Blogs

 
Proposals to enhance online property protection have received a lot of attention lately.  Brand managers, goods manufacturers, and content distributors strenuously argue that current law enforcement mechanisms are inadequate to meet the challenges of today’s fast-paced marketplace.  They specifically note that foreign-based “rogue websites” continue to distribute unlicensed products and content despite existing rules; they maintain that new legislation is needed to empower intellectual rights holders to counter such cyber-criminals more effectively.

Last week I attended the Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi, Kenya.  It was an amazing event in a fantastic city – Nairobi –a booming tech center and a regional hub in Africa for all things NGO.

At the IGF I was privileged to have the opportunity to meet a number of NGO representatives from all over the world, representing the widest breadth of community actors – from human rights advocates, to groups focused on diversity and access for the disabled online.  In just a few days at the conference I met with a delegation of global NGOs brought to Nairobi by Freedom House, leaders of the Global Knowledge Partnership based in Europe and South America, and Michel Tchonang of Cameroon, the head of a West African regional NGO association, among many others.

As we continue our outreach with global non-government organizations (NGOs) discussing our role in serving this community, we are getting important input on our proposed new top level domain - .NGO.  We have been in many locations, working with local NGOs as well as larger international NGOs, adding new partnerships.

Below is an article that was originally published September 15 on ClickZ, written by The Public Interest Registry’s Lauren Price.

Watch recent television commercials or flip through any magazine, and you'll notice that the countless print and video advertisements directing you to a company's Facebook and Twitter pages as opposed to main corporate websites. This marketing tactic - combined with the highly commercialized rise in social media – has many speculating that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter will soon replace the corporate website as the main method of brand promotion.

For the past decade, PIR has long stood as an advocate for higher Internet standards, working tirelessly to serve the best interest of over 9 million .ORG registrants. The core of our mission is to inspire and empower your community by helping organizations, individuals and companies alike to do more with their domain name extension and by providing a safe, trusted venue that brings those communities together.

Now, as the Internet stands on the cusp of a major sea-change with the introduction of new gTLDs, we have the opportunity to broaden and deepen our mission by applying for a domain extension specifically aimed at the needs of the global NGO community.