As of January 25, 2003, the very unkind VeriSign company will thankfully relinquish its ownership of the .org registration process to an organization called Public Interest Registry. It’s a good thing and is very long (about 10 years) overdue. For some reason, anyone can have a .org Web site, though it was intended to be used for non-profits in order to distinguish them from commecial online vehicles. (Note: MANOVERBOARD does own a few .org domain names.) While proof of non-profit status will not change now that VeriSign (a company that has been sued multiple times for trying to swindle customers like me) is bye-bye, the switch does mean that a real non-profit will be in control of the .org registry.
PIR intends to use its new powers to ” institute mechanisms for promoting the registry’s operation in a manner that is responsive to the needs, concerns, and views of the non-commercial Internet user community, including web-based input mechanisms for interested parties.” This is very cool news for the non-profit online world and a welcome reprieve from the flawed governance of registries past.