.sport - a trusted ecosystem of information and communications for the community

The .sport extension constitutes a rules-based process to create and maintain reliable online signposts related to sport, visible to the public at large. If a domain name in an Internet address ends in .sport, users can infer that this is a sport-related information resources compliant with the community-based .sport policies.

These features have particular relevance for the following WSIS Actions lines for the reasons stated below:

C5.* Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs
As a publicly recognizable and strictly supervised label of quality, the .sport extension supports users’ need to distinguish verified or community-endorsed resources from those offering no assurances.
C7.* ICT Applications: E-business
As an instrument of community-based action by the Sport community, the .sport extension supports e-business through trusted content and advertising.
C7.* ICT Applications: E-learning
Sport is a key component of education and learning, and as sport brings together people of all ages. Sport is also one of the most widely shared and accessible fields of intellectual exercise supporting a culture of objectivity, transparency and rules-based decision-making. The .sport extension helps the sport governing bodies, sport clubs and governments’ communicate using Internet addresses recognizable as verified by the public at large, in a highly aspirational context. This makes e-learning easier and safer in practical terms.
C7.* ICT Applications: E-health
Sport is a key activity related to health for people of all ages anywhere. Health-related information and advice related to sport are more accessible to the public at large and often have higher chances of adherence than purely medical channels alone. For this to work, however, online users must be able to distinguish trustworthy information from community-endorsed sources from potential quackery or unsafe advice. In maintaining verified addresses through sport governing bodies, local government, national federations and clubs, the .sport extension supports e-health initiatives.
C9.* Media
Sport is intrinsically well-suited for both advertising and paid content. As such, it constitutes a mainstay for the media ecosystem. Media have been radically transformed by the Internet, especially by online resources that allow personal tracking and targeting.  As most media firms are unable to sustain personal targeting on their own, they tend to lose out to online intermediaries in terms of end-user attention as well as advertising income. This has worsened to a point that affects their ability to produce trustworthy content. The .sport registry works on collaborative projects with governing bodies and publishers through which sport content is delivered on easily guessable, memorable and re-visitable Web addresses. That in turn supports advertising-by-context as a sustainable alternative to the personal tracking targeting.
C10.* Ethical dimensions of the Information Society
One of the most insidious ethical challenges of the information society is the constant pressure on users to reveal information about themselves as well as colleagues, friends and family to online intermediaries. They are often forced to do so in order to obtain online services, such as messaging, social networks or even connectivity. The .sport extension is one initiative (among hopefully many others) to develop a sustainable ecosystem that avoids the Faustian bargain of online services in exchange for submission to invasive practices of often unknown and unaccountable market participants. The essential features of these initiatives are ways to support economically profitable online services, based on informed choice, anchored in meaningful Internet addresses, funded by publicly transparent advertising and product offerings.
C11.* International and regional cooperation
The Sport community has always collaborated internationally and regionally. The creation of the .sport extension itself is a collaborative project entrusted to the GAISF, the Global association of international sport federations. Most of the over 8000 domain names ending in .sport registered to date are controlled by international sports federations and governing bodies. They are used to support the national and regional sport governing bodies, sport events and sport initiatives…

The .sport internet extension and its projects are particularly relevant for the following sustainable development goals for the reasons described below:

Goal 3:* Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
Sport-related communications are key to promote the safe and healthy practice of sport, which in turn is key for health and well-being. As a growing number of users even in poor countries are able to use smartphones, they must be able to navigate by way of trustworthy web addresses. The community-based oversight of web-addresses ending in .sport is therefore very economical and sustainable contribution to health and well-being.
Goal 4:* Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning
Sport is an aspirational activity as well as a source of inspiration. Safe sport-related communications, by way of the a person’s informed Internet navigation using Web addresses subject to community-based oversight, or supporting community-based initiatives, are a sustainable way to achieve a widely shared focus on lifelong learning.
Goal 11:* Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
The city is a natural focal point of sport activities. The .sport extension manages city names with particular attention to ensure users can trust the domain names composed of the city name combined with the .sport extension, working in collaboration with local authorities or publishers. This is highly economical and sustainable approach to achieving inclusiveness and safety for cities, starting with the safe use of their name, using the .sport extension as a mark of community-based oversight and standards of conduct.
Goal 16:* Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies
The practice and the witnessing of sport - provided they involve communications based on the true values of sport - is intrinsically conducive to social justice, peace and inclusiveness. The .sport Internet extension constitutes a label of quality of communications focused on the true values of sport.