South Sudan: A New State Without Its Domain

If you suddenly did not hear this news: on July 9, 2011 a new state appeared in the world.

Back in February, southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence from Sudan. The split of the largest country in Africa into two parts was supported by 99% of the voters.

The acquisition of sovereignty by the Republic of South Sudan raised a number of practical issues. Just think - an independent state should have its own currency, postage stamps, passports, diplomatic relations.

And, of course, the domain name. In the 21st century, any country needs its own national top-level domain. “.Sd” already belongs to Sudan, so the Republic of South Sudan needs to come up with a different one.

In fact, countries choose two letters from their name. But there are not many domains left that start with the letter “s”. For example, “.su” belongs to the Soviet Union, although it has long ceased to exist. The most appropriate and still free is “.ss”.

It is this domain that South Sudan would like to receive, but the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is unlikely to single it out. The reason is that .ss has extremely negative connotations. As a local official Stephen Luga stated:

We want the domain name “.ss” - “South Sudan”, but we are told that “SS” in Europe is associated with the Nazis. But we still applied.

South Sudan will be in a somewhat difficult situation if it is denied “.ss”. Even if you think longer and come to “.rs” - “Republic of South Sudan”, then this domain is already taken by Serbia. And .sn belongs to Senegal. In fact, all possible options are already taken.

The official languages ​​of Sudan are Arabic and English, so right now, it might be appropriate to turn to the fashion trend of non-Latin domains and choose a domain in Arabic.

But usually non-Latin domains are redirects to Latin. Since the lingua franca on the Internet is English, it is difficult to imagine a site without a Latin domain. South Sudan remains a challenge.

[ via TNW Africa]