Since I’ve been taking life too easy keeping up to date with domain name news in recent months, let’s get back into action with a roundup of what’s been happening at DENIC, the .de registry. Since November there’s been 35 years of .de, 25 years of DENIC, they announced a Christmas donation for a couple of children’s charities, applied to host ICANN’s 2023 Annual General Meeting, announced the postponement of the already postponed Domain Pulse and Andreas Musielak was appointed the new Chair of the Strategic and Operational Planning Standing Committee of the ccNSO.
35 Years of .DE
In November DENIC announced it was 35 years since Germany’s country code top-level domain (ccTLD) had been delegated. In the 35 years since 1986, .de has grown to more than 17 million domain names under management. For those with a keen interest in domain names in Germany, DENIC has published DENIC History.
To mark 35 years of .de, DENIC is taking up the allegory of the tree and are planting 10 lots of 35 English oaks in the Hessenforst, a forest near Frankfurt. The English oak is a very robust species and a vital component of a healthy mixed forest. With this action, we are building a bridge from the diversity in the digital world under .de to the biodiversity in the real world.
25 Years of DENIC
Then just 5 weeks later DENIC announced their 25th birthday with a special anniversary website – 25-jahre-denic.de. On 17 December 2021 when DENIC celebrated its birthday, they looked back on a time when the then 37 German Internet service providers established DENIC as a not-for-profit, independent service providing company. It all started with a university project in the very early days of the online world. From this emerged a group of today nearly 300 companies united in a cooperative and about 100 highly qualified employees who together ensure the smooth and reliable functioning of all Internet applications with the German country code .de.
DENIC Supports Children’s Charities at Christmas
Then came Christmas and DENIC supported the “Hilfe für krebskranke Kinder Frankfurt e.V.” who supports children suffering from cancer and their families, and “Arche e.V.”, who gives socially disadvantaged children perspectives.
“Solidarity with others and commitment to the community are important principles for us, and in particular in the present time. With our Christmas donation we want to support right at DENIC’s place of residence those who are particularly dependent on a practiced cooperative spirit – and that is children”, says Andreas Musielak of the DENIC Executive Board. Both organisations received a €1,000 donation.
DENIC Applies to Host ICANN’s 2023 AGM in Hamburg
DENIC in conjunction with eco, the Association of the Internet Industry in Germany, and the City of Hamburg, applied to host the 78th meeting of ICANN scheduled from 21 to 26 October, handing over their application in a virtual event on 6 December.
It’s hopefully second time lucky after the three organisations were to host ICANN 69 in October 2020, but were thwarted due to the COVID pandemic when the meeting was shifted to a virtual meeting due to the difficulties in meeting in person.
“Since the conference in Berlin in 1999, this will be the first time in over 20 years that an ICANN conference will take place in Germany”, says Oliver Süme, Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry. “With eco, DENIC and the City of Hamburg, strong partners from business and politics have joined forces to make this goal a reality.”
Domain Pulse 2021 Postponed For Second Time
The COVID pandemic is wreaking havoc with the annual Domain Pulse conference. Originally planned for February 2021 in the former West German capital of Bonn, the conference was first postponed until February 2022, and now has been postponed once again to May 2022. Both postponements have occurred due to high levels of COVID cases sweeping Germany.
The new dates are 17 and 18 May and as originally planned, it will be held in the same venue, the historical plenary chamber of the German Parliament in Bonn. As DENIC suggest, “a perfect setting for genuine encounters, hopefully with an early feel of summer in the air.” More details will be announced closer to the date, including registration and hotel information.
Domain Pulse is the largest event of the domain industry in the German-speaking region, which is organised in turns by the ccTLD registries from Austria (nic.at), .ch of Switzerland and Liechtenstein (SWITCH) and .de of Germany (DENIC eG).
Andreas Musielak Appointed Chair of ccNSO’s Strategic and Operational Planning Standing Committee
Andreas Musielak has been appointed the new Chair of the Strategic and Operational Planning Standing Committee (SOPC) of ICANN’s Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO).
Musielak, a member of the Executive Board of DENIC eG, was appointed as of January 2022, taking over the chairmanship from EURid’s Giovanni Seppia, who shortly moves on to ICANN himself in a permanent role. Andreas Musielak has represented the interests of the ccTLD community, the DENIC Cooperative and the Cooperative members already since 2016 in the SOPC as a committee member and thus can build on extensive experience in his future position.