.alsace Pre-Register Domain - .alsace Domain Information

The Article 72 of the French Constitution of 1958 recognizes the Regions as territorial authorities. The territory covered by the Alsace Region is defined by the decree 60-516 of June 2nd 1960. The Law 72-619 of July 5th 1972 declares regions as public establishments administrated by the Regional Council. The Law of March 2nd 1982 gives the Regions far greater autonomy in decision-making. Since 1986 the Regional Council is elected by universal suffrage.

Purpose of the .alsace extension

The geographic gTLD .alsace features as part of the global strategy established by the President of Alsace Regional Council. The aim of the project is to reinforce regionʹs economic attractiveness, to assert its regional identity in order to promote the region and thereby to increase the national and international visibility of its institutions, business and cultural life.

The development of Alsace as an attractive territory needs to be clearly anchored in a strong regional identity and in the perception of that identity by regional stakeholders and external partners.
This is why in 2010 Alsace Regional Council decided to create the concept of a shared brand that would be supported by all the public and private institutions in the region. Alsace is one of the first regions in France to make such a progressive move. It is being implemented as a participative, global project.
Consequently, we believe that the .alsace gTLD is a strong symbol and the most relevant tool to reflect our determination, convey the Regionʹs image and culture and help federate the regional economic actors around this symbol.

Is the world looking for Alsace? Letʹs help it to us! The .alsace gTLD will increase the global visibility of the future .alsace domain name holders on the internet. They will be able to assert themselves clearly as Alsatian, which is not possible with existing generic extensions.

The .alsace gTLD as a major driver of the popularity of the Alsace Region

First of all, owning a site with the .alsace extension is a way of promoting Alsace. Alsace is border region located in the centre of Europe, on Franceʹs eastern border and on the west bank of the Upper Rhine adjacent to Germany and Switzerland, with the Vosges mountains forming a natural border on the Western side. Because of its historical and geographical background, Alsace is a clearly identified region in Europe. The political, economic and cultural capital as well as the largest city in Alsace is Strasbourg, and the fact that the latter is the seat of numerous international organisations and bodies make Alsace one of the politically most important regions in the European Union.

Presentation of Alsace:
Alsace is a cultural, historic and administrative region of France. Neighbouring Germany and Switzerland, it is situated in the upper Rhine valley, at the heart of the European megalopolis which stretches from London to Milan, in whose development process it shares.
It is a densely populated region. With 1.8 million inhabitants, it presents a demographic density (219 inhabitants per km²) more than twice the average density in France. Its positive demographic makes it a young region compared with the other regions of France.
Alsace is also the offspring of its history. Its French culture is deeply rooted in the cultural history of the former German and Austrian empires. And though the French language is commonly used, the Alsatian dialect still finds a place in every day conversations.
As it therefore enjoys a dual culture and is, to all intents and purposes, bilingual, it is in essence a region open to the rest of the world.
This international outlook also finds its counterpart in the economic arena. The fourth largest export region in France, companies funded by foreign capital employ nearly 40% of the salaried population of Alsace.
The excellence of its higher education establishments, particularly Strasbourg University, which has won two Nobel prizes over that last 25 years, makes Alsace a major region in terms of research in Europe and the rest of the world. It welcomes more than 8,000 foreign students, nearly 2,200 of them doctoral or post-doctoral.
Alsaceʹs place in Europe and the rest of the world also bears the stamp of Strasbourgʹs singular vocation as ʺCapital of Europeʺ.
The seat of three major institutions of European democracy - the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights - Alsace is deeply attached to the Rhineland humanism which nurtured its history. More than thirty international institutions can be found here, including the International Space University, the Franco-German television broadcaster, ARTE, the EUROPOL and SCHENGEN computer centres, the Human Frontier Science Program, etc. This international involvement extends to the presence in Strasbourg of nearly 40 consular representations.
Finally, the quality of its landscapes, the vestiges of its history and its cultural life, which manifest themselves in the urban planning of its cities and the architecture of its villages, earned it the accolade of being listed in Lonely Planetʹs top ten tourist destinations in 2010.
Proud of its history and traditions, Alsace is resolutely open to the world and ready to conquer its future. The Alsace brand will embody its qualities and use .alsace to carry it forward into the immense world of the internet.

A study carried out by a firm of consultants as part of the ʺAlsaceʺ trademark project found that:
Alsace enjoys a strong identity within Europe
Its image needs to be rendered more dynamic and pro-active.
This further confirms the Regional Councilʹs motivation for applying for the .alsace geographic gTLD

The .alsace gTLD as a powerful communication tool.

This is the best way for local institutions (organisations, towns and villages, specialised entities) to identify themselves and assert their local nature.
The new gTLD represents a dual opportunity for local companies: it will allow them to use words or names that may no longer be available in the common TLDs like .fr or .com and thereby to express their identity.
Finally, as Alsace is also an important tourist region, the gTLD will be an invaluable and powerful communication tool for all tourism professionals and for regional organisations that are promoting Alsace as a tourist destination worldwide.
Finally, the need to structure the offer and win over a new clientele, as well as to conduct major projects for Alsace, is also emphasised in the diagnostic study carried out for the Alsace brand. The creation of the .alsace gTLD is a major project, which will lead to a more relevant offer able to win over a new clientele.

Steadfast support.

The .alsace gTLD project has the full support of local political leaders (mayors, members of parliament, other elected representatives), of industry and business, and more specifically our large export companies (Alsace is Franceʹs largest exporter per capita), of the cultural community and obviously of Alsatians in general. . The regional tourism promotion organisations and companies living on and with tourism are also strongly in favour of the .alsace project.

Role and mission of the gTLD

Beyond the commercial development of local businesses, the reputation of the region and its attractiveness as a tourist destination, the gTLD is also intended to carry the deployment of new technologies into remote rural areas.
A few years ago, the Regional Council together with other local institutional partners decided to speed up the development and accessibility of the internet throughout Alsace, including in the villages furthest away from the major urban centres. This led to the creation of a joint venture whose aim was to spread internet access across the whole of the region.
The .alsace gTLD is therefore also a strategic tool in this mission.

i.
Alsace Regional Council is seeking to make the .alsace gTLD a part of a comprehensive quality and visibility-oriented approach.
The extension is open to all types of entities, natural or legal persons with a head office or an establishment, or an address in Alsace.
Each domain name registered will be approved by the registry services in order to ensure the sustainability, the image and the service level of the extension.
The information concerning the owner and the administrative contact will be checked. In this way the registry services will be accessible.

There is no particular specialisation: the extension is open to any sort of activity and any word, as long as the words used in the domain name do not undermine public order, morality or the rights guaranteed by the Constitution or French law.

The applicant will not be able to register any domain name using an expression that infringes either intellectual property rights or personality rights. Any terms that could be detrimental to national, regional or local authorities, institutions or public services will be forbidden. A list will be drawn up of words for which domains may not be purchased.

In order to expand the reputation and to encourage the success of the Alsace trademark, the .alsace extension will follow the guidelines below:

Focus on developing a sustainable level of excellence
Build a successful shared trademark
Create an outstanding degree of mobilisation

ii.
Creating the .alsace gTLD will help to promote the image of Alsace on global information networks and thereby bring clear added value to the internet naming system compared to .fr, the French national ccTLD.

Many Alsatian cities, towns, companies or institutions are not able to register their own names with extensions like .fr, .com or .eu because they are already taken. This means there is a misunderstanding on a lot of these names. The following example clearly demonstrates this problem: although Strasbourg is the Capital of the Region and of Europe, the domain name strasbourg.com is owned by a private company.
Domain names using the .alsace extension will give registrants based in Alsace better visibility.

Compared to the rest of France, Alsace is a region that has purchased a very large number of domain names.
Statistics show that the .alsace gTLD will foster competition and open up the internet to more operators.

Our study has shown that today there are over 5,000 domain names including the word ʺalsaceʺ with all the different extensions. Add to this 224 domains containing the word ʺalsacienʺ (Alsatian). It is also worth noting that Alsace is one of the regions with the highest number of domains registered per 1,000 inhabitants.

The Alsace Region also wishes to differentiate itself in the field of youth and education. It is the only region in France to introduce a digital workspace in its secondary schools.

Alsace is an innovative region, with a concern to provide training for young people. It is also the first Region to implement such a far-reaching and ambitious digital policy in France. The .alsace extension will enable the Region to accelerate its educational development programmes and offer new solutions to Alsatian children. The wide-ranging coverage of the extension (domain names, websites, e-mail, social and school networks....) will allow the Strasbourg education authority to implement new local and global projects.

Over the last 10 years Alsace Regional Council has invested an average of 2 million Euros a year to provide the 75 senior high schools it runs with about 2, 000 new computers every year. The Region manages 1,600 workstations in its senior high schools.

It has also provided broadband internet access, with 70% of schools now benefitting from fibre optics at an annual running cost of 500,000 Euros (about US$660,000). This policy will enable a further 220 secondary schools in the Region to be equipped with broadband by 2014.

The digital workspace has been rolled out to all schools. Alsace Regional Council and Strasbourg education authority worked hard to complete the installation of the digital workspace in all its schools by September 2010, for a total cost of €800,000 ($1.057m).
The digital workspace currently covers 65,000 pupils and teachers, with 1 million connections per month.

In France, the first generation of digital workplaces mostly concerns school planning and management. The second generation will focus on the teaching aspect, with the provision of online lessons designed by the teachers themselves and the use of digital libraries and online resources. This new generation system will begin to be rolled out from 2014 onwards, with the support of the Regional Council, the two Departemental Councils and the Education authority.
The .alsace extension will be a big step forward, enabling the general public and parents to see the progress made and providing greater transparency: each secondary school will be able to have its own domain name to allow it to communicate and dialogue.

iii.
Thanks to the .alsace gTLD the Alsatian internal market should become much more visible on the internet-based virtual market. It will also provide a strong, clear link with the Alsatian community and the local market.

Companies, institutions and natural persons will be able to register with a specific domain which will highlight this link. The .alsace gTLD as such will not only be a critical element in Alsatian e-commerce, but it will also contribute largely to the achievement of the objectives set for the Alsace trademark.

By using an .alsace domain name, each registrant will be conveying a strong message and identity, as well as certain values and a desire to promote Alsace in the world.

The study revealed that Alsace is closely linked to a certain specific local values. The values Alsace intends to use to develop the trademark are:
Excellence and the pioneering spirit
Humanism and the notion of world citizenship
Intensity and pleasure
Balance and the creation of links

The extension will therefore give registrants access to a positive and forms part of a strategy of co-branding.

The .alsace gTLD will give Alsace better access to the benefits of the information society and help combat the risk of a digital divide with rural areas being left behind. This point is a priority for Alsace Regional Council.

As its remit includes regional development and planning, Alsace Regional Council has decided to install a very high speed broadband network under a Public Service Delegation contract.
This led to the Regional Council deciding to create Alsace Connexia in a joint venture with these companies:
SFR Collectivités, a telecommunications operator, subsidiary of the SFR group (Franceʹs second largest landline/mobile telephone and internet provider).
Numéricable, a leading cable provider.
Alsace Connexiaʹs mission is to design, create, operate and sell the regional high-speed broadband network and supply the related services, through a 15-year concession.

Alsace Connexia is an operator of internet operators and works with many regional, national and international operators.
The Alsace Region has thus decided to set and operate a broadband network interconnecting 30 Alsatian towns, with a view to encouraging the appearance and/or development of electronic communications services in these towns and the surrounding areas.

The Alsace Regionʹs initiative is intended to:
- promote diversity in the broadband offer available in the region
- progressively reduce the areas without broadband coverage
- achieve a levelling of rates at regional level by offering a single basic charge for all Alsatian users, whether companies or residential.
- guarantee the long-term management of underground space and coherent infrastructure development.

iv.
The adoption of a general policy concerning the speculative and abusive registration of domain names should guarantee the owners of earlier rights recognised or established by national and/or Community and public bodies that they will benefit from a ʺsunrise periodʺ during which the registration of their domain names will be exclusively reserved for them.

The Alsace Region will implement several sunrise periods for various audiences with the following order of priority:

Sunrise 1 will last several months and will apply to public players such as cities, towns, villages, consular chambers, local institutions, universities, high schools... This phase will allow them to register their name or business name. All the eligibility criteria must be met.

Sunrise 2 will last several months and will apply to the Alsatian non-profit associations so that they can register their name or abbreviation. All the eligibility criteria must be met

Sunrise 3 will apply to Alsatian companies, so that they can register their name and/or trademark, provided that they are able to prove they own the said trade name or trademark. All the eligibility criteria must be met. Sunrise periods 2 and 3 will run concurrently.

A landrush phase open to all will follow, once the sunrise periods have finished. During this period, the fee will be higher than that applied during the period of general availability.
This period will last several months and will allow the registration of generic domains without any restrictions except those imposed by law.
If several compliant aplications are made for the same domain name, the domain name will be put up for auction.
The registrar will do everything possible to prevent abuse; therefore all applications, including during the sunrise and landrush periods, will be checked in order to avoid the registration of abusive domain names, cybersquatting, spamdexing, phishing and other such abuses. In the cruising period, the registry will carry out checks to ensure the eligibility criteria are met.
The protection of local companiesʹ trademarks and the names of local institutions will be one of the registrarʹs top priorities.

v.
Confidentiality measures
All documents and information held by or provided to Alsace Regional Council (except those accessible on the ʺWhoisʺ database) are automatically considered as confidential and will not be disclosed to any third parties.

However, this provision does not concern the communication of documents ordered by a French court or as part of a request formulated by an approved national authority (the DGCCRF (the body responsible for competition, consumer affairs and the prevention of fraud), the CNIL (the national commission for data protection and civil liberties), the tax and customs authorities, etc.).
The ʺWhoisʺ database
Alsace Regional Council is in charge of the ʺWhoisʺ database, which contains all the data collected necessary to the identification of legal and natural persons who own domain names and the to the registration of domain names.
The Alsace Region manages all the technical aspects of this reference database including access to its services.
Access to personal data.
The duly identified owner of a domain name has a right of access to the concerning him via the registrar or the registration office depending on the case. He also has a right of rectification through his registration office, which is entitled to ask for an administrative amendment at any time.

Restrictions
All information concerning domain name holders, the technical and administrative contacts, whether natural or legal persons, will be available online to anybody.

Nevertheless, as requested by the CNIL (national commission for data protection and civil liberties), when the registration is made by a natural person, the holder may opt for ʺrestricted publicationʺ.

When this option is chosen, no personal information (name, address, phone and fax number, e-mail address) is posted online in the ʺWhoisʺ database. Only technical information such as the technical contact, registration office and DNS servers will be available.

vi.
Alsace Regional Council will implement a communication plan to inform the public of the creation and commercialisation of the .alsace extension.
A website will be created to promote the extension and inform applicants about terms and conditions, registration procedures, the sunrise and landrush periods, etc..
Public bodies (cities, villages, consular chambers, secondary schools, universities, the Departemental Councils, etc.) will receive a letter specifically inviting them to contact the Regional Council or their registration office in order to benefit from the sunrise period.

Information will be available on partnersʹ websites (Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Chambers of Trades, all other bodies connected with the Regional Council); e-mails will be sent to Alsatian companies which may wish to register names and trademarks during the sunrise period.

Registration offices, especially the local ones, will be invited to use the extension logo and goodies on their websites.

Press releases will be sent to media editors, and the local media will be invited to a press conference to prepare the launch.

The communication campaign will take place on and off line. Depending on the targets and the periods, different communication channels will be used. The communication plan also includes the general public. Inserts in the press, a poster campaign in public places, radio adverts… all the most relevant media will be used.

i.
The sunrise and landrush periods will allow the anticipation of issues linked to trademarks and names of institutions, but also the selection among several applicants for the same domain name.

From the start of the Go-live period:
The applications to the Regional Council made by registrars will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis, in other words in chronological order of arrival.
An online form will be available to report any abuse and initiate dispute resolution procedures (URS, UDRP)

ii.
Entities assigned to Sunrise 1 and 2 will be able to register before the wider audience.
Choosing an .alsace domain name is not something to be done lightly and will be the result of careful reflection about the nature of the holderʹs business. Registrants will have the benefit of the image and identity of the .alsace extension carried by the shared Alsace trademark. They will be able to implement a co-branding policy beneficial to their image and that of the Region.

Besides this notion of co-branding, applicants will have access to domain names that are already registered under .fr or .com. This availability will provide considerable opportunities for Alsatian internet publishers.

iii.
Alsace Region Council has decided to apply a policy of relatively high pricing in order to ensure the self-sufficient operation of the extension.
The amount of the charge will not rise, but will probably be reduced.
The price will not be modified in the next three years unless objectives on volume are not met, in which case the Region will decide to lower the charge to make the extension more attractive. The reduction in the rate will be passed on to all domain holders as from their renewal date after such a decision.

The possible impact of reducing the price of the extension will be studied to determine the size of the reduction and the objective in terms of growth in the number of registrations.

Alsace Regional Council will follow the Resolution taken by the ICANN Board in Montevideo then in Accra which reserves all domain names for country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list.

Domains are reserved for the governments of the countries concerned.

The purchase process for country domains names by governments is the same as the Afilias process for .info:

1. The government or public authority concerned must inform the GAC that they have requested a registration and name the beneficiary.

2. The GAC will authenticate the request and then forward it to the ICANN and the Alsace Region.

3. The Alsace Region makes sure the domain is available and then creates an authorisation code that will be directly given to the beneficiary of the domain in the country concerned.

4. The beneficiary will register the name using his authorisation code through the accredited registrar.

Governments will be able to register as soon as the Sunrise 1 period starts.
The domains will be blocked for a 5-year period (as from the start date of Sunrise 1).
After that domains will become available for registration on a first-come, first-serve basis.

List of reserved domains:

aferikaborwa
afghanistan
afrikaborwa
afrikadzonga
afurikatshipembe
albania
algeria
americansamoa
andorra
angola
anguilla
antarctica
antarctique
antiguaandbarbuda
argentina
armenia
aruba
australia
austria
azerbaijan
bahamas
bahrain
bangladesh
barbados
belarus
belgie
belgien
belgique
belgium
belize
benin
bermuda
bhutan
bolivia
bosnaihercegovina
bosniaandherzegovina
botswana
bouvetisland
brasil
brazil
britishindianoceanterritory
britishvirginislands
bruneidarussalam
bulgaria
burkinafaso
burundi
caboverde
cambodia
cameroon
cameroun
canada
capeverde
caymanislands
centralafricanrepublic
ceskarepublika
chad
chile
china
christmasisland
cocos-keeling-islands
colombia
comores
comoros
congo
cookislands
costarica
cotedivoire
croatia
cuba
cyprus
czechrepublic
danmark
democraticpeoplesrepublicofkorea
democraticrepublicofthecongo
denmark
deutschland
djibouti
dominica
dominicanrepublic
easttimor
ecuador
eesta
egypt
eire
elsalvador
equatorialguinea
eritrea
ertra
espana
estonia
ethiopia
euroopanunioni
europaeischeunion
europaeiskeunion
europaischeunion
europeanunion
europeiskaunionen
europeseunie
falklandislands-malvinas
faroeislands
federatedstatesofmicronesia
fiji
finland
formeryugoslavrepublicofmacedonia
foroyar
france
frenchguiana
frenchpolynesia
frenchsouthernterritories
gabon
gambia
georgia
germany
ghana
gibraltar
greece
greenland
grenada
guadeloupe
guam
guatemala
guine-bissau
guinea
guinea-bissau
guineaecuatorial
guinee
guineeequatoriale
guyana
guyanefrancaise
haiti
heardislandandmcdonaldislands
holysee-vaticancitystate
honduras
hongkong
hrvatska
hungary
iceland
india
indonesia
iningizimuafrika
iran
iraq
ireland
isewulaafrika
islamicrepublicofiran
island
israel
italia
italy
jamaica
japan
jordan
jugoslavija
kalaallitnunaat
kazakstan
kenya
kiribati
kuwait
kyrgyzstan
laopeoplesdemocraticrepublic
laos
latvia
latvija
lebanon
lesotho
letzebuerg
liberia
libya
libyanarabjamahiriya
liechtenstein
lietuva
lithuania
luxembourg
macau
macedonia
madagascar
magyarorszag
malawi
malaysia
maldives
mali
malta
marshallislands
martinique
mauritania
mauritius
mayotte
mexico
micronesia
mocambique
moldova
monaco
mongolia
montserrat
morocco
mozambique
myanmar
namibia
nauru
nederland
nederlandseantillen
nepal
netherlands
netherlandsantilles
newcaledonia
newzealand
nicaragua
niger
nigeria
nippon
niue
noreg
norfolkisland
norge
northernmarianaislands
norway
nouvelle-caledonie
occupiedpalestinianterritory
oesterreich
oman
pakistan
palau
palestinianterritories
panama
papuanewguinea
paraguay
peru
philippines
pilipinas
pitcairn
poland
polska
polynesiefrancaise
portugal
puertorico
qatar
republicofkorea
republicofmoldova
republiquecentrafricaine
republiquedemocratiqueducongo
reunion
romania
russia
russianfederation
rwanda
saint-pierre-et-miquelon
sainthelena
saintkittsandnevis
saintlucia
saintpierreandmiquelon
saintvincentandthegrenadines
samoa
sanmarino
santasede-statodellacittadelvaticano
saotomeandprincipe
saotomeeprincipe
saudiarabia
Schweitz
senegal
seychelles
shqiperia
sierraleone
singapore
slovakia
slovenia
slovenija
slovensko
solomonislands
somalia
southafrica
southgeorgiaandthesouthsandwichislands
spain
srilanka
sudan
suidafrika
suisse
suomi
suriname
svalbardandjanmayen
sverige
svizra
svizzera
swaziland
sweden
switzerland
syria
syrianarabrepublic
taiwan
taiwanprovinceofchina
tajikistan
tanzania
tchad
terresaustralesfrancaises
thailand
togo
tokelau
tonga
trinidadandtobago
tunisia
turkey
turkiye
turkmenistan
turksandcaicosislands
tuvalu
uganda
ukraine
umzintsiafrika
uniaoeuropeia
unioneeuropea
unioneuropea
unioneuropeenne
unitedarabemirates
unitedkingdom
unitedrepublicoftanzania
unitedstates
unitedstatesminoroutlyingislands
uruguay
usvirginislands
uzbekistan
vanuatu
venezuela
vietnam
wallisandfutuna
wallisetfutuna
westernsahara
yemen
yugoslavia
zambia
zimbabwe