New domain name .ngo would be for charities only

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

FYI, see article below. After the London consultation, Abraxas
Partners and Verisign held an invitation-only seminar for people in
the NGO sector who might want to consider applying to run a new gTLD.
They also appear to be helping Article 25 to set up a new .ngo domain.
Some of their materials - in PDF and PPT - attached. Not sure if this
list-serv does attachments to copying to Robin for further forwarding.

Best,
Rebecca

-----

http://thirdsector.co.uk/news/Article/922487/New-domain-name-ngo-charities/

New domain name .ngo would be for charities only

By Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 23 July 2009

Human rights charity Article 25 proposes internet scheme to be funded
by philanthropists

Human rights charity Article 25 has proposed a consortium of charities
to run a new internet domain name that would be available only to
not-for-profit groups.

The charity wants the proposed consortium to raise $185,000 (£112,000)
and bid for a .ngo domain because it says the .org address is open to
abuse by fraudulent groups.

Its suggestion follows an announcement from internet regulatory body
Icann that from 2010 onwards any organisation will be allowed to bid
to run new internet domains.

Victoria Harris, chief executive of Article 25, toldThird Sector
Online her organisation wanted to put together a consortium of
charities that would ask philanthropists and corporate firms for
funding to bid for and run the new domain.

"Lack of regulation has meant that commercial entities, individuals
and even professional criminals have been able to register websites
with .org suffixes quite legally, with no check on their identities or
intentions," she said.

"In order to have a web address ending in .ngo, a group would have to
prove to the consortium that it was a genuine charity. Once consumers
realise that legitimate charitable organisations are regulated by the
.ngo domain name, the battle against fraud will start to be won."

Article 25 will hold meetings with interested charities and umbrella
groups to discuss a framework for the scheme over the next few months.

--
Rebecca MacKinnon
Open Society Fellow | Co-founder, GlobalVoicesOnline.org
Assistant Professor, Journalism & Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong

UK: +44-7759-863406
USA: +1-617-939-3493
HK: +852-6334-8843
Mainland China: +86-13710820364

E-mail: rebecca.mackinnon at gmail.com
Blog: http://RConversation.blogs.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rmack
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/rebeccamack
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