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The operator of the .ORG domain extension, PIR (Public Interest Registry), is looking for nominations to the advisory council to fill seats that are opening up. They are specifically looking for individuals with significant internet leadership experience within the non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) and domain name arena’s who represent the broad and geographically diverse spectrum of the global non-commercial communities.

PIR says that the .ORG advisory council has been a valuable global resource for the Public Interest Registry (PIR) management for providing advice on policy, outreach, and new services to improve registry operations and support the noncommercial .ORG community. Currently the council consists of 15 members, with at least 2 from each of the following 6 regions: Asia, Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America. The members of the advisory council are selected by the PIR board of directors. All seats are for 3 year terms.

Advisory Council Working Groups

The advisory council has organized into “working groups” for the purpose of providing project-based analysis and input, serving as a resource to both the .ORG staff and board of directors at PIR.  Comprised of leaders from a broad spectrum of the non-commercial world, the Advisory Council Working Groups will contribute in four area’s:  IDN, Policy, DNSSEC, and Outreach & Awareness.

Interested individuals are encouraged to submit nominations, including self-nominations. A nomination statement of approximately 400 words should include details of the nominee’s experience with the internet, commitment to promoting the non-commercial use of the internet, understanding of the technical or policy issues facing the .ORG registry, and perspectives regarding the needs of the .ORG community. A biography and photo is also needed.

All nominations must be submitted no later than June 15th, 2012. The newly appointed advisory council members will be announced on June 30th, 2012.

Related posts:

• Associated Cities Geo Awards Nominations Open
• .ORG Registry CEO/President Alexa Raad Resigns
• ICANN | Advisory Concerning Posting of Registrar Fees for Restoring Deleted Domain Names
• The .ORG Registry, PIR, Names Brian Cute CEO
• ICANN Public Comment Period for .com Registry Agreement with Verisign ends Tomorrow

.ORG operated by The Public Interest Registry (PIR) today released the results of its bi-annual domain name report, “The Dashboard,” for the second half of 2011

Overall, .ORG registrations grew by 9.9% in 2011, reaching 9.6 million total domains under management by the end of 2011, a net gain of 411,002 for the second half of the year.

“The Dashboard” also revealed that:

• The renewal rate of existing .ORG websites for the second half of 2011 was 75.4%.  (its interesting to note that is over a percentage higher than .com)

• .ORG has maintained consistent growth between 9%-10% annually for the past three years.

• .ORG Domains under Management  rose from 3.9 million in 2005 to 9.6 million in 2011, an increase of 146 percent in seven years.

• North America and Europe continue to represent the regions with the most .ORG registrations, with Australia, China and Japan also making the top 10 country list for the second half of 2011.

“Also highlighted in “The Dashboard” for the second half of 2011 is PIR’s announcement of its intention to pursue the new domain extension, .NGO. This initiative is a major opportunity for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), a community that depends on those three letters to set itself apart from commercial or governmental bodies.”

“PIR believes that NGOs worldwide would benefit from .NGO as an exclusive signature online where they can effectively differentiate themselves and advance their missions. As part of this initiative, PIR intends to make the latest online innovations accessible to NGOs in both developed and developing countries.”

 …

Wow talk about being a little behind the times.

According to a story in  azcentral.com, the state bar of Arizona has just issued an opinion allowing attorney’s in the state to use .org domain names.

Yes up to now attorney’s in Arizona have been prohibited from using .org domain names in their practice.

“”The ethics panel a decade ago ruled that firms that have websites must set them up with a “.com” suffix. That was based on the conclusion that a for-profit law firm’s use of the “.org” suffix “creates a false impression that the firm is either a non-profit or in some ways specifically affiliated with a non-profit.”

“”

“In light of the widespread use of the ‘.org’ suffix by for-profit organizations since (the 2001 opinion) was issued, the possibility that the public will be misled by a for-profit firm’s use of ‘.org’ on its website is remote,” the opinion reads.

“A reasonable person, desiring to verify whether an entity is non-profit, would not rely solely on the entity’s website address.”

But the ethics panel cautioned that this new opinion is not carte blanche for attorneys to do what they want with their Internet domain names. The key, the committee said, goes back to the ethics rules about being honest with clients, whether by commission or omissions.

“Thus, a lawyer or law firm may not use a domain name that falsely implies that the lawyer or the law firm is affiliated with a particular non-profit organization or with a governmental entity or which otherwise is false or misleading”

With the new gTLD’s scheduled to go live in 2013 and a .law a very realistic possibilty hopefully it won’t take the Arizona Bar 10 years to make a call on that one.

According to a Press Release,  .ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) has teamed up with Godaddy to sponsor a NASCAR car owned by  JR Motorsports and driven by Jamie McMurray.

“In conjunction with GoDaddy.com, .ORG advertisements will run on McMurray’s No. 7 car during the following NASCAR races:”

– Sunday, September 4 at 7:30 p.m. ET in Atlanta, Ga.

– Sunday, October 2 at 2:00 p.m. ET in Dover, Del.”

“Next to the .ORG logo on the No. 7 car, we are calling on the NASCAR community to ‘get together, get online,’ which signifies the widespread use of .ORG domain names to give millions of individuals, companies and organizations an online home to share their interest, passion or cause,” said Lance Wolak, vice president of marketing and sales for .ORG, The Public Interest Registry.”

“PIR joins GoDaddy.com in this sponsorship to take part in an increasingly popular American tradition, NASCAR. “We wish Jamie the best of luck in his upcoming races,” adds Lance Wolak.”

With the new registries like .Co and .XXX rolling out some major media buys its nice to see one of the older registries stepping up trying to gets its message out to the public.

In light of the recent disasters that have devastated Japan, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) today announced a plan to waive renewal fees for Japanese domain name holders who are unable to renew their .ORG domain names.

Together with PIR, more than 15 participating Registrars have committed to automatically renew for one year at no cost the .ORG domain names that would unintentionally expire due to the inability of the owner in Japan to re-up their registration.  Affected names will include those with expiration dates within the March 11 – June 11, 2011 period.

“The recent earthquake in Japan and the destruction that followed has shocked and saddened everyone, including the Internet community,” said Brian Cute, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. “Survivors have been left without the basic necessities, let alone Internet capabilities. By waiving the renewal fees and working with our Registrars, we are protecting .ORG registrants in Japan from losing their domain names during a time when they and their country need to focus on sustaining and rebuilding. PIR’s goal, along with our valuable partners, is to assist in any way we can.”

Participating registrars include: GoDaddy.com Inc., Ascio, INDOM, WebNic.cc, Net 4 India Limited, Discount Domains Ltd., Name.com, Fabulous.com, Blacknight Internet Solutions, Dotster, Inc., Moniker.com, Spirit Domains, Advanced Internet Technologies, Japan Registry Services Co., PSI-Japan, Network Solutions, NameSecure.

To view an up-to-date list of participating registrars, click here.

The .ORG registry, PIR, announced that it has recently passed the 9 Million Registration Mark, citing a 10.3% growth over 2010.

“Hitting the 9 million registration mark is a testament to both .ORG’s reputation and its impact within the Internet community,” said Brian Cute, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. “.ORG remains a community-driven platform and has become the domain of choice for organizations, individuals, and companies to channel their passion toward a shared purpose with their community.”

[via PIR Press Release]

The Public Interest Registry (PIR) announced today that .ORG has now surpassed over 9 million domain name registrations.

.Org registrations grew at 10.3% in 2010.

“Hitting the 9 million registration mark is a testament to both .ORG’s reputation and its impact within the Internet community,” said Brian Cute, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. “.ORG remains a community-driven platform and has become the domain of choice for organizations, individuals, and companies to channel their passion toward a shared purpose with their community.”

“”This unparalleled growth is due in large part to key accomplishments achieved since .ORG’s inception in 1985.  In the decades following the first .ORG registration – mitre.org, the domain has become the trusted domain of choice for a vast range of non-profits, associations, international corporations involved in cause marketing, open source software developers, and arts communities. As one of the original top-level domains, .ORG’s true power lies in its ability to generate interaction and conveys trust. For the past 25 years, .ORG has reshaped the online world by advancing knowledge, creating opportunities, driving conversations, and most importantly, building online communities.”"”

.ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) today released the results of its bi-annual domain name report, “The Dashboard,” detailing the growth of the world’s third largest generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD).

According to the report, the .ORG domain grew by 10.3% in 2010.

ORG has over 8.8 million domains under management, which is a  net gain of 824,559 .ORG registrations in 2010.

Other key findings from the latest “Dashboard” report reveal the following:

• In five years, .ORG’s domains have more than doubled, increasing from 3.9 million in 2005 to over 8.8 million in 2010.

• .ORG experienced a growth rate of 3.9 percent in the second half of 2010.

• In the second half of 2010, new .ORG registrations (new creates) increased by 14.4 percent while the average rate of renewal was 74.8 percent.

• North America continues to claim the most .ORG registrants with a 64 percent market share, followed by Europe at 24 percent and Asia, Australia and the Pacific at 9 percent.

For more information on “The Dashboard” or to download a copy, go to www.pir.org/news.

.ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) — manager of the world’s third largest generic top-level domain — today appointed Mr. Brian Cute as chief executive officer. With more than 12 years of experience in the Internet and communications industry, Mr. Cute will assume his leadership position on February 1, 2011.

Prior to joining PIR, Mr. Cute served as vice president of discovery services for Afilias, the registry operator for the .ORG domain. Cute had management positions in 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. He has led initiatives on wait-list service, private domain registrations, the elimination of Bulk WHOIS, and numerous other ICANN policy matters.

“As Chairman of the Accountability and Transparency Review Team at ICANN, Brian has constructively advanced the ongoing debate of getting the Internet industry to function more explicitly and effectively. We at PIR are pleased to have him on board, and we look confidently towards a future in which PIR will continue to step up in the public interest.“said Maarten Botterman, chairman of the board and interim chief executive officer.

Cute is replacing Alexa Raad, who had resigned from this position last year effective September 24th, 2010.

[via Press Release]