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Revision as of 22:23, 9 February 2012 by Caterina (talk | contribs)
Status: Active
Manager: PIR
Registry Provider: Afilias
Date Implemented: 1985
Type: gTLD
More information:

.org is one of the first generic top-level domains (gTLD) to be included in the Internet Domain Name System (DNS). It is managed by the Public Interest Registry (PIR), a non-profit organization founded by the Internet Society (ISOC) in 2002.[1]

History[edit | edit source]

Management Under Network Solutions/VeriSign[edit | edit source]

.org was created by the Network Working Group led by Jon Postel and Joyce Reynolds along with .com, .edu, .gov and .mil in 1984 as an open and unrestricted top-level domain name.[2] Originally, the operations of the .org registry was managed by SRI International's Network Information Center (SRI-NIC); it was managed there from is creation until 1992.

In 1993, Network Solutions assumed the registration services of the .org under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF) that was to last until 1998. [3] However, in 1998, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued the White Paper[4] in response to the instruction of Pres. Bill Clinton to form a new non-profit organization to take over the responsibilities in improving the technical management of the Internet Domain Name System, as a result, Network Solutions' contract to manage the registration services of the .org was extended by the Department of Commerce until September 30, 2000.[5] In 1999, Network Solutions entered an agreement with ICANN to remain as the registry operator of the .org gTLD until December 31, 2002.[6]

Transition to Current Management[edit | edit source]

The control of Network Solutions changed hands in 2000, when Verisign acquired the majority share holding at a price of USD 20 billion.[7] During the meeting in Accra, Ghana in March of 2002, the ICANN Board resolved the request for proposals from parties interested in taking over the registry operations of the .org TLD from Verisign.[8]

ICANN received 11 proposals by June of 2002 and created four teams to evaluate the proposals. The teams include:[9]

  • Gartner, Inc.- it was tasked to evaluate the technical aspects of the proposals
  • An international team of Chief Information Officers- conducted an independent technical evaluation using a different methodology
  • Noncommercial Domain Name Holders Constituency of ICANN's DNSO- responsible for usage evaluation of the proposals
  • ICANN's General Counsel- evaluated the procedural aspects of the bids.

After evaluating the proposals, the teams recommended these candidates to succeed the management of the .org registration services from Verisign:

The Department of Commerce approved Public Interest Registry to take over the management of the .org TLD registry.[10] PIR officially assumed the functions of .org registry operator on January 1, 2003.[11] In 2006, PIR renewed its .org Registry Agreement with ICANN until June 30, 2013.[12]

PIR Report on .org[edit | edit source]

The .org TLD is considered the world's third largest top-level domain with 8.8 million organizations registered as of 2010. The top ten markets for .org registrations include The United States (60.4%), Germany (5.0%), United Kingdom (4.3%), Canada (3.5%), France (3.2%), Netherlands (2.2%), Spain (1.8%), China (1.8%), Italy (1.5%) and Japan (1.5%). Currently, there are 32 registrars offering second level registration of .org domain names following PIR's deployment of the DNSSEC.[13]

.org IDN[edit | edit source]

The Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) registration for the .org TLD is available in German, Danish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean (Hangul), Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Swedish scripts since 2005. The Spanish language script became available in 2007, while Chinese IDN registration became available in January of 2010; IDN registration for Bosnian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian languages using the Cyrillic script started February 19, 2011.[14]

References[edit | edit source]

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