New York City Councilors Christine Quinn and Gale Brewer have issued a statement following ICANN’s approval of the new gTLD program in Singapore last week:
STATEMENT BY COUNCIL SPEAKER CHRISTINE C. QUINN AND COUNCIL MEMBER GALE BREWER
Re: ICANN Announcement to Expand Domain Offerings
“Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced it will dramatically expand its domain offerings and will begin accepting applications for new domains in January 2012. Once approved, this will allow for the addition of a dot New York City suffix that will be operated by a private vendor and be made available to New York City businesses and residents.
This is a fantastic opportunity for the New York City establishments that will now be able to secure their online presence with a top-level domain name, and for the City of New York, which will benefit from the millions of dollars in revenue dot NYC will generate.
When I first proposed launching a New York City specific domain in my State of the City two years ago, it was because I saw the enormous potential for New York City businesses to carve out a place of their own on the Internet.
With ICANN’s support, and the hard work of Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Carole Post, New York City Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne and former and present chairs of the Committee on Technology, Council Members Gale Brewer and Fernando Cabrera, today that potential has been realized.
I applaud ICANN’s decision to increase the availability of new domains, and in doing so, allow New York City businesses the freedom to take control of their Internet presence.
Dot NYC will reflect the locality that defines New York City and makes our vendors one of a kind. I look forward to working with the DoIT to find a suitable operator to help administer dot NYC.”
City Council Member Gale Brewer:
“Today’s decision by ICANN opens the doors for New York City, like many of our global competitors, to apply for a top-level domain name. I applaud the efforts of those advocating for a domain name to ensure that local small businesses and merchants based in New York City are able to brand themselves as such. The small business community is a vital part of the New York City economy and any opportunity to increase their exposure while facilitating easy searching online is a smart step forward.”
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Tomorrow, Thursday March 7 2013 at 12PM on the Steps of City Hall City Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer will hold a press conference to celebrate the first anniversary of NYC’s Open Data Law. On this day, under the terms of the bill, all qualifying data currently available on any NYC.gov website must be posted to the Open Data portal. Various open government groups including the Open NY Forum and the New York City Transparency Working Group will be in attendance to support Councilwoman Brewer.
