gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.NGO	Public Interest Registry	pir.org	View

PIR is a NGO, and thereby part of the NGO Community. PIR as a NGO has extensive gTLD management experience via the .ORG gTLD. PIR a supporting organization to the Internet Society (ISOC) and is committed to supporting the Internet Society’s (ISOC) mission stated below.

History of PIR’s Relationship to the NGO Community
In January 2003, PIR, assumed responsibility for operating .ORG and maintaining the authoritative database of all .ORG domains.

Created in 1984, .ORG is one of the Internetʹs original seven top-level domains (TLDs), along with .com, .net, etc. Although it is ʺopenʺ and ʺunrestrictedʺ, .ORG has been the domain of choice for organizations dedicated to serving the public interest. The high regard of these well-intentioned organizations was soon conferred to this domain, and today .ORG is considered around the world to be the domain of trust.

Public Interest Registry’s (PIR) primary activity is to maintain the .ORG domain registry as the exemplary top level domain (TLD) registry service, by advocating for higher standards of Internet security, safety and reliability. PIR’s mission is to facilitate the effective use of a global Internet among non-commercial and other Internet users worldwide. In its relationship with the ISOC, (reference Evaluation Questions #9a and #9b), PIR is committed to supporting ISOC’s goals of encouraging the evolution of the Internet as research, education and communication infrastructure equally accessible to the global non-commercial, NGO and nonprofit community. PIR’s activities also include funding educational programs focused on expanding the knowledge and ability of non-commercial, NGO and nonprofit organizations located in technologically deprived areas of the world to more efficiently and effectively use the Internet as a tool to better accomplish their important mission.

The 2003 transition of .ORG from the previous operator to PIR was the largest transfer in Internet history. More than 2.6 million domains were transferred in about a day, without negatively impacting any .ORG registrant or website.

Since 2003, PIR has been connected with NGOs through our management of .ORG, and recently in preparation for our pursuit of the .NGO gTLD domain, we have worked closely with the NGO Community to develop the requirements and specification for the proposed .NGO gTLD.

Current Relationship to the NGO Community
PIR is a strong supporter of NGOs in both a direct role as manager of the .ORG gTLD and through other efforts, including:
• A ʺStrategic and Sponsoring Partnerʺ of NTEN, the Non-Profit Technology Network of 10,000 members and over 30,000 participants in the community, covering 126 countries. NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations use technology skillfully and confidently to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.
• Making financial contributions to various organizations, such as the NCUC (Non Commercial Constituency of ICANN) and Centr. For NCUC, annual donations have been in the $5,000 to $15,000 range every year since PIR assumed operations of the .ORG registry.
• In December 2005, PIR sponsored a symposium at the Nelson Mandela Center in Cape Town, South Africa bringing in various Internet leaders in Africa to discuss the needs of the Internet in Africa.
• In response to Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans, Louisiana, PIR donated $1 for every new create for a limited time. The final donation was over $100,000 to the Red Cross.
• In response to JapanʹsTsunami disaster, a 3 month program was rolled out to waive renewal fees for Japanese domain name holders, in order to help those affected and unable to renew their .ORG domains.

Within the community, there is a wide appreciation of PIR’s role as an advocate of “do good” for the Internet at large, and in many countries around the world there is a general perception that .ORG domains are more trusted than other domains. At the time of application submission, PIR manages nearly 10 million .ORG domains, and is seen to do so in an exemplary way. We are very happy to be judged on this reputation.

PIR has over 500 letters of support from the NGO Community endorsing its application for .NGO. PIR will continue outreach to the community and anticipates receipt of additional support letters from NGOs throughout the ICANN application evaluation process. Specific recognition of PIR’s efforts to support the nonprofit community includes:
• “As a not-for-profit corporation, we believe that being part of the .org domain has done much to reinforce MITRE’s identity as an organization chartered to work in the public interest. [Thanks to PIR’s] continuing work to enhance the .org domain.ʺ - Al Grasso, President and CEO, The MITRE Corporation (the first .ORG registrant).
• “We recognize and applaud PIRʹs long-standing commitment to the non-profit community since taking over the management of .ORG.” - Lisa Vogt, APR, Director of Marketing & Communications, SOS Children’s Villages – USA.

PIR has conducted outreach, worked with established relationships, and developed new types of relationships which will facilitate the delivery of the .NGO domain and related services to the NGO Community. Our discussions and outreach have included NGOs in several countries across Asia, Europe, North America, South America⁄Latin America, and Africa as well as many different segments of the NGO Community to ensure wide acceptance and adoption of our proposed gTLD domain and related services. The segments include but are not limited to agriculture, environment, arts⁄culture, charitable services, human rights, humanitarian, and advocacy for a range of issues affecting societal development.

Accountability to the NGO Community
By offering .NGO as a secure and well-managed domain of trust uniquely for eligible NGOs, PIR believes that NGOs can benefit from the Internet and our specific services as a means to safely and reliably reach out to the community and sponsors. PIR will be accountable to the NGO Community by:
• A NGO Community input process soliciting input from the community through the NGO Advisory Council drawn from the community and accepting a broad range of input to stay current on the issues of importance to the community and manage the NGO verification process;
• Creating and marketing .NGO as a distinctive place on the Internet for NGOs to differentiate and promote their organization;
• Establishing community programs to support capacity building of NGOs with technical and educational platforms;
• Enforcing registration policies that elevate the integrity of the domains in the .NGO gTLD name space, soliciting input from the NGO Community;
• Easing discovery and promotion through the creation, management and promotion of the .NGO gTLD;
• Offering registration from a proven, scalable registry platform that can ensure 100% DNS availability;
• Delivering a challenge process for the NGO Community to dispute the legitimacy of a .NGO registrant or its activity on a .NGO domain; and,
• As a community priority gTLD, PIR is committing to manage the .NGO domain with participation of the community. Failing to do that would put our registry contract in jeopardy.

PIR is in an excellent position to provide such support to the NGO Community given documented experience running a stable and trusted registry. PIR holds a track record demonstrating good intent to the global community by being a leader in activities such as implementation of anti-abuse policies, DNSSEC, active participation in numerous public interest events, etc.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.天主教	Pontificium Consilium de Comunicationibus Socialibus (PCCS) (Pontifical Council for Social Communication)	pccs.va	View

RELATION BETWEEN PCCS AND THE TLD CATHOLIC COMMUNITY:

The Applicant, PCCS, is a Dicastery of the Holy See and thus is itself a member of the TLD Catholic Community. The PCCS is also an officially acknowledged representative of the Catholic Church in matters of social communications, as it is documented by the Apostolic Constitution “Pastor Bonus”, promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 28 June 1988. In this mission it supports the actions of the Church and its institutions by coordinating and handling all the forms of social communication such as newspapers and periodicals, as well as films and radio or television broadcasts and web based communications.
In performing its duties, the PCCS has strong relations with the various dioceses, religious orders and institutions. There are a number of already existing and well-established procedures that could be drawn upon as a basis for the coordination of the TLD Catholic Community on the digital platform.
The PCCS avails of the periodic “ad limina” visits of National Bishops’ Conferences to maintain contact with representatives of local churches. Each Bishops’ Conference visits Rome every five years – prior to the visit each Bishop sends a report on the state of his diocese in which he sets out, inter alia, the situation pertaining to communications. During the visit, the Bishops meet with the PCCS in order to allow for discussion of the reports and of other matters of interest.
At the same time, in line with its mission to serve the community, the PCCS has organized five International Congresses focusing on the impact of new technologies and the digital culture on Catholic TV stations, Catholic faculties of communications, Catholic Radio stations, Catholic print media and those Bishops who are responsible for the promotion of communications at the level of National Bishops’ Conferences. These Congresses are well attended and involve representatives of over 120 countries.
The PCCS seeks to be present at the more significant meetings of Church communicators at continental and national levels.
At continental level, there are regular gatherings of National Conferences’ representatives. The purpose of these meetings is to co-ordinate at the regional and continental level common activities of Bishops. The PCCS has strong relations with these groups as communications has emerged as a theme of particular interest. The continental groups in Africa (SECAM), North America, Asia (FABC), Latin America (CELAM), Europe (CCEE) and Oceania (FCBCO) all have specific offices and committees focusing on the co-ordination of communications activities. The PCCS is represented at the annual meetings of such groups and maintains close contact with the national representatives.
The PCCS also attends many National Conferences to deliver seminars which promote the importance of communications whilst addressing specific opportunities and challenges of new information technologies and social media. In the last two years, the PCCS has delivered seminars in Brazil, Cuba, Chile, Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Belorussia.
The positive response from representatives of the “particular churches” to the initiatives of the Pontifical Council and the invitations issuing from them to the PCCS to be present at their gatherings and assemblies testify to the standing of the PCCS within the global community of Catholic communicators.

ACCOUNTABILITY OF THE PCCS TO THE TLD CATHOLIC COMMUNITY:

Art. 41 of Apostolic Constitution “Pastor Bonus” states that it is the task of the Secretariat of State, which is the highest governmental structure in the organizational chart of the Holy See, “to expedite the business concerning the daily service of the Supreme Pontiff” and, in accordance with Art. 169 of the same Constitution, the PCCS, as dicastery of the Holy See, is accountable to the Secretariat of State. Thus, PCCS is institutionally charged to co-ordinate the activities of the whole TLD Catholic Community with reference to communications.
The ultimate accountability of the PCCS to the TLD Catholic Community will be established by the willingness of that community to partake in the gTLD project. The PCCS is confident on the basis of its ongoing relations with the broader community that there will be a significant interest in the project. The Pontifical Council will establish an Advisory Group with representatives of the dioceses and of the religious communities in order to develop the gTLD project and to ensure that its development is responsive to the needs and concerns of the constituent members of the community.

Four Community Endorsement Letters are provided in attachment to Question 20(f):
- Q20f_Community Endorsement Letter from the Vaticanʹs Secretariat of State;
- Q20f_Community Endorsement Letter from the Bishopsʹ Conference of Australia;
- Q20f_Community Endorsement Letter from the Bishopsʹ Conference of the USA;
- Q20f_Community Endorsement Letter from the Bishopsʹ Conference of Italy.