gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.islam	Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti.	nsline.com	View

• Intended registrants in the TLD.

The .Islam gTLD is intended for Muslim faithful who wish to promote, participate or learn about Islam and its various facets, its affect on the daily life of the people around the word, its history, its law and jurisprudence and the rich and diverse culture that surrounds it. Thus, any well-intentioned Muslim who wants to supply such content, or do business based around it, will be able to operate a domain under the .ISLAM gTLD.

• Intended end-users of the TLD.


For a fifth of the worldʹs population, Islam is both a religion and a complete way of life. Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy, and forgiveness - and the majority have nothing to do with the extremely grave events which have come to be associated with their faith. Every Muslim, and indeed a great many non-Muslims, in the world can benefit from .ISLAM websites and the wealth of information and services that it is anticipated will offered by them. The diversity of the .ISLAM gTLD’s offering would be wide enough to cover almost all audiences and their Islam-related needs, considering that all .ISLAM websites will be promoting Islam in some form.

Within all of these populations, the specific intended end users of the .ISLAM gTLD are manifold, and include:

People with ties to Islamic heritage: This includes a significant percentage of both the population of Muslim countries and also with other nations.
Individual Muslims: As demonstrated above, this includes hundreds of millions of individuals around the world.
Students: Those learning about different aspects of Islam, its concepts, its laws, its culture and heritage and its many other facets would benefit from increased resources online that would help them to learn and develop.
Islamic businesses: as in every community, Muslims undertake a great deal of business both within their community and also with external groups. The ability to link their business to the word Islam will therefore be of significant importance to Muslim businesses, both to denote a Muslim-based business and also as a source of pride in being known as such. Indeed, the word Islam is already exceptionally popular within online business – and the word alone yields more than 500 million hits when searched.
All sects: As described above, the main two sects of the Muslim community are Sunnis and Shias – both of whom will be welcome to operate under the .ISLAM gTLD, alongside all other Muslim sects.

It is hoped that not only will these intended users derive individual benefit from the existence of a .ISLAM community, but that they will also contribute in turn. This should create a group benefit, which will in turn feed back in to individual benefits – establishing a beneficial cycle.


• Related activities the applicant has carried out or intends to carry out in service of this purpose.

Anticipating the diversification of TLDs now being realized, and the consequent introduction of an Islamic-specific online space, AGITSys has been working with a wide variety of related parties for several years in preparation, and will continue to do so going forward. A key element for the success of the .ISLAM gTLD is a strong and interactive community, which Muslims around the world are proud to associate with and keen to contribute to. To ensure this, AGITSys will sponsor community outreach and marketing, in order to raise awareness of the forthcoming possibilities. These possibilities are also highly appealing for Islamic businesses, and as such AGITSys will engage in dialogue with those businesses, and industry chiefs, regarding their ideas for how the .ISLAM gTLD will take shape, and what they intend to subsequently give back to it.
Quality content will also be fundamental to a thriving .ISLAM community, especially because AGITSys is committed to ensuring that .ISLAM is populated by quality second-level domain offerings. With this in mind, AGITSys will be talking with those most likely to contribute quality content, from news and media agencies to academics and libraries (who will be able to digitize Islamic materials and then distribute them online comprehensively for the first time) about how they can and will contribute, and what AGITSys can do to facilitate this process.
Ultimately, however, religion will always be the most important element for a successful .ISLAM community online. The entire gTLD concept is designed as a place of online respect; almost worship, for those of Islamic faith. As such, the involvement, blessing and feedback of the Islamic religious community is fundamentally important. Aware of this, AGITSys has been in prolonged and continued contact with important religious figures – asking them what they want to see and how they would like to see it done, whilst also encouraging them to spread the word and prepare themselves. This should mean that when the .ISLAM gTLD comes online, there will be a large swathe of information posted almost immediately – therefore instantly creating a rewarding user experience.

• Explanation of how the purpose is of a lasting nature.

The community that will be served by .ISLAM--growing as it has out of the Muslims community--has thrived and grown for more than a millennium. Remarkably, it has done so largely without the level of connection online found within Western cultures. This existing community interconnection speaks to the cultural staying power of the Islamic community and the many ways it enriches world culture.

With the adoption of a .ISLAM community, this robust group will be further empowered to interconnect and grow, allowing it to take its equal place on the Internet stage. The community thrives now, but will reach new heights through the .ISLAM gTLD.

The growth of the .ISLAM gTLD will be driven by what economists refer to as the network effect. A network effect occurs when a service becomes more popular as more individuals adopt it. A significant portion of the serviceʹs value stems directly from the increased adoption and usage of the service. Historically the network effect is most powerful in tools of interconnection. The telegraph and telephone were technologies that grew exponentially due to the network effect. The Internet itself is an example of that phenomenon, as seen by the rapid upward growth curve of Internet penetration, broadband speeds, and web site creation. ICANNʹs data on the growth of .COM is an example of the network effect, and now it is seen in social-media platforms atop the Internet, such as Facebook and Twitter.

As more sites offer information, services, and opportunities for interconnection to the .ISLAM community as a whole, more members of the community will navigate to those sites. Many of those will provide their own content, and their activity there will spark further growth of second-level .ISLAM domains. At some point, information and service providers currently not offering sites will see the demand for .ISLAM-related content and will migrate their offerings to .ISLAM sites as well, furthering the offerings to the community and further driving community members to .ISLAM sites. The future benefits of interlinking this diverse and global community are incalculable but immense.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.ECO	Big Room Inc.	doteco.org	View

The .ECO Community TLD will create a global trusted source of environmental information, the .ECO System, to support the goals of the Global Environmental Community.

The December 2011 UNEP Eye on Earth Declaration vision whereby “decision-making for sustainable development is empowered by the availability and equitable accessibility of credible, relevant and timely information”, and that “effective mechanisms for the collection, management and dissemination of environmental information are needed.” The .ECO System also supports Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development that states “Environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level.”

In the .ECO System, all registered .ECO domains will be linked to a separate web-based profile information system of .ECO-profiles that contain key environmental data in a user-friendly format. Together, .ECO domains and .ECO-profiles will form a new global aggregator of environmental information that includes controls and incentives to maintain the quality of information, while ensuring open access and freedom to innovate.

The purpose of the .ECO System per the .ECO Policy Consensus is to:

1. Allow members to more easily identify themselves and other Community members online and to prevent misuse of .ECO domain names that could lead to confusion;

2. Utilize the power of the Internet to foster transparency, information sharing, communication and exchange of ideas to promote environmental goals, interests and values, amongst community members and those who are exploring that opportunity; and,

3. Provide a platform for accurate and non-deceptive information and reliable resources to encourage environmental awareness and action.

INTENDED REGISTRANTS

Community members can become .ECO Registrants in the following categories: not-for-profit organizations, businesses, governments, individuals, and products. By completing their ECO-profile, Registrants can demonstrate their Community credentials (memberships, accreditations, certifications, and reporting). It will allow those wishing to join the Community to see the activities of current members, and facilitate interaction with eco-minded consumers.

INTENDED END-USERS

The intended end-user of the .ECO System is anyone interested in environmental data from the online trusted source created by millions of Community members. The .ECO System will provide accurate, reliable, and timely information about individuals, organizations, businesses and products to Community members, consumers, and others looking for environmental information. As a platform for innovation, members will foster transparency and consumer education by developing new ways to track, rank and display relevant information.

ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT IN SERVICE OF THE .ECO PURPOSE

To establish the policies for .ECO, Meridian Institute (Meridian) mediated an international, transparent, and inclusive multi-stakeholder process, in compliance with the ISEAL Alliance Code of Good Practice for Setting Environmental and Social Standards, with members of the Global Environmental Community. Meridian is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organization that is internationally recognized and trusted for designing and facilitating neutral consensus-building and problem-solving processes.

Global Multi-stakeholder Process

1. Creation of the .ECO Community Council (the Council)

At the request of Big Room, Meridian convened a council of community organizations, governed by a terms of reference (ToR) agreed by the members, to review and consider the results of a series of global consultations and to come to consensus on the purpose, principles, and policies for submission to ICANN on behalf of the Community. The ToR under which participants engaged confirmed that involvement was on a voluntary basis and without compensation or obligation to support Big Room’s application.

2. A Global Multi-Stakeholder Consultation with the Community

Big Room held 7 regional in-person consultations about the potential for .ECO to exist as a community TLD and to gather feedback on the purpose, principles and policies that should apply to the operation of a TLD purporting to be “pro environment.” Meetings were held in Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, South Africa, the US from May to November 2009, on the margins of established international meetings⁄conferences where Community members were in attendance. The consultation process included public comment periods, town-hall meetings, open letters, bilateral communications, and global social and print media outreach.

3. An Extensive Public Campaign to Raise Awareness and Support

Working with the Council, Big Room posted at www.doteco.info drafts of all versions of the policies as they became available, and solicited Community input including 3 public comment periods from May 2009 to September 2010 of no less than 30 days each. In April 2010, the Council publicly announced its goal to develop a .ECO Policy Consensus by releasing an open letter to the Community by press release, posting to www.doteco.info, and delivery by Meridian to a number of community organizations.

Results of the Process

1. An agreement by the Council on the .ECO Policy Consensus, that defines the purpose, principles and policies for operation of the .ECO Community TLD.

2. The creation of an independent community-led organization, the Dot ECO Global Community Organization to act as the representative community member institution for .ECO and to provide on-going policy formulation, guidance, and advice to the Registry operator on behalf of the Community.

3. A contract between the Organization and Big Room defining their respective roles and procedures.

4. Support for the .ECO Community TLD application from over 50 environmental groups representing more than 10 million individual members and over 1,000 entities across 190 countries.

HOW THE PURPOSE AND PRINCIPLES ARE OF A LASTING NATURE

The over-arching purpose of the .ECO Community TLD is to support the goals, values and interests of the Global Environmental Community through increased transparency and awareness. The prevention of misuse of .ECO domain names that could lead to consumer confusion is a critical aspect of the .ECO mission. The Community’s goals are inherently of a lasting nature as it works, in the words of the Declaration of the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment “to defend and improve the human environment for present and future generations.” The importance of the consumer protection component of the Community’s work is recognized by many governments and organizations that have established standards for use of “green” or environmentally-friendly labelling.

Governance

The long-standing reliance on the multi-stakeholder model to pursue Community goals is reflected in the Dot ECO Global Community Organization. Its governance structure provides a community-led membership framework to manage .ECO for the long-term benefit of the Community including the opportunity to discuss and participate in the development and modification of .ECO policies and practices. The International Institute for Sustainable Development acts as secretariat for the Organization. On-going funding will be by the Registry. The Organization is linked to the Registry by a contract that defines the relationship between both parties and with ICANN.

Foundation

Per the .ECO Policy Consensus, a portion of sales from .ECO domain names will be donated to an independent foundation to support the Community’s goals, with a focus on building capacity in developing countries. The Organization and the Registry Operator will review the funding arrangement every 2 years, and publish annual financial reports to ensure transparency of funds allocated.