Icann, the internet organisation that decides on generic top-level domains (TLDs), is being lobbied at its meeting in Sydney this week by supporters of a rival bid emerging for the .eco ending to web addresses.
In March, no less a figure than Al Gore, the environmentalist and former US vice president, threw his weight behind an application by Dot Eco LLC for the TLD. The company, founded by US internet entrepreneurs and a Hollywood producer, plans to sell .eco addresses to businesses wanting to tout their green credentials and then pour back more than half the profits into environmental causes, including Mr Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.
It sounds a laudable idea, but a Canadian company, Big Room, thinks it has a better one for .eco, as well as superior environmental experience.
It is going public with its plans today and expects to apply to Icann in the first quarter of 2010 to be the registrar of .eco, with a decision expected by the ruling body by the end of that year.
The idea is to collect extra information from people when they register for the domain on such items as water and energy use, emissions and safety records, allowing their eco-information to be clearly displayed on the site in a standardised format.
Big Room says “a significant portion of revenues” will be reinvested in the .eco community and it promises transparency in all its dealings. Its three co-founders Trevor Bowden, Jacob Malthouse and Anastasia O’Rourke have worked at the United Nations Environment Programme, the International Institute for Sustainable Development and Icann itself, among other institutions.
I put it to Mr Bowden that the domain might have limited appeal and attract registrations from only those big companies with unblemished records who wanted to boast about how green they were.
“We want to build on existing standards,” he said. “At the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got millions of small businesses for whom corporate responsibility reporting is a huge burden. This couild provide a simple tool they can use to disclose their eco credentials and a simple reporting framework that would evolve over time.”
But why the need for competitive bids for .eco? Could they not combine the best of both green world views?
“We’re always open to that discussion,” he said, but added: “We’ve got a vision of bringing the global community around this bid and building a useful open platform, and we’re going to keep working to make sure we’ve got a really compelling offering.”
