Tallin, Estonia (pic Alasdair Reid)
Scotland acquired its internet identity in 2014 when DotScot Registry, a Glasgow based, not-for-profit company, applied to the the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for the .scot (dotScot) domain.
DotScot ambassador to Canada Hannah Mondiwa on Cumbrae
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 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 both the UK and Scottish Governments, a wide range of prominent Scots, Scottish businesses, cultural organisations, sports, charities, and Scottish societies at home and around the world.
The domain had some big ideas associated with it. It would finally give Scotland its own internet identity and provide the perfect branding tool for our country while highlighting Scottish business, languages, culture and education online.
The domain had some big ideas associated with it. It would finally give Scotland its own internet identity and provide the perfect branding tool for our country while highlighting Scottish business, languages, culture, charities and education online.
At the same time it would function as a community domain available to thousands of individuals at home and around the world who wanted to emphasise their Scottish connection whether by birth, heritage or affinity.
Ten years on we’re happy to report some good news about .scot. It’s the only community domain in the world that has the nation’s government, parliament and national health system as users and there are now dotScot registrations in 62 countries around the globe.
The domain is well on its way to becoming a truly comprehensive internet identity for our country and its diaspora.
However challenges remain. No local authorities use .scot and despite the cross-party support that we enjoyed at the application stage only two of the political parties operating in Scotland (the Scottish Greens and ReformUK) use the domain.
After .scot became available there were several leading public bodies that adopted it including Historic Environment Scotland and NatureScot but others haven’t been so quick to follow.
Instead organisations like Creative Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, Visit Scotland, Bord naGaidhlig, Scotland(dot)org, National Galleries of Scotland, National Museums of Scotland, National Library of Scotland and others use a array of generic and sometimes awkward and inaccurate domains in their online identities. Most of them have stuck with the online identities they had ten years ago and a few even use different domains for different parts of the same organisation (see Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International).
We have contacted representatives of many of these bodies in our first ten years and explained to them about our desire to create a comprehensive online identity for Scotland. We’ve pointed to our own research which originally identified the international demand for .scot; or that conducted by the world’s biggest internet provided, IONOS, where 70% of respondents said they would trust a .scot website over any other domain; or recent research by the worldwide GeoGTLD group which suggests that using a domain like .scot improves Google rankings and search indices.
In return we usually get encouraging words followed by inaction. After the excitement of the early days, it’s all a bit of a slog where some of Scotland’s public bodies are concerned.
On the plus side, help is finally on the way. A recent updated version of the Scottish Government’s digital policy states that by adopting gov.scot public bodies ‘would help create a digitally inclusive nation and support the government’s aim ‘to use common digital components and standards.’ The report goes on to say that ‘Scottish public sector organisations are encouraged to use a gov.scot domain when delivering websites, services and communications.’ Hopefully we can all agree on that!
Toni from stacs.scot and Kraig from digitalxtra.scot (with sienna.scot)
Scottish Business Network SBN.scot
To join the worldwide community of Scots and become part of Scotland’s internet identity, please visit domains.scot and register your perfect name