Plans Unveiled to Seek New .Roma Web Address For Individuals, Businesses & Organizations in Rome
Minds + Machines, the industry pioneer in seeking to create and operate new top-level domains, is pleased to announce the formation of Minds + Machines Italia, a joint venture with Massimo Ralli and his team behind creating the .ROMA web address. Minds + Machines will act as the registry operator for .ROMA and other Minds + Machines Italia clients, and also provide services related to the application process for the .ROMA top-level domain.
Minds + Machines Italia will serve as the exclusive partner for Minds + Machines in the Italian market. In addition to .ROMA, Minds + Machines Italia will seek to create and operate new web addresses for Italian cities, Italian brands and Italian generic words.
Under the joint venture, Roma TLD S.r.l. will seek approval to launch the .ROMA top‐level domain with a substantial portion of profits provided to the city of Rome. The .ROMA top-level domain will provide businesses, organizations, individuals and government agencies in Rome with a web address that identifies them as based in the city.
“Minds + Machines is a leader and a pioneer in the new gTLD industry. I am pleased to represent this company in Italy and to have .ROMA as our first client,” said Massimo Ralli, CEO of Minds + Machines Italia and founder and president of Roma TLD S.r.l. “With the creation of Minds + Machines Italia, Italian companies, cities and brands will have a unique opportunity to apply for their own top level domains - and benefit from the world-famous M+M expertise and the support of a local Italian office.”
“This is a tremendous expansion of our reach as we step up our efforts to participate in the most exciting new web addresses,” said Antony Van Couvering, CEO of Minds + Machines. “Italy is a great market, but we can’t address it properly from the U.S. Minds + Machines Italia is a perfect partnership that combines our technology and knowledge of ICANN with Mr. Ralli’s understanding of the Italian market.”
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) will early next year begin accepting 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 .roma .paris .boston. ICANN will allow city-based Top Level Domains that local governments approve.
Europe is leading the way in publicly-announced new top-level domain efforts for cities and regions. Minds + Machines, with partners now in Italy as well as Germany, is well-positioned to take participate in this trend.
In the last few months, Minds + Machines has announced participation in efforts to create prominent new web addresses such as .ECO (www.supportdoteco.com), .NYC (www.dotnyc.net) and .FOOD (www.dotfoodtld.com/video). The .ECO effort has the support of former Vice President Al Gore, with a majority of profits dedicated to fighting climate change. The .NYC effort has the support of former Mayor Ed Koch, with a substantial portion of the profits dedicated to the City of New York. The .FOOD effort has the support of internationally renowned chef Wolfgang Puck, with a substantial portion of the profits dedicated to Meals on Wheels and scholarships at the Culinary Institute of America.
ABOUT MINDS + MACHINES www.mindsandmachines.com
Minds + Machines is a full-service consulting and registry services company that provides a complete registry solution for new TLD applicants. Minds + Machines has secured an exclusive license to extend the CoCCA registry platform, currently deployed in over 20 countries, to new generic TLDs. Minds + Machines is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd., a publicly-traded holding company on the London AIM that is focused specifically on the new top-level domain space.
ABOUT MASSIMO RALLI
Massimo Ralli, a roman MD and entrepreneur, is a world recognized expert in the industry where he has been working since 1999 as the founder of DomainsBot, the leading company in semantic domain analysis. Massimo is also the founder and president of Roma TLD S.r.l., a company established for the purpose of gaining approval to launch the new registry for the .ROMA top-level domain, and thereafter to register domain names using the .ROMA suffix. The team behind .ROMA has been working for years to bring this idea to life and gift the city of Rome with its own local extension.
Contacts:
For Minds + Machines
Davidson Goldin, 646-386-9602
david@dolcegoldin.com