| 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 | | .berlin | dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG | dotberlin.de | View |
* RELATIONSHIP TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS *
dotBERLIN has worked closely with the Berlin Government and its relevant different departments as well as with the Berlin Parliament and its political parties since 2005 on the topic of .BERLIN. The Letter of Support which the Berlin Government issued (attached in #21b) is also an explicit expression of a long-standing relationship to the Berlin Government.
dotBERLIN triggered that the German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) in Berlin approved the first ever parliamentary resolution to support geographic and city top-level domains worldwide in 2008. This undermines the relationship to relevant stakeholders far beyond the Berlin borders.
dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG is an active member of the most important and relevant Berlin-specific organizations representing the majority interests of the Community of Berliners:
- IHK zu Berlin (Berlin Chamber of Trade and Commerce), www.ihk-berlin.de
- Association of Berlin Merchants and Manufacturers e.V., www.vbki.de
- medianet Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. (association of media businesses), www.medianet-bb.de
- Unternehmerverband Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. (association of businesses), www.uv-berlin.de
- Initiative Hauptstadt e.V. (the Capital City Initiative), www.initiative-hauptstadt.de
- Berliner Wirtschaftsgespräche e.V. (Berlin Economic Forum), www.bvg-ev.net
- Marketing Club Berlin, www.marketingclubberlin.de
- Association for Place Branding and Public Diplomacy www.nationbranding.de
dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG is also an active member of other Berlin-based organizations representing interests of the Community of Berliners:
- eco - Verband der deutschen Internetwirtschaft e.V. (the association for the German Internet economy), www.eco.de
- BITKOM - Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien e.V. (the German association for information technology, telecommunications and new media), www.bitkom.org
dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG is a Berlin-based company and its entire team is comprised of persons who were born in Berlin or have lived in Berlin for at least a decade. This reflects a deep and intense relationship to the Community as well.
* RELATIONSHIP TO THE COMMUNITY PARTS *
Employees are native Berliners or have been residents in Berlin for at least a decade. The applicant’s organization, dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG, was founded 2005 in Berlin and is located in BERLIN.
dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG consists of 86 shareholders (partners) of which over 80% are located in Berlin. The shareholders represent a multi-stakeholder composition, including associations, companies, ICANN accredited registrars, and individuals. Most of the more than 25 dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG sponsors are leading companies from Berlin.
All shareholders and sponsors are obviously endorsers of the .berlin top-level domain by dotBERLIN.
Please review the attachements in #20f for more details.
* ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS *
1. Advisory Board
dotBERLIN’s advisory board, established in 2006, has a consultative and supporting position for the approval activities and for the subsequent operation of the top-level domain .BERLIN. The advisory board also helps to anchor, in a socially responsible way, the top-level domain .BERLIN in the Berlin community made up of political, business, cultural, social and individual interests. It also advises dotBERLIN on the allocation of domains, taking account of the various interests fairly and transparently. The heterogeneous composition of the advisory board can make use of a variety of experience, knowledge and contacts. The advisory board includes (in alphabethic order):
- Dr. Markus Bahmann - Maiwald Lawyers, Berlin⁄Munich; Chair ʺRegistration Practice and DNS Administration Subcommittee of the Internet Committeeʺ of the International Trademark Association INTA, Chairman of the Advisory Board of dotBERLIN
- Dr. Andreas Broeckmann - Art Curator, Berlin
- Peter Dittler - Chairman Internet Society German Chapter e.V. (ISOC), Grasbrunn; CEO BRAINTEC Netzwerk-Consulting GmbH, Karlsruhe; Advisory Board member of PIR (.org)
- Richard Wein - CEO nic.at (.at TLD, .BERLIN’s registry backend service provider), Vienna
- Susanne Engel - Managing Director BFB Best4MediaBerlin GmbH (Yellow Pages), Berlin
- Prof. Dr. Martin Grothe - Lecturer at the Institute of Electronic Business (IEB) at the University of Arts (UdK), Berlin; Managing Director Complexium GmbH, Berlin
- Dr. Jeanette Hofmann - Internet⁄ICANN expert at Science Center Berlin for Social Research - WZB, Berlin; Founding Director of the Alexander Humboldt Research institute for Internet & society”; Member of the Advisory Group of the Internet Governance Forums (IGF) of the United Nations, Member of Enquete Commission Internet of the German Bundestag
- Annette Mühlberg - Head of E-Government at ver.di (trade union) Headquarter, Berlin; until March 2007 Chair of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) at ICANN; Member of Enquete Commission Internet of the German Bundestag
- Constantin Rehlinger - CEO Berlin-Brandenburg Craftsmen Guild Association, Spokesman Berlin Guild Association
- Prof. Michael Rotert - Chairmann of the Board of eco - German Internet Business Association e.V., Cologne; Honorary Spokesman EuroISPA (European Internet Service Provider Association), Brussels
- Uwe Stache - Managing Director of the Berlin-based registrar BB-ONE.net Ltd., Berlin
- Burkhard Kieker - Director of the City’s Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH, Berlin
- Christian Mueller - CTO⁄CIO of the Berlin-based registrar Strato Rechenzentrum AG (affiliate of STRATO AG, ICANN accredited registrar), Berlin
dotBERLIN also maintains regular contacts to the German .de ccTLD manager DENIC e.G.
2. Annual Reports
dotBERLIN is obliged by the Government of the City of Berlin to publish monthly reports on the application and operations of the .BERLIN top-level domain and to inform the public annually on other relevant developments in the .BERLIN name space.
3. Steering Committee
dotBERLIN and the Government of the City of Berlin have established a four person steering
committee that has oversight of the management of the .BERLIN top-level domain. Its tasks include the adoption of new developments, the management of reserved names lists, the discussion of policies and many other topics.
* DISCLOSURE *
Some of the shareholders (partners) of dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG are ICANN accredited Registrars, namely but not concluding
- united domains AG
- PSI USA Inc⁄InterNetX GmbH
- Key-Systems GmbH
- Cronon AG⁄Strato AG
- InterNetWire Communications GmbH
- Variomedia AG
- http.net Internet GmbH
All ICANN accredited Registrars that are shareholder of dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG have an individual share of less than one (1) percent of the total share capital.