Blogs

Below is an article that was originally published June 22, 2011 on Advertising Age’s “GoodWorks” blog, written by The Public Interest Registry’s Lauren Price. 
 
"I've noticed an emerging trend in the domain name space as a result of the increasing emphasis on "doing good." Until recently, the domain strategy of choice was to use a single domain name extension to house all a company's online activity, while other addresses were selected purely as redirects or as brand protection maneuvers. Simply, the prevalent mindset was once a .com (or a .net or .org), always a .com (or .net or .org). But times -- and marketing plans -- are changing.

Buzz Lightyear, the astronaut character from the movie Toy Story, is known for his tagline, “To infinity, and beyond!” ICANN can take a lesson from the ebullient Buzz with respect to accountability and transparency.  Just as Buzz believed he could fly beyond infinity, ICANN should view full implementation of the ATRT recommendations not as the last stop, but as the next stop on its important journey of accountability and transparency.  There is indeed accountability and transparency beyond the ATRT recommendations.

Something I’ve been discussing a lot recently is how a .COM can also be a .ORG.
 
Facebook, the social media giant, is currently the most visited .COM in the world. In addition, many have asserted that Facebook pages are replacing corporate websites as the main web destination and communication tool for organizations. The company’s “About” section is even set up as a Facebook page opposed to a more traditional corporate website. 

I have long admired PIR’s dedication to the good of the Internet, the DNS and its millions of .ORG registrants. PIR has a clear and unique public interest mission in the industry – one that extends beyond the technical provision of .ORG domain names and serves the Internet community wholly, addressing policy and security issues head-on.  That’s why it is heartening to see an increasing number of registrants turn to .ORG to advocate and provide information that is consistent with the values of our and their communities. In fact, according to the results of our bi-annual “Dashboard” report, the .ORG domain has grown from 3.9 million domains under management in 2005 to over 8.8 million, thanks to a 10.3 increase in registrants in 2010 – a 1.4 percent increase above the strong growth in 2009. Clearly, this solid growth of 824,559 new registrations in 2010 reinforces ORG’s position as the world’s third largest generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) and as the domain of choice for the public interest.

This week we welcomed Don Blumenthal to the PIR team as Senior Policy Advisor. Don comes on board as we are leaving for the ICANN meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, and I am glad he will be joining us for this important event.

PIR is a leader in working for cybersecurity, balanced and fair domain name policies, and Don will add immeasurably to these efforts. Don brings to PIR a unique set of skills to our work: as a lawyer, as a technologist, and as a cybersecurity and privacy expert. Like a chess master, Don possesses the uncanny ability to anticipate the opponent’s next move. During his tenure at the Federal Trade Commission, he created and directed the FTC’s Internet Lab – the very first US federal laboratory to systematically collect and index illegal activity online for prosecution.