Various sources have confirmed to DomainNews that an unusual tandem formed by the .FR Registry (AFNIC) and a gathering of Registrars specialized in gTLDs (CORE) has been apointed by the Paris city council to become Registry operator for the future dotParis. Is it a good thing?
So-called "cityTLDs" have always enjoyed a special place among all the discussions of new gTLDs and .Paris is no exception.
The first "dotCity" to be officially backed and promotted by its city mayor following the successful ICANN Paris meeting, dotParis has enjoyed a complicated youth. Taken over by the Paris city itself after the project was founded and presented by former ISOC France Président Sébastien Bachollet, the project then saw a call for tender for consultancy won by French Registrar INDOM. Almost a year later, the project has crossed a major milestone with the announcement of its Registry operator - the entity ultimately responsible for registering the .Paris domain names on the technical level.
While surprising at first - why choose a relatively light-weight Swiss consortium when Neustar among many other key players placed a bid? - the deal makes a lot of sense. CORE has been pushing for new TLDs even before ICANN was created. Steering successful projects such as .Aero and .Cat, the Swiss association brings a wealth of expertise in forming new TLDs and bearing them through the whole ICANN process. Moreover it is no secret that CORE is also a strong support of other cityTLDs like .Berlin, which could help make the so called "cityTLD" group a more credible offering.
Although it makes a lot of sense for its nation capital's TLD, the choice of the French Registry as a partner was probably less of a given. With only 1.5 milion names registered, AFNIC is still competing neck and neck with the .PL Registry in terms of volume (something .Paris will most probably have) and has only just adopted the long standing EPP protocol - a must for any gTLD. One can also argue that the outreach of the "Paris" brand worldwide clearly deserves more open policies than AFNIC's own... Let's just hope the city hall will not see Paris as a closed extension, or the project's complicated history may take yet another strange turn.
Chief Editor