Global Domain Name and Internet Policy News
Public Interest Registry has handed out three more of their 2020 .ORG Impact Awards to .ORG registrants that are connecting communities, making a difference, and utilising the internet to drive transformative change. There are ten awards in total, one handed out each day during their 10 Days of .ORG. The three latest winners are The Crisis Tracker, Mangrove Action Project and Food For Free.
Days for Girls International is the first of 10 winners in Public Interest Registry’s 2020 .ORG Impact Awards, winning the 2020 Combating Coronavirus category. Days for Girls is an incredible organisation providing health, feminine hygiene and education services for tens of thousands of women and girls in 144 countries worldwide. This year, in response to coronavirus, they launched two campaigns — Periods Don’t Pause for Pandemics and #Masks4Millions, which inspired over 3,500 people to register to make 1 million masks for those most in need.
[news release] Registration is now open for the 2020 LAC Domain Names Week, which will be held virtually. The theme of this year’s event is “Understanding the Ecosystem and Learning New Opportunities.”
Public Interest Registry launched their .ORG Learning Center this week, an educational portal that provides a wide range of content and forums to help mission-driven organisations establish their internet presence and thrive online as they work to make their communities a better place.
Public Interest Registry’s General Counsel Brian Cimbolic has laid out a new two-step appeal process for their .org top-level domain under their Anti-Abuse Policy in a post on the registry blog. Under the new appeals process registrants who believe their .org domain names have been suspended unfairly can contact PIR and then appeal to a neutral third party. The goal is to help build confidence in a safer, stronger DNS.
[news release] Public Interest Registry (PIR), the people behind the .ORG domain name, has been selected by The Washington Business Journal as one of the Top 10 Best Places to Work for 2020. PIR was selected because of its culture of caring and respect, its deeply held mission, and its commitment to honoring its people.
In a year that’s been challenging for the entire world, Public Interest Registry (PIR), the people behind .ORG, have announced their second annual .ORG Impact Awards. This week PIR put out a Call for Nominations to honour the remarkable organisations and individuals making the world a better place that use a .org domain name for their website.
Neustar (.us), Public Interest Registry (.org) and Verisign (.com/.net) are participating in a four month trial with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Food and Drug Administration to curb illegal online sales of unapproved opioids.
The .ORG Impact Awards is Now Accepting Nominations from Nonprofits, Corporations, Community Groups and More    Â
[news release] In celebration of organizations using the Internet to empower change around the world, The .ORG Impact Awards, sponsored by Public Interest Registry, launches today to honor .ORG domain name users for their accomplishments.
From individuals to large corporations, and small community groups to multinational NGOs, purpose-driven achievements from members of the .ORG community will be honored through this inaugural program. The award submission period is open through Friday, July 12, 2019.
Unlike other industry award programs, The .ORG Impact Awards does not seek to profit from submissions. In fact, winning individuals and organizations will receive up to $5,000 in a monetary contribution to the nonprofit of their choice, and finalists will receive two complimentary invitations to attend The .ORG Impact Awards Ceremony at The Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 2019 where winners will be announced. Finalists in the âIndividualâ category also will be offered travel assistance.
Achievement will be honored in the following award categories:
Individual Awards honor the contribution of an individual to their organization or the broader sector:
Sector Awards recognize organizational and team accomplishments:
Initiative Awards celebrate achievement in a specific online niche area:
âThe .ORG Impact Awards is an opportunity to convene organizations of all types and sizes from around the world to learn from each other, celebrate each otherâs accomplishments and strengthen the work being done through .ORG to make the world a better place,â said Jon Nevett, president and CEO of Public Interest Registry. âThe mission- and affinity-driven .ORG community is vast, diverse and incredibly innovative in how it harnesses the power of the Internet to improve the lives of people near and far, and weâre thrilled to shine a spotlight on these accomplishments to help strengthen these stellar .ORGs for the future.â
All award entries must be submitted through a form on The .ORG Impact Awardsâ secure online platform and should highlight activities occurring between June 1, 2018 and June 1, 2019. Nominators may submit to more than one category/subcategory, but each submission must be original. All submissions must be in English and there is no cost for submission.
For official eligibility criteria and rules of The .ORG Impact Awards program, as well as submission requirements, deadlines and judging information, please visit https://orgimpactawards.org/.
# # #
About Public Interest Registry
Public Interest Registry is a nonprofit corporation that operates the .ORG top-level domain â one of the world’s largest “generic” top-level domain with more than 10 million domain names registered worldwide. As an advocate for collaboration, safety and security on the Internet, Public Interest Registry’s mission is to educate and enable the global noncommercial community to use the Internet more effectively, and to take a leadership position among Internet stakeholders on policy and other issues relating to the domain naming system. Public Interest Registry was founded by the Internet Society (internetsociety.org) in 2002 and is based in Reston, Virginia, USA. Visit Public Interest Registry at https://pir.org/.
Public Interest Registry (PIR) announced Tuesday the addition of three new members to their executive team â Judy Song-Marshall, Chief of Staff; Joe Abley, Chief Technology Officer and Anand Vora, Vice President of Business Affairs. They are currently recruiting for a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to round out their leadership team.
The new hires, starting throughout March and April of 2019, will bring enhanced operational and technology capabilities to Public Interest Registry in support of the organisationâs drive for continued growth of quality domains under management and its enhanced educational and outreach initiatives. The broadening of the executive team comes on the heels of Public Interest Registryâs appointment of Jon Nevett as President and CEO and will be instrumental to the advancement of the organisationâs advocacy in support of collaboration, safety and trust on the internet.
âOur latest executive appointments are some of the most well-respected professionals in the domain industry and true experts in their respective fields,â said Jon Nevett, President and CEO of Public Interest Registry. âIâm thrilled to welcome them to the Public Interest Registry team and am confident they will help us achieve our goals while, most importantly, upholding the impressive legacy of the .org domain.â
The three new hires will join the existing Public Interest Registry executive team consisting of Jon Nevett, President and CEO; Brian Cimbolic, Vice President and General Counsel; Paul Diaz, Vice President of Policy and Mary Cornwell, Senior Director of Human Resources. Public Interest Registry also currently is accepting applications for a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to round out the organisationâs leadership team.
Judy Song-Marshall brings more than a decade of domain name industry experience working alongside executive management teams. She currently works as the Director of Registry Services at Neustar, overseeing the Policy, Industry Affairs, and Compliance teams.
Judy also led the marketing team that successfully launched the .nyc top-level domain (TLD) and rebranded the .us country code top-level domain (ccTLD). Judy serves on the ICANNWiki Board and is the Treasurer and a former board member of The Domain Name Association.
Joe Abley has more than 20 years of experience working with internet infrastructure in a variety of capacities including in the domain name system. At Public Interest Registry, Joe will be responsible for the organisationâs overall technology strategy including managing information security, business intelligence, software development and technical research.
Joe previously served as an Infrastructure Scientist for Afilias and as a Director of Domain Names System (DNS) Operations at ICANN where he provided direction for the operation of ICANNâs production DNS services, including the L Root Server and the systems and processes used to manage Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in the root zone of the DNS. Joe also actively promotes technology education efforts in developing regions and is a long-standing participant in standards bodies and technical operator communities.
Anand Vora is a seasoned strategy and business development executive with a decade of experience working in the domain name and internet industries. Anand will be rejoining Public Interest Registry, where his career in the industry began, to oversee business development, channel services, marketing, registry services, and customer operations.
In this role, Anand will help expand Public Interest Registryâs presence in the marketplace and continue to foster customer and registrar relations. Previously, Anand served as the Director of Business Development at Donuts Inc., where he led the identification, development, creation, and execution of go-to-market strategy. At Donuts, Anand focused primarily on international markets including spearheading Donutsâ China operations.