I support the application by name.space, Inc to register ".lab" and ".labs" TLD's.
The scientific community requires a unique TLD in which they can rally behind.
Millions of scientists throughout the world publish billions of web pages every year.
Scientists in research, pharmaceutical, medical, and industrial laboratories would
benefit greatly from a .lab TLD.Scientists throughout the world will become unified
behind the idea of a .lab TLD. Once it is known that the .lab TLD is under
future consideration by ICCAN, I believe that there will be considerable pressure
to support the Name.Space application.
The early pioneers of the Internet were
scientists. They started their work in computer laboratories and perfected
it in research laboratories. Scientists were practicing research, exchanging
information, and utilizing the Internet as a resource in the mid 1980's, long before
the Internet became popular.
The research community is the most proficient
group of practitioners on the web. They range in size from small, one member,
university-based operations to massive, multinatioanl conglomerates. Virtually
every material that is manufactured, grown, or exploited in the world requires some
form of analysis that takes place in a laboratory. Food, water, metals, human
specimens, house paint, clothing, chemicals, minerals, and many more products are
either analyzed or produced in a laboratory.
While the laboratory community is
extremely diverse, it should also be stated that laboratories throughout the world
have a unique identity. Scientists and laboratory personnel will not identify
with ".biz", ".web", ".nom", ".geo", "union", "museum", "info", "air", etc.
Scientists, the pioneers of the Internet, already do not identify with ".com" and
".edu" because these names do not provide an adequate description.
There is no
proposed TLD that describes the scientific community better than ".lab". Let
us hope that that this TLD is not dismissed in the future.