Help Wales Profit from the Next Major Change to the Internet... ( The text below is reproduced from an email circulated by the campaign today )"Think global act local dotCYM OPENS THE DOORS FOR MEMBERS At a time when international organisations and investment banks are in difficulty, the bid for a Welsh internet domain is bucking the trend and opening its doors to people across Wales and beyond. This shows confidence that people are willing to make a moral investment in the future of Wales by becoming members of dotCYM, the bid for a Welsh domain.Starting today (Wednesday 15 October 2008) the people of Wales have a unique opportunity to change the face of the Internet by helping win a .cym domain that would put Wales at the forefront of the next major shift online. ICANN, the international body responsible for internet domains, is preparing to accept applications for new domains early in 2009 and thanks to the dotCYM campaign, Wales is in with a real chance shoulder to shoulder with heavyweights like .sco (Scotland), .london, .berlin, .paris and .nyc (New York City).'What we need now is members,' says dotCYM managing director Sin Jobbins. 'The Welsh Assembly Government has agreed to support our bid, we've been engaged in extensive lobbying with the internets governing body, ICANN, we're working flat out on the legal details, but ICANN have said that they will look more positively on bids that have community support, and that the number of members is how they will assess that. This is a bid for the whole Welsh community, and we want as many people as possible to fly the red dragon online. We're confident that .cym can build on its claim to be the people's domain.'This means that unlike most international decisions, the people of Wales (and the Welsh diaspora) have a real say in whether or not .cym will happen. Even major players like Nominet (responsible for .uk) only have about 3000 members, so every single Welsh person who becomes a member of dotCYM will make a genuinely significant difference to the chance of winning the new domain and then to the running of that domain. They will also have a voice in the future of the domain, as dotCYM is a not-for-profit bid - profits from the sale of .cym will be invested back into the Welsh internet community and infrastructure, not in big fat bonuses for the bosses! The bid for the .cym domain is built on sound ethics as well as sound internet and business sense unlike much of the worlds business.'It's a great chance for the people of Wales to show that they want Wales to be successful online,' says Maredudd ap Gwyndaf, one of the founding directors of dotCYM. '.cym will help keep internet spend in Wales, it will help Welsh companies rise up the search rankings for searches including terms like Wales or Cymru, and it will make Wales a safer place to be online by increasing our ability to police eCrime and if people show they want it by becoming members, we'll have an excellent chance of winning.'Anyone who wants to help win this for Wales can sign up at www.dotcym.org for 2 a month or 24 a year (100 a year for institutions)"