.bcn Domain

The .BCN TLD is requested by the Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council) as a TLD for the institutional purposes of the departments and online services of the City Council. BCN is the acronym of the city of Barcelona, used by Barcelona City Council online and offline communications, as well as by printed media (newspapers, magazines, etc) when they refer to the City.

The institutional purpose of the Barcelona City Council is to promote the welfare of the city of Barcelona, its citizens, visitors, and any lawful interest related to the city and its area of influence, as both the capital of Catalonia and an open city to the world.

The Barcelona City Council has also applied for the .BARCELONA TLD as a community TLD for the benefit of the .BARCELONA community, that is, its citizens and anyone having bona fide relations with Barcelona and its area of influence. However, the .BCN TLD will be used exclusively by the Barcelona City Council, and will not be available for registrations from third parties.

BCN is the IATA code for Barcelonaʹs international airport, and the use of this acronym has become popular, being widely used in newspapers and as an abbreviation of the name of the city. So much so that the City Council is already using "bcn.cat" (and bcn.es and bcn.net in the past) to name its main website; as such, it appears in many different publications of the Barcelona City Council.

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of 101.4 square kilometers (39 square miles). The urban area of Barcelona extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of between 4,200,00 and 4,500,000 within an area of 803 square kilometers (310 square miles), making it the sixth most populous such area in the European Union after Paris, London, the Ruhr, Madrid and Milan. It is also Europeʹs largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea and hosts Europeʹs ninth largest container port, with a trade volume of 2.57 million TEU in 2008.
Barcelona is today one of the worldʹs leading tourist, economic, trade-exhibition and cultural-sport centers, and its influence in commerce, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts contributes to its status as one of the worlds major global cities.
Barcelona is the 16th most visited city in the world and the fourth most visited in Europe after Paris, London, and Rome, with several million tourists every year. Barcelonaʹs international airport handles over 34 million passengers per year.

The goals of a .BCN TLD are:

a. To strengthen the institutional image of Barcelona City Council services in the on-line world
b. To facilitate digital communications between the Barcelona City Council, its providers and citizens
c. To promote the City in the digital world
d. To facilitate access to City services and information
e. To improve security and trust in any interaction with Barcelona City Council online services
f. To present our Internet services under a different, unique, and trusted name that no other entity can use
g. To enhance brand recognition
h. To defend the BCN name, brand, and trademark in the new scenario created by ICANN


This is to be achieved by:

i. Creating an interface between citizens and our services
ii. Creating an integrated virtual and physical service channel
iii. Providing a coherent look and feel for our websites and for online communications with all our services and social activities

The Barcelona City Council has decided to apply for the .BCN TLD as an strategical long-term opportunity. We believe that the gTLD program will represent a tremendous opportunity for our City to reinforce the branding of our organization, departments, and online services under a distinctive name. We have been following with interest the new ICANN gTLD program since its inception and we have gathered enough intelligence to make an educated decision. We understand the opportunities and the responsibility that this opening implies, and we are fully committed to run a piece of Internet infrastructure by owing our own Institutional Top Level Domain: .BCN.
The mission of the Barcelona City Council is to serve the needs of the citizens of Barcelona. We understand that this can be better achieved using a trusted and distinctive TLD that will univocally identify municipal behavior online. The Barcelona City Council aims to offer and project this comprehensive range of services online under the .BCN TLD, to give excellent service to its growing online community of users.

The Barcelona City Council aims to continuously strengthen our brand reputation and to search for new formulas to create competitive advantages for our citizens; .BCN TLD will place us as leaders of innovation within the technological cities of the world under a unique, secure, and trusted Internet identifier: .BCN.×

b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

i. What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

Specialty

The proposed TLD will reinforce the Cityʹs strategic positioning by offering high-end customized online services branded under our own TLD, which will leverage the brand equity and differentiate us online from other cities.
The .BCN TLD will prove our commitment, integrity, professionalism, and teamwork, and enhance the trust of our customers and society at large in the high-quality services provided by our various professional websites under our own Top Level Domain.

Reputation

Undoubtably, a .BCN Top Level Domain will strengthen the Cityʹs brand and enhance its recognition internationally, which will naturally add value to the City of Barcelona.

A specific TLD for the online services of the Barcelona City Council is aligned with the strategy of the City to become one of the digital powerhouses of the 21st century. Barcelona has a specific area and economic measures devoted to attract innovative start-ups as well as leading firms in the areas of digital technologies and communications, and is also the home and the capital city of the Mobile World Congress. This strong vocation to leadership in the business and technological arenas will be well expressed by our own unique TLD.

Service levels

One of the top priorities of the Barcelona City Council is to serve our citizens with the highest standards of efficiency. Being able to offer all our online services under .BCN TLD and having exclusive control of what can be done in that space is the key to deploying such initiatives, and therefore a top priority for the Barcelona City Council. It will help to promote the Cityʹs brand presence and reputation online, and will limit security risks posed by scams based on counterfeit identities in second-level domain name registrations under any other existing TLD, which may be registered and put to fraudulent use, tarnishing the brand's reputation.

ii. What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

Differentiation

Barcelona, as a recognized leading technological city in Europe, will use the .BCN TLD to move further and offer its online services under a unique, distinguishable, and memorable TLD. This quality of technological leadership, united with the ones for which the City is known worldwide, such as innovation, dynamism, imagination, quality of life, and service to its citizens, would indeed be enhanced and reinforced by acquiring the .BCN TLD.

Competition

This new space will not only distinguish the brand, placing the Barcelona City Council as a pioneer among the most innovative cities of the world, but will help in reaching a new audience and expanding the awareness of Barcelona worldwide.

Innovation

The .BCN TLD will be a significant amplifier of our branding and marketing endeavors by creating innovative marketing opportunities for citizens, partners, and suppliers. Some of the great challenges, benefits, and innovative elements that .BCN will bring to our structure are:

To strengthen our leadership in municipal services online
To offer new services in the areas of smart cities and the Internet of things
To improve organizational efficiency and flexibility
To develop and motivate talent
To underline our social commitment
To communicate the aims of the institution both internally and externally

iii. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

Compared to the existing generic TLDs, the .BCN experience will greatly enhance mnemonics and security. .BCN, being a widely used and known acronym for the City of Barcelona, will simplify the way the citizens find information about the City, interact with online services and interact with content created by the City on the Internet. That easier and understandable Web address will drive users into deeper levels of engagement with the brand and the City.

This engagement will increase:

Affinity
Ease of use
Efficiency of citizensʹ services
Distribution of the different online services
Smart-city and Internet-of-things projects led by the City
The number and improve the security of online transactions

.BCN will be an easier way to interact with Barcelona City Council online services and information.

.BCN will provide shorter URLs to users of the Barcelona City Councilʹs online services, who look for ways to make their browsing and linking experience more streamlined. It will offer user services via online portals, which will customize the customer experience to an unprecedented degree by offering URLs.

Social media will of course play a crucial role in the introduction and promotion of the BCN name, and therefore the branding exercise, throughout social networks, will be fundamental to the user experience of the new extension.

iv.Provide a complete description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

The .BCN TLD will be for the EXCLUSIVE USE of the Barcelona City Council. The Barcelona City Council does not contemplate, at this stage, opening the registration to any third party. Therefore, the mandatory registration agreement will refer to the following terms and conditions:
a) Eligiblity: The registrant will be the Barcelona City Council.
b) Name selection: .BCN domain name registrations must be related to Barcelona City Council services and departments.
c) Use and content: .BCN domain names may only be used in relationship to Barcelona City Council services and purposes, subject to the approval of the Barcelona City Council. Domain names used must be commensurate with the role and relevance of Barcelona City Council services.

Considering that,

(i) The Barcelona City Council will register and maintain all domain name registrations within .BCN for its own exclusive use; and that
(ii) The Barcelona City Council will not sell, distribute, or transfer control or use of any registrations in .BCN to any third party that is not part of the Barcelona City Council; and that
(iii) Application of the Code of Conduct contained in Specification 9 of the Base gTLD Registry Agreement to .BCN is not necessary to protect the public interest

The Barcelona City Council will request an exemption to the above-mentioned Code of Conduct, and expects ICANN to grant the exemption, as the Barcelona City Council provides reasonable satisfaction of the conditions hereof expressed.

The Barcelona City Council may in the future consider extending the use of domain names for employees, customers, and partners, but this is not foreseen nor allowed in the current description of the registration policies.

v.Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

The Barcelona City Council recognizes that this is a relevant issue and an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard. The protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users will comply with applicable law, in particular the European Data Protection framework and the Catalan and Spanish Personal Data Protection legislation, as well as any ICANN requirements in this area.

Nevertheless, the specific model of .BCN TLD, and the registration policies described above, limit to a great extent any possible concerns about privacy, as no external organizations or individuals will be allowed to register .BCN names.

vi. Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

Because the Barcelona City Council is applying for an SRSU (Single Registrant, Single User) TLD, internal outreach and communications will be done entirely in-house. External outreach and communication will be done through advertising campaigns in the various existing media, emphasizing of course the digital media and Barcelona citizensʹ care offices.×

C) What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (such as time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences and costs imposed upon consumers?

As explained in the registration polices above, the .BCN TLD will be open to registrations by the Barcelona City Council only. And the domain names will be used only for the Barcelona City Councilʹs legitimate services in a way that is commensurate with their role and importance within Barcelona City Council strategy.

These rules guarantee that no costs need to be borne by owners of trademarks and other intellectual property rights in monitoring the .BCN zone and protecting against abuses from registrations. This also applies to personal names, geographical names, intergovernmental organizations based on international treaties, and so on.

The use of the .BCN TLD in the activities of the Barcelona City Council will have a positive effect on security, both on citizens of Barcelona using its online services and over the Internet as a whole, as it will greatly reduce the risks of effective phishing, or any other malicious conduct, which is a serious concern for administrations managing citizensʹ personal data (census, fines, taxes, etc.).

Answers should address the following points:
i.How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come/first-served basis?

As the .BCN TLD is for the EXCLUSIVE USE of the Barcelona City Council, first come, first served will be the only available and feasible option, should multiple applications for the same domain name occur; although it seems unlikely in this case.

ii.Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g. advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).

In a model in which the Registry is the sole and exclusive registrant of the domain names in the TLD, the Barcelona City Council does not believe that it makes sense to apply any such pricing measure.

iii.Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.



In accordance with Specification 9, point 6 of the Base gTLD Registry Agreement as published in Module 5 of the Applicant Guidebook, the Barcelona City Council, taking into account that it will operate the .BCN TLD for its EXCLUSIVE USE, will request an exemption to the Code of Conduct contained in Specification 9 of the Base gTLD Registry Agreement. The Barcelona City Council does not intend to provide any special contractual commitments to registants, as the only allowed registrant will be the Barcelona City Council.

Other than that, the Barcelona City Council will comply with all of the TLD Registry Agreement's obligations, such as offering registration of domain names for periods of one to ten years, and the pricing provisions as contained in the Agreement.×

1. Reserved List of Geographic Names

In accordance with Specification 5 of the proposed TLD Registry Agreement published as Attachment to Module 5 of the Applicant Guidebook by ICANN, and with Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice on geographic names at the second level, the .bcn Registry will put the following names on the reserved list, therefore making them unavailable for registration or any other use:
• the short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union;

• the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and

• the list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.

Technically, this is achieved by utilising the advanced domain name rule engine that is part of the CORE Registration Systemand described in detail in the answer to Question 28. As laid out there, the underlying set of checks can be tuned to block registrations of .bcn names based on various syntactic rules, multiple reserved names lists, and patterns. Prior to the launch of the .bcn TLD, the rule engine will be configured in accordance with the reserved list mandated by Specification 5, which means that the listed names are not available for registration by registrars.

2. Exceptions

The .bcn Registry intends to propose to ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), and, if approved, submit to ICANN for final approval an exception to allow the .bcn Registry to use some or all of those itself, in order to better localize its promotional services in each individual country and territory where it carries commercial activities.

Once final approval has been received, the use of such names is conducted in a diligent manner, In particular, the names are not simply removed from the reserved names lists to allow their registration. Instead, the .bcn Registry will internally issue a special authorisation code for the specific reserved name to be registered. This authorisation code is then used as the domain authinfo in an EPP request to the .bcn SRS, which will let the request bypass the rule engineʹs blocking mechanism and permit the registration.

3- Additional monitoring

As the .bcn Registry will not allow third-party registrations or use of second or other level domains within .bcn TLD, no additional monitoring mechanisms are required.×