Independence for Scots – on the web

Published on Saturday 28 June 2008 19:52

SCOTLAND will become an independent nation next year – in cyberspace at least.

SNP ministers are to press ahead with plans to ditch the “.uk” at the end of internet addresses for the Scottish Government and replace it with “.sco”.

Details of the switchover are set to be finalised by the end of the year and to go ahead in 2009 after internet regulators agreed to a shake-up of web-naming rules. So First Minister Alex Salmond’s Government address will change from a Union-friendly www.scotland.gov.uk to an independence-ready www.scotland.gov.sco.

While the change is symbolically important for the SNP, it will have many IT managers tearing their hair out because thousands of web pages and links will have to be updated.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) decided last week to permit greater freedom in internet domain names to keep up with demand for new web pages.

A Scottish Government source said: “We hope to have the application in for the .sco suffix by the end of the year. If it’s approved, which will be a matter of weeks rather than months, then we can get the names changed next year.”

Similar suffixes have already been awarded to Jersey and the Isle of Man, while the Spanish region of Catalonia has the right to end its websites “.cat”.

Nationalist MSPs have long campaigned for the change, and a similar move is under way in Wales to have “.cym” made the new Welsh internet domain name. Some in England are pushing for “.eng” for addresses south of the border.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We welcome ICANN’s decision and we are positive about the establishment of a .sco domain name.

“We are giving careful consideration to the ICANN proposals and issues around the introduction of the abbreviation to make an informed decision about whether to support a Scottish top-level domain.”

However, the prospect of the move has filled IT operators in Scotland with horror. Last year, councils had to update hundreds of websites referring to the then Scottish Executive and replace the title with the name Scottish Government.

One senior local government IT operator said: “We will have to go through thousands of links and update them all.

“We will demand that the Scottish Government should have a referring page, which will redirect people to the new page. But it’s going to be a nightmare.”

He added that councils might take different views on the new suffix, with Labour-run councils opting to “remain in the virtual UK” while Nationalist councils might go for “cyber-independence”. An example might be Labour-run Glasgow, which could stick with www.glasgow.gov.uk, while SNP-run Renfrewshire might opt for www.renfrewshire.gov.sco.

Moreover, changes in political complexion in administrations could lead to councils joining and leaving the UK internet domain.

Other options for new domains will include cities such as London and New York having “.ldn” and “.nyc” respectively.