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.NGO Domain Name in the Works for Global Nonprofit Community

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Brian Cute, CEO of the Public Interest Registry

In a recent interview with Brian Cute, CEO of the Public Interest Registry (PIR), which has managed the .ORG domain name for more than a decade, we discussed PIR’s efforts to apply for a .NGO domain extension (and its equivalent in several languages) to better serve the global nonprofit community.

Brian Cute joined the Public Interest Registry (PIR) as CEO in 2011, backed by more than 12 years of experience in the Internet and communications industry. Prior to joining PIR, Mr. Cute served as vice president of discovery services for Afilias, the world’s leading provider of Internet infrastructure solutions that connect people to their data and the registry systems provider to PIR for the .ORG domain. His experience within the domain name system (DNS) runs deep, having held management positions with both a leading domain name registrar, Network Solutions, as director of policy, and a leading registry, VeriSign, as vice president of government relations until 2003.

Rahim Kanani: When did you first start thinking about a .NGO domain name?

Brian Cute: One could argue that we’ve been thinking about it for a long time. In fact, when the Public Interest Registry (PIR) was founded in 2002, our mission stated that we would be a domain registry to address the “unique needs of the noncommercial, non-governmental organization (NGO), and nonprofit community worldwide.”

Practically speaking, the discussion started back in 2010, and in 2011, we set out to get feedback from the international NGO community to determine whether this domain extension would be beneficial. What we heard was a resounding “yes!” Everywhere we went, on every continent, non-governmental organizations truly identified with the three letters, ‘NGO.’ More than that, though, they were looking for ways to build or improve their online presence and establish trust and credibility at the same time.

Rahim Kanani: Why .NGO, and why now?

Brian Cute: PIR has managed the .ORG domain name and served the public interest and not-for-profit organizations for more than a decade. So when the Internet’s primary governing body, ICANN, approved the expansion of the Internet’s naming system in June 2011, it was a natural next step to apply for a domain extension specifically aimed at the needs of the global NGO community.

My colleagues and I traveled all around the globe to meet with NGOs about their online challenges. In fact, we held dozens of informational seminars with more than 1,000 attendees from all regions of the world. A common roadblock we heard throughout our discussions was that of being found online and building a trusted online presence that is so critical to raising money, rallying supporters, finding partners and ultimately advancing their mission.  For this reason, we are building an online NGO directory and a validation process with the NGO community to ensure that only NGOs qualify to own the domain name.

With .NGO, we’re giving these organizations an exclusive online signature that will help them be found online and help them make a positive impact on their communities and countries. If approved, we intend to invest in the NGO community to offer online tools to help organizations more effectively build their online presence and capitalize on the immense power of the Internet. This “NGO Community Program” will focus specifically on NGOs in developing countries and technologically underserved markets.

Rahim Kanani: How would it be different than those currently ending in .ORG? 

Brian Cute: Over the years, .ORG has organically grown into a domain extension synonymous with nonprofits.  However, .ORG remains an open top-level domain name, where any individual, organization, or even company running a corporate social responsibility campaign can register a domain name ending with .ORG to engage their community.

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2012/07/10/ngo-domain-name-in-the-works-for-global-nonprofit-community/. Creative Commons (CC)


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