Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch Announces Support for dotNYC Plan

dotNYC LLC Preparing To Apply for .NYC Web Address

NEW YORK, June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch announced Thursday he is supporting dotNYC LLC's bid to operate the .NYC web address.

Website names ending in .NYC -- such as www.hotels.nyc, www.yourbusinessname.nyc, www.yourname.nyc, www.touristsite.nyc, www.subways.nyc and millions more -- will provide New York City residents, businesses, organizations, government agencies and tourist sites with great new web and email addresses.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn disclosed during her State of the City speech in February that the City Council and Office of the Mayor will pursue the .NYC web address. The city last month completed a Request for Information about .NYC and is expected to endorse a company to run the .NYC address this summer.

".NYC is the best real estate opportunity in New York City since the Dutch bought Manhattan. I can't wait to sign up for edkoch.nyc, and while I'm at it I'll probably sign up for mayorkoch.nyc as well," Mayor Koch said. "I've done my homework and the experienced team behind dotNYC LLC is the right team to run .NYC."

Click http://www.dotnyc.net/ed-koch to see video of Mayor Koch (1978 through 1990) explaining his support.

"Ed Koch is a New York icon and we're thrilled to be partnering with someone who cares so much about this city," said Antony Van Couvering of Manhattan, CEO of dotNYC LLC. "With his support we have total confidence that NYC will happen, and happen the right way for the benefit of all New Yorkers."

Under the dotNYC LLC plan, the anticipated cost of a typical web and email address ending in .NYC is $10 - and trademark holders will be protected from the cyber-squatters who took advantage of .com addresses.

The dotNYC LLC team (www.dotnyc.net) is closely affiliated with dotECO LLC (www.supportdoteco.com), which has the support of Vice President Al Gore to operate the .eco web address on behalf of people, businesses and organizations supporting efforts to combat climate change and protect the environment.

There are currently 20 web addresses in use such as .com .org .net .edu .gov, in addition to addresses based on country names such as .us .fr .uk. Web addresses are officially referred to as Top Level Domains.

For the first time, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) will early next year begin approving applications for Top Level Domains named after cities, companies, brands and entrepreneurial ventures. Cities worldwide are already preparing to create their own web addresses, such as .london .paris .boston .barcelona .mumbai. ICANN will allow city-based Top Level Domains that local governments approve.

The dotNYC LLC team has been working with the Office of the Mayor and the City Council as well as a potential Community Partner, which will receive approximately one-third of the profits from .NYC for use on the city's behalf. In addition, the dotNYC plan will provide all city agencies and departments with free .NYC web addresses.

dotNYC is based in New York City and is expected to generate hundreds of local jobs.

The leaders of dotNYC LLC are Internet veterans whose experience creating and operating new Top Level Domains is unmatched in the online community. They are among the elite group of web pioneers who have the operational experience, long-term funding and technical understanding that ICANN requires for operating a new Top Level Domain.

ABOUT dotNYC:

The New York City-based business includes founding members of ICANN who continue to serve the organization in leadership capacities, launched five successful Top Level Domains, advised dozens of others and created the model for public-private partnerships for geographic-based web addresses. Leaders of the dotNYC team helped found ICANN and bring vast experience creating and running Top Level Domains:

• Antony Van Couvering brings deep experience creating Top Level Domains and was a major force in the creation of ICANN. He has started and run several businesses specializing in creating and operating domains

• William Semich is a founder of ICANN who helped design the initial processes and policies for creating new Top Level Domains. He remains active in .asia, which he helped found. He is a former senior staff member to the mayor of Boston and served as that city's director of finance and deputy director of economic development.