Mali to give away .ML domains for free

African nation Mali will give away domains in its .ML digital demesne for nothing.

The giveaway starts in May, when Freedom Registry will open the floodgates, a term we use because “There will be no restrictions to registrations of free domains and anyone can claim its own .ML domain,” according to Freedom Registry's press release (PDF).

Mali has made its domain available to all because according to Moussa Dolo, General Manager of AGETIC (Mali's Agence des technologies de l’information et de la communication, aka Ministry of Communications) “By providing free domain names to internet users worldwide we will put Mali back on the map. We wish to show the rest of the world the fantastic opportunities our country has to offer.”

Free domain names are also hoped to spark adoption of the internet within the strife-torn nation, which readers may remember received French troops in January 2013. France sent troops to fight rebel groups allegedly aligned to Al-Qaeda that had taken over some of the nation's north.

The .ML domain will be carved up in three phases, with a “Sunrise” phase in May and subsequent June “Land Rush” during which “hundreds of generic and premium domain names will be released. Applicants are asked to contemplate “strategic partnership opportunities” during that period of time. Come July 15th, the world+dog can take their pick.

A quick bit of research suggests no English words end in “ml”, but the couplet appears in many words listed here for those who can get clever with subdomains. It's also the last two letters of HTML, XML, SGML and a great many industry specific markup languages.

Which could mean Gastro Intestinal Markup Language (GIML) finally gets its chance to shine. ®