What's in a Web Name?

Web URL, or "names" have different ownership levels and meanings. A URL has distinct parts that increase in specificity from the right to the left. Despite popular belief, even if you have purchased or were granted a particular domain name, you do not own it. You are leasing it from the International entity called ICANN.

Example: www.creighton.edu

The ".edu":
A TLD or top level domain is the highest category of namespace on the Internet. These are strictly governed by ICANN and include .net, .com, .org, .name, .info, .edu, etc. and various country codes. ICANN granted governance of country codes to their country of origin. In addition the United States obtained governance of .edu and .gov. The Department of Commerce granted governance of .edu to EDUCAUSE.

The "creighton":
A primary domain is the name that immediately precedes the TLD suffix. These names are granted by their governing body such as ICANN (which has granted authority on commercial names to many other entities such as Network Solutions or GoDaddy), a specific country (.gov, .us), or EDUCAUSE (.edu)

The "www":
A subdomain is a name that immediately precedes the primary domain name. For www.creighton.edu, the "www" is the subdomain name. These names are granted by the organization/entity that owns the primary domain. IE: Creighton grants permissions for subdomains on the creighton.edu domain.

Limits are set by the owning organization and are based on their internal policies, procedures and complexity of their network. Current technical policy for Creighton domain is that only subdomains are allowed, no tertiary/sub-sub (<anything>.www.creighton.edu). This is due to technical complication of the internal DNS systems.

Naming policy for creighton.edu domain was approved in 2005. Policy for additional primary domains (non-.edu domains) to date has been "no" due to name recognition/dilution, copyright/trademark issues and complexity of technical resources. Existing primary domains that Creighton owns are grandfathered in ownership. DoIT, MPR and Legal are currently exploring policy governing obtaining and maintaining additional domain names.

What this means is that the Office of the Webmaster is limited in what type of domain name it can grant you.

If you request:

• creighton.myoffice.myspecialty.edu ... You are requesting an additional educational domain name. The domain you are requesting is "myspecialty". There is nothing we can do to help. EDUCAUSE will not grant any entity a domain unless they are on the approved list of educational institutions. Creighton University owns a domain granted by EDUCAUSE. They grant only one.
• mydepartment.creighton.edu ... You are requesting a subdomain to our existing domain. If you meet the standard published for naming conventions, AND the subdomain is not being used by anyone else, AND your VP approves the request, we can help.
• <anything>.mydepartment.creighton.edu ... You are requesting a sub-subdomain. We can only grant subdomains (see the above bullet for criteria)
• <anything>.my-special-unique-brand.com ... You are requesting a commercial domain name. This is the highest level of scrutiny. You first must obtain permission from your VP. After that point, the next approval is at the University level.. Policy is currently being codified for this type of request. Marketing and Public Relations, Legal and Division of Information Technology will all be involved in the approval process.