Federal Council regulates use of the .swiss domain by the Federal Administration
The new .swiss Internet domain is intended to become a hallmark of Swiss e-government applications. On Wednesday, the Federal Council adopted rules governing the use of the Swiss top-level domain by the federal administration.
Since 2007, the Federal Administration has had a uniform appearance, the Federal Corporate Design or "CD Bund" for short. It also applies to the websites. These are located in the Admin.ch Internet domain. The federal CD promotes the recognizability of the federal websites. It prevents costly uncontrolled growth in web design.
With the acquisition and launch of ".swiss", the Swiss Confederation has had a second domain for just over a year. This represents Switzerland and its good reputation on the global web. ".swiss" has a high recognition value and a unique charisma. Since September 2015, more than 16,000 companies operating in Switzerland have registered an address in .swiss.
Added value for users instead of more websites
The Federal Council also wants to use the advantages of .swiss to promote digital Switzerland and support online communication with people in Switzerland and abroad. However, these uses should take into account the value and charisma of .swiss.
At the request of the Federal Chancellery, the Federal Council has therefore laid down rules for its use. The Admin.ch domain, which is now familiar to the Swiss population, remains the main domain of the Federal Administration. A complete transfer of the Federal Administration's websites to the .swiss domain would be too expensive. This would not be of sufficient benefit to citizens.
The .swiss domain is intended to house modern, service-oriented e-government services as developed by the federal government, cantons and municipalities as part of e-government Switzerland. These websites do not focus on an authority and its products. Instead, they are geared towards the needs of people and companies for quick and uncomplicated access to information, data, register extracts and permits. One of these websites, the Open Government Data Portal Opendata.swissis already in .swiss. More will follow.
However, users should also be able to immediately recognize these services as government services. The Federal Chancellery will therefore work with the departments and E-Government Switzerland over the next few months to define the brand elements that will ensure this recognizability.
