.Coop eNewsletter

  February 22, 2010

High Value Domains Available in .Coop

One of the most important reasons that .coop was secured by dotCoop for the cooperative community was the rapidly declining availability of "good" domain names. Names that are short, memorable and available to businesses that are trying to create an Internet identity were in short supply when .coop became available in 2002. And that's even more the case today.

In the .coop domain, there are still many domains available that fit the above guidelines. In addition, there are a number of names that fit a business category as well as just the name of of your co-op. For example, even if you have "localcotton.coop", a name like "cotton.coop" is a great way to identify your product directly.

To highlight this opportunity, the Domains.Coop registrar has just launched a new site -www.auction.coop - which features particular domains that you might be interested in bidding on. Keep checking back to see what names are being offered and get an idea of the valuable names that are still available in .coop. The first names they are offering are credit.coop and credito.coop.

When you realize that Fund.Com was sold for close to USD$10 million and is still available in .coop, you see the potential value a special .coop name could bring to your cooperative business.

To see if a name you are thinking of is still available, go to www.coop and put the name in the box in the upper right corner and you'll know right away if the one you were thinking of is waiting for you to pick it up.

.Coop Registrar Spotlight on ... ENCIRCA

EnCirca is an ICANN Accredited domain name registrar that specializes in the creation, management and protection of digital identities. It is an authorized registrar for the .coop domain.

EnCirca works to protect intellectual property and prides itself as being a registrar-of-choice for trademark owners. After working for several years in the trademark research industry, EnCirca was founded in 2001 by industry leader, Thomas Barrett.

"EnCirca grew out of a need for organizations and companies to have an partner in not only protecting, but developing their online brands," says Barrett. "We partner with customers and help them proactively manage their online identity, and also educate them about the power of branding their company with a .coop identity, for instance.

EnCirca understands the special needs and challenges of .coop registrants. In fact, EnCirca specializes in sponsored top-level domains, such as .coop, .travel, .jobs and .pro. It offers streamlined administrative services, as well as attentive customer service to make managing a domain, or multiple domains, simple. Free email and web forwarding is included in .coop registrations.

EnCirca powers SiteSee, the map-based Directory.coop member directory and is launching a new service that helps organizations secure their brands in social networks. Overall, EnCirca handles more than 100 international domain name extensions and also offers email, hosting and SEO services.

EnCirca is part of DotCoop's program offering free registrations to first-time users to .coop and offers discounts for registrants wishing to transfer their .coop domain to EnCirca. To check out transferring your domains to EnCirca, visit http://www.encirca.com/cgi-bin/rgsys/bulktransfer.cgi

The EnCirca team is uniquely qualified to guide customers through the evolving domain terrain, as the team includes experts in trademark research, database development, ecommerce systems, domain name registration systems and portfolio management services.

To contact EnCirca, visit http://www.encirca.com/ or email Tom and the team at ideas@encirca.com .

When Less is More in .Coop

In late 2008, .coop was finally allowed by ICANN to offer 1 and 2 character domain names to .coop registrants. In late 2009, we had a number of interesting applications for .coop domains that say a lot - with a little.

The Co-operative Press Ltd in the UK grabbed the domain "s.coop" which lets them "scoop" the competition with their news items for co-ops. This award-winning cooperative news organization knew they wanted a "memorable way to visit our website." The Co-operative Press is the oldest co-operative newspaper in the world but they certainly are ahead of the pack in seeing how this special option for .coop domains could give them a very special name on the Internet.

DotCoop also worked closely with a co-op that wanted to use a two-character domain that is also a country code domain (like .de or .jp). These names can be registered but require the approval of the country code domain organization. dotCoop worked with the registrant and the domain organization to make this a reality for them and is happy to help other registrants as well.

We'll update you as these special sites are activated but if you've been thinking about getting one of these domains, be aware that other co-ops are picking these up quickly. All you need to do to get one of these names is submit a simple "Expression of Interest (EOI)" form (available on www.coop) and the name can be registered with many of our .coop registrars.

Let us know if we can help you and your registrar to get one of the great names for your co-op!

Video - How Does the Internet Work?

A recent article from CircleID.com, a widely followed Internet news distributor, caught our eye recently. There was a link to a great video that shows how the Internet actually connects people typing in a domain name (hopefully a .coop domain!) to your web site.

If you've ever wondered what "DNS" has to do with the Internet, this is definitely worth a few minutes of your time -

http://www.circleid.com/posts/video_on_how_the_dns_works/

From the "CircleID Weekly Wrap" for 2010-01-26 -News Briefs

In Their Own Words. . .

CITADELLE-CAMP.COOP

Propulsés depuis toujours par la double volonté de respecter les traditions les plus pures et de figurer parmi les innovateurs de ce monde, nous avons bâti ensemble la plus formidable organisation dédiée aux produits de l'érable que l'on puisse imaginer.
Chaque jour nous avançons fièrement, chaque jour nous affirmons notre mission en repoussant les limites de la qualité et du raffinement.
Notre évolution est marquée par notre signature corporative à l'image de ce que nous sommes au plus profond de nousmêmes: des producteurs de pures innovations.

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Building on our longstanding twin commitments to uphold the purest traditions of our craft and serve as an international leader in our industry, we have worked together to develop a truly impressive maple products organization.
Each day we proudly do our best to uphold our mission and raise the bar for product quality and refinement.
Our corporate signature reflects the essence so deeply ingrained in our core: we are producers of pure innovation.
 

7PRINCIPLES.COOP

Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union

Since 1933, Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union has provided financial services to the employees and family members of the City of Seattle. Since then, we have expanded our charter to include anyone who lives or works in the state of Washington.
We help members achieve their financial goals to realize their dreams.

Come Together. Share a Resource. Join the Conversation.

Operation:Cooperation is an online resource for co-ops, nonprofit organizations and groups of all sizes across Washington State. The goal is not only to provide a venue for these groups to promote their causes, but to share their stories and first-hand experiences about what it's like to champion a small group, coop, or non-profit.

UTOPIA.COOP

La cooperativa Sociale "L'Utopia" nasce nel 1999, con lo scopo di creare opportunità di lavoro imprenditoriale nella Locride per le persone con handicap. Il nome "L'Utopia"scelto per la nostra cooperativa deriva dal motto che, insieme abbiamo scelto di condividere e che recita:
"Credi nell'utopia, insegui l'utopia,vivi l'utopia…";

SARASMILKFED.COOP

Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Federation (RCDF)

The Federation was set up in 1977 as the implementing agency for dairy development programmes in Rajasthan, India and is registered as a society under the Rajasthan cooperative societies act 1965. The Federation is a State level apex cooperative organization owned by its member unions each of which, in turn, is owned the dairy co-operative societies in its area of operation which are themselves owned by farmer members.
["Saras" is the brand of their many products as seen on their site.]
"The Greatness of a Nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Global Award Interviews on YouTube

When we were in Geneva in November, we were able to take a few minutes of time with each of the representatives of the winners of the 2009 dotCoop Global Awards for Cooperative Excellence.
You definitely want to visit our YouTube site and listen to all three of the winners from IFFCO, the NCGA and Pachamama Coffee Cooperative talk about what makes them great cooperatives!
Click here to listen -http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDotCoop 
Sing up for future information for the 2011 Awards on www.globalawards.coop.