Published by: CMS/BCCS/EBAS
This policy is in place to direct and facilitate standardization using illinois.gov for Illinois government web sites as outlined in this document. Illinois has adopted www.illinois.gov as the primary domain for the state’s main home page.
Consistent web site domain names (URL’s) enable people to locate information on the Internet more easily and effectively. The .gov domain has been made available by the federal government and offers the opportunity for standardization within the state of Illinois.
The .gov domain is overseen by the federal government and reserved for use by federal, state, and local governments. The State of Illinois via Central Management Services (CMS) Web Services as the administrator and as the technical contact has registered illinois.gov for use by state and local government and related interests in Illinois.
Third Level Sub domains of illinois.gov
Third level sub domains of the illinois.gov domains will help achieve consistent naming conventions throughout the various levels of Illinois government. This Standardization effort will enhance the accessibility of information and services provided by state and local government.
Primary Domain Designation
The third level sub domain of illinois.gov is to be used as the primary domain and should be conveyed as such at all times. This domain should be used on all advertising, correspondence, printed materials, signage, etc.
Entities eligible to register third level sub domain names are:
Constitutional Officers
State Agencies, Offices, Boards, and Commissions
Counties
Cities
Municipalities
Eligibility Requirements
All entities are advised to maintain accessible web sites in accordance with the Federal "Section 508" and World Wide Web Consortium accessibility guidelines. Entities under the governor are required to comply with the Illinois Web Accessibility Standards
(http://www.illinois.gov/iwas/) in combination with the use of the official state templates
(http://www.illinois.gov/webtemplates/). For more specifics on compliance to the IWAS
Standards and the use of the templates contact Web Services at at 217-558-6404.
Federal .gov Program Guidelines
All entities using a .gov domain must comply with the federal guidelines, which can be accessed at http://www.dotgov.gov/program_guidelines.aspx. Entities that operate Web sites that are not in compliance with the .gov program guidelines may have their domain name terminated.
Eligible entities requesting third level sub domains for illinois.gov domain name s will use the following naming conventions:
Constitutional Officers
will register their domain names at the third-level under the second-level state domain. The appropriate naming conventions would be (officename).illinois.gov. Acronyms or abbreviations may be appropriate. Examples: www.sos.illinois.gov, www.treasurer.illinois.gov or www.governor.illinois.gov
State entities under the Governor such as agencies, bureaus, offices, boards, and commissions will register their domain names at the third-level under the second-level state domain. The appropriate naming conventions would be (agencyname) .illinois.gov. Acronyms or abbreviations may be appropriate. Examples: www.dnr.illinois.gov, www.dceo.illinois.gov or www.cms.illinois.gov
County governments will register their domain names at the third-level domain under the second-level state domain. The appropriate naming conventions would be (countyname) county.illinois.gov or (countyname)co.illinois.gov. Examples: www.sangamoncounty.illinois.gov, www.cookcounty.illinois.gov or www.mcleanco.illinois.gov
Cities, towns and other municipalities will register their domain names at the third-level under the second-level state domain. The appropriate naming conventions would be (townname).illinois.gov or (cityname).illinois.gov. Acronyms or abbreviations may be appropriate. Examples: www.springfield.illinois.gov, www.chicago.illinois.gov, www.warsaw.illinois.gov
Appropriate efforts, initiatives or programs within state agencies, offices, boards, commissions and constitutional officers may request specialized domains based on the following criteria. The domain must reflect the name of the effort, initiative or program (Abbreviations or acronyms may be used). The associated site must have viability exceeding 90 days (Exceptions to this rule may be granted for re-occurring and or annual initiatives). Examples:(www.etcc.illinois.gov), (www.affordabledrugs.illlinois.gov), (www.poetlaureate.illinois.gov), (www.benefitschoice.illinois.gov)
E-mail Naming Scheme
State of Illinois entities under the governor are encouraged to migrate to the
following e-mail address-naming scheme of unique.user.name@Illinois.gov. Please
contact Enterprise Email Support at 217-782-1102 for additional information.
Eligible entities may request sub domain names via the following process.
A Central Management Services (Domain Name) form must be filed out and submitted by an IT official from the requesting organization. The form and instructions are available at the following URLs.
FORM:
Domain Service Request [WORD, 117KB]
INSTRUCTIONS:
Instructions for Domain Name Service Request Form [PDF, 98KB]
Approval/Denial Considerations
As an eligible entity is granted each unique domain name, both the illinois.gov versions will be reserved to avoid confusion. Examples:
www.cms.illinois.gov
Any entity that receives an illinois.gov sub domain name must comply with current requirements set forth by the General Services Administration which can be found at: http://www.dotgov.gov
Web Services The Illinois Technology Office reserves the right to limit or deny domain requests. For instance a domain that equates to one entity may not be requested by another. Long and or potentially confusing domains will also be scrutinized. The requesting entity will be notified of the decision.
Costs, Initial and/or Re-occurring
As of 9/04 there are no initial or re-occurring costs associated with the registration and maintenance of each domain name, however, CMS reserves the right to impose applicable processing and or maintenance fees.
Use Verification
To ensure the appropriate and ongoing use of domains, CMS may initiate a periodic verification process that may or may not coincide with a re-occurring or annual fee.
Definitions Reference
Definitions have been provided to clarify specific references within the policy.
Domain name: a unique name that is assigned to a web site.
Domain: A group of hardware that share a common part of an IP address (i.e. .com, .net, .gov). The General Services Administration (GSA) is responsible for registrations in the (.gov) domain.
.gov Domain: Refers to the Internet top-level domain (.gov) operated by the General Services Administration. www.dotgov.gov
Second Level Domain: The second-level domain is the next highest level of the hierarchy under the top-level domain. The second-level domain should define or identify the organization or entity that registered the domain, such as illinois.gov.
Third Level Domain: The third-level domain is next in the hierarchy. It is a further specialization within the organization or entity that registered the second-level domain, such as cms.ilillinois.gov.
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This policy is in place to direct and facilitate standardization using illinois.gov for Illinois government web sites as outlined in the document below.
