[EricH]

Originally Posted by Starke

As I was reading your reply, I noticed something that got me thinking about something similar to the theme of this thread. Currently, the FIRST website domain name is www.usfirst.org. I assume that the "US" stands for "United States" unless is actually means the word "us." Is it right/fair for FIRST to show affiliation with one country over another now that it is international?

Matt, I think you've forgotten what you may have learned back as a rookie. (back when Canada had few teams, though a few they did have). The United States Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology ("FIRST") generally does not use their FULL name in common use, mainly because it's a lot faster to just use "FIRST". The only places I found it on the website were in consent and release forms, and in the policy on the use of FIRST's trademarks. In other words, legal stuff where they have to use the full name (and even then, it's only long enough to get the acronym in play, usually in the first couple of lines).

I would guess that FIRST picked up the domain back when they weren't so international and kept it because of a combination of the following:
1) It is, after all, their full acronym.
2) It isn't terribly difficult to move a website to a new domain... but it isn't terribly easy either.
3) The confusion to all users, international included, isn't worth it.

Edit: Looks like Nate beat me to it...