General Information

The mission of eco‘s Names & Numbers Forum is to provide a platform to discuss topics that are particularly relevant for the domain industry.

eco has been working on issues in the domain industry since it began and established the Names & Numbers Forum in 2008 to emphasise the importance of this increasingly relevant market segment.

Lines of action are:

• Political work and lobbying at a national and international level
• Information on policy-development, law making and jurisdiction
• Technical issues in the area concerned

Registries, registrars, resellers, consultancies as well as companies who engage in trading and monetising domain names belong to the target group of the forum.

The Names & Numbers Forum regularly hosts events to provide for an efficient exchange of information and expertise as well as networking opportunities with key-decision makers. For example, eco hosts receptions on occasions of ICANN meetings. Additionally, a business round table is regularly carried out in Cologne called "dotKoelsch“, which combines an expert topical presentation (e.g. on monetisation and tax, domain law, digital brand management etc...) with a relaxing social event.

The eco Names & Numbers Forum is also actively promoting the ICANN new gTLD Program. So far, amongst others, a roadshow has been organised in four German cities in collaboration with the German Trademark Association, to inform about the new gTLD Program in 2009. Three events dedicated to geographical TLDs were also hosted in 2009 and 2010.
eco provides a forum for geoTLD initiatives so that industry professionals and public sector representatives can discuss and work out best practice. The responsible public sector agency has announced to communicate with the various initiatives through eco on certain matters that are relevant to all city or regional TLDs.

Recently, eco has concluded its work on a DNSSEC testbed together with DENIC e.G., the „.de“ registry and the German Federal Office for Information Security.