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Public Interest Registry

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General Information
Industry: Internet, Domain registry
Issue Areas: DNS
Country: USA
Founded: Reston, VA, 2002
Headquarters: 1775 Wiehle Avenue,
Suite 200
Reston, VA 20190
Website: https://thenew.org/
Email: info@pir.org
Facebook: Facebook
Twitter: [@PIRegistry Twitter]
People

Public Interest Registry (PIR) is a non-profit registry operator that manages the .org TLD. They also manage the ".ORG Family of Domains", which are .gives, .giving, .charity, .ong, .ngo, and also the IDN versions of .org, .орг (Cyrillic), .संगठन (Devanagari) and .机构 (Simplified Chinese).

The non-profit was established in 2002 by the Internet Society (ISOC). PIR was originally formed to take over the operation and maintenance of the .org domain and its database from Verisign Global Registry Services.[1] The organization’s headquarters is located in Reston, Virginia, USA.[2]

History edit

The .org top-level domain was first created in October 1984 by Jon Postel and Joyce Reynolds. At first, .org was managed by SRI International's Network Information Center (SRI-NIC), and then to Network Solutions, later acquired by Verisign. It was decided than that Verisign would give up the management of .org. The TLD would be managed by a registry operator appointed by ICANN, which would analyze proposals. Eleven proposals were received. On October 14, 2002, the ICANN Board met to consider the proposals in view of the extensive public and applicant comment, as well as the evaluation reports by the various evaluation teams.[3]. The selected proposal was the one from Internet Society (ISOC), who had established a new organization, Public Interest Registry (PIR), which would be the registry operator and subject to agreements to be negotiated between ICANN and PIR. ISOC remained responsible for appointing the Board of Directors of PIR, which will otherwise operate as a separate not-for-profit entity separate.[4] On November 26, 2002, the U.S. Department of Commerce approved PIR as successor registry under Amendment 3 of its Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN. The ICANN and PIR formally entered the .org Registry Agreement on 2 December 2002.[3] PIR would assume on January 1, 2003.[4]

On December 8, 2006, the agreement between ICANN and Public Interest Registry was renewed for another 6.5 years.[5]

In 2010, the .org domain emerged as the third-largest generic top-level domain in the world, as per the bi-annual domain name report published by Public Interest Registry for the dates of January to June 2010.[6]

On August 22, 2013, the agreement between ICANN and PIR was once again renewed.[7]

On January 1, 2018, PIR entered into a new registry services agreement with Afilias as its back-end registry services provider following a competitive procurement process including more than 20 potential service providers representing 15 countries.

In January 2018, PIR celebrated 15 years of managing the .org domain.

On November 13-14, 2019, PIR announced that ISOC, its parent organization, had reached an agreement with Ethos Capital, under which Ethos Capital would acquire PIR and all of its assets from ISOC. PIR would also become a for-profit Pennsylvania limited liability company. PIR formally submitted to ICANN a "Notice of Indirect Change of Control and Entity Conversion."[8] EFF, NTEN, and Access Now organized a petition that 871 organizations and 27,183 people signed to stop the transaction, paying special attention to the future of the .org domain. [9]

On April 30, 2020, ICANN Board formally announced that it would withhold consent for a Change of Control of PIR from Internet Society to Ethos Capital.[10]

Other PIR TLDs edit

Public Interest Registry announced ahead of the January 2012 launch of ICANN's new gTLD program that it was planning on applying for .ngo and .ong. Public Interest Registry was a platinum sponsor of ICANN 42 in Dakar.[11]  Public Interest Registry also announced that it had intentions to implement an authentication process that would ensure that all .ngo and .ong registrants were actual NGOs, given the fact that .org is an open TLD. Public Interest Registry was the only applicant for .ngo and .ong. Early in the process, there were intentions from [dotNGO]]. to apply for .ngo. The .ngo and .ong domains went into sunrise on March 17, 2015.

For Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), Public Interest Registry submitted for the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that translate to “organization,” “org” or “structured organization” in Devanagari, Cyrillic and Chinese-simplified scripts. The four applications - one in Devanagari, one in Cyrillic, and two in simplified Chinese- were filed as part of ICANN’s global Internet expansion initiative. In 2014, the Devanagari, Cyrillic and 2-character Chinese simplified scripts were officially launched. 

As of January 2023, .giving joined PIR’s family of domains for all types of mission-driven organizations. In 2022, PIR reintroduced .gives, .charity, and .foundation as part of the .ORG Family of Domains.[12]

.org Statistics edit

Registration for .org passed the 10 million mark on June 24th, 2012. The ten millionth registration was for jadforum.org, registered by the Jordan River and Dead Sea Basin Forum via GoDaddy. It was the 7th TLD to pass the milestone, the others being: .com, .de (2006), .net(2007), .uk (2012), .cn, and .tk.[13]

Governance edit

PIR is governed by a Board of Directors who are appointed by Internet Society. The Board is comprised of seven members, and its current Chairman is Saerin Cho. The current CEO and president of Public Interest Registry is Jon Nevett.[14]

The Public Interest Registry leadership team comprises five senior members of the organization covering Legal, Policy, Operations and Finance. Alexa Raad, the original CEO of PIR, stepped down from the position on September 24, 2010.[15] Maarten Botterman served as interim CEO until Brian Cute was appointed to the position.

Besides the board of directors, Public Interest Registry also has an advisory council, which was "created to advise on issues ranging from public policy to the introduction of new services." The council comprises members representing a broad spectrum of member organizations around the world.

Deployment of DNSSEC edit

In April 2008, Public Interest Registry submitted a request to ICANN to amend the .org registry, specifically the function of the registry and the corresponding Whois and DNS systems for the .org gTLD, in order to facilitate the use of "Domain Name System Security Extensions" (DNSSEC) as specified in RFCs 4033, 4034, 4035 and 5155.[16] The ICANN board approved this proposal in June 2008.[15]

On June 23, 2010, Alexa Raad, Public Interest Registry’s CEO at that time, announced at an ICANN 38 Brussels press conference that .org had become the first generic top-level domain to offer full deployment of DNSSEC. DNSSEC had become the most robust security protocol on the Internet as of 2010, and registrars who have implemented DNSSEC in their system can "offer added security protection to their customers by enabling .org website owners to sign their respective domain name with validation keys."[17]

The benefit of DNSSEC to a .org registrant is the "added ability to thwart the increased predominance of attacks like pharming, cache poisoning, DNS redirection and domain hijacking - all of which have been used to commit fraud, distribute malware and identity theft."[18]

Project 94 edit

In October 2012, it was announced that PIR would be auctioning off 85 one and two-character domain names via eNom and GoDaddy. The names were released when PIR renewed its agreements with ICANN earlier in the year, and while 94 were released, 9 of them were held back given that they match ccTLDs. Only organizations with registered and recognizable trademarks and rights to the letters and possible acronyms are allowed to participate in the auctions. These organizations had to be pre-approved to participate. The project is known as Project 94.[19]

Programs edit

Public Interest Registry’s mission is to educate and enable the global noncommercial community in support of using the internet more effectively. Public Interest Registry began working with Nonprofit Tech for Good in 2015. The two organizations set out to educate the nonprofit industry through the development of the Global NGO Technology Report and Global Trends in Giving Report. Both reports survey thousands of NGOs around the world about their use of technology to connect with their audience and donors. The report provides insight into the online and mobile communication tools NGOs worldwide use to promote general awareness, communicate with core audiences and raise funds from donors, as well as an analysis of those online tools and comparisons of regional usage.

Public Interest Registry and Nonprofit Tech for Good have partnered to host multiple webinars to educate attendees on a variety of topics ranging from online communications trends to how to best communicate with donors. The free webinars concluded in December 2017 with nearly 58,000 nonprofit staff worldwide participating.

.ORG Impact Awards edit

The .ORG Impact Awards is a global awards program that started in 2019.[20] The goal to recognize individuals and organizations that have a connection to a registered . ORG domain for their contributions, achievements and impact in their communities.[21]

As of 2025, there are seven categories:

  • Quality Education for All: recognizes an organization or individual for contributions in providing education for all.
  • Health and Healing: recognizes an organization or individual dedicated to providing health and wellness resources to the community, including education and awareness, vaccine development, equitable distribution of supplies, and mental health resources.
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: recognizes an organization or individual for efforts toward furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion in society through creation of policies, programs, and initiatives that address systemic challenges and historic injustices.
  • Environmental Stewardship: recognizes an organization or individual that works to combat the increased threats to our environment and promotes responsible consumption and environmental sustainability in communities around the world.
  • Community Building: recognizes an organization or individual whose efforts have contributed to changing or enhancing the lives of those in the community the nominee serves, whether on a local, national, or global level.
  • Hunger and Poverty: recognizes an organization or individual who has made significant contributions and innovations in the fight to end hunger, alleviate poverty, and reduce resource inequalities on a local, national, or global scale.
  • Rising Star: recognizes an individual under the age of 25 who has created a positive impact in their community through leadership on a project, platform, task, or campaign.
  • .ORG of the Year: recognizes and honors an organization or individual for outstanding achievement as evidenced by results and/or contributions to its sector, constituents, community, or society at large.

IWF Partnership edit

PIR has a partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to help combat the commercial distribution and exploitation of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) across their TLDs. PIR also sponsors access for all Domain Name Registries with free access to two important IWF services, Domain Alerts and the TLD (Top-Level Domain) Hopping List.

NetBeacon Institute edit

Main article: NetBeacon Institute

In 2021, PIR founded the DNS Abuse Institute to act against online DNS abuse, which was renamed NetBeacon Institute in 2024. The Institute is fully funded and supported by PIR.[22]

References edit

  1. ↑ ISOC: Public Interest Registry (PIR)
  2. ↑ PIR: Who We Are
  3. ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 IANA: Report on Redelegation of the .org Top-Level Domain
  4. ↑ Jump up to: 4.0 4.1 ICANN: ICANN Board Selects New .org Registry Operator
  5. ↑ ↑ Jump up to:10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 PIR's "The Dashboard," January - June, 2015, PIR.org.
  6. ↑ Jump up↑ 101 Million Org Domains and Counting, CircleID.com Retrieved & Published 28 Feb 2013
  7. ↑ Agreement renewal
  8. ↑ https://thenew.org/the-internet-society-public-interest-registry-a-new-era-of-opportunity/ PIR sell announcement]
  9. ↑ Statement of request for contract protections
  10. ↑ ICANN Board withholds consent of PIR sale
  11. ↑ Jump up↑ Nonprofits May Soon Say, Philanthropy.com.
  12. ↑ PIR Launches .giving, PIR Newsroom
  13. ↑ Jump up↑ Org Seventh TLD To Pass 10 Millionth Registration Milestone, DomainNews.com. link doesn’t work
  14. ↑ https://pir.org/who-we-are/teams/
  15. ↑ InternetNews: .ORG Loses CEO
  16. ↑ Jump up↑ Understanding the Role of Registrars in DNSSEC Deployment, Conferences.SigComm.org.
  17. ↑ 1.   Jump up↑ ICANN Adopted Board Resolutions (26 June 2008), ICANN.org. Published 2008 June 26.
  18. ↑ Jump up↑ Dakar42, ICANN.org.
  19. ↑ Domain Incite: Domainers Not Welcome in One Character Org Auction
  20. ↑ PIR: Why Should .ORGs Enter the OIAs?
  21. ↑ .Org Impact Awards, Domain Name Wire
  22. ↑ PIR: NetBeacon Institute

Country code top-level domain, as determined by "ISO 3166: Country Codes".

Child Sexual Abuse Material

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