During the Toronto ALAC meeting I made a proposal that the "At-Large" domain name be added to the Reserved Names List for those entities receiving city TLDs. (Note: There might be broader application of this concept for region TLDs and other TLDs, but that is not the focus of this proposal.) At the the May 13 NARALO meeting I'd like to further detail that suggestion in the hope that it will be adopted by the ALAC and ICANN for implementation during the current round of new TLD issuance. I will be developing that proposal below as we move toward the meeting, and I invite comments of fellow At-Large members.
At-Large.city
Summary: A proposal that two second level domain names: "At-Large" and "AtLarge" domain names be reserved for city TLDs. The AtLarge will redirect to the hyphenated At-Large.
These names will be used by city residents interested in engagement in their city's TLD operation in one of the following areas:
- governance
- oversight
- administration
- policy recommendations
- policy discussions
- the filing of complaints
Areas of engagement will be determined on a city-by-city basis.
Notice of the existence of the At-Large page shall be made in various meta pages associated with the TLD, for example, index.city, home.city, contents.city, search.city.
This shall apply to both English and IDN TLDs.
At-Large.city names will serve the following goals:
- Facilitate At-Large outreach to residents of the various cities.
- Facilitate cross-city connections between individual Internet users in the various cities.
- Provide a place for exploring best practices in the various cities.
The current Top-Level Reserved Names List as per the Applicant Guidebook, version 2012-06-04, Section 2.2.1.2.1 follows:
AFRINIC | IANA-SERVERS | NRO |
|---|---|---|
| ALAC | ICANN | RFC-EDITOR |
| APNIC | IESG | RIPE |
| ARIN | IETF | ROOT-SERVERS |
| ASO | INTERNIC | RSSAC |
| CCNSO | INVALID | SSAC |
| EXAMPLE* | IRTF | TEST* |
| GAC | ISTF | TLD |
| GNSO | LACNIC | WHOIS |
| GTLD-SERVERS | LOCAL | WWW |
| IAB | LOCALHOST | |
| IANA | NIC |
*Note that in addition to the above strings, ICANN will reserve translations of the terms “test” and “example” in multiple languages. The remainder of the strings are reserved only in the form included above.
One will note that ALAC is a current Reserved Name. While there is a close relationship between the two names, the ALAC is more internal to the operation of ICANN, whereas At-Large is for individual Internet users.
Thomas Lowenhaupt