Was Your Group Late To The Domain Name Party?

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onlineIn case you missed it, .com, .org, and .net extensions aren’t the only options for top level domain extensions and the current transition period isn’t unlike the switch from three primary network television providers to the hundreds that came into existence once cable entered the scene. If your organization was slow on the domain name registration draw (BSO.org belongs to Boston, not Baltimore, Bakersfield, Broward, Baton Rouge, Bangor, Bloomington, or Billings) or haven’t come up with a clever way to recapture part of the acronym (like BSOmusic, which belongs to Baltimore) then you might be able to make up for it by getting in on the slew of new top level domains coming onto the market.

Some of these new extensions have restrictions such as .sh applicants “shall have obtained a professional or academic qualification, or hold valid membership of an Institute or Trade Association” but most are open registration. You can find a complete list (so far) at iana.org.

What’s interesting is there are extensions for .museum and .dance but nothing yet for .symphony, .orchestra, or .music; it makes one wonder if there is a way to keep tabs on when new extensions will be released (hint).

If you’re having trouble thinking outside the .org box, stop by online tools like Domai.nr and namemesh or gain some additional insight into their untapped power via this great article from domain registrar hover.com. In the meantime, I’m curious to know if anyone out there taken advantage of the new top level domains.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

View all posts by Drew McManus | Website

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1 thought on “Was Your Group Late To The Domain Name Party?”

  1. I’ve jumped on some of the new ones. Not sure what I’m going to do with most of these yet, but I have some ideas:

    * classically.sexy
    * diymusic.academy
    * macd.email

    I’m mostly just hanging around waiting for .music or something like that. Whenever that comes out, I imagine I’ll snap up at least four or five.

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