Celebrating Ten Years of Highlighting Scotland and the Scots Diaspora Worldwide

Scotland acquired its own internet identity ten years ago after a group of motivated Scots formed a not-for-profit company and applied to the the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the .scot domain.

The process was not an easy one for a small NFP. We had to establish a relationship with a AAA rated bank and there were significant challenges posed by the 450 page application form and the $500,000 in application fees and bond with legal fees on top of that. Ultimately, We had to finance an international start-up business without access to investment finance.

In addition to all this, the application required letters of support from the Scottish Government, a wide range of prominent Scots, Scottish businesses, cultural organisations, sports, charities, and Scottish societies at home and around the world. It also had to include a letter of non-objection from the UK Government.

In retrospect, it is a minor miracle that the application succeeded and it wouldn’t have if not for the expertise of our MD Gavin McCutcheon. But .scot is now used by the Scottish Government (gov.scot), Parliament (parliament.scot), the NHS in Scotland, the Scottish film industry (screen.scot), Scottish Natural Heritage (nature.scot), Young Scots (young.scot), Scottish Business Network (sbn.scot), the Scottish Council for Voluntaty Organisations (SCVO.scot), and many more large organisations from all sectors.

In addition there are thousands of individuals and organisations in Scotland and around the  world that want to show their Scottish connection, take advantage of Scotland’s international reputation or simply like having .scot as part of their internet identity.

Ataxia.scot

They are from all sectors and we are grateful to those who have been kind enough to share their .scot stories with us on our website (dot.scot). The range of .scot users includes Neil Milton (photography), SAHA (arts and humanities), Scottish Handball Association (sports), Spey (integrated comms), Eriskay Pony (breed conservation), Ataxia (charity), CastleHunter (history), Lost Glasgow (archive), Oor Vyce and Palavra Escocesa (Scots Language), Learn Gaelic, Sithu Aye (music), Genuine (fashion), Under the Tartan Sky (podcasts), and many more.

SithuAye.scot

In short, .scot is now firmly established in Scotland but, as mentioned, part of the original remit was a domain ‘for the worldwide family of Scots’ and we are still working to raise the domain’s profile across the globe, especially among born Scots, heritage Scots, those who feel an affinity with Scotland and Scottish businesses, cultural organisations, and societies based outside of Scotland. We have global ambassadors in various places and .scot users in 62 countries (having started at one).