U.S. Commerce Dept expands .edu Internet domain

February 11th, 2003
By Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bible colleges, ballet studios and acupuncture schools will soon be able to claim an online address in the same neighborhood as Harvard and Yale, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Tuesday.

The ".edu" Internet domain, currently available only to colleges and universities, will be opened up to a wide range of educational institutions that teach everything from mortuary science to marriage counseling, the Commerce Department said.

The move will allow the Dallas College of Oriental Medicine to change its Web address from (www.diaom.com) to (www.diam.edu), if it so desires.

Educause, the nonprofit group that oversees the domain, will make the domain available to new members in mid-April. The domain currently houses roughly 7,500 domain names, spokesman Peter DeBlois said.

One of seven original Internet domains set up in 1985, .edu was originally reserved for four-year colleges and universities.

Educause, which represents college technology departments, expanded the domain to allow the nation's 1,600 community colleges to register for .edu addresses in 2001.