTLD.According to the ICANN Rules for Geographical Names, both .wien and .vienna would be considered Geographical Names.
Several GeoTLD initiatives for city names in their own official language rather than English have been announced, e.g. .köln (for Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
) or .roma (for Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
)