With the window to apply for your chosen New TLD opening in January of next year, the Public Interest Registry, the organisation behind .ORG, have announced their plans to grab .NGO when the time comes. NGO is the abbreviation for Nongovernmental Organisations and the TLD is proposed for use with close cooperation from the NGO Community.

PIR have stated that to qualify for a .NGO domain your organisation must be identified as a Nongovernmental Organisation. The applications will be closed, and only people from within the community are eligible to register. Although they have not released exactly how they will be vetting applications, PIR plan to work with various NGOs to ensure that they have the most appropriate mechanisms in place for verifying registrants’ statuses. The namespace will then be closely regulated to ensure appropriate usage.

With thousands of NGOs worldwide, there should be no shortage of demand for the new TLD, and PIR also hope it will encourage more organisations to get online from the developing world. Brian Cute, the registry’s CEO, has stressed that it’s not just about persuading people to acquire a second registration on top of their .org domain:

“NGOs themselves have a very strong identification with that acronym… There are a lot of NGOs, grassroots NGOs, who are not online. The intent here is not to effectively garner a second registration fee [on top of .org].”

The domain name will give NGOs a specific, trusted TLD to set themselves apart from other commercial or governmental entities and can be used in all sectors within which NGOs operate, from education to emergency relief.

Currently PIR is best known for the .ORG TLD which according to the registry has over 9 million users. They have built their brand on trust, and have supported various high profile organisations, including the not for profit community for over 25 years. If they were to lose out on this New TLD application it would certainly be a huge blow to their image, so I would assume they will be giving their application some serious thought.

PIR are currently appealing for advice and practical help to determine how best to serve the NGO community. They are also requesting that anyone who supports their application for the New TLD to send in a letter stating that they are aware of PIR’s intentions and urge ICANN to grant their application. There is even a form on their website where you can enter in your organisation’s details, and have a letter of support auto generated for you.

We’ll have to wait until the end of the first round of applications next year before we find out if they are successful…

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