.gov

country:	United States
Registry Provider:	General Services Administration (GSA)
Date Implemented:	1985
Type:	sponsored top level domain (sTLD)
Community:	U.S. government entities
More information:

.gov is one of the original top-level domain names (TLDs) that was implemented in the root zone of the internet Domain Name System (DNS). The domain is a short term for "government." It is restricted for the use of government agencies in the United States, therefore it is considered a sponsored top-level domain name (sTLD). The other TLDs introduced by Jon Postel and Joyce Reynolds were .arpa .com, .edu, .net, .mil, and .org. The General Services Administration (GSA), an independent agency responsible in supervising the businesses of the United States federal government serves as the administrator of .gov domain.

Background

During the late 1980s, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) delegated the .gov to the Federal Networking Council (FNC), a group chartered by the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Computing, Information and Communications (CCIC) to provide a forum for networking collaborations among Federal agencies to meet their research, education, and operational mission goals. On July 18, 1997, FNC granted the authority to administer and manage the operations of the .gov domain to GSA through the guidance of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Policy

The GSA implements the following requirements as a policy in registering .gov domain names:

• Federal, State, and local governments including Native Sovereign Nations are allowed to register .gov domain names.
• The Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the requesting or sponsoring organization, highest ranking Information Technology Officer from independent Federal government agencies, boards, and commissions or the proper State or Local Officials must authorize the domain name to be registered and submit it to the GSA. Domain Names from Native Sovereign Nations must be authorized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. The GSA will evaluate if the proposed domain name to be registered is appropriate and on a case to case basis it reserves its right not to assign the domain name.
• The has the authority to implement a system of collection for a one-time setup fee for new registrations. The fee will not exceed $1000 and a recurring annual fee, which will not exceed $500. The charges will depend on the level of assistance that will be provided by GSA and anticipated costs related to the operation of the registration service.
• State governments registering a second-level domain must register the full name of the State or include the State postal code in the name. Example of acceptable domain names include California.gov or Oregon.gov,
• States may register as many domain names they want. There is no imposed limitation.
• Third-level registration for local and State government departments and programs is encouraged.
• Second-level domain name registrations for counties,cities, and parishes must include their full name or abbreviation and must clearly reference to the State where it is located. For counties and parishes, the word "county" and parish must be embedded. For example, Chicago-il.gov, Cityofcharleston-sc.gov, Richmondcounty-ga.gov, Townofdumfries-va.gov.
• GSA reserves the right to make exemptions to its domain name registration policy on a case to case, unique and compelling basis including third level domain name registrations.
• All registrations are processed online at the GSA website and confirmations are sent within one business day.

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority