As my 350 closest friends are aware, I have been pursuing .NYC hard for over a year, and in fits and starts since 2000, in conjunction with my friend Bill Semich, who manages .NU. dotNYC is the company behind our latest (and now it appears final) effort to get New York City to get behind the .NYC top-level domain.

Now we’re officially out of stealth mode, because New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has outed our effort to launch .NYC (PDF) in her State of the City speech today in front of most of the elected officials of New York.

Said Speaker Quinn to chants of “Dot N - Y - C” (seriously) from the crowd of elected officials:

While we look to cut spending, we’ll keep our eyes open for any new sources of revenue. Here’s one that’s been right in front of us for years. Web sites end with dot com, dot org, dot this and dot that. Thanks to the leadership of Council Member Gale Brewer and Deputy Mayor Bob Lieber, New York City will soon have its own place on the web – with dot NYC. Mark Twain famously advised “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” Well now we can make more New York addresses – just on the internet!
A local business won’t have to outbid a guy in Kansas to get Tony’s Pizza dot com. They’ll be able to get Tony’s Pizza dot NYC, a name associated with the greatest city – and home of the greatest pizza – in the world. Most importantly, we expect to generate millions of dollars a year through the sale of web addresses ending in dot NYC.

So the City Council and the Mayor’s Office are now on record as supporting .NYC — a huge win for New York City and for us. At this point, it looks like .NYC will definitely happen. Now it’s a matter of following the proper processes, including a possible RFP, educating people in the government about what a top-level domain is and how it could work, and filing a winning application with ICANN.

Thanks to all those who supported the .NYC project while it was in stealth mode.

See also the press about .NYC at Crain’s New York Business — and I’m sure more is on the way….

For more, check out the infant dotNYC web site.

Tags: .nyc, dot nyc, dotNYC, Gale Brewer, Bob Lieber, Christine Quinn

Posted by Antony in: Domains, Guide to new TLDs