Domain name expansion focus in Sydney

The expansion of the internet's address system - domain names - is set to be the centre of discussions at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN) international conference in Sydney.

Speaking to ABC News, Paul Levins, from ICANN, said the main focus of the conference will be the expansion of new domain names, such as .Sydney.

Currently, there are 21 generic top-level domains like.com and .org and he stated that the aim is to ensure that the development of the internet is not limited by the domain names that exist now.

"That might mean potentially a discussion about a dot-Sydney; there's already discussions about a dot-Paris and a dot-London and a dot-New York, so why not a dot-Sydney?" Mr Levins asked the publication.

Only characters that look like English can be used for domain names, but the conference will discuss the potential expansion of Russian and Chinese characters.

ICANN is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation set up in 1998 to attempt to keep the internet secure and stable and it promotes competition.

Written by Debra Hastings-Henry