dotTAMPA – “The new ‘.com’ for Tampa”
Trust, Identity, Intuitive Visibility
dotTAMPA, LLC will create the domain extension ‘.tampa’, making available domains like ‘www.visit.tampa‘ to relevant Tampa based entities by 2026/2027.
A unique city marketing tool for Tampa as each .tampa domain name will uniquely promote the ‘City of Tampa’ Brand nationally and even internationally
A tool promoting local identity & culture through which members of the Tampa community feel a sense of belonging
A trust label: all .tampa registrants will be authenticated. Only Tampa based entities are eligible to own and operate .tampa domain names. While scammer, spammers and fraudsters can easily hide behind fake identities when using .com domains, owners of .tampa domains are validated.
dotTAMPA will support “shop local”; in cooperation with chambers and business associations, we will ensure that domains like tires.tampa or books.tampa promote local businesses instead of online retailers.
Above example use cases:
Today Tampa Police Department cruisers display the URL www.tampagov.net/police; a rather hard to remember URL. Once Tampanians get used to the taxonomy “www.EntityName.tampa” the domain www.police.tampa is very intuitive and easy to remember. The same is true for tampagov.net/solidwaste: solidwaste.tampa or recycling.tampa are so much easier to memorize.
dotTAMPA will be a Tampa stakeholder-group funded, owned & governed, public interest, non-profit effort to secure the domain extension ‘.tampa’. All domain name owners will be authenticated by relevant business associations or our own authentication provider. ‘.tampa’ domains will serve as trust label for aiding the Internet user to more easily & intuitively identify websites of Tampa-based entities; thus creating trust, identity and intuitive visibility.
To create a trend for .tampa domain names in Tampa with both the Internet User and prospective registrants (e.g. businesses) and to make sure that community & business-relevant domains stay not only in Tampa but will be assigned to appropriate entities we will:
Reserve all community-relevant domains like visit.tampa, fire.tampa, police.tampa, riverwalk.tampa, airport.tampa or city.tampa and assign them to the relevant entities only! Until being claimed by the relevant entities these domains will go online with an automated page providing a link to the relevant official website! This way ‘.tampa’ domain names will become intuitive short names: memorable and trustworthy.
www.firerescue.tampa is so much easier than www.tampagov.net/fire-rescue
(we reserve all relevant variants for the city: fire-rescue, firerescue, fire-fighters, firefighters, fire, etc.)www.police.tampa is much easier than www.tampagov.net/police
www.riverwalk.tampa is much easier than www.thetampariverwalk.com
Imagine hundreds of public service domains serving as “index” to intuitively access community relevant services and websites? And that independent of the fact whether the domains actually have been claimed or not: we make sure the Tampa Internet User will find what they are looking for by routing these domains to the relevant website from day one.
Allow all Tampa businesses to claim “their” (exact match) business name as .tampa domain at no cost for up to 3 years. Exception: generic dictionary keywords. Chambers & business associations will serve as authentication partners to ensure that the “free domain names” offer won’t be abused, and only Tampa based entities benefit from it.
Let business associations define specific keyword-based domain names that are of impact for their members, and make sure these domains not only stay in Tampa but will also stay within the relevant business sector.
dotTAMPA will be owned by a sizeable number of Tampa constituents, e.g. chambers, associations and leading businesses. Ownership doesn’t yield any profits: as dotTAMPA is a public interest, non-profit; but ownership provides the opportunity to shape the policies of the project. A broad ownership distribution is the best guarantee for true community input. The dotTAMPA project will have a policy board which will oversee all policy making. Tampa is a thriving community - partly because it is well organized and managed. ‘.tampa’ should mirror the real Tampa: online! And as the real Tampa it will need to be well managed and organized.
The main narratives for the project are:
Creating a unifying digital identity for Tampa and its citizens.
Providing a trusted eGovernment platform (police.tampa, taxes.tampa, utilities.tampa)
Creating benefit for the Tampa Business Community by promoting local business (“Buy Local”)
Promoting Tampa locally, regionally, nationally and internationally and making it more attractive for locals, visitors, investors and people who might choose Tampa as their new home.
How you can help:
If you are an association or chamber representing Tampa based businesses: please get in contact with us! We need you to participate in this project!
If you are an individual business and wish to be a sponsor: Please contact us! There are plenty of sponsorship opportunities.
For more information please send an email to alexander.schubert@dottampa.org or call +1(202)684-6806