.florida

a new top-level domain

Applicant

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Born in Berlin, Germany, Alexander Schubert later earned a masters degree in Aviation and Space Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin. He has been involved in ICANN processes since mid 2004 and co-founded the dotBerlin GmbH & Co. Kg (www.dotberlin.com) in mid 2005. dotBerlin will apply for the TLD .berlin in 2011. The .berlin application is the frontrunner for many other geo-TLD’s like .paris, .tokyo or .sfo (San Francisco).
In June 2009 Alexander founded dotGay LLC (www.dotgay.com) in San Francisco which will apply for the TLD .gay in 2011, a TLD for the LGBT community. Using a unique philanthropic entrepreneur model, dotGay LLC will return over two thirds of all profits back to the LGBT community.

In December 2010 Alexander created the .florida initiative, the first U.S. state TLD project. The aim, just as with dotGay, is to give over two thirds of all profits back to the Florida community.

Mission

The .florida domain name extension will create a powerful branding and public diplomacy tool for Florida. Being used as a part of a region’s internal branding strategy, a geographic TLD like .florida is expected to create and support local identity for enterprises, institutions, and individuals and may result in a stronger sense of community.

It is feasible that Florida’s external marketing strategy and the creation of a maximum branding value could be substantially supported by communication activities which include domain names such as www.visit.florida or www.hotels.florida.

Being a true community effort, dotFlorida will return more then two thirds of the profits back to the Florida commmunity. This is a unique philanthropic entrepreneur model. .florida will be applied for and operated by the dotFlorida LLC, a company primarily owned and financed by Floridian entities.

Vision

Profits will be returned via the following method:
67% of the ownership will be distributed to between 15 to 30 organizations representing Floridian business, art, culture, sports and education. These entities will not be required to invest in the dotFlorida campaign and hence will invest their shares in to the dotFlorida Fund.