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June 10th, 2002


Corporate Voices	Home	Linux.Com	Reports	NewsVac

Leading dot-org asks for dot-org top level domain control

Wednesday June 19, 2002 - [ 05:21 PM GMT ]
Topic - Internet - - By Robin "Roblimo" Miller -
Today, the Internet Society (ISOC) announced that it is applying to take over registration of ".org" domain names when Verisign's contract with ICANN expires on December 31, 2002. ISOC is a non-profit group, and membership is open to anyone interested in the Internet. It would certainly be fitting for an "org" to handle "org" registrations, which were originally supposed to be reserved strictly for non-profits.

Get more information from this page.

There are about 2.4 million "org" names currently registered. ISOC is one of them. Slashdot.org is another, although many could correctly argue that Slashdot is now a commercial entity, so Slashdot.com would be more appropriate. (Note that Slashdot is now Slashdot.com as well as Slashdot.org. Note, too, that NewsForge.org resolves to NewsForge.com.)

Often site owners, including OSDN, which owns both Slashdot and NewsForge, register the same name under multiple TLDs [top level domains] as a purely defensive move, to keep others from using the same name with a different suffix, as it were. Perhaps putting "org" registrations under control of a strong, highly respected group like ISOC, a true non-profit with a wide membership base (anyone can join, including you) will help clear up some of this confusion. It's worth a try, anyway.

This is by no means a done deal. ISOC may or may not be able to pull this off.

There's a letter of support you can (and should) sign, and you don't need to be an ISOC member to put in your two cents here, so you might as well go ahead.

Perhaps ICANN, which controls the whole domain name schmear, will listen, although there's no way to be sure. ICANN's record of listening to the voice of the general Internet populace is, at best, spotty.

( Post a new comment )

TLD wars, and Extension Squatting. (#16639)
by Anonymous Reader on 2002.06.19 13:15

My company was recently faced with the dilemma of choosing both a company name & a domain name. Today a good domain name is so important for some companies (Mine included) - that our brainstorming session for a corporate name & identity was lead by a lengthy WhoIs session.

Since every simple domain under the sun has been registered and is being squatted on - we began looking to the new extension, ".biz" since we are in fact - a business. We are now sharing the name SolidBlue [solidblue.biz] with a couple of other companies - one of which has SolidBlue.com .

Personally, I think .BIZ sticks out better than .COM - and from feedback I've received - we haven't lost any business to 'confusion between extensions'. If anything, our extension is easier to remember, our acceptance of other companies with identical domain names and different extensions, and our unique-ness actually keeps us at the top of our clients thoughts.

For this reason it is my belief that any domain owner whose domain extension does not reflect their organization, or no-longer reflects their organization - should begin the process of switching over to the accurate extension.

I believe these wars over domains and extension squatters (Almost every business does it) - is self-perpetuating. After all, if companies were comfortable saying, "No, we're whoever.com... whoever.org is a non-profit organization, [or] an internet community that discusses similar subjects" - then the average person would realize they can't just type "dot com" after everything their interested in looking at...

Just my two cents,

--The Home Techie [myhometechie.com]
[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:TLD wars, and Extension Squatting.

2002.06.20 6:14

What about no-profit non-orgs? (#16648)
by Anonymous Reader on 2002.06.19 13:49

I currently maintain three domains for several loose-knit groups - one, a retreat program, one is my Mom's family, and the third is just a group of friends spread throughout Texas. Two of the domains (the family and friends) are .org, the third is a .net.

What happens to those non-profit, but not registered as such (since there is nothing to register, really) domains when they expire? do we lose them, or will there be exceptions for groups that are not "registered nonprofits", but simply groups that don't fit into any other categories (.com, .biz, .edu, .net)? Will we have to go with a .us name in that case?
[ Reply to This | Parent ]

No details (#16677)
by Exp0 on 2002.06.19 15:19 | User Info |

I work with a US based Linux Users Group with a .org address. We don't charge dues and don't spend any money, so I *guess* we fall into the category.

The faq [isoc.org] is kind of low on details, which is worrying to me. They say that the do not intend to make any changes in how .org is managed. However this quote from the press release [isoc.org] implies otherwise:

ISOC's global outreach enables it to work cooperatively with many other global organizations, such as UNESCO, and the Center for Democracy and Technology, to create consensus around critical policy and standards issues.

If they gain control of the .org domain, will we be faced with UNESCO bureaucrats helping to decide who is a .org? It seems to me that if ISOC wants to create a consensus on "standards issues" then an obvious standard will be what qualifies as a non-profit. Having worked for the UN in the past, I remember how important "proper documentation" is to them. I can easily see a proposed non-profit standard being "any group that is legally registered as a non-profit." After all, allowing non-registered groups is effectively allowing anyone, which means there is no standard, right?

At least in the US, registering as an official non-profit involves much paperwork and reporting to Federal and state tax officials. It may not be worth it for smaller groups such as LUGs.

I hope they clarify that a little better. The lack of information and the implications of the above quote make me wonder if having a .org domain name will suddenly become an expensive, time consuming proposition.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Non-Profits Only? (#16703)
by Alethes on 2002.06.19 17:58 | User Info | Home Page |

1) How does this affect existing domain name owners, such as almost every Linux-related site in existence?

2) Do you have to be a registered non-profit organization before you can get the domain, like openprojects.net is working toward?

If *anybody* decides to regulate .org more strictly, won't that create market for things like .info and .name? It may be logical from a business standpoint to change the rules and create havoc. It's not like Verisign is known for their good customer service, anyway.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]

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