New country means a new country code.
When Montenegro became independent from the former Yugoslavia (aka Serbia and Montenegro) it also picked up a nifty country code, ME. As the official country code in ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency’s list for the country it’s also what was delegated to the country as a country code top level domain name — .me. .Me has been marketed as a vanity top level domain name and has generated revenue for the country.
Another country to find domain name profits is the island nation of Tuvalu, which has profited from .TV (although it says it’s not getting paid enough for “selling” the domain).
With South Sudan getting closer to splitting from the northern part of the country we’re going to see a new country code added to the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency list. That means the new country can ask IANA to delegate it as a country code top level domain name.
What will it be? Currently Sudan’s country code is SD, which will likely be held onto by the North. Will the southern part be called South Sudan? SS has a negative connotation thanks to the Nazis. So perhaps the country can get more creative.
Here are some two letter country codes that have yet to be assigned that would make nifty ccTLDs:
GO
HE
HI
ON
The Southern Sudan government-elect would really need to set its priorities straight and provide food and water to its people, instead of Internet.
@ Acro – yes, I’m not suggesting this is at the forefront of their list.
They should not be able to pick something that is not related to their country name like .GO for example.
I am sick of many of these ccTLD being bastardized to mean something else other than the intended usage. For a reasonable size country, having its own ccTLD can be very important.
Brad
As long as it is not .SS
I think .ss will be more relevant to South Sudan;I don’t see why the new country should go for a “nifty” domain like .go which has no relevance at all to the people of Southern Sudan.
Besides,while .ss has very negative connotations to someone in Europe,for the Southern Sudanese people who are just coming out from brutal civil war to claim a new country, .ss simply means a new identity-South Sudan.I think the writer,probably of European cultural/historical heritage, is looking at the issue through the lenses of European experiences and not that of the South Sudanese,to whom this resource is most important.
Well…
.SS now seems official.
(…)