[ga] Latin American Regional Domain (.LAC)

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

>From "Latin America would gain from Net initiative"
By Andres Oppenheimer
 
Excerpt:

"There is an informal proposal to create a Latin
America-wide domain named ".lac," but it has not yet
been presented to the board, ICANN's general counsel,
John Jeffrey, told me. The California-based
organization considers regional domain names every few
years, so it may be several years before it's taken
up, other sources close to ICANN say.
 
    Alejandro Pisanty, a Mexican professor who is
among the three Latin American members of ICANN's
15-member international board, told me in a telephone
interview that while many experts believe that
regional brands are generally good, there is a fierce
debate over the timing of such domain creations. 

    "There are two schools of thought," he told me.
"The first one says that first, you should have a
credible Latin American brand, and then create the
regional domain. The second one says that because you
don't have a credible Latin American brand, you should
start by launching '.lac"' 

    Asked which one he believes, Pisanty said, "I see
reasonable motives to start working on a proposal to
create the '.lac' domain." Other experts told me they
prefer the "Latam" name, which is how Latin America is
abbreviated in much of the English-speaking world. 

    My conclusion: Latin America should go for its
regional brand name, even if it has a long way to go
before it builds a solid regional bloc. Granted, just
as countries with an image problem would benefit from
the regional brand, others - like Chile - most likely
would be horrified by the idea of being lumped
together with some of their more troubled neighbors.
But Chile and its peers still could cling to their
original country domains. 

    After all, Asian countries didn't wait until 2007,
when China and 10 countries from the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations are scheduled to launch their
regional free-trade agreement. They charged ahead, or
- rather - allowed a private group to do it for them. 

    It's one more area in which Asia takes concrete
steps to be more competitive in the global economy,
while Latin America is still debating whether to get
into the game." 

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3302861

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