.ong

Status:	Proposed
Manager:	Public Interest Registry (PIR)
Registry Provider:	Afilias
Type:	Community TLD
Category:	Industry
Community:	non-profit organizations
Priority #:	810 - PIR
More information:

.ong is a proposed new Community gTLD by Public Interest Registry (PIR) to the New gTLD Program of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The term "ong" is an abbreviation for non-government organizations in French: "Organisation Non Gouvernementale," Spanish: "Organizacion No Gubernamental," and Portuguese: "Organizacao Nao Governamental. PIR is also applying for the .ngo string to cater to all the non-profit organizations world wide. PIR is the registr operator of the .org generic top level domain name gTLD.

Brian Cute, CEO of PIR said that the decision of the company to apply for the .ong and .ngo strings is natural fit for PIR, "since our founding in 2002, PIR has been serving the public interest and not-for-profit organizations, including those in the underserved markets.

The application is a Community Priority Application "All registrants must demonstrate affiliation through NGO membership organizations or through evidence of NGO status. PIR will work with membership organization, the NGO Community Advisory Council, and other members of the NGO Community to validate their eligibility."

In February 2013, PIR became the first major registry to begin offering pre-registration, also known as "expressions of interest" for its .ngo and .ong applications. The registry was forward with the fact that they would likely not be available until 2014, but the service acts as an alert function, updating potential applicants when their desired domain names will become available.