Scotland petitions dotSco
Plans to increase the profile of Scotland across the world are afoot with its own top-level internet domain. Finance Secretary John Swinney confirmed the Scottish Government was investigating the possibility of a ".sco" web suffix rather than the current ".uk" ".eu" or ".com"
The web change idea follows the award of local suffixes to Jersey and the Isle of Man, while the Spanish region of Catalonia has the right to end its websites ".cat".
A spokesman for Mr Swinney said: "We are giving careful consideration to the issues that would be raised by the introduction of the sco' abbreviation. So that, should the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) call for proposals for new generic top-level domain names, the Scottish Government will be able to make an informed decision about whether to support a 'sco' abbreviation."
The campaign for the .sco suffix has been led by Nationalist MSP Christine Grahame. It could result in most Scottish Government departments and agencies changing website suffixes. She gave her support to the DotSco campaign group who submitted a 1000-strong petition to the Scottish Parliament. She claimed it would enhance the Scottish brand at an official level.
Webs: www.dotSco.org
http://epetitions.scottish.parliament.uk/
Source: http://www.theherald.co.uk/