18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

Prototypical answer:

18A

The purpose of the City of Stockholm’s own gTLD .stockholm is twofold:

First, .stockholm will be a strong marketing tool, being part of a greater strategy for the City of Stockholm, aimed at the international business public. The purpose is that the City of Stockholm once more states its strong position as a highly modern and innovative city, using cutting edge technology to deliver the infrastructure needed in order to enable its business community to be successful in their area of expertise and to continue to attract international companies for investment.

Secondly, .stockholm shall be used as reliable and trusted communication tool for the citizens of Stockholm in their contacts with the city and its service providers. It will be the official channel for communication from its own institutions like municipal offices, schools, hospitals, events etc. to the citizens of Stockholm. .stockholm will be used as a strong communication tool aimed at Stockholm’s citizens, ensuring the origin of message, communicated either by email or web, leading to enhanced consumer trust in the field of online communication and marketing. .stockholm is part of a greater plan to enable the citizens of Stockholm the ultramodern lifestyle they expect from their city.

1. Stockholm – an innovative capital
Cities around the world are growing fast and as much as 75% of the world’s population is believed to live in cities by 2050. Globalization is increasing and country borders become vaguer with the help of digital technology. This means that large cities are complementing the identity-building role previously communicated by nation-states. The population of Stockholm is increasing quickly, both in the city itself, the county and region of Stockholm. This puts high demand on service, accessibility and sustainability. Thus Stockholm has a long term commitment to be a world class city by 2030.
Stockholm is one of the world’s most innovative cities. In 2009, Stockholm received the Intelligent Community of the Year Award by New York based think-tank Intelligent Community Foundation. Stockholm is home of world leading corporations in ICT, life science, environmental technology and more. The city attracts people who come here to live, work and carry out research, from other parts of Sweden and from all over the world.

To have its own gTLD is one mile stone in a long and intense commitment, which Stockholm has taken on since the 1990’s. In 2000 Stockholm was announced as “ICT-capital of Europe” by Newsweek. Stockholm has 100% broadband coverage, fiber and mobile, which has been developed since 1994. It is the world’s largest open city network, with 1 200 000 kilometers of fiber. By the end of this year, all apartment buildings and companies will have access to fiber connections.

Stockholm is also home to Europe’s leading companies within ICT, most of which are found in Kista Science City. Through a close cooperation between the private sector, research institutions and universities, Kista Science City has turned into one of Stockholm’s most important areas of economic growth, and an international center for wireless technology, broadband, mobile applications and services within bio-technology. There are more than 1400 ICT companies in the area – employing approximately 25 000 people. In order to continue this positive development, the City of Stockholm has to keep up the pace, taking advantage of new possibilities such as controlling its own gTLD .stockholm in order to remain the top city of innovative forerunners.

Digital technology is not only important in order to improve service, but also from a sustainability perspective. Having a well developed service sector and a wide use of broadband services among citizens, schools and companies gives the opportunity for a sustainable life style. Thus Stockholm was appointed Europe’s first Environmental Capital by the EU in 2010. Stockholm sees its own gTLD .stockholm as natural further development of the digital services already offered to the local business community as of today.


2. Stockholm, a modern city to live in
The ambition is to make living in Stockholm easy for the citizens. To get to and from the office, pick up children from pre-school, make it on time for after school activities, to shop and meet up with friends – it all takes a bit of coordinating and planning to make both ends meet in our everyday life.

.stockholm is a major mile stone in Stockholm´s mission to offer operations, services and communication tools that the citizens can rely on. Stockholm is a city for everyone and for all parts of life. One goal is to provide high accessibility, smooth running traffic and top quality welfare services available whenever needed.

The City of Stockholm has developed e-services and a strong digital presence for many years. The aim is to be available 24⁄7, and offer fast and professional response and guidance. The development of services will continue and Stockholmers will be offered increased diversity of services. All operations and services run by Stockholm need to be efficient. The City’s task is to support and facilitate life for its citizens.

Stockholm’s investments in digital services have yielded good results. Through e-services communication have been facilitated between the City administration and the citizens, and significantly shortened processing time for the administration of Stockholm.

Efforts in developing and launching digital services are made by the public sector, as well as by Stockholm’s private sector. The City of Stockholm has invested 650 million SEK in improving communication and e-services for its citizens and the City administrations over the last years. E-services for everything from building permits to pre-school places lead to more efficient management and an increased use of mobile and fixed broadband networks. By the end of 2012, the municipality will have launched approximately 60 e-services.

The results are already positive. Nine of ten Stockholmers apply for pre-schools online, as do half of the people applying for residential parking permits.

However, with more and more services available online, the city’s need for a high control and security level increases. The demand is for 100% reassurance when using e-services with private data. Communicating with the City’s inhabitants via .stockholm websites and email addresses, will have the possibility to enhance citizens trust that can increase the citizen´s use of city e-services.

Stockholm´s focus on e-services in combination with having its own gTLD .stockholm confirms the long term commitment. The broadband infrastructure and high level of web use being the foundation of this development. Sweden tops the International Telecommunication Union Index over household IT access and prices of phone and broadband services in 154 countries worldwide and in Stockholm the use is concentrated.


Conclusion - Objectives of the gTLD .stockholm
Stockholm is growing and sustainability and smart services are used to attract citizens, investors, business people and visitors. The City of Stockholm wants to take an active part in shaping the Internet of the future, and contribute to the digital development. Therefore, the City of Stockholm is investing in creating its own gTLD for all city services and activities.

In conclusion, the objective of .stockholm is to:

• Increase the visibility of the City of Stockholm, as well as the accessibility and usability of e-services for its citizens.
• Attract companies and coveted business people to the Stockholm region and to enable them a smooth and successful business entry by facilitating information transparency and increasing service availability.

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