It’s Still About the Future of .ORG

BY JON NEVETT

In all the noise surrounding the proposed sale of Public Interest Registry, the transaction was always about one thing: the future of .ORG. In the last few months we’ve been reminded how important .ORG is to charities, advocates, mission-driven organizations and others trying to heal, unite, and inspire.  The future of .ORG is vital to our collective future now more than ever.

When I became CEO a year-and-half ago, I saw PIR as a place with a passionate, skilled and experienced team dedicated to PIR’s mission and serving the .ORG Community.  Regardless of our ownership, we are and will always be an exemplary registry operating with transparency, upholding our anti-abuse principles, and expanding .ORG globally to broaden the reach for social good. Now that we are on the other side of ICANN’s decision, we are looking ahead to the future and will double down on our efforts and continue to support the .ORG Community we serve to build a stronger .ORG. 

The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the important role the .ORG Community plays in organizing people, businesses and mission-driven organizations helping others during times of crisis. Billions of dollars have been raised to support those in need, companies everywhere have pitched in, and artists and world and civic leaders have used their platforms to put a spotlight on areas that desperately need it. Here at PIR, we absolutely understand that managing the .ORG domain comes with great responsibility.  It is an essential part of not only the fabric of the Internet, but society as a whole. 

Our longstanding partnership and collaboration with the Internet Society team will remain strong.  We are quite proud to support the Internet Society and to help fund its great work around the world, including an Internet that is free, open, and secure for everyone. In turn, the Internet Society will invest in PIR to ensure we are fulfilling our mission serving the .ORG Community. Adaptation is part of this next chapter – and we are ready.  As we move ahead, the Internet Society and PIR will focus on the future together and make .ORG even stronger.

PIR will continue to be transparent with what we do as an organization with our upcoming 2019 Annual Report and be leaders in the technology and Internet policy sectors protecting the stability of the Internet and data privacy. We will continue our efforts to promote the quality of .ORG names and combat domain name abuse.

In addition, widening the international breadth of .ORGs, especially in under-served regions in Africa, Latin and Central America and Southeast Asia, will increase the reach of the .ORG Community and help even more communities. That is why PIR is focused on expanding .ORG into these regions in our next chapter. Our roadmap is underway and we know that every new .ORG increases the chance someone, somewhere is helped.

Our eyes have been opened even more to what we can do to strengthen the .ORG Community with our .ORG Impact Awards and our Education and Outreach efforts.  

I can’t end this without a few words about the PIR team. During the past seven months the PIR team has been amazing.  Our supportive Board of Directors and I could not be prouder of PIR’s 35 employees.  PIR did not ask to be sold and it was far from fun to be constantly attacked for it, but the work we did supporting the .ORG Community in spite of it was phenomenal. PIR continues to promote our values and mission that help make .ORG the most trusted and reliable domain in the world. The process may have been difficult at times, but the PIR team reminded all of us why .ORG is truly an exemplary registry.

Now that the dust is settling, each of us who cares about .ORG needs to remember that the Internet and .ORG will be here long after we’ve left the stage.  We have the honor to serve as the responsible stewards of the crown jewel of the domain name system and, together, we will give the next generation an even stronger .ORG.

Jon Nevett is the President and CEO of PIR

Our Work to Make the Internet for Everyone Marches On

BY ANDREW SULLIVAN

Over the past several months the Internet Society has been working on a transaction to sell Public Interest Registry (PIR), operator of .ORG and other top-level domains, to Ethos Capital. Under PIR’s registry agreements, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) had to consent to this indirect change of control. ICANN has now announced that it does not consent to the transaction. 

I am, of course, disappointed by ICANN’s decision, though I am pleased it was finally reached. ICANN took much longer than it should have done to vote on the transaction. In my view, ICANN stepped outside its remit by acting as a regulator it was never intended to be.  What began as a routine change of indirect control – the type ICANN has expeditiously approved on multiple occasions in the past – resulted in months and months of review and analysis. The outcome does not seem consistent with ICANN’s prior decisions in similar cases. It should concern  the Internet community that ICANN has shown itself to be much more susceptible to political pressure than its limited mandate would recommend.

Nevertheless, ICANN has now rendered a clear decision. This brings to a close a period of uncertainty that has been hard on everybody, and a distraction from the important work of the Internet Society. 

When the Internet Society Trustees were faced with a financial offer of such magnitude from Ethos to purchase PIR, they had to consider it. It would have been irresponsible to ignore it. When the Trustees accepted the offer in a unanimous vote, they did so because they believed the transaction would be good for the Internet Society, good for PIR, and good for registrants in .ORG and all the registries PIR operates. It’s not very often when an opportunity presents itself that has advantages for everyone. 

When we announced the proposed transaction we were criticized, sometimes bitterly, by people who were unhappy with it. I understood their concerns. I still do.

Ethos made several good-faith attempts to allay those concerns. I believe these measures would have worked and benefited the community, had they been accepted; but others disagreed.

Some sought widespread consultations. We did not believe it would be possible to undertake those consultations without doing a lot of harm to PIR and hence to the registrants in .ORG. The months of uncertainty regarding PIR’s future since the proposal was announced have been hard on PIR’s employees.  An extended consultation without any clear picture of what the possible outcomes might be would have been worse for PIR and for .ORG. Neither the Trustees nor I believed we could undertake such a consultation, and we do not believe that such a consultation would be a good idea now.

Though ICANN has refused its consent, PIR has diligently adhered to its responsibilities under its agreements with ICANN, and it will continue to do so in its usual exemplary fashion. Now that we know that ICANN believes its remit to be much larger than we believe it is, we can state this clearly: neither PIR nor any of its operations are for sale now, and the Internet Society will resist vigorously any suggestion that they ought to be.

The Internet Society will focus on its core work: an Internet that is open, globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy for everyone. At a time when we are all reminded about how crucial the Internet is for society, our work has never been more critical. We will continue to focus on that work in support of our mission. To do it, we shall continue to rely on our partners at PIR, who will maintain, as ever, its exemplary service to all those who rely on .ORG and the other TLDs PIR operates.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Jon Nevett, Brian Cimbolic, and Judy Song-Marshall at PIR for their continuous support. I want also to acknowledge and thank the tireless commitment of the Ethos team and their leader, Erik Brooks. Their commitment to do the right thing by showing, through action, how they would be excellent stewards of .ORG deserved better than the treatment they received at times.

Our work to make the Internet for everyone marches on.

Andrew Sullivan is the President and CEO of The Internet Society