Surveying the Terroir of Protocol Politics: Examining the Case of the ".Wine" and ".Vin" Top-Level Domains

• In Event: CAT Interactive Paper Session 2

Abstract

In a single bottle of wine rests a millennia old identity. This identity comes from what viticulturists call the terroir. There is a new terroir where some, but not all, cultural, economic, and political identities of wine have taken root, this is the Domain Name Space (DNS). This research will use the .wine and .vin case-study to answer the question: How can one read the top-level domains (TLD) of .wine and .vin as cases demonstrating the role of protocological control in creating domain imperialism? Specifically, the investigation will focus on how the protocological power of the Donuts registry over the ‘.Wine’ and ‘.Vin’ top-level domains acts as an example of ‘domain imperialism.’ This type of imperialism rests upon protocological power, which has enabled those with said power, the ability to define new digital name spaces in ways that minimize the diversity of cultural spaces through a rigid hierarchical power structure.

Author

• Anna Loup, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication