LL-L 'Politics' 2006.09.09 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 09 September 2006 * Volume 01
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Politics

Lowlanders,

As you can tell from the article I am appending, an effort is underway to permit
Friesland its own internet country code (.frl).  I am deliberately not writing
"Fryslân" (the official name of the Netherlands province) because apparently
Eastern Friesland and Northern Friesland, bot in Germany, are included in the effort.

Personally I would be surprised if this effort was successful.  While there are
internet country codes for regions or countries that are not entirely
independent, none of them except Antarctica seems to be under the power of more
than one country.*  In other words, success of this particular effort would spell
a precedent that would be seen by many as the opening of a Pandora's box.

I thought the codes have to have only two letters.  So why not .fl, which is
available?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

* E.g.,
Ã
land Islands/Ahvenanmaa: .ax (Finland .fi)
Antarctica: .aq (various)
Christmas Island: .cx (Australia .au)
Faroe Islands: .fo (Denmark .dk)
Guernsey: .gg (UK .uk, .gb)
Hong Kong: .hk (China .cn)
Isle of Man: .im  (UK .uk, .gb)
Jersey: .je (UK .uk, .gb)
Kalallit Nunaat/Greenland: .gl (Denmark .dk)
Macau: .mo (China .cn)
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands .sj (Norway .no)
Taiwan .tw (China .cn)
US Minor Outlying Islands: .um (USA .us)

***

.FRL: calls for Friesland to have its own internet country code

Ljouwert, Monday, 04 September 2006 by Onno P. Falkena

"If a small island group in Finland with a Swedish speaking minority of 26.000
people is able to get its own internet top level domain name, we should at least
give it a try to get it as well,'' says political leader Johannes Kramer of the
Frysk Nasjonale Party (FNP). He has asked the Provincial Government of Friesland
to follow the example of the autonomous government of Aland and apply for a
Frisian internet top level domain.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently
announced that .AX has become operational as the country code top level domain
name for the Aland islands. "In the case of Aland the regional autonomous
government applied for the top level domain and received it within a year'',
Kramer says. "In my view this means a new change for the Frisian ambition to get
our own .FRL top level domain.''

Kramer points out that Friesland has more than 600,000 inhabitants and, like
Aland, Friesland also has its own language, identity and regional government.
This specific identity and entity merits its own place on the internet, Kramer
believes. In the view of Kramer the .FRL toplevel domain code should not only be
available for people, companies and institutions in Fryslân in the Netherlands,
but also for Northfriesland (Nordfraschlönj) and Ostfriesland in Germany. "Having
your own top level domain on the internet also constitutes a unique change to
distinguish yourself in today's digital world.''

The Frysk Nasjonale Party has asked the provincial government of Friesland to
follow the example of Aland and apply for a Frisian top level internet domain
code. The Frisian government has not yet replied. It will probably do so when it
publishes its policy on 'Frisian and ICT', which will appear at soon.

Although Friesland has far more inhabitants than Aland, a Frisian application
lacks a few of the strong arguments Aland had. First of all the Aland application
for a seperate internet domain was endorsed by the Finnish government. In the
Netherlands it remains to be seen if the government in The Hague would support a
Frisian application for a seperate domain name. In Aland many websites already
function with the extension .ALAND.FI, which is now being replaced by the
official coded .AX. Currently there is no collective Frisian subdomain. (Eurolang
2006)

Websites:
http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-23aug06.htm
(The ICANN press release on the .AX country code top level domain)

http://www.fnp.nl/?nijs/a/718/
(FNP press release)

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