Scotland and Wales Want Their Own Domains, Too

With the news that London's official promotional agency, London & Partners, plans to apply to ICANN for a dot London web domain, Scotland and Wales are jumping on the bandwagon.

London's promotional agency, London & Partners, last week announced that it was working in collaboration with the Mayor of London to apply for a dot London domain. London isn't alone in its plans, with New York, Paris, Berlin, and Rome all planning to do the same, however, it seems London isn't even the only United Kingdom-location with plans for its own specific top level domain. The UK Press Association has said that the Scottish government is asking for a dot Scot domain and Wales is looking for dot Cymru.

The PA reports that the Scottish Government has asked UK communications minister Ed Vaizey to back a bid to create a dot Scot web domain for Scottish websites, while Wales is also expected to submit an application to ICANN. Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, Alex Neil, recently wrote to Ed Vaizey to ask for support for the not-for-profit company Dot Scot Registry (DSR).

"The Scottish Government is behind this company because we believe there is strong demand for a dotSCOT domain and that it should be run as a public resource on a not-for-profit basis that will quickly become self-financing," he's quoted as saying by the PA. "I am sure the UK Government with its responsibility for internet governance will want to support us."

The window for submitting such applications to ICANN is from January 12 to April 12, 2012, but consultations can take anywhere from nine to 20 months after that deadline has passed.