The Public Interest Registry (PIR) is pleased to announce the appointment of Alexa A. S. Raad, an entrepreneurial technology executive, as its new CEO. The appointment is effective July 9, 2007.

Prior to joining PIR, Ms. Raad served with dotMobi and Versign and brings her Registry experience to .ORG “This is an exciting and important development for PIR,” said board chair Susan Estrada. “Alexa is an inspiring and accomplished professional who is well-equipped to take the organization to its next level. She is determined to make sure that the organization continues — and even exceeds — its ability to ‘do good’ within the domain name business.

We believe her passion, along with her unique business savvy, will make it possible for PIR to increase the registry business and ensure continued funding of the Internet Society. We are thrilled to welcome Alexa to our staff and look forward to her leadership.”

Have you seen the recent ad campaign by TIAA-CREF, underscoring the value of .org domains as a trusted address? If not yet, you will likely see more and more about the financial powerhouse that put together a multi-million dollar campaign emphasizing the value and trustability of a .org address.

TIAA-CREF is one of the largest financial services companies in the United States, with more than $428 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2007. Its approximately 15,000 institutional clients are drawn from the non-profit and educational sectors, and the company itself is operated on a not-for-profit basis.

You can see their ads on their website. In fact, the ad campaign, done by Modernista! out of Chicago, caught the eye of NY Times who ran a full feature on it.

This is a great opportunity to increase Domain Registrations in non-US markets and take advantage of the growth in demand in the areas of the world where the Internet (and associated services) is growing the most. The .ORG Registry is providing its sales channel a huge price incentive to do just that.

The IAP provides an effective 75% discount off of the wholesale price of new .ORG registrations for registrations in eligible countries made between 01 September 2007 and 31 December 2007.

Need to get a .ORG domain?

Please contact your Registrar for a list of the eligible countries in this program.

Want to take part in the IAP promotion?

Login to the Registrar Area at www.pir.org or Contact promos@pir.org for more detail. Registrations are still being accepted through 27 November 2007.

.ORG Quarterly Event Calendar

September 2007
CENTRE Legal & Regulatory Workshop (Latvia; David Maher)

October 2007
CENTRE General Assembly (Paris; Alexa Raad)
ICANN (Los Angeles; .ORG Team)

November 2007
Afilias Registrar Retreat (Turks & Caicos; .ORG Team)

Along with PIR’s new CEO, there are other new faces within the organization and more to come. PIR’s Sales and Marketing departments will be augmented with all new team members. Crystal Peterson, Marketing Manager, is the first to come onboard as of September 3, 2007.

Crystal joins the team from dotMobi where she worked with Alexa Raad on the Marketing Team. Two more members will be added shortly, Director of Marketing and the Head of Sales.

The impact of the domain name secondary market
Policy Guru and Sr. VP of Law and Policy, David Maher

The secondary market for Internet domain names has grown beyond anything envisioned by most people as recently as several years ago. There are new uses of domain names, new business models and new ways to work around ICANN’s policies and procedures.

As a result, domain names are increasingly unavailable for their originally intended uses. In addition, there are new concerns about cybersquatting and the protection of intellectual property rights.

Forbes Online Magazine

“The bidding started at $300,000 and blasted through the seven-figure mark before settling at $1.8 million. No, this wasn't Sotheby's--nor was the object d'art a Picasso.

This battle was for the URL Seniors.com” - Lisa LaMotta 06.29.07

The uncontrolled spread of IDN.IDNs outside the root

The internationalization of the DNS is proceeding at a pace that has outstripped ICANN’s plans to deal with the issues raised by the use of IDNs. Throughout the world, domain names in the format IDN.IDN are being registered in ever-increasing numbers in a variety of scripts. These top-level domains are not in the ICANN administered root and are not presently globally operable. However, they are in such widespread use that they pose a risk to the fundamental concept that the Internet is and must continue to be globally interoperable. ICANN urgently needs a plan to ensure that the user demand for IDN.IDNs is met without fragmenting alternative is separate Internets, each in its own script.

Annual Report Released

Daniel Karrenberg, Chair of the Internet Society (ISOC), describes 2006 as a pivotal year for ISOC, bracketed by the 20th anniversary of the Internet Engineering Task Force – ISOC’s largest program – and the decision of Time Magazine to name the Internet users of the world as 2006 Person of the Year.

The Internet Society Annual Report for 2006 details the organization’s growth, influence and leadership in Internet policy, education and development of Internet standards worldwide. It also provides snapshots of some of the activities that took place among ISOC’s members and 70+ global chapters.

An electronic version of the report is available on the ISOC website.

The Internet Society Board of Trustees and staff are currently engaged in a discovery process to define a long term Major Strategic Initiative to ensure that the Internet of the future remains accessible to everyone. ISOC believes that Trust is an essential component of all successful relationships and that an erosion of Trust: in individuals, networks, or computing platforms, will undermine the continued health and success of the Internet.

The Internet Society is convening a meeting on the subject of ‘Trust’ within the context of network-enabled relationships. This new initiative will explore the changing nature of trust, and issues relating to security, privacy and protection of personal information.

Ultimately, ISOC hopes this initiative will lead to the development of methods to establish authenticity and assurance; manage threats to users and networks; and to deal with unwanted traffic. Common among many issues facing the Internet is the establishment of, and reliance upon levels of trust.

The Internet Society has approved funding for eleven new Internet development projects around the world. Building the first "digital village" in Sierra Leone; promoting free software and open standards in Bulgaria; creating Internet training materials in an indigenous Ecuadorian language; and documenting Taiwan's Internet history in a Wiki – these activities are among the eleven new projects made possible by the Internet Society's most recent round of project grants.

The Internet Society (ISOC) holds two grant rounds each year and has dedicated US$200,000 to support the projects of ISOC chapters and members in 2007.

ISOC established its "Internet Project Funding Initiative" in 2005 to encourage projects which advance ISOC's mission to "promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world". To date, ISOC has funded 37 projects in 26 countries.

ISOC's goal with these grants is to enhance the Internet environment around the world, by helping ISOC chapters and members establish creative programs that meet the needs of their local communities. To be eligible for funding, projects must support development and operation of the Internet, or advance research and education related to the Internet and internetworking.

Each successful project will receive up to US$10,000 from the Internet Society, which can account for no more than 50 percent of the total project budget. This strategy requires proponents to secure other funding sources, which encourages active partnerships, community involvement, and socially relevant projects.

ISOC's global reach is reflected in the successful projects from the most recent funding round, which will create diverse activities in Armenia, Benin, Bulgaria, Congo, Ecuador, Israel, Liberia, Mauritius, Sierra Leone (where two projects are underway), and Taiwan.

Details of the Internet Project Funding Initiative are available on the ISOC website.