Andes’ .HILL application is now uncontested at ICANN.
Unlike the .Patagonia case that was successfully withdrawn, another geographical gTLD was auctioned off in escrow: Andes’ .HILL.
The geodomain – or is it, geo-gTLD? – encompasses Andes, the longest continental mountain range in the world, and a multinational organization was formed for the interest of the endogenous Andes’ people.
“Patagonians are proud to have resisted the objectification of the region’s inhabitants by corporate invaders, and now the Andes’ .HILL application successfully moves on to new ventures,” said Fred F. McLair, operational chairman for dot .HILL.
“Earth’s ecosystem is volatile, and we must preserve the diversity of the species as it is one of the ground-breaking elements of Darwin’s evolutionary process,” added McLair.
Andes is a geographical region that has remained untouched for what appears to be several millennia of human evolution.
It all started as a typical corporate story: In 1999, at the peak of the Y2k crisis, the Hill organization of New Zealand became a financial adviser in the region, thus forming the Andes’ Hill trust, an obvious pun on the size of Andes – the tallest mountains outside of Asia.
While some might discount gTLDs as yet another gimmick introduced by ICANN to confuse billions of Internet users around the world, geographical gTLDs such as Andes’ .HILL will continue to provide trust and valuable information on jobs, culture and the local ecosystem, for years to come.
