.voice

MISSION .VOICE will establish a dedicated namespace for voice-based communication, audio media and speech technology — a sector central to how people now interact with one another and with computing, but which has no naming convention of its own. PURPOSE Voice has become a primary interface. Telephony, voice assistants, speech recognition, synthetic speech, podcasting, audiobooks and voice-first applications have grown from niche to mainstream within a decade. The organizations building and delivering these services compete for scarce inventory in undifferentiated legacy namespaces, and frequently settle for names that obscure rather than communicate what they do. .VOICE gives the sector a semantically precise namespace that is legible across markets and languages. INTENDED REGISTRANTS .VOICE is an open TLD, operated on a non-discriminatory basis. Registration is available to any person or entity that accepts the registration terms. The applying entity imposes no eligibility criteria and no pre-registration verification, and registration is not limited to the applying entity or its Affiliates. Intended registrants include: - voice and audio technology companies, including VoIP providers, speech-recognition and conversational-AI developers, and voice-interface platforms; - audio media producers, including podcast networks, audiobook publishers, radio stations and production studios; - voice professionals, including voice actors, narrators, presenters, singers, voice coaches, and speech and language therapists; - enterprises operating voice-based customer contact channels; and - industry associations, standards bodies and professional guilds serving these fields. INTENDED USERS End users are the audiences and customers of those registrants: listeners, podcast and audiobook audiences, enterprise buyers of voice infrastructure, and the clients of voice professionals. They benefit from a namespace whose meaning requires no explanation and which signals the medium directly. SUSTAINABILITY The purpose is sustainable because it rests on structural rather than cyclical demand: voice interaction is expanding as a computing interface and as a media format, and the naming need it creates grows with it. Registry operations are funded by registration and renewal revenue together with committed applicant funding, as set out in the financial projections submitted with this application, which demonstrate adequate funding to sustain all critical registry functions under both the Most Likely and Worst Case scenarios. Critical registry functions are delivered by contracted, ICANN pre-evaluated Registry Service Providers, and a Continued Operations Instrument secures those functions independently of the applying entity's own performance.

Mission and Purpose The .voice namespace offers a recognizable web address built around "voice," a broadly used term for spoken expression, sound, communication, perspective, and identity. The term has established meanings across technology, media, creative work, business, and everyday language. A name on .voice gives a registrant a clear, memorable identity that reflects one or more of those meanings. The purpose is to make available an open namespace that many kinds of registrants may find useful for an online presence. A voice application, audio service, creator platform, publication, communications resource, personal project, or company's chosen destination on .voice becomes a recognizable name. For registrants working with speech, audio, or artificial intelligence, the namespace offers an identity that can reflect the technologies and services through which people create, use, or interact with voice. Other registrants may use .voice to express a point of view, represent a community or organization, present creative work, or simply because the term suits the identity they want to create. In every case, the value of the namespace is the clarity, familiarity, and versatility of the term itself, available to any registrant who wants to make use of it. Intended Registrants .voice will operate on an open registration model, available to any registrant without eligibility restrictions and without conditions tied to any particular company, industry, technology, profession, or use. Registrants are likely to include, but are in no way limited to, developers and companies building speech and voice technologies, artificial intelligence companies, audio and communications providers, media organizations, creators and performers, publishers, businesses, community organizations, and individuals using "voice" in any of its other established senses. Uses of .voice are similarly open and are not limited to any particular technology, platform, provider, form of expression, or subject matter. Related Activities Supporting the Purpose - Awareness-building among the technology, media, communications, creative, and business communities most likely to find the namespace useful - Broad registrar distribution to make .voice names widely available - Registrant education on the availability and use of .voice names - Community outreach through developer, audio, media, communications, and creative ecosystems - Responsible registry operations, including standard abuse mitigation and registration policies Sustainability .voice is durable because it is tied to a broadly used term with longstanding meanings in communication, expression, sound, and identity rather than to a single product, industry, technology, or vendor. People and organizations use voice to communicate, create, represent perspectives, and interact with one another, while technologies for speech, audio, and voice-based interaction continue to develop. The relevance of the term therefore does not depend on any particular device, platform, model, or technological trend. As the ways people communicate, create, and interact continue to evolve, organizations and individuals may continue to find a clear, dedicated .voice identity useful. That breadth provides a continuing pool of potential registrants across both technological and non-technological uses of the term. OpenAI has the operational, technical, and financial capacity to run the registry over the long term, consistent with the commitments described elsewhere in this application, and will continue to adapt registrant services and policies as the space develops.

The mission of .VOICE is to provide a namespace associated with the applied-for string. The .VOICE gTLD is intended to serve a broad range of registrants and users, including individuals, businesses, organizations, communities, projects, and other entities that identify with, relate to, or wish to be associated with the concept represented by the applied-for string. The purpose of .VOICE is to enable registrants to establish online identities using domain names that correspond to this concept. To achieve this purpose, Paws Button, LLC will make .VOICE available for registration through registrars and other appropriate distribution channels; maintain a secure, stable, and reliable registry infrastructure; implement registration and operational policies that support the availability, security, and integrity of the namespace; and provide ongoing administration of the gTLD to enable registrants to register and use domain names within the namespace. The purpose of .VOICE is sustainable over time because the applied-for string has multiple commonly understood meanings and broad applicability across a wide range of contexts. As society evolves, organizations and individuals will continue to establish online identities associated with the applied-for string.