.nyc

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2009
Contact: Davidson Goldin (DolceGoldin)
646 386 9602 david@dolcegoldin.com

dotNYC Applauds City Council Leadership to Create .NYC Web Address
Speaker Quinn & Council Member Brewer Take Lead Roles Promoting
Initiative that Will Provide Millions of Dollars to Benefit New York City

The long-awaited .nyc web address is closer to becoming a reality, thanks in part to today’s action by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the long commitment of Council Member Gale Brewer.

Website names ending in .nyc – such as www.hotels.nyc, www.joeshardware.nyc, www.johndoe.nyc, www.parks.nyc (and millions more) – will allow New York City residents, businesses, organizations, government agencies and tourist attractions to identify directly with the world’s leading city.

Everyone is familiar with generic web addresses ending in .com .org .net .edu .gov. Other Top Level Domains include .biz .info .tv .mobi .travel. Now there are plans to introduce many new web addresses including .london .paris .boston .berlin .barcelona .rio and others based on geography.

These new web addresses will make the need for creating a domain name for New York City on the Internet a critical priority. The anticipated typical cost of a .nyc address (roughly $10) represents the cheapest real estate opportunity here since the Dutch bought Manhattan.

“The .nyc web address will generate significant funding to market New York City around the world, provide free web addresses for city government and keep New Yorkers competitive with global trends,” said Antony Van Couvering of Manhattan, CEO of dotNYC. “We’ve been working on creating .nyc for nearly a decade, and we’re thrilled Speaker Quinn and Council Member Brewer are taking leadership roles to ensure New Yorkers benefit from the future of the Internet.”

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) will this summer begin approving Top Level Domains named after cities and states. Until now, geographic-based domains were only named after countries or continents (such as .us .fr .uk .asia).

Leaders of the dotNYC team helped found ICANN and bring vast experience creating and running Top Level Domains, including .asia. They created the first public-private partnership to distribute a portion of domain profits to a Community Partner.

The dotNYC team has been working since the fall of 2008 with the Mayor’s Office and the City Council, and has also begun conversations with a potential Community Partner. If the .nyc domain is supported by the city and approved by ICANN, dotNYC will:

· Distribute a substantial portion of profits to the Community Partner for New York City’s benefit
· Provide all city agencies and departments with free .nyc web addresses
· Implement proven policies that protect trademarks and ensure .nyc addresses are used responsibly
· Devote the marketing resources and funding required to ensure demand and make .nyc successful
· Maintain NYC headquarters – creating jobs marketing, designing and programming .nyc web sites

ABOUT dotNYC:
The New York City-based business includes founding members of ICANN who continue to serve in leadership capacities, launched five successful Top Level Domains, advised dozens of others and created the model for public-private partnerships involving geographic-based web addresses.

DotNYC’s efforts to create the .nyc web address moved into full swing last year when ICANN for the first time implemented policies to encourage new domains based on city names. dotNYC founder William Semich is a founder of ICANN and helped design the initial processes and policies for creating new Top Level Domains in the 1990s. He remains active in .asia, which he helped found. He is a former senior staff member to the mayor of Boston and served as that city’s director of finance and deputy director of economic development. dotNYC CEO Antony Van Couvering brings deep experience creating Top Level Domains and was a major force in the creation of ICANN. He has started and run several businesses specializing in creating and operating domains.