If you manage a ccTLD, we would like to invite you to participate in the next phase
of the project, which seeks to better understand the relationship between governments
and ccTLDs. Your participation consists of answering a questionnaire, developed in
cooperation with the ITU. The questionnaire can be found
here in English, French and Spanish.
Please return the questionnaire via email or to the postal address or fax number (Att: Michael Geist) found
here.
This project reviews the relationship between country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) and governments in 45 countries. Included are 1) tables which highlight the main relationships, and 2) country-specific information. The preliminary findings include:
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Ten ccTLDsare government agencies or departments. In these cases the relationship is typically formalized between government and agency.
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Nine ccTLDs are private, for-profit enterprises. Of these two (United States, Japan)
have a established a contractual relationship with the government, three have established an informal relationship, and four have no relationship
with the government.
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20 ccTLDsare non-profit organizations. Four have formal, contractual relationships with their governments along with an ICANN agreement that governs their relationship. Five do not have a government relationship.
Ten ccTLDs have informal relations with their government, of these, at least 3 are awaiting formalization of their relationship in the near future (Russia,
South Africa,
Italy).
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One ccTLDis managed by an individual. It is battling government attempts to take over the ccTLD management.
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Five ccTLDs are academic institutions; of these two have no relationship with their government. Two ccTLDs (Guatemala,
Colombia) have battled takeover attempts by their government.
The following tables provide an overview of the ccTLD-government relationships:
Table 1: countries where the ccTLD is part of the government
Table 2: countries where the ccTLD is private sector
Table 3: countries where the ccTLD is a non-profit corporation
Table 4: countries where the ccTLD is academic
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Methodology
The government-ccTLD relationships have been categorized in the following manner:
Formal:
- Where ccTLD is part of government, or
- Where there is an official agreement or contract between the ccTLD and government.
Informal:
- Where ccTLD has a working relationship with government, or
- Where the ccTLD is sanctioned by government, without an official agreement, but with some contact.
None:
- Where there is no relationship with the government, or
- the ccTLD operates with government sanction, but no contact.
Data for this project was obtained from ccTLD websites, ccTLD contacts and GAC representatives between June and September 2002. The following questions were posed:
- What type of relationship exists between the ccTLD and the government?
- Has legislation been enacted on ccTL
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