By Jim Welfley
December 9, 2002

The U.S. Department of Commerce has opened up .us internet domain names to include intuitive names such as cityofclevelandoh.us for local government web sites. Before now, cities could only use the bulky naming convention of ci.cityname.state.us if they wanted to end their domain name with .us. With new rules instituted this year, cities can make it easy on their residents to remember their city web site.

NeuStar, a Washington, DC-based technology firm, was awarded the contract to oversee the distribution of the .us names. In doing so they reserved over 50,000 names for cities and their mayors so that third parties can-t reserve them and use them for web sites not sanctioned by the city. Upon consultation with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, NeuStar added an additional 14,000 names to its reserved list to give cities even more options when reserving their city domain names. This list can be found at http://www.neustar.us/reserved/state

This is an important change for mayors. As cities expand their web sites to attract their citizens for an endless variety of services it will be more important than ever to ensure that the domain name resonates with the public. The new naming conventions would allow this, especially for the nearly 1,000 cities that currently use the ci.cityname.state.us naming convention for their web site domain name.

Here are a couple examples where the advantages of the new system is brought to light:

• Philadelphia has already reserved cityofphiladelphiapa.us
• Boston has already reserved cityofboston.us
• Washington, DC has already reserved cityofwashingtondc.us

It is important to note that cities are under no obligation to adopt the new names, but they will be available if they choose to do so. The deadline for reserving the new names is January 30, 2003. If a city is using another domain other than .us (such as .gov, .net, .org or .com) and does not wish to move to the .us domain, NeuStar recommends reserving the .us name nonetheless to protect it from being released to the public.

To reserve a city .us domain name, the city can choose from one of NeuStar's several pricing options:

• One-time, Lifetime registration: $395 (get your .us domain name for life; no more renewals)
• Five-year registration: $180
• Three-year registration: $168
• Permanent Reservation: $152 (reserve your .us address for use at a later date)

Related News Update: General Services Administration (GSA) is currently proposing changes to the naming standards for .gov domain names. These proposed changes will affect naming conventions of both state and local governments. GSA proposes to employ a system that includes a one-time setup fee for new registrations, which will be in the range of $250 to $1000, depending on the level of assistance that may be provided by GSA, and a recurring annual charge in the range of $100 to $500 for all .gov domains. Comments were due by July 15, 2002. No decision has been made on this matter as of yet.

For questions regarding the new .us naming convention or the .gov update, please contact Jim Welfley of the Conference staff at 202.293.7330 or e-mail at jwelfley@usmayors.org.It is important to note that cities are under no obligation to adopt the new names, but they will be available if they choose to do so. The deadline for reserving the new names is January 30, 2003.