Tag Archives: Moscow

.MOSCOW and .МОСКВА Sunrise Shows Latin Characters Most Popular

The Sunrise period for the .moscow and .москва gTLDs has ended resulting in in 154 domain name registrations in .moscow and seven registrations in .москва. Which is not overly surprising given those registered within the Trademark Clearinghouse are more likely to be for larger brands.

The Sunrise period in .moscow and .москва was popular mainly among global brands including Gucci, McDonalds and H&M. The applicant with the most domains applied for was Apple with 11.

There were also a couple of generic terms registered, these being МЫ.москва (which can be translated as we.moscow) and скачать.москва (download.moscow).

Commencing 15 July, and ending 13 August, the first limited registration period commenced for the owners of trademarks and service marks valid in the Russian Federation.

The second limited registration period will run from 19 to 25 August and this will be limited to trade names, media and non-profits registered in Moscow as well as Moscow appellations of origin.

To register a domain name, a trademark owner shall contact one of the registrars accredited for the Moscow’s domains and submit the following documents:

  1. a document confirming the trademark owner’s registration as a legal entity or a sole trader
  2. a trademark certificate or an enacted judicial decision on the exclusive right to a trademark protected in the Russian Federation.

Then from 24 September to 18 November will be a Landrush period and finally General Availability will commence on 1 December. Both of these will be on a first-come first-served basis for individuals and legal entities from anywhere.

“Domain names in the Moscow extensions will now be available for a wider range of users, because they won’t have to pay for including their trademarks in the Trademark Clearinghouse,” says Dmitry Burkov, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development (Registry Operator for the .moscow and .москва TLDs).

“We hope that this limited registration period in the Russian capital domains will be especially popular among Russian trademark owners associated not only with large businesses but also medium-size and small businesses.”

Moscow gTLDs Set To Boost Muscovites Pride in Moscow, Despite ICANN’s Best Intentions

The introduction of new generic Top Level Domains has seen applications from several cities around the world, one of them being the Russian capital of Moscow, who has applied for both .MOSCOW and its Cyrillic counterpart, .МОСКВА.While cruising down the Volga river in Russia with RU-CENTER before ICANN’s Big Reveal, Dmitry Burkov, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development (FAITID), told the Goldstein Report that he believes the two gTLDs will be successful, but not based solely on the number of registrations. But he also expressed disappointment in the way ICANN ran the application process.Dmitry believes it will be a way of uniting Muscovites in their love of the country. Which is not surprising, because from my limited travels in Russia I sensed a deep patriotism, a pride in their country, that in the 20-odd western countries I have visited around the world is something I have not seen. And Dmitry sees new gTLDs, not just for Moscow but globally, to be a great way of boosting one’s self-identification with their home country, region or city.Dmitry sees great opportunities for the two Moscow gTLDs. “It is clear that there is a lot of potential for the Moscow gTLDs with SMEs (small to medium enterprises) as there are many, although how many it is unknown, that have not registered their domain.”Dmitry also cited the example of the local government in Moscow could use registrations at the third level for schools and museums – for example xxx.museum.moscow and sss.school.moscow (but the latter in Cyrillic only).Getting new gTLDs available for public registrations has been noted as something many will find difficult, especially if they do not have good marketing plans. It has been said registrars will be reluctant to add new gTLDs to the TLDs they offer, making them difficult to promote. But Dmitry says Russian registrars are keen to add both gTLDs and to promote them to customers.The success of the .РФ (.RF) TLD gives Dmitry some comfort too. There are now almost 806,000 .РФ domain names registered less than two years after it launched, with around 40 per cent of .RU and 45 per cent of .РФ domains registered by registrants in the Moscow region.”The Moscow gTLDs will be more successful because they have learnt lessons from the launch of .РФ,” Dmitry said.FAITID is already promoting the Moscow gTLDs in anticipation of their approval at conferences and events within Russia and once approved, “the gTLDs will be promoted widely outside Russia to business, individuals, domainers and the large diaspora of Muscovites around the world. We have already begun talking to large domainers about them registering domains in the Moscow gTLDs,” Dmitry said.Talking about other Russian new TLDs Dmitry said major portion of them did not came into life due to various problems including the cost of the application process and the time taken to complete the process. In the long run only 8 applications from Russia were submitted to ICANN
While the introduction of the two Moscow gTLDs fills Dmitry with optimism, the same can’t be said of his view of the way ICANN ran the application process.”ICANN has let everyone down when it comes to the development of the applicant guidebook.”That the TLD Application System broke down was of no surprise to Dmitry. There was no tender, no published requirements, no estimation of quality and the resources are unknown for the creation of system. “What was the RFP,” Dmitry asked. “It was predictable that it would fail as there was not enough preparation and user testing was inadequate.”Dmitry also noted that the TAS “was initially designed to only upload files, but then the web interface was added and so then people would want to edit their applications online, but this was not taken into account into the TAS’s design. But thankfully we successfully submitted our applications before TAS went down!”According to Dmitry another one bad example of how the new gTLD process is organised is the proposed batching mechanism. Dmitry says the objections of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Council on batching were ignored for a long time.”One of the problems brought by batching is that the earliest applications chosen for approval after going through the digital archery process get an advantage as for each applicant they get one chance.””The batching process wasn’t predictable and announcements on process were not logical,” Dmitry said.”And now that transcripts of ICANN board meetings have ended, so there will now be no knowledge of what is discussed and by whom, leading to less transparency.”

Sedari Signs On For .AFRICA And .MOSCOW gTLDs

Sedari logoA couple of weeks after signing on to assist the applicants for the .MOSCOW generic Top Level Domain, the Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development (FAITID), Sedari has now announced it is cooperating with South Africa’s UniForum SA as the organisation leading a pan-African effort supported by the African Union to apply for the dotAfrica gTLD.

“This is an important step for organisations and individuals interested in acquiring an African online identity, as dotAfrica will give added visibility and identity to operations in the region,” said UniForum SA director, Neil Dundas explaining the rationale behind the gTLD. “We are pleased to be working with Sedari who is providing professional support for the ICANN application.”

“Sedari is delighted to be working on this inspirational domain name,” said Liz Williams, Sedari’s CEO. “This expansion of names is all about opportunity but also about empowerment: here is an opportunity to engage the continent of Africa and to help empower its people to make the web their own.”

The .MOSCOW agreement was the first city gTLD that Sedari is involved in and is one of a number of Internationalised Domain Name applicants they are advising. The Moscow application is for both .MOSCOW and .MOCKBA (in Cyrillic).

“Implementation of any TLD is a complicated project with many issues to resolve” says Dmitry Burkov, FAITID Board Member, “That’s why we’ve chosen Sedari as our strategic international partner for .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА. Sedari management has the experience and industry knowledge on ICANN that makes us confident the company is familiar with all the procedures of the corporation, in particular related to new TLDs. Together with Sedari we’ll make the project for Moscow top-level domains successful giving Russian users more choice in the domain name space.”

Sedari Signs With dot Moscow Bidders

Sedari logo[news release] Sedari has been engaged by the Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development (FAITID), a not-for-profit Russian foundation which is preparing applications for the .MOSCOW and .MOCKBA (in Cyrillic) top-level domain names. The implementation of the new top-level domains will make possible websites with addresses such as WWW.COMPANY.MOSCOW and for museums МУЗЕИ.МОСКВА.

“Russia, though cautious in their approach to IDNs in the new TLD program, trusts Sedari with one of their critical national assets – its capital city” said Sedari’s CEO Dr Liz Williams. “This is the first of Sedari’s city domain names to be signed and one of a number of Internationalised Domain Name applicants we are advising. FAITID is a great organization full of enthusiastic and experienced professionals who will offer Muscovites and others exciting opportunities for second-level names in Russia,” Williams continues.

The .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА project is backed by Moscow’s local government and won an impressive showing of support from over 17,000 Internet users in on-line and off-line polls.

“Implementation of any TLD is a complicated project with many issues to resolve” says Dmitry Burkov, FAITID Board Member, “That’s why we’ve chosen Sedari as our strategic international partner for .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА. Sedari management has the experience and industry knowledge on ICANN that makes us confident the company is familiar with all the procedures of the corporation, in particular related to new TLDs. Together with Sedari we’ll make the project for Moscow top-level domains successful giving Russian users more choice in the domain name space.”

FAITID is the Foundation For Assistance For Internet Technologies And Infrastructure Development, a Moscow-based not-for-profit multistakeholder organization. Introduction of the domains for the Russian capital is the initial and key FAITID project. FAITID’s structure involves all interested parties in the process of the TLDs implementation such as local government, the private sector, and Internet community representatives.

Sedari is a consulting and technology company focusing on TLD Business Management. Sedari guides new TLD applicants through the entire continuum of ICANN’s application process and, most importantly, provides robust fully outsourced TLD Business Management to help string owners run their top level domains over the long term.

Moscow Joins Growing List of gTLD Applicants

The Russian capital of Moscow has joined the growing list of likely applicants for a new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) when ICANN begins taking applications, most likely sometime in 2011.The idea, initiated by the successful Russian registrar RU-CENTER, has gained popular support among Russians with the popular Russian newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets conducting an online survey to which more than 7,900 people or 53.3 per cent of respondents saying they supported the idea of a .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА gTLD, the remainder ( about 6,900) being opposed.”In the autumn 2010 there will be some public consultations regarding the idea of .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА implementation. Such discussions will be organised during the main IT Russian events. We hope the community will actively participate in this project and help to develop it,” said Andrey Vorobiev, the head of external relations and communications at RU-CENTER.According to the comments of those supporting the gTLD’s introduction, Moscow is one of the biggest cities in the world and it is quite reasonable to create a TLD for the Russian capital. Also users who voted for .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА are sure that the TLDs will help to identify Moscow on the internet.Most of those who voted against the idea of the TLD’s implementation consider that Moscow has a unique exclusive status among other Russian cities and it is wrong to give other privileges to the capital by the creation of its own part in DNS. There is also a fear that .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА are able to damage the global principals of the internet. Finally, there is an opinion that there are enough TLDs and introduction of more will confuse users.However Vorobiev believes the introduction of the two gTLDs could kick start other Russian cities into applying for their own city gTLDs.”.MOSCOW and .МОСКВА introduction might be a good start for the implementation of TLDs intended for other Russian cities,” said Vorobiev. “And in this case Moscow has no exclusive status. It’s just the first Russian city among others that will apply for its own TLDs. And Moscow is the first because it is well-known abroad, it is one of the biggest cities in the world and is popular with travellers. Finally Moscow is Russian leader in internet-technologies’ development.””Designation for the TLDs intended for Russian capital is quite deliberate. During the poll some people wondered why not to use the string .MSK as a top-level domain for Moscow. Though abbreviation MSK is quite widespread in Russia, it is not well-known abroad. That’s why .MOSCOW is the best choice. Of course this designation is longer than .MSK, but in the long run it’s quite simple in spelling and pronouncement, so there will be no problems with usage of it”.More information on the .MOSCOW and .МОСКВА initiative is available from domainmoscow.org.