.nai
Encyclopedia
.nai is a proposed generic top-level domain
(gTLD) for Native, Aboriginal & Indigenous communities of the Americas. It is the successor to the 1999 .naa proposal (see footnote #1) to ICANN
(and footnote #2) for "a gTLD jurisdictionally scoped to North America and the territories, trusts and treaty dependencies of the United States and Canada, and with a policy model of registry delegation to, and registry operation by, the Indigenous Nations and Peoples of North America."
Initially a work product of the Tribal Law mailing list, the proposal was presented to the Digital Council Fires: A Native American Telecommunications Conference. The conference was held on May 13-16, 1999 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was organized by the National Indian Telecommunications Institute (NITI), a private non-profit organization that employs advanced technology to serve American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians in the areas of education, economic development, language and cultural preservation, tribal policy issues and self-determination. See the Call for Papers, originally published on the NATIVE_NEWS listserv.
A related effort, also a work product of the Tribal Law mailing list, was an ICANN VI-B(3)(b)(7) Constituency Application for an Indigenous Intellectual Property Constituency.
The geographic scope of the .nai proposal is larger than the explicit scope of the original .naa proposal, and includes the Americas
, Aotearoa
and Indigenous Australians
, though the extension was implicit in the original.
The contractual form of the .nai proposal will be "community based" rather than "sponsored", reflecting changes in ICANN's conception of gTLDs.
The string "nai" exists in ISO 639-2
and is allocated to North American Indian languages. Similarly, the string "sai" exists in ISO 639-2
and is allocated to South American Indian languages, as is the string "aus" for Australian languages.
The project website is here.
Related linguistic and cultural top-level domains and pending applications are .cat
for the Catalunya
(Catalan) language and culture, .eus
for the Euskara (Basque) language and culture, .gal for the Galego
(Galacian) language and culture, .bzh
for the Brezhoneg
(Breton) language and culture, .scot for the Scots
languages and culture, .cymri or .cymru or .wales for the Cymraeg
(Welsh) language and culture, and potentially others.
Note: The change forced upon the Welsh application from ".cym" to a to be determined alternate string is due to the reservation of iso3166-2 (alpha-three) values to the iso3166-1 (alpha-two) allocatees by ICANN at the GAC's recommendation, and intransigence of the .ky
operator.
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
(gTLD) for Native, Aboriginal & Indigenous communities of the Americas. It is the successor to the 1999 .naa proposal (see footnote #1) to ICANN
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
(and footnote #2) for "a gTLD jurisdictionally scoped to North America and the territories, trusts and treaty dependencies of the United States and Canada, and with a policy model of registry delegation to, and registry operation by, the Indigenous Nations and Peoples of North America."
Initially a work product of the Tribal Law mailing list, the proposal was presented to the Digital Council Fires: A Native American Telecommunications Conference. The conference was held on May 13-16, 1999 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was organized by the National Indian Telecommunications Institute (NITI), a private non-profit organization that employs advanced technology to serve American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians in the areas of education, economic development, language and cultural preservation, tribal policy issues and self-determination. See the Call for Papers, originally published on the NATIVE_NEWS listserv.
A related effort, also a work product of the Tribal Law mailing list, was an ICANN VI-B(3)(b)(7) Constituency Application for an Indigenous Intellectual Property Constituency.
The geographic scope of the .nai proposal is larger than the explicit scope of the original .naa proposal, and includes the Americas
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
, Aotearoa
Aotearoa
Aotearoa is the most widely known and accepted Māori name for New Zealand. It is used by both Māori and non-Māori, and is becoming increasingly widespread in the bilingual names of national organisations, such as the National Library of New Zealand / Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.-Translation:The...
and Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, though the extension was implicit in the original.
The contractual form of the .nai proposal will be "community based" rather than "sponsored", reflecting changes in ICANN's conception of gTLDs.
The string "nai" exists in ISO 639-2
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-2:1998, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code, is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. The three-letter codes given for each language in this part of the standard are referred to as...
and is allocated to North American Indian languages. Similarly, the string "sai" exists in ISO 639-2
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-2:1998, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code, is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. The three-letter codes given for each language in this part of the standard are referred to as...
and is allocated to South American Indian languages, as is the string "aus" for Australian languages.
The project website is here.
Related linguistic and cultural top-level domains and pending applications are .cat
.cat
.cat is a sponsored top-level domain intended to be used to highlight the Catalan language and culture. Its policy has been developed by ICANN and Fundació puntCAT...
for the Catalunya
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
(Catalan) language and culture, .eus
.eus
.eus is a proposed top-level domain for Basque language. In 2008 dotCYMRU, dotEUS, dotSCOT and dotBZH formed ECLID....
for the Euskara (Basque) language and culture, .gal for the Galego
Galician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
(Galacian) language and culture, .bzh
.bzh
.bzh is a proposed Internet top level domain. It is a sponsored top-level domain intended to be a top level domain for the Breton culture and languages.-History:...
for the Brezhoneg
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
(Breton) language and culture, .scot for the Scots
Modern Scots
Modern Scots describes the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster from 1700.Throughout its history, Modern Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations of speakers have adopted more and more features from...
languages and culture, .cymri or .cymru or .wales for the Cymraeg
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
(Welsh) language and culture, and potentially others.
Note: The change forced upon the Welsh application from ".cym" to a to be determined alternate string is due to the reservation of iso3166-2 (alpha-three) values to the iso3166-1 (alpha-two) allocatees by ICANN at the GAC's recommendation, and intransigence of the .ky
.ky
.ky is the Internet country code top-level domain for the Cayman Islands. Registration is limited to residents and registered companies in the Cayman Islands, and a local address and phone number is required for the registrant and administrative contact...
operator.