I have long admired PIR’s dedication to the good of the Internet, the DNS and its millions of .ORG registrants. PIR has a clear and unique public interest mission in the industry—one that extends beyond the technical provision of .ORG domain names and serves the Internet community wholly, addressing policy and security issues head-on. That’s why it is heartening to see an increasing number of registrants turn to .ORG to advocate and provide information that is consistent with the values of our and their communities. In fact, according to the results of our bi-annual “Dashboard” report, the .ORG domain has grown from 3.9 million domains under management in 2005 to over 8.8 million, thanks to a 10.3 increase in registrants in 2010—a 1.4 percent increase above the strong growth in 2009. Clearly, this solid growth of 824,559 new registrations in 2010 reinforces ORG’s position as the world’s third largest generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) and as the domain of choice for the public interest.

The Dashboard also reveals other key findings showing increased growth of the .ORG domain:

• ORG experienced a growth rate of 3.9 percent in the second half of 2010.
• In the second half of 2010, new .ORG registrations (new creates) increased by 14.4 percent while the average rate of renewal was 74.8 percent.
• North America continues to claim the most .ORG registrants with a 64 percent market share, followed by Europe at 24 percent and Asia, Australia and the Pacific at 9 percent.

Without a doubt, these results—whether considered individually or comprehensively—illustrate the continued strength of and trust in the .ORG domain. We at PIR are pleased that .ORG plays a significant part in serving many communities worldwide, enabling organizations—both large and small—to promote their cause, exchange ideas, share knowledge, and champion a common purpose online.

But as we near the 10 million mark, part of our responsibility in providing an online forum for communities also means that PIR needs to ensure a safer and more secure .ORG domain. Hence our continued focus on Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). In June 2010, a major step was taken when .ORG became the first gTLD to offer full deployment of DNSSEC. The response—and subsequent—adoption by our registrar community was swift, as by the end of 2010, more than 34 registrars began offering the added security protection by enabling .ORG website owners to offer DNSSEC to their customers. However, we didn’t stop there. We wanted to take our education and advocacy for improved Internet security to the next level. This past fall, PIR—in conjunction with some of today’s biggest Internet security experts—launched the “Practice Safe DNS” campaign to encourage the IT audience to understand the benefits of DNSSEC. In the time since launch, the initiative has received an overwhelming response from the IT community, and I encourage all of you to visit the site here and see what the likes of Vint Cerf, Dan Kaminsky and Cricket Liu have to say.

As we head further into 2011, a year that has already witnessed the Internet’s profound power to drive political and societal change, ensuring a safer Internet is just one of many initiatives that PIR plans to advocate on behalf of the public interest. I look forward to joining this conversation and keeping our blog followers and registrants informed of and involved in our activities—both new and ongoing—in the months ahead.

To download the complete report, please click here. The Dashboard is published every six months, if you would like to receive notification and copies of the report by email, please submit your request to media (at) pir.org so we can add you to our contact list.

Written by Brian Cute, Chief Executive Officer of Public Interest Registry (PIR).