“The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations advises local authorities not to apply for their own generic top-level domain.“
We read this on digitaleoverheid.nl this week. However, this advice is inconsistent with the arguments put forward. A better wording would be: ‘The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations advises local authorities not to use their own generic top-level domain for their own services.’
The idea of a recognisable government is not new. The government wants you to be able to assume that ‘municipalityname.nl’ is the portal for the municipality (or province) in question. This is not always possible, and moreover, there are websites that are not related to a municipality or province, such as those of the Tax and Customs Administration and the police. That is why work is already underway on a uniform domain name extension. This will most likely be .gov.nl or .overheid.nl.
However, this has nothing to do with the existence of a separate, local domain name extension. The City of Amsterdam proves that amsterdam.nl can continue to exist under the .nl domain, while culture, tourism, SMEs and others can promote themselves under a .amsterdam domain.
The argument about complexity is partly true, namely the last sentence: ‘It is practically impossible for government organisations to build up that knowledge themselves.’ However, this knowledge is widely available among various parties in the Netherlands and abroad. Dotlocal, for example, has been involved in new domain extensions since 2012, and we have mastered all the ins and outs of the international domain market through both extensions and our sister companies since the beginning of this century.
Our Frisian domain extension .frl proves that having your own domain name extension does not necessarily have to be expensive. Dotlocal applied for .frl in close consultation with the province of Friesland and took care of the entire process at its own expense. The extension promotes the Frisian culture and can often be seen in public spaces. It costs the province nothing.
Continuity is a valid argument. Regulator ICANN sets very high standards for applicants for domain extensions, and even higher standards for geographical extensions, for good reason. However, if things do go wrong, there is a solid fallback available. ICANN prioritises the interests of consumers above all else. Control over the domain extension can be secured through contracts. In fact, this is the first thing we bring to the table when we talk to municipalities and regions.
In our opinion, therefore, the advice not to apply for your own domain extension is incorrect. It is important, though, to clarify how the domain extension will be used. Everyone wants a recognisable government, but that does not mean your community cannot benefit from its own recognisable domain extension.
