gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.NGO	Public Interest Registry	pir.org	View

PIR is a NGO, and thereby part of the NGO Community. PIR as a NGO has extensive gTLD management experience via the .ORG gTLD. PIR a supporting organization to the Internet Society (ISOC) and is committed to supporting the Internet Society’s (ISOC) mission stated below.

History of PIR’s Relationship to the NGO Community
In January 2003, PIR, assumed responsibility for operating .ORG and maintaining the authoritative database of all .ORG domains.

Created in 1984, .ORG is one of the Internetʹs original seven top-level domains (TLDs), along with .com, .net, etc. Although it is ʺopenʺ and ʺunrestrictedʺ, .ORG has been the domain of choice for organizations dedicated to serving the public interest. The high regard of these well-intentioned organizations was soon conferred to this domain, and today .ORG is considered around the world to be the domain of trust.

Public Interest Registry’s (PIR) primary activity is to maintain the .ORG domain registry as the exemplary top level domain (TLD) registry service, by advocating for higher standards of Internet security, safety and reliability. PIR’s mission is to facilitate the effective use of a global Internet among non-commercial and other Internet users worldwide. In its relationship with the ISOC, (reference Evaluation Questions #9a and #9b), PIR is committed to supporting ISOC’s goals of encouraging the evolution of the Internet as research, education and communication infrastructure equally accessible to the global non-commercial, NGO and nonprofit community. PIR’s activities also include funding educational programs focused on expanding the knowledge and ability of non-commercial, NGO and nonprofit organizations located in technologically deprived areas of the world to more efficiently and effectively use the Internet as a tool to better accomplish their important mission.

The 2003 transition of .ORG from the previous operator to PIR was the largest transfer in Internet history. More than 2.6 million domains were transferred in about a day, without negatively impacting any .ORG registrant or website.

Since 2003, PIR has been connected with NGOs through our management of .ORG, and recently in preparation for our pursuit of the .NGO gTLD domain, we have worked closely with the NGO Community to develop the requirements and specification for the proposed .NGO gTLD.

Current Relationship to the NGO Community
PIR is a strong supporter of NGOs in both a direct role as manager of the .ORG gTLD and through other efforts, including:
• A ʺStrategic and Sponsoring Partnerʺ of NTEN, the Non-Profit Technology Network of 10,000 members and over 30,000 participants in the community, covering 126 countries. NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations use technology skillfully and confidently to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.
• Making financial contributions to various organizations, such as the NCUC (Non Commercial Constituency of ICANN) and Centr. For NCUC, annual donations have been in the $5,000 to $15,000 range every year since PIR assumed operations of the .ORG registry.
• In December 2005, PIR sponsored a symposium at the Nelson Mandela Center in Cape Town, South Africa bringing in various Internet leaders in Africa to discuss the needs of the Internet in Africa.
• In response to Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans, Louisiana, PIR donated $1 for every new create for a limited time. The final donation was over $100,000 to the Red Cross.
• In response to JapanʹsTsunami disaster, a 3 month program was rolled out to waive renewal fees for Japanese domain name holders, in order to help those affected and unable to renew their .ORG domains.

Within the community, there is a wide appreciation of PIR’s role as an advocate of “do good” for the Internet at large, and in many countries around the world there is a general perception that .ORG domains are more trusted than other domains. At the time of application submission, PIR manages nearly 10 million .ORG domains, and is seen to do so in an exemplary way. We are very happy to be judged on this reputation.

PIR has over 500 letters of support from the NGO Community endorsing its application for .NGO. PIR will continue outreach to the community and anticipates receipt of additional support letters from NGOs throughout the ICANN application evaluation process. Specific recognition of PIR’s efforts to support the nonprofit community includes:
• “As a not-for-profit corporation, we believe that being part of the .org domain has done much to reinforce MITRE’s identity as an organization chartered to work in the public interest. [Thanks to PIR’s] continuing work to enhance the .org domain.ʺ - Al Grasso, President and CEO, The MITRE Corporation (the first .ORG registrant).
• “We recognize and applaud PIRʹs long-standing commitment to the non-profit community since taking over the management of .ORG.” - Lisa Vogt, APR, Director of Marketing & Communications, SOS Children’s Villages – USA.

PIR has conducted outreach, worked with established relationships, and developed new types of relationships which will facilitate the delivery of the .NGO domain and related services to the NGO Community. Our discussions and outreach have included NGOs in several countries across Asia, Europe, North America, South America⁄Latin America, and Africa as well as many different segments of the NGO Community to ensure wide acceptance and adoption of our proposed gTLD domain and related services. The segments include but are not limited to agriculture, environment, arts⁄culture, charitable services, human rights, humanitarian, and advocacy for a range of issues affecting societal development.

Accountability to the NGO Community
By offering .NGO as a secure and well-managed domain of trust uniquely for eligible NGOs, PIR believes that NGOs can benefit from the Internet and our specific services as a means to safely and reliably reach out to the community and sponsors. PIR will be accountable to the NGO Community by:
• A NGO Community input process soliciting input from the community through the NGO Advisory Council drawn from the community and accepting a broad range of input to stay current on the issues of importance to the community and manage the NGO verification process;
• Creating and marketing .NGO as a distinctive place on the Internet for NGOs to differentiate and promote their organization;
• Establishing community programs to support capacity building of NGOs with technical and educational platforms;
• Enforcing registration policies that elevate the integrity of the domains in the .NGO gTLD name space, soliciting input from the NGO Community;
• Easing discovery and promotion through the creation, management and promotion of the .NGO gTLD;
• Offering registration from a proven, scalable registry platform that can ensure 100% DNS availability;
• Delivering a challenge process for the NGO Community to dispute the legitimacy of a .NGO registrant or its activity on a .NGO domain; and,
• As a community priority gTLD, PIR is committing to manage the .NGO domain with participation of the community. Failing to do that would put our registry contract in jeopardy.

PIR is in an excellent position to provide such support to the NGO Community given documented experience running a stable and trusted registry. PIR holds a track record demonstrating good intent to the global community by being a leader in activities such as implementation of anti-abuse policies, DNSSEC, active participation in numerous public interest events, etc.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.madrid	Comunidad de Madrid	madrid.org	View

The applicant is the Region of Madrid itself, the highest-level legitimate authority for the name of Madrid. Its democratically-elected government has the duty to make key decisions regarding the use of the name of Madrid in the interest of all the members of the Region: citizens, organizations, institutions, companies, municipalities, including the city of Madrid, capital of the region.

The Government of the Region of Madrid has entrusted the Communications and Computer Agency of the Region of Madrid (ICM), the task of governing body for the management and running of the domain name “.madrid”.

Law 7⁄2005 of December 23rd, of Administrative and Fiscal measures of creation of ICM, establishes the legal regime, activity, competences and patrimony of the Agency. Within the exercise of the competences, the Agency will act with full financial and management autonomy and will operate under the objectives of equality and centralization of the management of the computer and communication services of the Administration of the Region of Madrid, that allow the best technical and financial balance of the applied solutions and the services given without prejudice of the necessary attention to the own peculiarities of the public services in direct relation with the citizen.

The Agency’s funding methodology is fixed through economic contributions of the General Administration of the Region of Madrid, which are comprised within the ICM’s “Plan de Actividad e Inversiones Financieras” (Activities and Financial Investment Plan). This plan is approved in first instance by ICM’s Administrative Council and as a last resort by Madrid’s Assembly due to the fact that it is included within the global of the General Budgets of the Region of Madrid for the respective Budgetary Exercise.

This funding is set aside to cover the Agency’s annual activity, including the needed investments for the development of its competences. Therefore, having been assigned by Madrid’s Regional Government the task of governing body for the management and running of the domain name “.madrid”, those are contemplated as another activity to be done by ICM with the Agency’s own resources and infrastructure.

Therefore, the Agency remains submitted to the public accounting regime within the terms outlined in Title VI Law 3⁄1991, November 8th of the Treasury of the Region of Madrid (Hacienda) and to the financial control in the planned terms in article 17 Law 9⁄1990 of November 8th regulator of the Treasury of the Region of Madrid, except in the management of the subsidiary activity, which will be abided by the exercise of the auditor according what it is established in the Subsidies Law (Ley de Subvenciones) of the Region of Madrid.

On the other hand, as shown in the letters of support attached to this application, the applicant counts on the collaboration of different key institutions of the Region of Madrid: the institution in charge of the Olympic Candidature “Madrid 2020”, the President of the Court of Madrid, Madrid’s Chief Judge, the President of Madrid’s fairgrounds (IFEMA), the President of Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM), the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid etc., proving their commitment and close collaboration with the Region’s institutions.

Therefore, and aiming to maintain alive the integration spirit and reinforce even more the collaboration between the different members of the Region, we have foreseen the establishment of an Advisory Council formed by representatives of the different stakeholders with the main goal of maintaining, ensuring and safeguarding the principles and policies that this project represents.


((- Relations to any community organizations.))

The Region of Madrid has a special responsibility towards the entire Madrid area with respect to the use of the name of Madrid. For this reason, the Comunidad de Madrid assumes the stewardship of the .MADRID TLD in consultation with public authorities and private sector stakeholders of the Madrid area.

In doing so, the Region of Madrid builds upon established and proven relationships between the respective public bodies, defined by law and⁄or developed over time for the management of the vast public infrastructure jointly operated and developed by them.

((- Relations to the community and its constituent parts⁄groups.))

The Region of Madrid, the City of Madrid and the other Municipalities of the Madrid Area collaborate with a wide array of community organizations for economic development, welfare, culture, education, sport, tourism and leisure. This includes community organizations that specialize in the development of the digital economy, e-government and information society. The Region of Madrid will build upon existing relationships to set up an effective and transparent governance process for the .MADRID TLD.

((- Accountability mechanisms of the applicant to the community.))

The local government bodies of the Region of Madrid, and the Madrid area are democratically elected by their residents. The governance process for the .MADRID TLD is rooted in the public accountability mechanism of the City as defined by the Law. In addition, the .MADRID TLD will be have specific policy-oversight and consultation mechanisms.

As the Region of Madrid itself assumes the stewardship of the .MADRID TLD, the ultimate line of accountability from the .MADRID governance body goes through the office of the elected President and Councilors to the electorate.

The additional lines of institutional accountability are done through different audits, the auditing of the Region of Madrid and the Accounts Chamber (Cámara de Cuentas).