October 31, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Come January a new organization will be managing the dot-org Internet domain that thousands of nonprofit organizations call home in cyberspace.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has selected the Internet Society, in Reston, Va., to succeed VeriSign as the domain’s registrar when the Mountain View, Calif., company’s contract with ICANN expires December 31, 2002. ICANN is a nonprofit organization in Marina del Rey, Calif., that was created in 1998 to manage the system of Internet domain names and oversee the registration of Internet addresses, responsibilities formerly managed by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The Internet Society is a nonprofit membership organization that was founded in 1991 to provide leadership on Internet standards and policy. It is the organizational home to several entities that set technical standards for the Internet, including the Internet Architecture Board.
The society’s proposal to run the dot-org domain was selected from a pool of 11 plans submitted by candidates from the United States and Europe. The society has set up a separate nonprofit organization, the Public Interest Registry, that will serve as the registry operator.
In May 2001, VeriSign agreed to relinquish management of the dot-org domain in an agreement with ICANN and the U.S. Department of Commerce that will allow the company to continue to operate the lucrative dot-com domain until 2007.
For more information: Go to http://www.icann.org/tlds/org.
