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Username: Fairbairn
Date/Time: Thu, October 19, 2000 at 6:19 PM GMT
Browser: Netscape Navigator V4.7 Custom using Macintosh PowerPC
Score: 5
Subject: Support letter for .co-op

Message: 		 

 


I write on behalf of the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, to express our support for the proposal to assign a global Top Level Domain name for co-operative organizations.

Ours is a university-based centre devoted to research on co-operatives. Our research makes it apparent that co-operatives are significant, numerous, globally widespread, and distinctive organizations that have a unique profile and need for visibility.

Co-operatives are not only an important business sector, especially in areas like agriculture and popular savings and credit:  they are also the largest social movement in the history of the world.  Worldwide there are currently three-quarters of a million official co-operative organizations, whose members include at least seven hundred million people in almost one hundred countries.  This -- surely! -- is the kind of global sector for which a gTLD should be reserved.

Moreover, the abundance of co-operatives in both developed and developing countries ensures that such a domain name will bridge the global divides of North and South as well as East and West. Co-operatives are dedicated not only to economic development, but also to education and international co-operation.  A co-operative gTLD is an opportunity to use the internet to create a
global, virtual community centred on issues of participatory development, education, and trade.

I anticipate that we and other co-operative - sector organizations would make extensive use of a co-operative gTLD.  Co-operatives will market their distinctive advantages and engage in e-commerce with one another; members will seek and find online connections to co-operatives through such a domain; organizations such as ours will participate in collaborative research and education.  A .coop gTLD will facilitate such activities by fostering trust and enhancing the co-operative identity in internet dealings.

In short, a co-op gTLD is an excellent idea both from the point of view of co-operatives themselves, and from the point of view of the internet and its global connectedness to communities.

Sincerely,

Brett Fairbairn


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Brett Fairbairn, Professor of History
Director, Centre for the Study of Co-operatives
University of Saskatchewan
101 Diefenbaker Place
Saskatoon SK  S7N 5B8  CANADA

tel. (306) 966-8505    fax (306) 966-8517
e-mail brett.fairbairn@usask.ca

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